Drumroll please, it’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) infrastructure report card time …
By the time this column is printed, but before it was written, ASCE will have released its 2025 report card at https://infrastructurereportcard.org. We’re seeing small improvements; lagging data and current projects under construction will drive better grades in the future.
Many of us at ASCE were apprehensive at some point about how we would do, and the same holds for our industry. The construction industry shouldn’t accept lower grades because of lack of funding. We need to unite and demand that required investments are made. We know better than others that you can’t build a healthy economy on a crumbling infrastructure. Weather-related as well as man-made stressors are challenging us as never before. We need to rebuild all our critical infrastructure so it’s resilient to the challenges ahead.
All 18 categories are critical to our infrastructure system that keeps our modern economy thriving. Onshoring anything from manufacturing to mining, from new data centers to all forms of energy generation and transmission to power those commercial and manufacturing centers depend upon infrastructure.
The ASCE rubric is simple: use publicly available data, with a panel of experts reviewing that data against capacity, condition, funding, future needs, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience and innovation.
My personal observations on each category:
• Aviation—We need the Next Gen traffic-control system to prioritize safety while adding capacity.
• Bridges—Great progress is being made on poor-condition bridges, but we’re falling behind the required maintenance to keep good bridges in good condition. Local bridges need help.
• Broadband—We need to have accessible broadband across the United States without deserts. This is the 21st century equivalent of electric transmission in the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.
• Dams—There are thousands of dams that go uninspected and create real hazards for communities.
• Drinking Water—Every American has the basic right to access clean drinking water. We need to prioritize funding to make this a reality.
• Energy—The modern economy puts great strain on the energy system. We need more energy generation of all forms as well as upgrades to the transmission and distribution system to have a smart and resilient grid.
• Hazardous Waste—Funding must continue to flow to our superfund sites, as the risks get worse as time goes on.
• Inland Waterways—Waterways are a very economical freight transportation system that serves a large segment of the United States. Drought and delayed dredging have decreased the capacity for major U.S. rivers.
• Levees—Many of our levees are old earth structures that were designed to protect farmland. Now these levees are protecting urban and suburban areas. Levee failures will impact a much larger population than before.
• Parks and Recreation—As urban and suburban areas expand across the country with limited or no green space, parks become a vital community asset.
• Ports—We saw supply chain disasters during the pandemic, which require systemic approaches to port efficiency to keep goods flowing while reducing operational costs.
• Rail—We have seen private railroads step up to meet the challenges as well as private passenger operators developing smart corridors. We need to continue the momentum.
• Roads—Like bridges, roads are the backbone of our economy for people and goods. The system is aging faster than we can keep up with it; we’re not doing full-depth reconstruction on major roads at the level we should.
• Schools—Our children deserve great places to learn, so we need to make upgrades for local districts easier by providing faster permitting and mandate relief.
• Solid Waste—We must continue to reduce the need to landfill by providing composting for organic waste and using products that decompose faster. On a recent trip to Europe, I was surprised at the conversion from single-use plastics to bamboo for straws, disposable cutlery and other paper products.
• Stormwater—We need to stop concentrating stormwater flows by using landscape features to allow the earth to absorb stormwater while recharging aquifers.
• Transit—Densely populated areas need to have reliable transit to minimize congestion as well as commuter costs.
• Wastewater—We need to use technology to minimize biosolids that are landfilled.
Join me in working with local, state and federal officials to communicate the importance of this message. Our industry is responsible for infrastructure. It’s up to us to build the foundation for an exciting, sustainable, resilient and thriving future.
About Maria Lehman
Maria Lehman, P.E., F.ASCE, ENV SP, is U.S. Infrastructure Lead for GHD. She is the past president of the ASCE and currently serves as vice chair of President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council; email: Maria.Lehman@ghd.com.
The post Engineering The Future: End of March Brings 2025 ASCE Report Card first appeared on Informed Infrastructure.