The 2005 report card gave the country a final grade of D, while issuing a mind-boggling $1.6 trillion over a five-year span estimate for the funds needed to modernize the nation's infrastructure. According to the ASCE, this year's report card will show a lack of critical funding and very little improvement in the overall grades.
Normally, the report card, along with the integral analysis about the state in which the US infrastructure situates in was only due in March this year. Now, the grades and an interim report card are being released two months earlier thanks to the public's attention on the matter and, if the Congress will vote it out, federal funding. ASCE's complete report card and a full analysis of the state of US infrastructure will be released in March, and it will include detailed breakdowns of the issues within each infrastructure category.
Barack Obama's Administration proposed an economic stimulus package from which a large part is supposed to be used for overhauling the national infrastructure. There are no exact figures made public yet, but Americans should expect a far larger sum than the $50 billion proposed during Obama's presidential campaign for transportation infrastructure alone.
After the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis from 2007, the 2005 ASCE report has received a whole lot more attention and the public's eye and opinion are firmly glued on the matter now. Another reason for the nation's attention might be the fact that any increase of investment in the infrastructure might also bring an increase in related opportunities and jobs.
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