The Time Is Finally Here — Let’s Focus On Infrastructure

By Brian Alvarado

As the country reacts to the $2 trillion infrastructure legislation put together by the Biden administration, our industry can mark this as a win. For decades, our infrastructure has been put to the side, and in the most recent report card by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the U.S. registered an overall grade of “C-,” a slight improvement from 2017’s grade of “D+.”

Although the question has now turned to how the bill would be funded, infrastructure professionals across the country can at least say that this age-old question of when our roads, bridges and more would be upgraded is close to being answered. And after over 12 months of being in a pandemic, these conversations were a must, considering the economic hit that COVID-19 has caused.

Aside from the upgrading of our nation’s infrastructure systems as part of Biden’s “Build Back Better,” millions jobs will be created to put Americans back to work. We saw it pay off with similar legislation from the New Deal during the Great Depression, and we can expect the same with this plan. Are there kinks that need to be worked out to gain bipartisan agreement? Absolutely. But as infrastructure professionals, we can take a sigh of relief that what we’ve been trying to advocate for for many years is finally coming to fruition.

This bill, with the right appropriations, will not only just affect us immediately, but our children, our grandchildren, and our grandchildren’s children will reap the benefits of an upgraded infrastructure system, leaving us more prepared for disasters such as the one we just had over the past year.

Brian Alvarado is the editor for American Infrastructure Magazine. He can be reached at brian@builder.media.