Recently in Infrastructure Category

Source: Sean Slone, Council of State Governments, Knowledge Center, May 8, 2012

Absent a consensus on how to address an ever-widening gap between state revenues available to spend on transportation infrastructure and how much it actually costs to maintain and improve it, a number of states in 2011 turned to specially appointed task forces and commissions for answers. Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington were among the states with panels to issue recommendations. This brief examines their processes and findings, how their funding recommendations have fared politically and the chances for future success.

Source: Robert Barkin, American City and County, April 17, 2012

Locals seek innovative solutions to meet the nationwide demand for water infrastructure repair and expansion....

...As water authorities and their managers face an estimated $1.5 trillion bill to rebuild the underground infrastructure essential to our nation's water supply, an increasingly important issue has emerged in finding the means to finance the investment while controlling the rates paid by users, who are accustomed to paying an average of less than a penny per gallon....

Source: David Madland, Nick Bunker, Center for American Progress, March 22, 2012

From the summary:
The dire state of America's infrastructure is an all-too-familiar story. From dramatic cases of bridges collapsing and levees breaking to the more mundane but still very important problems of commutes lengthening, energy grids deteriorating, and transit becoming less reliable, we have not been making adequate investments in our nation's infrastructure. This is the case despite abundant evidence of the needs and the benefits: Infrastructure investments boost productivity and spur economic growth, which is ever more important as other countries are making investments to pass us by.

So why has the United States neglected infrastructure investment?

There are certainly many causes, but one factor that has not received adequate attention is the decline of our middle class. When the middle class is strong, their interests--such as for greater investments in infrastructure--are more likely to be translated into political action. But when society is very unequal, the priorities of the rich tend to dominate.

Source: National Association of Counties, 2012

The National Association of Counties, which represents the interests of county governments across the nation, recently commissioned a survey of 1,300 county engineers on America's road and bridge infrastructure and the economy. The county engineers in the sample group are all members of NACo's affiliate, the National Association of County Engineers.

The survey asked about the current conditions of county roads and bridges and how the recent economic slowdown has affected construction and maintenance funding. It also asks how much funding each county would need to upgrade all of its roads and bridges to "good" condition and whether the availability of this additional funding would create jobs in the community.

Highlights of the survey report include the following:
• 81 percent report that they have deferred maintenance since the beginning of the economic slowdown
• 98 percent report that some of their roads are in poor and/or fair condition.
• 86 percent report having bridges in poor condition
• 91 percent say that the receipt of infrastructure funding would help create jobs
• 11 percent report that more than $50 million in additional funding would be needed to put all county roads in good condition
• 52 percent of large urban counties report that more than half of their roads are not in "good" condition.
• 86 percent of large urban counties report that some of their roads are in poor condition
• 51 percent report that they experienced funding cuts of between 10 to 25 percent of funding levels since 2008

Source: American Water Works Association, 2012

From the abstract:
The massive investment needed for buried drinking water infrastructure in the United States totals more than $1 trillion between now and 2035.

The need will double from roughly $13 billion a year today to almost $30 billion (in 2010 dollars) annually by the 2040s, and the cost will be met primarily through higher water bills and local fees, according to a new AWWA report.

"Buried No Longer: Confronting America's Water Infrastructure Challenge" is a call to action for utilities, consumers and policy makers and recognizes that the need to replace pipe in the ground "puts a growing stress on communities that will continue to increase for decades to come."

The new report includes more than 35 tables and graphs detailing information by region and utility size

Source: Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, January 2012

Our nation's freshwater infrastructure faces a critical juncture. Largely built on systems developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, our water infrastructure is aging, our technology outdated and our governance systems ill equipped to handle rising demand and environmental challenges. Additional strain is being placed on these systems from a variety of sources, including pressures from urbanization and changing climate conditions, such as increases in both droughts and extreme one-day precipitation events.

While these challenges are significant, they are not insurmountable. In fact, they can be viewed as drivers of much-needed change in how we finance and develop our water systems to meet future demands. New financing models and pricing flexibility, which are necessary to pay for new infrastructure and to support legacy systems, provide enormous opportunity for positive transformation necessary to keep pace with the rapid changes being experienced by counties, municipalities and investor owned utilities.

This report seeks to tackle these issues and deliver some recommendations on how to understand and confront the pressing need for more sustainable and integrated water infrastructure financing models.

Source: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2011

The latest report shows that our nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructure is aging and failing, and that investment is not keeping up the need. The focus of this report is on the pipes, treatment plants, pumping stations, and other infrastructure that make up the nation's public drinking-water and wastewater systems. Most public water and wastewater systems are owned and operated by local or regional government agencies. Drinking-water systems may also be privately owned and operated under contract with public agencies. In accordance with the definitions used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the pages that
follow we consider both types of systems to be "public." Moreover, this report analyzes two types of infrastructure needs:
1. building new infrastructure to service increasing populations and expanded economic activity; and
2. maintaining or rebuilding existing infrastructure that needs repair or
replacement.

Source: Emily Gordon, Jeremy Hays, Ethan Pollack, Daniel Sanchez, and Jason Walsh, Green For All, 2011

This report estimates the economic and job creation impact of a major investment in water infrastructure in the United States. This number--$188.4 billion--is based on the level of investment necessary, as estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency, to manage stormwater and preserve water quality across the country. We find that an investment of $188.4 billion spread equally over the next five years would generate $265.6 billion in economic activity and create close to 1.9 million jobs.

We argue that maximizing the use of green infrastructure--infrastructure that mimics natural solutions--is essential to meet the stormwater management needs of our communities while also providing a number of additional co-benefits.

We provide job creation estimates for each of the 50 states and review the workforce opportunities that would result from such an investment, analyzing a representative set of occupations in industries related to water infrastructure. We find that new jobs generated by these investments could be good jobs that are broadly accessible to American workers.

Source: Maripat Murph, Journal AWWA, Vol. 103 no. 10, October 2011
(subscription required)

With the economic outlook still uncertain, finances--especially as they relate to infrastructure rehabilitation--are weighing heavily on water industry professionals.

Source: William Fulton, Governing, November 2011

In order to ensure long-term economic prosperity, states and localities should focus on investment.