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This Week in Infrastructure
November 1st, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
This week was the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, reminding us that all infrastructure is connected. When we cannot bounce back from unavoidable events, we hurt our economy. One only needs to read the countless stories this week on Sandy to see the impacts still being felt. As with almost all infrastructure, the question is how we pay for these repairs and who bears the financial burden. As politicians debate these issues, real families and real businesses continue to fight and overcome from this tragedy. Interestingly, the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy coincides with next week’s upcoming elections. Localities and states continue to struggle with funding our nation’s infrastructure, perhaps best summarized in this quote from U.S. Conference of Mayors President Scott Smith (mayor of Mesa, AZ): “I think there is one thing mayors as a whole are concerned about and that is the seeming lack of commitment and excitement about long-term transportation and infrastructure investments.” Luckily, the great state of Maine is in a position to improve its infrastructure at the ballot box next week. On Nov. 5, Maine voters will be asked to approve Question 3, which asks whether voters favor a $100 million bond issue for reconstruction and rehabilitation of highways and bridges and for equipment and facilities related to other modes of transportation. This bond would be matched with about $154 million. With the backing of the Bangor Daily News and other publications, the Question continues to pick up momentum. Hopefully Maine voters will see the direct connection between the Question and their economic future next Tuesday. Till next week.A Jack-O-Lantern School Modernization
October 31st, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
After a devastating fire, the 100 year-old rebuild of Whatcom Middle School in Bellingham, Washington, is a great story of a jack-o-lantern school modernization. Changing the school from the inside-out, Whatcom now has all the modern conveniences of a new school and (even better) the seismic upgrades to make it resilient to the next earthquake, but it still has the same historical character of the school that was started in 1903. However, almost half of America’s public school buildings are like Whatcom – they’re much older than you might think and built to educate the baby boomers – a generation that is now retiring from the workforce.Tags: education, infrastructure, school facilities, success story
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House Freight Panel Comes Out With New Report
October 30th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation, established by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in April to examine the current state of freight transportation in the United States and how improving freight transportation can strengthen the U.S. economy, released its final report and recommendations yesterday. The special panel, led by Chairman John Duncan Jr. (R-TN) and Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler ( D-NY), also examined ways to increase the efficiency, safety and overall condition and performance of the nation’s freight network; how technology assists in the movement of freight; and financing options for transportation projects. To examine these issues, the panel held six public hearings and three roundtable discussions; in addition to touring freight facilities in Southern California, the Memphis region, the New York City and Northern New Jersey region, and Norfolk, Virginia. The final report concluded that Congress should:- Establish a national freight transportation policy and designate a multimodal freight network;
- Ensure “robust” public investment in all modes of freight transportation and incentivize additional private investment;
- Promote the development of projects that improve the movement of goods;
- Authorize dedicated, sustainable funding for multimodal freight projects through a grant process;
- Identify and recommend sources of revenue to provide investment in the nation’s freight network;
- Develo p specific funding options for freight transportation projects prior to Congress’s consideration of the surface transportation reauthorization bill in 2014.
- Air received a grade of D and has an estimated investment need of $134 billion;
- Bridges received a grade of C+;
- Transit received a D;
- Roads received a grade of D, and combined with bridges, and transit, have an estimated investment need of $1.7 trillion; and
- Rail received a grade of C+ and has an estimated investment need of $100 billion.
While the bipartisan report does not necessarily break any significant new ground, or specifically recommend new revenue sources for the ailing Highway Trust Fund, it does provide a strong foundation for MAP-21 reauthorization next year. Criticisms of the report for punting the funding solution to the Obama Administration are not unwarranted; however, the report does discuss a number of possible revenue sources, including public-private partnerships and a several freight-specific options, such as customs duties and a freight waybill tax. This bipartisan nature of the discussion on these topics does break new ground in a Congress where new revenue options have been shunned in the past. By laying out the problems with the freight system, as well as the growing concern for a lack of future revenue with a year to go until MAP-21 reauthorization, the report allows the critical conversation to commence. Additionally, it can prove as a critical education tool for new member of Congress who might not be as familiar with the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund in the run up toward next September.
Tags: congress, infrastructure, transportation
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This Week in Infrastructure
October 25th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Unless you fail to check this blog everyday (how dare you!), you should know that the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) passed this week . This is the first water bill to pass Congress in six years, and will help fix our ailing levees, ports, dams, and waterways. This passage was an effort by numerous organizations, and we thank them all immensely. From media outreach to good ‘ole fashioned grassroots advocacy, the coordinated campaign surrounding WRRDA showed how many in Washington are committed to improving our infrastructure—a positive sign for things to come. WRRDA is a bill that will help our economy and create jobs. A great sign is infrastructure advocates from across the country value our issues. This week we participated in an event in Denver with the local Chamber of Commerce and Building America’s Future titled “Investing in Infrastructure Matters.” Events like these allow us to talk to new groups and build coalitions to raise America’s infrastructure grades. Obviously, this was a good week for America’s infrastructure, yet regrettably, our problems are too large for just one bill to fix. Now is the time for leadership and action. If you are interested in helping us Raise the Grades, please follow us on Facebook or Twitter and stay up to date on this continuing effort. Have a good weekend. Until next week.
ASCE Hails Passage of Water Resources Reform and Development Act as Linchpin in Modernizing Nation’s Ports, Inland Waterways, Dams and Levees
October 24th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Washington, D.C. — The following is a statement from Randall (Randy) S. Over, P.E., F.ASCE, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), regarding the passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act by the U.S. House of Representatives: “The American Society of Civil Engineers applauds the bipartisan passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA). The bill promotes economic growth and job creation through policies that strengthen U.S. infrastructure, allowing the nation to remain competitive in the 21st century. “ASCE’s 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure graded the nation’s ports a C, inland waterways a D-, dams a D, and levees a D-. Our nation’s water resources are critical to our economy, our infrastructure, public safety, and the preservation and enhancement of our environmental resources. In fact, ASCE’s Failure to Act economic study on the nation’s marine ports and inland waterways shows that underinvesting in just these two sectors threatens more than one million U.S. jobs and $270 billion in U.S. exports by 2020. “When signed into law, WRRDA will drastically reduce the time it takes for project approvals by consolidating or eliminating duplicative studies, permitting concurrent reviews, and streamlining environmental reviews. The reforms in the law are not at the expense of environmental quality and will allow for a stronger, safer national water resources infrastructure. In addition, ASCE strongly supports wording in the bill that will incrementally increase expenditures out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund so that our nation’s ports can remain competitive on a global level. “ASCE is pleased that Congress has collaborated to pass WRRDA and invest in America’s future. This decisive action will ensure that our nation’s ports, waterways, dams and levees receive the funding they require. We look forward to working with the conference committee as it develops a final Water Resources Development Act for the president’s signature.” Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 145,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.Tags: economic study, infrastructure, ports, report card, water
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New National Geographic Event Offers Opportunity to Reexamine Electric Grid
October 23rd, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
On October 27th, the National Geographic Channel presents American Blackout, a two-hour programming event that imagines the first two weeks immediately following a catastrophic blackout from a cyber-attack on the United States that takes down the power grid. This movie should serve as a stark reminder about the importance of our electric grid. At ASCE, we are concerned with what we can control, such as investing and upgrading of our mostly antiquated power grid. While the film is indeed impactful, the great news is that we—you, me, and our elected officials—can control the reliability and vitality of our nation’s electricity. In the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, ASCE awarded the nation’s Energy sector a D+. Today, the U.S. relies on an aging electrical grid and pipeline distribution system, some of which originated in the 1880s. While demand for electricity has remained level, the availability of energy will become a greater challenge as the population increases. As part of our efforts to better understand the importance of infrastructure, we conducted a series of economic studies we call “Failure to Act” that look at how underinvestment hurts our economy. Unless the investment gap is filled, blackouts and brownouts will increase costs for households and businesses. If we close the gap in investment (at total of $107 Billion) in our power system, we can protect 529,000 lost jobs and $656 billion in lost personal income by 2020. Solutions for our energy needs are prevalent. We need to be more lenient in the siting of new transmission lines that will relieve congestion and facilitate the transfer of electricity from renewable energy sources as we phase out our backbone of coal fired power plants. We must reduce the long and costly permitting process that unfairly target overhead power lines; when a transmission line can cost up to ten times as much to permit it than it does to build it, we have a problem. And finally, we need political leadership at all levels to have the courage to invest in our systems, assure reliability, and plan for the overall life-cycle costs of this critical infrastructure. Only by working together can we hope to improve our energy grid and avoid an American Blackout.Tags: economic study, energy, infrastructure, report card, sustainability
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Back to Work
October 17th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
We have a deal! Finally, after 16 days, the federal government shutdown is over and things can get back to normal: Americans can once again visit all our National Parks, government workers can be assured of receiving paychecks, etc. However, it will likely take some time for everything to get back to normal, including lawmakers’ offices dealing with constituent communications. Were you one of the millions of Americans who registered your thoughts on the shutdown with your Representative and/or Senators in the past 2-3 weeks? Or perhaps you actually cared more about a different issue? Honestly, don’t look for a response any time soon. Many lawmakers’ offices have been reduced to just a few senior aides over the past 16 days, and email inboxes and voicemail boxes are still overflowing. Just a few things to keep in mind regarding communicating with your elected officials in Washington, DC:- Congressional offices can barely keep up with the average level of in-bound constituent communications when they are fully staffed (Congressional Management Foundation). The backlog most offices are currently experiencing means that you likely will not see a response to your message soon, if ever. This is less than ideal, but nonetheless is the situation we are in now. Call it an unavoidable consequence of the shutdown.
- As always, your message is most likely to be read, and you are more likely to get a quality response, if you write in your own words, instead of copying a form letter someone else has written for you.
- If you already know a staffer in a Congressional office, perhaps by meeting with them either in Washington or in a district office or event, email that person directly on an issue, rather than sending your message to the lawmaker’s general inbox through an online system (such as ASCE’s Click & Connect with Congress).
Tags: congress, grassroots, uncategorized
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Riding the Rails Is On the Rise
October 16th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
This week Amtrak announced a new ridership record – 31.6 million people chose to take a train ride this year. Rail ridership is continuing to show year-over-year growth, and it’s a trend that doesn’t seems to be changing anytime soon. With the second best year of ridership in the Northeast Corridor (despite Hurricane Sandy’s disruption) and several other smaller and medium sized cities showing upticks in ridership, Amtrak appears to be building momentum across the U.S. Rail ridership isn’t the only positive trend we’re seeing with rail. In the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, rail earned one of the best grades, a C+ due to an increase of maintenance and strong planning for future needs. In 2010 alone, freight railroads renewed the rails on more than 3,100 miles of railroad track, equivalent to going coast to coast across the U.S. Check out all the places Amtrak goes here! Find out more about America’s rail network here.How Has the Shutdown Affected You?
October 11th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Due to the inability of Congress to pass a budget by October 1st, the federal government has been shutdown for 11 days and counting. With negotiations inching forward slowly we need your help! In order to resolve the impasse in Congress ASCE is looking for real life stories about how the shutdown has affected civil engineers. Has a project you are working on been delayed? Have friends, family, or coworkers been furloughed? Is our infrastructure at a greater risk due to the shutdown? Please share your stories with us so that we can take them to Members of Congress and get the government to open its doors again. Send all stories, examples, or harrowing tales to ASCE government relations at govwash@asce.org or contact Caroline Sevier, Senior Manager of Federal Government Relations, at 202-789-7852. Don’t forget to include:- Your name,
- Where you live,
- Where you work, and
- What you do (in 20 words or less).
Tags: congress
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Infrastructure This Week
October 11th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The government shutdown continues to loom over our nation’s infrastructure, causing uncertainty, hurting key services, and further showing the costs of Congressional intransigence.
Much like the government itself, our infrastructure has to get out of the short-term mindset, and start planning for long-term growth. Only then will we find success.
The good news is businesses and local leaders are starting to feel the costs of under-investment, and are contemplating ways to plan for future growth.
Talk to you next week!
Tags: career development, congress, economics, infrastructure
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