US DOT’s Instagram Account to Be Filled With Infrastructure Fails

The U.S. Department of Transportation is looking for photos of local infrastructure failures to highlight Congress’ inability to pass a long-term highway bill.

The department will post photos tagged #ShowUsYourInfraWear to its account on the photo-sharing site Instagram.

DOT said Aug. 3 in its blog, “So beginning today and running throughout the August recess, we're turning our Instagram account over to you. Just snap a photo — please do it safely! — of the worn-out infrastructure in your neck of the woods and share it with @USDOT using #ShowUsYourInfraWear.”

The 34th short-term surface transportation extension in six years was signed by President Obama on July 30, who said the continued brief extensions slows construction and creates uncertainty. 

"Instead of long-term approaches where we can actually strategize on what are the most important infrastructure projects, how are they getting paid for, providing certainties to governors and mayors and states and localities about how they’re going to approach critical infrastructure projects — roads, bridges, ports, airports — instead, we operate as if we’re hand-to-mouth three months at a time, which freezes a lot of construction, which makes people uncertain, which leads to businesses not being willing to hire because they don’t have any long-term certainty," Obama said.

In its call for photos to the picture-sharing service, DOT said the lack of a long-term solution means “America's roads, rails, and transit systems — the ones that get you where you need to go and deliver the goods you use every day — will continue to go underfunded and undermaintained.”