Pete Buttigieg as the incoming pick for U.S. transportation secretary would take office at a time when both state and local officials are deeply frustrated that not enough is being done to maintain and improve the country’s transportation networks.

But nobody seems to be able to solve the problem.

For example, two presidents have vowed to replace the aging Brent Spence Bridge between Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, but there’s still no plan to do so. In fact, the bridge closed down for a month because of damage it sustained in a November truck accident. Officials just reopened it a few days before Christmas.

Amtrak officials warn that passenger rail service that connects far-flung cities along the East Coast, from Boston and through Maryland to Washington, D.C., could stop anytime, if one of two 110-year-old tunnels underneath the Hudson River fails. The tubes were damaged when they flooded after Hurricane Sandy.

Nearly every state has its pain point: In Louisiana, Baton Rouge residents have been calling for a new bridge over the Mississippi River for years to cope with increased congestion. Missouri leaders have struggled for years to find money for road improvements, particularly for the heavily trafficked Interstate 70 corridor.

Michigan’s voters became so frustrated with the state’s pothole-pocked streets that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ran —and won—on a promise to “fix the damn roads.”

Transportation advocates are cheered, though, because although Buttigieg did not come from the transportation world, as mayor of South Bend, Ind., he had experience with some of the nuts-and-bolts annoyances that professionals in the field encounter every day.

As a former presidential candidate, Buttigieg also brings the support of his own legions of fans to the U.S. Department of Transportation, elevating the profile of the obscure agency.

Perhaps more than anything, though, Buttigieg sounded the right notes for people who have been frustrated by Congress’ inability over the last decade to pass major infrastructure packages.

“A deal is not just possible, it’s necessary,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “The American people are ready for us to finally, actually do something about infrastructure. We can’t keep letting ‘Infrastructure Week’ be a Washington punchline.”

Trump promises

President Donald Trump purportedly supported a major infrastructure initiative, and talked about a building program that could cost as much as $2 trillion.

But the Republican president did little to advance that goal on Capitol Hill. In fact, it seemed every time Trump would try to play up the need for a big infrastructure package, he would undermine those efforts by igniting other controversies.

The most obvious example was a Trump Tower news conference he held to highlight the onerous federal approval process for major projects. That message was lost when he told reporters there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

But the difficulties in getting congressional approval for new infrastructure initiatives pre-date Trump’s time in office, and they’re likely to make life difficult for Buttigieg and the Biden administration as well.

The obstacles include a funding mechanism for roads and bridges that no longer works, growing partisanship in transportation policy, the lack of a national strategy to deal with climate change and tensions between states and local governments about who should decide how best to spend federal money.

Amid that, President-elect Joe Biden is pushing for an aggressive transportation policy, which Buttigieg would be a key player in rolling out. Read more