Analysis of Federal Expenses to Restore, Repair, Reconstruct, or Replace Disaster Damaged Roads and Bridges in the U.S.

In the U.S., the state, local, tribe, and territorial governments seek funding from the federal government through the Public Assistance program to carry out these recovery works. In this paper historic public assistance data between 1998 and 2021 have been analyzed to derive several insights such as: types of disasters causing the most damage, states requiring more support, net present value of the federal expense etc. This paper has found that the states requiring more support from the federal government are not always the states suffering the maximum losses from the disasters. It has also found that the net present value of the federal expense between 1998 and 2020 to restore, repair, reconstruct, or replace disaster damaged roads and bridges across the U.S. is $15 billion in 2021 values. Moreover, this paper has tested the correlation between the states' public assistance funds requirements and the existing condition and performance of roads and bridges as revealed by the American Society of Civil Engineer's infrastructure grade card. It has found a weak correlation between these two. The outcomes of this paper can be used by the decision makers to analyze the viability of any possible alternative to the exiting public assistance program. The insights can also help in better decision making in pre-disaster preparation and post-disaster funds allocation.