What Is Infrastructure? 🚧
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Episode 120 Description
🔧 A big infrastructure bill is making its way through Congress, but what is infrastructure? 🏗️ Correspondent Pamela Kirkland digs into the definition. Learn what projects are included in the plan and how trains, pipes and roads could be impacted.💰 From the headlines: Olympics wrap up and new pandas say hello. 🐼 And test your infrastructure knowledge in today’s Trivia on the Ten! 🧐
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TRANSCRIPT:
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
I'm Bethany Van Delft. And this is The Ten News where we get the lowdown on what's up in the world. It's Tuesday, August 10th. Infrastructure. It's a word that you may have been hearing in the news lately. But what does it mean?
Sound Bit 0:22
Help.
Bethany Van Delft 0:23
Today, come with us, across bridges, to the tops of skyscrapers, and along high-speed internet cables to find out. Let's dive in.
Sound Bit 0:32
Bethany Van Delft 0:36
Infrastructure sound boring to you? Because it isn't. It's actually something that every one of us uses every day. Here to introduce us to the world of infrastructure is our correspondent, Pamela Kirkland.
Pamela Kirkland 0:51
Have you ever been in the car listening to The Ten News, of course, and your parent or guardian hits a pothole or bump in the road? And they probably say some kind of bad word after they hit it? Oh, that's something called an infrastructure problem. So, what exactly is infrastructure? It's really anything that helps us live our lives the way we do. The roads and bridges that you drive all over the country, your drinking water, railroad, airport, waterways, and rivers. You name it. Even your internet connection is considered part of the country's infrastructure. Oh, wow, man. At a time when we're still depending on internet for virtual school and work. There are some parts of the country that really struggle with getting online. High-speed broadband internet is hard to get in rural areas of the U.S. Sometimes the connection is so slow, people have to go to the library or find some other way to get online. Oh, man. As infrastructure gets older, there's been a lot of talk about the condition of a lot of these things. In fact, the country gets graded on how well its infrastructure is maintained. Right now, experts called civil engineers, give the U.S. a “C” for overall condition of the nation's infrastructure. Are you kidding me? But, some areas like roads and bridges, aviation and airplanes, and mass transit used to get people to work are being graded even lower, we're talking C's and D's. It's worrying because a lot of infrastructure issues have to do with safety. If a bridge is structurally deficient, it's not safe to let people drive over it. And as you can see, there are a lot of areas that need attention right now, so Americans can have confidence in their infrastructure. The terrible condo collapse in Surfside, Florida in June, has a lot of people thinking about the condition of older buildings in the country. And while the actual cause of the incident remains a mystery, it's left people wondering about the wear and tear on buildings they live in work in. So what's being done about it? infrastructure has been a major focus of President Biden's administration. He's proposed a big national upgrade. The price tag, well, the latest version of the bill would spend about $550 billion dollars to fix a lot of these issues. The bill would include money to improve roads, bridges, and railroads and rebuild the country's water infrastructure, and more. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that something needs to be done about aging infrastructure, and it looks like there might be enough support from both sides to get a bill passed. So while we continue to see signs of decay when it comes to the country's infrastructure, we may soon see some improvements on the horizon.
Bethany Van Delft 4:05
Thanks, Pam. We'll be keeping an eye on the progress of this bill. It could help make our country stronger and safer for years to come. Having roads with no holes in them, and fast, reliable internet isn't just convenient. It's important for the economy. After World War II, the U.S. economy exploded after the country invested in its infrastructure. And it makes good sense. Good roads get goods from place to place faster. Bridges connect communities and projects provide jobs. The new bill is the largest investment in infrastructure in decades. It's full of money for lots of different projects. Here are five different things included in the bill that might surprise you. Electric chargers across America. Electric cars are the future for a lot of drivers. But they'll need places to charge up while on the road. The bill aims to add 1,000's of electric chargers across the nation. It also gives some money for more electric school buses.
Sound Bit 5:14
Good, great, grand, wonderful.
Bethany Van Delft 5:20
Funding to remove freeways. What's that you say? Isn't infrastructure about building stuff? Not necessarily. Okay. Some freeways and other infrastructure projects were placed in spots that ran right through black communities, disrupting and dividing them, as well as demolishing parks and businesses in the process. The bill aims to fix some of these racial inequalities by relocating roads and investing in these neighborhoods' public spaces.
Sound Bit 5:49
It's about time.
Bethany Van Delft 5:51
Bridges and roads. $110 billion dollars is currently slated for spending on bridges and roads. But when they're rebuilt, engineers will be tasked specifically with making them as resistant as possible to the effects of climate change. Awesome. All aboard the railroad. President Biden really loves Amtrak. He used to take the train every day from his house in Delaware to work in DC.
Sound Bit 6:20
Tickets, please.
Bethany Van Delft 6:21
The bill provides money to upgrade the aging train lines and to expand service outside of the East Coast. It's the biggest investment in the railroad since Amtrak was created 50 years ago, excellent. Cleaning out the pipes. Congress may have banned lead water pipes 30 years ago, but there's still 10 million of them around the country. Okay, that's bad. Lead seeps into the water that runs through it and is very dangerous for people to drink. This bill will give money to replace every single lead pipe left. Now let's see what else is up in the world.
Bethany Van Delft 7:05
The Tokyo Olympics wrapped on Sunday with the traditional closing ceremonies. The games were full of exciting firsts with Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, claiming Puerto Rico's first-ever gold medal in track. And, gymnast Sunisa Lee, the first Hmong-American Olympian winning gold in the all-around event, and a big first for inclusivity Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand became the first openly transgender woman to compete in an individual event at the Summer Olympic Games. Way to go. With the Delta variant spreading through the country. A 12-year-old girl in Florida is taking her safety into her own hands. Lila Hartley's younger brother, Will is 10 years old, so can't get vaccinated yet, because the vaccine has not been approved for his age group. So Lila wrote to her local school board, asking them to require masks in school to keep Will and other children safe. Such a great way to use your voice Lila, you go girl. And last but not least, France's Beauval Zoo announced last week that its female panda, Huan Huan has given birth to twin cubs. Huan Huan is one of several plans that China has loaned to zoos around the world in the hopes of increasing their numbers. Sadly, there are fewer than 2,000 pandas living in the wild today. In keeping with Chinese naming traditions, the newborn pandas won't be given official names until they are 100 days old. I can't wait to hear what their names are going to be. All right, it's time for...
Various Voices 8:49
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 8:53
Trivia on The Ten. Have you ever wondered what happens after you flush the toilet? If you're like our producer, you do, where does the dirty wastewater go? Does it A) get chemically treated and turned into drinking water? B) sent out into the oceans? Or C) become water for crops to grow the food and plants that we eat?
Bethany Van Delft 9:24
Did you guess it? The answer is... all of the above. While it might be a little gross to think about it, okay, super gross. The wastewater from homes travels along with sewage systems and into water treatment plants. From there, the water is filtered and treated and depending on where you live will be reused in different ways. Sewage systems and water treatment plants are the unsung heroes of conservation. Well, you may not want to think about where your next glass of water came from. Facilities like the one in Orange County, California, the groundwater replenishment system are a very important tool in making sure there's clean water for California residents, especially in drought years. That facility can process and filter wastewater and turn it into drinkable water in under an hour. No way. Not only does the system create clean drinking water, but it also decreases the amount of treated water that would normally get passed into the ocean. Yes. So, drink up. Whatever.
Bethany Van Delft 10:35
Time is up. But, before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. You can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is building with Lego bricks and includes Kate Hale, Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Natalie Alonzo. Pamela Kirkland contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Well, I sure hope the batteries keep working on those treatment plants.
