The future of America’s infrastructure is in the hands of Domino’s Pizza – By Rebekah Entralgo (thinkprogress.org) / June 11 2018
Maybe Domino’s will finally put an end to Infrastructure Week.
The state of America’s infrastructure is bad that Domino’s Pizza has proposed a plan to help fill in potholes across the country.
The company announced the “Paving for Pizza” initiative Monday. According to the website, the plan would help “smooth the ride home” for deliveries:
“Potholes, cracks, and bumps in the road can cause irreversible damage to your pizza during the drive home from Domino’s. We can’t stand by and let your cheese slide to one side, your toppings get un-topped, or your boxes get flipped. So we’re helping pave in towns across the country to save your pizza from these bad roads.”
As part of the initiative, interested customers can nominate their city to receive a paving grant from Domino’s to ensure their pizzas arrive safely to their homes.
The company has already worked with four cities to help repair their roads, including Bartonville, Texas; Milford, Delaware; Athens, Georgia; and Burbank, California.
City government officials have been appreciative of the extra funding, taking it as an opportunity to repair the damage that has been from decades of neglect and small municipal government budgets.
“Facing an already harsher winter than usual for Delaware, this is an opportunity to get additional money to stretch our city’s limited resources,” said Eric Norenberg, Milford city manager, on the Domino’s website.
Domino’s claims the company helped fix 40 potholes on 10 roads in 10 hours with just four crew members.
In Bartonville, Texas, where eight potholes were fixed and three roads were repaired in just eight hours, Michael Montgomery, the town’s administrator, said he was “ecstatic” and he “didn’t think it was possible, but Domino’s delivered on their promise” to fix potholes in the city.
Domino’s infrastructure initiative comes at time when 55 percent of Americans believe President Trump is not giving the issue enough attention, according to a Monmouth University poll from late May. The poll also found that 62 percent say the federal government is not spending enough on infrastructure projects.
A robust infrastructure plan was a cornerstone of candidate Donald Trump’s platform, promising that he would “build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, sea ports, and airports.” At an event intended to push his infrastructure plan in March, however, President Trump conceded that the much-hyped policy would have to wait until after this year’s midterm elections. Meanwhile, White House infrastructure policy adviser D.J. Gribbin left the administration in April, and his replacement has yet to be announced.
President Trump, however, isn’t the only one to blame when it comes to lack of significant progress on infrastructure. The federal government is only responsible for 20 percent of infrastructure funding, with the rest coming from state and local governments. The federal government cannot force states to increase their investments.
Trump’s proposed plan would have the federal government put up about $200 billion over the next 10 years in grants and other incentives to attract at total of some $1.5 trillion. According to some analysts, this comes up short by about $1 trillion. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave American infrastructure a D+ rating on its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card and estimates that it could take $4.6 trillion over ten years to get American infrastructure where it needs to be.
Even though the Trump administration unveiled it’s policy framework in February, it has failed to gain traction in Congress, as lawmakers shifted to other priorities like immigration and the government spending bill. In a May White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she’s not sure if Congress will produce a bipartisan infrastructure bill by the end of the year.
