The deferred maintenance crisis plaguing many institutional and commercial facilities actually presents managers with two huge challenges. The first challenge, obviously, is to secure funding to address the maintenance backlog that grows each year. The second challenge tests managers’ views of the future of their facilities: Are funds best spent on addressing critical short-term tasks that affect daily operations or on longer-term projects that will ensure longer-term facility performance?
For many organizations, this debate takes place behind closed doors. But in the case of the U.S. National Park Service, it is taking place in public.
The National Park Service is focused on a major challenge in Congress as it struggles to catch up with a maintenance backlog of more than $22 billion, according to Roll Call. Three years ago, Congress enacted a law to provide up to $1.3 billion annually for five years to rebuild trails, roads, bridges, shelters, visitor centers and other facilities. The backlog then was around $14 billion.
But the new management in the Biden administration decided the funds would be better spent on long-term solutions rather than short-term Band-Aid projects, and the needs are now estimated to be $22.3 billion.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
