Oregon Public Broadcasting

A sinkhole on a busy Portland street opens and swallows a maintenance truck. A bridge fails in Minnesota. A blackout plunges the eastern seaboard into darkness.

Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer points to just a few examples in recent history of infrastructure gone bad.

Earl Blumenauer: "Part of it is good news because we have more infrastructure than any country in the world. The bad news is we have more infrastructure than any country in the world, and a lot of it is aging rapidly." 

America's crumbling infrastructure is the subject of a forum Monday at Portland State University. Blumenauer and others will talk about investing money to rebuild roads, waterways, and other essentials.

Blumenauer is a longtime advocate of alternative transportation. But he says it's important to acknowledge the role that railways and highways played in building the national economy.

He says he wants to see new infrastructure that balances the needs of freight, commercial, and personal transportation.

Monday's conference will tackle water works, energy systems, and transportation.