State of Our Union Will Strengthen With Infrastructure Investment
January 13th, 2016 | By: Becky Moylan
President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Among the goals he set out was the need to build a “21st century transportation system.” He went further, posing the question of how we can utilize technology to solve our nation’s challenges. Modernizing our transportation network and offering innovative solutions to improve our nation’s infrastructure are key to improving America’s “D+” infrastructure. Infrastructure #GameChangers identifies the top trends in technology and innovation that are advancing infrastructure. While the President did not get into the specifics, these gamechangers demonstrate that America can find innovative solutions to our nation’s infrastructure challenges. From transforming wastewater into energy today to autonomous and connected vehicles in the future, improving our nation’s infrastructure will take ingenuity and investment. Check out more of the ways that technology is solving our nation’s infrastructure challenges. In just over a year, the American Society of Civil Engineers will release the 2017 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, providing an assessment of the state of our infrastructure. In the meantime, it’s up to our elected leaders at the federal, state, and local levels to continue prioritizing investment into the backbone of our economy.April 29th, 2014 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Washington, D.C. —The following is a statement from Randall (Randy) S. Over, P.E., president of The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on the GROW AMERICA Act: “We need bold leadership at all levels of government if we are going to solve America’s infrastructure deficit, and today’s four-year draft bill from the U.S. Department of Transportation appears to be a positive step. We welcome efforts to create more robust infrastructure investments that move our country away from simply maintaining the funding and investments of the past. We also applaud the continued streamlining of project approval processes so we can deliver projects on time and on budget, and improved project financing. “The title of the draft bill could not be more appropriate – maintaining and modernizing our nation’s infrastructure enables thriving interstate commerce, job creation, and will quite literally ‘GROW’ America. “Inaction or continued short-term solutions will continue to cost American families and businesses. When our roads prevent trucks from getting from Point A to Point B to deliver goods, our nation suffers. When our ports can’t keep pace with the realities of international commerce, our nation falls behind. Deficient roads, bridges, and ports hurt our GDP, our ability to create jobs, our disposable income, and our competitiveness with other nations. ASCE estimates that deficient and unreliable surface transportation will cost each American family $1,090 a year in personal disposable income by the year 2020.“Any reauthorization of MAP-21 must be focused on modernizing our transportation infrastructure network in order to build a 21st century economy. The American Society of Civil Engineers, representing more than 145,000 civil engineers, believes the authorization should focus on three goals for surface transportation: expanding infrastructure investment and finding sustainable revenue solutions for the Highway Trust Fund; continuing the meaningful reforms started in MAP-21; and positioning our nation to build strategically for the future.
“ASCE is disappointed that long term sustainable revenue sources for the Fund were not identified, and we urge Congress to take immediate action to identify long-term revenue solutions for the Highway Trust Fund to avert this impending insolvency crisis.“We look forward to a more thorough review of the proposal, and it is our hope that the Administration and Congress will work together to advance the policy and the funding needed to keep our transportation system working for our economy.”
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: highway trust fund, MAP-21, President Obama, transportation
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This Week in Infrastructure: What is the State of Our Union, Really?
February 2nd, 2014 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The Super Bowl (or the first mass-transit bowl as we like to call it) wasn’t the only required TV viewing this week . The State of the Union drew more than 33 million viewers listening to President Obama’s agenda for the country. Here at ASCE, we were pleased that President Obama laid out goals of “rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes” and hope that Congress responds by finalizing WRRDA and passing a transportation bill. ENR has an excellent overview of the response from the major players of infrastructure. Looking locally, the Detroit Free Press chimed in with ways that a focus on infrastructure could help Michigan. Prior to his speech, our friend Rep. Blumenauer authored his thoughts Monday on how “If we do not act now to maintain and repair our infrastructure, we will face much higher costs in the future, not just for the country, but for families on a daily basis,” echoing ASCE’s concerns from our Failure to Act studies. It seems infrastructure investment was on everyone’s lips this week. The call for investing in infrastructure is timely for many reasons: First:
Beyond that, the recent chemical contamination of West Virginia’s water has led to a larger conversation about water quality and the infrastructure that delivers it and disposes of it.
Also this week, there was also some talk of the power grid’s vulnerabilities (which received a D+ in the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure). Even MetLife Stadium is taking precautions to ensure last year’s blackout is not repeated this Sunday.
Finally, we are going to keep praying for all of our friends in Atlanta. Certainly this was a horrific situation, and hopefully all of us can learn how to avoid such a thing in future.
So, what is the State of Our Union’s Infrastructure, really? I guess you could say we’re working on it.
Tags: congress, infrastructure, President Obama, Super Bowl, wastewater
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