The Engineering Center, located at One Walnut St. in Boston, is among the groups concerned about the state’s infrastructure.

Local engineers worry that the old nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down” may ring true for Massachusetts’ infrastructure if the state continues ignoring routine maintenance and upgrades.

“The infrastructure is worsening but the funds to fix it are diminishing,” said Paul Moyer, president of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. “There’s a disaster scenario right in front of us. All we can do is convince the public that it’s a big enough problem to make money available.”

It’s a concern that resonates among several engineering associations in the state, including the Boston Society of Civil Engineers section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers. The facts are there, they say, but how they will convince the public to back a lobbying effort focusing on concrete, steel and asphalt remains a challenge for the group.

So, they’re enlisting the help of others and forming a broad-based coalition that includes professionals from the fields of construction, general contracting, architecture, utilities, local government and water and sewer departments. They’re planning to produce a comprehensive report that includes a plan of action and funding sources or options. Members of the team are hoping that, somewhere along the process, the public will join in the fight.

“People tend to focus on their backyard – the school down the street, the pothole down the street – but we hope to help people realize how this affects the quality of life on the local and regional level,” said Abbie R. Goodman, executive director of The Engineering Center, located at One Walnut St. in Boston.

The infrastructure coalition, which held its first meeting last week, hopes to build upon the momentum and attention generated by the release last week of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “Progress Report for America’s Infrastructure.” The report highlighted problems with roads, bridges, mass transit, schools and dams across the nation, along with several other infrastructure ailments.

Across the country, infrastructure continues to decline because of state and local budget crises, federal programs that fall short of maintenance demands, population growth and voter opposition to infrastructure projects, according to the report. The threat of terrorist attacks on key bridges and tunnels also diverts maintenance and growth funding in favor of security.

The board of directors at The Engineering Center calls its coalition the Infrastructure Investment Task Force. The group is formally charged with identifying the long-term needs for infrastructure investment in Massachusetts to support economic prosperity and improve quality of life. Examples of infrastructure under the realm of the new coalition also include communications systems, recreational parks and facilities, seaports and airports.

Costly Choices

In Massachusetts, the three main areas of concern are roads, bridges and schools, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

According to the national report, 61 percent of roads in Massachusetts are in poor or mediocre condition. The potholes and disrepair cost each motorist $361 a year in repair and operating costs. Over the next five years, the state would require $60 million annually in interstate and federal aid to bring 80 percent of its roads up to good or excellent condition.

The state’s bridges are also crumbling. About 60 percent of the Bay State’s bridges are more than 43 years old and quickly approaching the end of their life expectancy of 50 years. To bring half of the state’s structurally deficient bridges up to par, the state would have to spend $377 million a year over the next five years.

Schools also present a bleak picture, particularly with the state’s four-year moratorium on school construction aid. In July, voters in Reading overrode state limits on property tax raises after years of cutting costs in public services. Deferred school maintenance got so bad that water pipes burst in the high school this year, flooding the state’s Teacher of the Year’s classroom. According to the report, 75 percent of schools contain at least one inadequate building feature while 80 percent of the state’s schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental feature.

The infrastructure coalition, well aware of the mounting problems with the state’s bridges, roads and schools, are now struggling with a mounting price tag to remedy the infrastructure deficiencies and how to convince state legislators that it’s one that needs paying.

“If we don’t do anything, they [critical infrastructure areas] will decay and fail,” Moyer said. “Very often the failure is life-threatening.”

First, Moyer said that Congress should reauthorize the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, more commonly known as TEA-21. The federal legislation, which expires Sept. 30, provides matching funds for varied community projects. But Moyer said that source of traditional funding isn’t the only solution – Massachusetts needs sound technology, wise community planning and involved citizens willing to make public and private partnerships.

One logical source of funding would be an increase in the gas tax; others may include user fees for railroads or airports, he said.

“We need to look at this in a new way and recognize that there’s a cost to use these facilities,” Moyer said.

Goodman said that the coalition will need the public’s help setting prioritize and devising creative solutions to the infrastructure problems facing the state. Once a plan is established, the coalition will take the report to the state Legislature and other public officials.

But Goodman said that keeping up with infrastructure maintenance isn’t the only message in all of this. People also shouldn’t take for granted the underpinnings that allow modern society to function, she said.

“Part of public education is not taking it for granted that when you turn on the faucet, that water comes out, that the schools meet safety codes and roads have the right traffic patterns,” she said.