The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has released its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, the quadrennial assessment of the nation's infrastructure. The report found the national grade for infrastructure remains at a "D+"—the same grade the U.S. received in 2013—suggesting only incremental progress was made over the last four years toward restoring America's infrastructure.
ASCE evaluated 16 categories of infrastructure in the report. While the overall grade did not improve, seven categories did see progress. These improvements can be attributed to strong leadership, thoughtful policymaking, and investments that garnered measurable results, according to ASCE.
"While our nation's infrastructure problems are significant, they are solvable," said ASCE president Norma Jean Mattei, PE. "We need our elected leaders—those who pledged to rebuild our infrastructure while on the campaign trail—to follow through on those promises with investment and innovative solutions that will ensure our infrastructure is built for the future."
The bridges sector earned a “C+,” unchanged from 2013, and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) recently reported that there are 56,000 structurally deficient bridges in need of repair.
The American steel industry is urging the construction community to contact their representatives in Congress and support infrastructure funding as well as the extension of Buy America and Hire American provisions to all infrastructure projects funded or financed with U.S. tax dollars and proposed tax credits.
For more on ASCE’s 2017 Report Card, visit www.infrastructurereportcard.org.