Domino’s Pizza, whose business model depends on reliable roads, is trying to fill some of the gap created by Congress’s inertia on funding for major highway improvements.
For the next three months, the pizza chain is taking nominations for as many as 20 cities where it plans to award a grant to repair potholes. A spokesperson for the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based pizza delivery chain declined to say how much money would be spent on the initiative, but said all the selected municipalities would receive the same amount of funding.
“Have you ever hit a pothole and instantly cringed? We know that feeling is heightened when you’re bringing home a carryout order from your local Domino’s store,” President Russell Weiner said in a statement. “We don’t want to lose any great-tasting pizza to a pothole.”
The grants illustrate the obstacles that deteriorating U.S. highways pose to both consumers and businesses, a concern highlighted by President Trump. Despite listing improvements as a top legislative goal for the year, however, Republican leaders in both chambers have no immediate plans to try to advance a sweeping infrastructure proposal from the administration, and Trump conceded earlier this year that any effort would be delayed until after the midterm elections in November.
The White House hopes the $200 billion federal funding stream that it’s proposing would spur more than $1.2 trillion in private investment, according to a plan released earlier this year. But the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School previously estimated that even with the initial funding, total investment in existing infrastructure programs would increase by only $20 billion to $230 billion over the next 10 years.
Based upon criteria including physical condition and current funding levels, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. infrastructure system in 2017 a “D+” rating, just as it has every four years since 1998. Each U.S. household will lose $3,400 each year from 2016 to 2025 as a result of poor infrastructure, the group estimated.
“With deteriorating infrastructure, higher business costs will be incurred in terms of charges for services and efficiency, which will lead to higher costs incurred by households,” the group said in its report.
