Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers issues it’s Comprehensive Assessment of America’s Infrastructure. Essentially, this is a report card for America’s infrastructure.
In the report’s Executive Summary, ASCE says, “For two decades, the message behind the unflattering grades was consistent: Federal, state, and local governments, in addition to the private sector, have not been prioritizing our interdependent infrastructure systems.”
According to the report, the good news is that in 2021, the trend began to change spurred by the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Since the passage of the act, the infrastructure has been getting a better report card. To be clear, there is still what ASCE calls “a substantial investment gap,” and therefore room for further improvement.
But for the second consecutive report, the grades show that the infrastructure is trending in the right direction, with grades increasing in 18 categories. But again, we are still only looking at an average grade of a C. No categories were rated D-, even though many of the categories had been stuck in that range for years. While a C is not the best grade, it sure is a lot better than a D-.
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One of the key findings of the report is that recent federal and state investments in infrastructure have had a positive impact. However, the report says that sustained investment is key for us to continue to see improvements in the infrastructure.
That makes sense to me because it is no different than what we see in our own businesses. Unless we continue to invest in new equipment and technology, we are going to have more breakdowns, missed deliveries, and unhappy customers.
Just as we all must continue to invest in our businesses, we need to make sure that our federal and state governments continue to invest in our nation’s infrastructure so we can bring that C up to at least a B because that will be in everyone's best interests.
