If your children came home with a D+ average, you’d be pretty worried. But the fact that US congressmen and women can earn a D+ grade on infrastructure should have US citizens mad as hell.
Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) provides the American Infrastructure Report Card. The 2013 report card received a GPA of D+ with an estimated investment of $3.6 trillion needed by 2020. The next report card is scheduled for an update in 2017.
The 2013 Report Card urges bold leadership and vision at the national level, the promotion of sustainability and resilience where ongoing maintenance is a natural part of the new infrastructure, and the development of funding plans to maintain and upgrade US infrastructure over time.
The categories and grades in the ASCE report card for infrastructure are:
- energy, D+
- transit, D
- ports, C
- aviation, D
- levees, D-
- dams, D
- schools, D
- roads, D
- inland waterways, D-
- wastewater, D
- hazardous waste, D
- public parks & recreation, C
- rail, C+
- bridges, C+
- solid waste, B-
- drinking water, D
Recent Activity in US Government on Infrastructure Issues
The US House Transportation Committee of the US House of Representatives is working on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016, addressing the needs of US harbors, locks, dams, flood protection, and other water resources infrastructure that will help to strengthen the country’s economic competitiveness.
With the US presidential election currently in full swing and a platform that includes a huge infrastructure investment, it’s possible that the report card scheduled for 2021 could look much different than the report card we are likely to see in 2017.
The following video is an overview of ASCE’s 2013 American Infrastructure Report Card.
