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High inflation and high costs for construction and borrowing add to a strained labor market complicating some planned municipal issuances.

Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA In 2014, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority spent $13 million dollars on its infrastructure, the pumps and pipes that make up its water and sewer systems. This year, PWSA’s board approved a capital budget of $233 million. For decades the approach to maintenance at PWSA was “fix-as-fail,” said Edward Barca, the agency’s director of finance. In practice, that meant things literally had to fall apart to merit attention. That old mindset kept rates low, but it helped create a lead crisis and a deep backlog of very expensive maintenance. “What we...