AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS (ASCE)
Introduction
Infrastructure is the foundation that connects U.S. businesses and enables communities to thrive. Our roads, water systems, energy grid and more help drive the economy, support our quality of life, and ensure public health and safety. Unfortunately, we have been underinvesting in our infrastructure for decades. In 2019, the U.S. spent just 2.5% of our GDP on infrastructure, down from 4.2% in the 1930s. From 2016 to 2025, we’ll underinvest in our infrastructure by $2 trillion, according to the 2017 ASCE Infrastructure Report Card.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has made a difficult situation worse. A sizable portion of our existing infrastructure systems are supported with user-generated revenue streams. With the onset of the pandemic, commercial water use is down, commuters are staying off the roads and away from transit, and airports are virtually empty. Meanwhile, municipal and state budgets are buckling under unprecedented demands, meaning less support is available for parks, schools, and other publicly-owned infrastructure, precisely at the time we should be investing.
Congress should make infrastructure investment a centerpiece of its immediate response and long-term economic recovery strategy. Now is the time to renew, modernize, and invest in our infrastructure to maintain our international competitiveness.
Airports
Infrastructure at airports is not keeping up with 21st century demands. Aging terminals, old technology, and choke-points at hub airports impact the aviation system. These challenges are exacerbated by a federally mandated cap on how much airports can charge passengers for facility improvements.
The Latest Impacts
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic travel declined by over 95%, commercial flights on average carried 12 passengers, and demand for air cargo dropped 15%, leading to an estimated $23.3 billion loss in airport revenue.
Solutions
While the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided $10 billion in relief for our airports to address these impacts in the aviation ecosystem, ASCE continues to urge Congress to provide an additional $10 billion to mitigate growing pandemic industry impacts.
In the long-term, Congress should remove the federally-imposed cap on Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) to allow airports a tool to invest in their own facilities. Modernizing and adding capacity to existing terminals will help our aviation system prepare for the eventual rebound and growth of passenger traffic.
Bridges
There are currently 46,100 structurally deficient bridges across our country, and at today’s investment rates, it would take 50 years to fix them all. This is in large part due to the fact that the nation’s bridges are supported by the federal gas tax, which has remained stagnant since 1993. The federal gas tax’s purchasing power had severely declined before reduced road usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Latest Impacts
Estimates show that our nation’s state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) will face an average revenue decline of 30% over the next 18 months. Meanwhile, the federal Highway Trust Fund posted a 49% decline of receipts in May 2020 when compared to May 2019. A sharp drop in available revenue for transportation projects puts the nation’s bridges at risk for further decline.
Solutions
ASCE recommends Congress provide $50 billion in short-term relief for the nation’s state DOTs to ensure that our bridges remain safe, reliable, and ready for Americans to resume pre-pandemic routines. Additionally, ASCE urges Congress to pass a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization, that addresses the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, before the authorization expires on September 30th, 2020.
Dams
Dams provide vital services and protection to our communities and the economy. However, our dams are aging – on average, dams in America were 56 years old in 2017 – and these structures are increasingly tasked with protecting growing downstream populations. Due to the lack of funding for maintenance, the number of deficient high-hazard potential dams is climbing – in 2017, over 2,170 high-hazard potential dams were deficient. State dam inspection programs are also underfunded – the average dam inspector oversees 190 number of dams per year, plus new construction projects.
The Latest Impacts
Record rainfall in May 2020 contributed to the catastrophic failure of two high hazard potential dams in Michigan. Thousands of residents were evacuated, and extensive property damage occurred.
Solutions
Infrastructure failure during this pandemic – or at any other time – is unacceptable. To ensure our nation’s dams receive adequate maintenance and can continue to protect nearby communities and regional economies, ASCE recommends fully funding the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation (HHPDR) program at the authorized amount of $60 million for FY21. Additionally, ASCE encourages Congress to pass the Dam Safety Improvement Act that makes technical changes to the HHPDR program to ensure more seamless implementation.
Drinking Water
The Latest Impacts
As the nation grapples with the increasingly devastating effects of COVID-19, water utilities continue working tirelessly to ensure their aging infrastructure is still providing customers safe and reliable water services. With the drinking water sector estimated to lose nearly $14 billion — approximately 17% — in annualized revenue as a result of the current pandemic, including more than $5 billion in losses related to suspending water service disconnections and increased customer delinquencies, our nation’s drinking water infrastructure faces continued decline.
Solutions
ASCE urges Congress to include federal drinking water and wastewater assistance for ratepayers, as well as provide water utilities with federal economic relief to combat revenue losses resulting from the pandemic. Congress should allocate an additional $300 million a year in grants for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Additionally, we recommend federal assistance for lead testing and replacement of lead pipes. Finally, ASCE asks Congress to restore parity between private and public sector employers regarding eligibility for payroll tax credits to alleviate the costs of paid leave during the coronavirus pandemic.
Energy
Much of the U.S. electric energy grid is well beyond its 50 year life expectancy. The 2019 Paradise Fire – California’s extremely destructive wildfire that destroyed nearly 14,000 homes and killed 85 people – was due to a hardware failure on a line that was over 100 years old, or a quartercentury past what PG&E considers its “useful life.” Fortunately, our energy infrastructure across the country is undergoing increased investment to assist in long-term resiliency, but such investment is not keeping up with the deterioration of the existing electric grid.
The Latest Impacts
The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated existing challenges, delayed some investments in energy infrastructure in the short term, and cost nearly half a million Americans working in renewable energy their jobs.
Solutions
To modernize the energy grid, ASCE recommends a streamlined and timely project permitting process, particularly to connect new sources of renewable energy to the grid. Specifically, we support the provisions of mandatory concurrent reviews, a single administrative processing / permitting agency to shorten and improve the approval process, and improve interagency collaboration, and time limits for decisions on infrastructure projects.
Download full report (PDF): COVID-19’s Impacts on American Infrastructure
About the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
www.asce.org
The American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation’s oldest engineering society. ASCE stands at the forefront of a profession that plans, designs, constructs, and operates society’s economic and social engine – the built environment – while protecting and restoring the natural environment.
Tags: American Society of Civil Engineers, Coronavirus, COVID-19
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