That's a nice fantasy world you live in.

In reality the "continuous maintenance" you tout is continually deferred, kicking the can down the road (no pun intended). The Volcker Alliance estimated that we have a total of over $1 trillion in deferred maintenance as of last November [1]. The Department of Interior alone quoted $16.4 billion in deferred maintenance on their infrastructure at the end of 2018 [2], which is about 80% of their annual budget [3]. The infrastructure of cities, states, and other federal departments dwarfs that of DoI.

[1] https://www.volckeralliance.org/sites/default/files/attachme...

[2] https://www.doi.gov/ocl/deferred-maintenance-backlog

[3] https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/fy2020_bib_a...

When they are maintained by resurfacing on a 15-20 year lifecycle, and regrading on a 50 year lifecycle, as is common with residential roads, that leaves plenty of time for ponzi-like growth to occur.

Road are also listed on city books as an asset, with a positive cash value, instead of a liability. But unfortunately, future road maintenance is a liability just like future pension payments, and cities can’t actually sell roads to pay for other things. That future payment is generally not accounted for anywhere by any city.

The accounting practices around infrastructure are quite surprisingly bad.

roads certainly do need to be replaced, i.e., repaved. in my three weeks of travel in china, i never once encountered a single road worse than the roads i encounter everyday in a major metropolitan city in the u.s. and i pay heavy taxes.

Bridges do, however.