Europe’s other motorway misers—Britain, Belgium and Austria, all of which invest substantially less in their roads than their quality ratings would predict—should pay heed to Italy’s example.
| 어휘 heed (남의 충고경고에) 주의를 기울이다 (=take notice of)
유럽의 또 다른 고속도로 구두쇠들은 - 영국, 벨기에, 오스트리아는 자국의 도로 품질 등급이 예측하는 것보다 훨씬 덜 투자한다 - 이탈리아의 사례에 주의를 기울여야 한다.
[명사] 못마땅함 구두쇠, 수전노
Daily chart
Italy spends lots fixing old roads, not enough building new ones
The country’s skimping on costly projects might save funds, but not drivers
일일 차트
이탈리아는 낡은 도로를 수리하는데 많은 돈을 쓰지만, 새로운 도로를 건설하는 데는 충분히 쓰지 않는다
국가가 값비싼 프로젝트를 회피하는 것은 자금을 절약할 수 있지만, 운전사들에겐 아니다.
Aug 15th 2018
THE 39 people who died when the Morandi Bridge in Genoa collapsed on August 14th— perhaps more, since some are still missing in the rubble—could not possibly have imagined that the 50-year-old concrete structure would suddenly crumble beneath them. But engineers saw it coming. Antonio Brencich, a specialist in reinforced concrete at the University of Genoa, warned in 2016 that the bridge was “a failure of engineering”, with its deck and cables deteriorating quickly. By the late 1990s the amount spent repairing it had already reached 80% of the original construction cost. Mr Brencich warned that it would be more economical “to demolish the bridge and rebuild it”.
2018년 8월 15일
제노바에 있는 모란디 다리가 8월 14일 붕괴되었을 때 사망한 39명의 사람들은 - 아마도 더 많은 사람들은 - 50년 된 콘크리트 구조물이 그들 밑으로 갑자기 무너질 것이라고는 상상조차 하지 못했을 것이다. 하지만 기술자들은 다리의 붕괴를 예견했었다. 제노바대 철근콘크리트 전문가인 안토니오 브렌치치 교수는 2016년, 교량의 상판 및 케이블이 빠르게 악화되는 등 "공학적 결함"이 있다고 경고했다. 1990년대 후반에는 이미 수리비가 원래 건설비의 80%에 이르렀다. 브렌치씨는 "다리의 철거와 재건"이 더 경제적일 것이라고 경고했다.
That advice fell on deaf ears, as the repairs continued. Speaking to the New York Times, Antonio Occhiuzzi, the director of Italy’s Institute for Construction Technology, said that this preference for quick fixes was a national weakness. “Our position, typically, is to try and conserve rather than demolish and rebuild, as happens in other countries”.
수리가 계속되면서 그 충고는 묵살되었다. 안토니오 오치우찌 이탈리아 건설기술연구소장은 뉴욕타임스와의 인터뷰에서 빠른 해결책에 대한 선호가 국가적 약점이라고 말했다. "우리의 입장은, 전형적으로, 다른 나라에서 일어나는 것처럼, 파괴와 재건보다는 보존을 시도하는 것입니다."
Data from the OECD, a club of rich countries, confirm this. In 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, Italy spent 76% more on fixing old roads than it did on building new ones—the highest ratio in the OECD. The country has long devoted a large share of its GDP to maintaining its decaying avenues, motorways, tunnels and bridges. The 0.55% that it managed in 2015 was the fourth-biggest portion in the OECD, even as its government battled to reduce public spending and tame the budget deficit. Unfortunately, that austerity applied the brakes to investment in new roads. In 2006, Italy devoted 0.92% of GDP to such projects, putting it in the OECD’s top third. By 2015 the share had fallen to 0.31%, the fifth-lowest in the group.
Such meagre funding for fresh tarmac would be less worrying if Italy’s thoroughfares were in as good condition as, say, Germany’s. In the decade to 2015, both countries allocated an average of 0.43% of their GDP to investing in new roads. However, Germany’s streets have typically scored more than 6 out of 7 for quality on a survey of business executives by the World Economic Forum, while Italy’s have received just 4.28. Countries with such rotten infrastructure tend to devote more resources towards improving it. Greece, for example, has roads that are even more loathed than Italy’s. Yet it has managed consistently to spend about 0.75% of its GDP replacing them, even during a period of austerity.
Europe’s other motorway misers—Britain, Belgium and Austria, all of which invest substantially less in their roads than their quality ratings would predict—should pay heed to Italy’s example. Skimping on costly rebuilding projects might save funds, for a while. But not drivers.
Italy spends lots fixing old roads, not enough building new onesThe country’s skimping on costly projects might save funds, but not driverswww.economist.com