Page 138 - Challenges in Corrosion Costs Causes Consequences and Control(2015)

116 CORROSION COSTS

Cost of corrosion
in industry categories analyzed in current study
($137.9 billion)
Infrastructure
16.4%

Utilities
34.7%

Government
14.6%

Production and
manufacturing
12.8% Transportation
21.5%

Figure 2.2 Percentage contribution to the total cost of corrosion for the five sector
categories (15).

2.2.7.5 Corrosion Costs by Industry Sector in the United States The U.S. econ-
omy was divided into five major sector categories for the analysis in corrosion cost
studies, and these were further divided into 26 sectors. The categories were infrastruc-
ture, utilities, transportation, production and manufacturing, and government. When
added together, the total direct costs for the categories were $137.9 billion (Fig. 2.2).
This figure was then extrapolated to the total U.S. economy ($8.79 trillion) for an
annual cost of corrosion of $276 billion.

2.2.7.5.1 Infrastructure Aging infrastructure is one of the most serious problems.
In the past, attention was focused primarily on new construction involving spec-
ification of materials and designing corrosion prevention and control systems for
buildings, bridges, roads, plants, pipelines, tanks, and other elements of infrastruc-
ture. At present, aging infrastructure is nearing the end of its design lifetime, which
requires attention on maintaining and extending the life of these valuable assets. The
annual direct cost of the infrastructure was estimated to be $22.6 billion (Fig. 2.3).

2.2.7.5.2 Highway Bridges There are nearly 583,000 bridges in the United States
out of which 200,000 are constructed of steel, 235,000 are conventional reinforced
concrete, 108,000 are constructed using prestressed concrete, and the remainder is
made of other construction materials. Nearly 15% of these bridges are structurally
deficient because of corroded steel and steel reinforcement. Annual direct cost
estimates total $8.3 billion including $43.8 billion to replace deficient bridges over
10 years, $2 billion for maintenance and capital costs for concrete bridge decks,