Extreme flooding at Yellowstone National Park washed away roads.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
- Inflation has increased the costs of consumer goods, especially materials for repairing roads.
- The rising coast has “evaporated” federal funds for repairs, The Associated Press reported.
- Supply-chain backlogs and the war in Ukraine have contributed to inflation.
Money set aside to build new roads and bridges as part of Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure project is ‘evaporating’ as inflation raises the costs of materials, the Associated Press reported.
“Those dollars are essentially evaporating,” Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, told the AP. “The cost of those projects is going up by 20%, by 30%, and just wiping out that increase from the federal government that they were so excited about earlier in the year.”
The rising prices have decreased how much can be done with the funds, and officials in various states have said the money isn’t going as far as they’d like. They’re concerned they’ll now take more years to complete projects.
Inflation rose last month to the highest rate in 41 years. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said inflation is “unacceptably high,” but said she didn’t think a recession was “inevitable.”
