America’s infrastructure: can it take the strain?

US infrastructure is buckling under the strain of overuse and underinvestment. Tired of waiting for central funding, some states are taking matters into their own hands. We pick two stocks set to benefit from their business.

"Bridges are big, dumb pieces of steel and concrete", which no one pays much attention to, says Matthew Wald in The New York Times. So when the eight-lane 35W bridge in Minnesota collapsed into the Mississippi river this summer, claiming the lives of 13 school children, it was a complete surprise, and still "no one is sure why it happened".

To find out, the local authorities have commissioned a group of engineers to travel the state, testing local bridges for flaws. "We are making the bridges smart," one told The New York Times, as they fitted one bridge with 60 sensors to monitor movement, strain and temperature.

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Eoin came to MoneyWeek in 2006 having graduated with a MLitt in economics from Trinity College, Dublin. He taught economic history for two years at Trinity, while researching a thesis on how herd behaviour destroys financial markets.