A major news event leading up to this month's expiration of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century highlighted a lack of infrastructure investment. Although the August 14 power blackout across parts of New York and the Great Lakes region had little to do with roads, it drew reaction similar to a summer 1983 bridge disaster that spawned sharply higher funding commitments for federal transportation programs.

Behind speculation from government and industry officials attempting to pinpoint the blackout's cause was acknowledgement of a lack of transmission infrastructure investment. Insufficient maintenance of “the grid” and limited expansion measures were attributed to market changes brought on by deregulation, which broke utilities' model of integrated power generation and transmission. The split left companies in transmission with less incentive to upgrade lines or properly maintain existing ones. August 14's power failure cascade has prompted talk of infrastructure upgrade mandates the House and Senate will consider this month. Funding and capacity questions are bound to arise — and mirror what construction interests have heard before on TEA-21 and related measures.

President Bush noted in an August 19 briefing that House and Senate leaders were optimistic about reaching an agreement on infrastructure modernization, and that a new energy bill would have strong system reliability measures in place while encouraging capital investment. On the following day, Edison Electric Institute President Thomas Kuhn added, “The electric utility industry recognizes the importance of reinforcing the reliability of what we believe is the best electric power system in the world. House and Senate lawmakers have an unparalleled opportunity to craft a final legislative product that contains critical steps to help ensure electric system reliability and bolster transmission capacity.”

Perhaps recognizing that infrastructure measures (like TEA-21 reauthorization) on Capitol Hill don't always happen so fast, Standard & Poors Electric Utility Equity Analyst Justin McCann countered: “While the blackout was a ‘wake-up call’ about the inadequacies of the country's transmission system, it remains unclear whether Congress will be able to provide needed guidelines. Transmission investments have been bogged down by uncertainties related to differences between federal and state regulators, adequate return on investment, and intense community opposition to transmission lines proposed for their areas. Congress needs to create legislation that ensures national coordination in the necessary expansion.”

Power transmission is a much different business than transportation construction. Power lines are privately owned. Highways, bridges and runways are mostly public and receive construction and maintenance funds from federal, state and local governments. The power business has no user fee-supported federal trust fund to feed a program like TEA-21. Whether or not an energy bill passes this year — and with or without provisions for encouraging transmission infrastructure investment — power interests might look at the path that has been paved for their transportation counterparts over the past two decades.

TEA-21 and predecessor legislation, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, have brought historically high funding to the federal highway, bridge and transit program. The TEA bill commitments reflect widespread recognition that highway and bridge infrastructure is aging and a greater level of investment required. Among wake-up calls to the conditions was the collapse of a span on the Mianus River Bridge along Interstate 95 in Greenwich, Conn. The June 1983 event resulted in three fatalities, calling attention to the need for infrastructure investment in the most unfortunate of ways. Sweeping changes in bridge inspection and maintenance procedures followed.

A power failure 20 years later reminds the public that the cost of maintaining quality of life conveniences — from reliable electricity sources to roads and bridges built to new safety standards and capacity demands — is headed due north.

e-mail: dmarsh@primediabusiness.com