The California Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2025 report card last week, giving California's infrastructure a C-.
"You never know what to expect on the 405," said Santa Monica resident Heather Chavez after learning that traffic was backed up for miles Wednesday when some loose concrete on the 405 Freeway in Sherman Oaks prompted emergency roadwork.
According to Yaz Emrani, co-chair of the report, L.A. is the most congested metro area in the U.S. with an average of 7.5 hours of congestion.
Out of the 17 categories that were graded, nine received a D. But why? Well, there are several reasons but one of them is lack of funding.
"We have about $70 billion funding shortfall for maintenance over the next 10 years," said Emrani.
Even if the funding is there, California takes so long to complete a project, many are obsolete before they've even finished.
"An average of 5-7 years, and by the time you design it and build it, you're not where you were 5 or 7 years ago," added Emrani.
Meantime, California's aviation, energy, hazardous waste, levees, ports and rail grades all improved compared to their 2019 marks, while the state's dams, drinking water, schools and stormwater categories decreased.
To read the full report, click here.