InfrastructureEngineers educate lawmakers about aging U.S. infrastructure

Published 2 April 2013

Two hundred members of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) fanned out across Capitol Hill last month for the annual Legislative Fly-In with a message: U.S. infrastructure problems are solvable if we have strong leadership in Congress. The ASCE members highlighted the nation’s need to eliminate the backlog of infrastructure deficiencies, modernize roads, bridges, water systems, and energy grid – and reminded Congress that to promote commerce and protect public safety, welfare, and the environment, infrastructure investment is a priority issue.

Civil engineers fly-in to meet with congressmen about poor infrastructure // Source: voatiengviet.com

Two hundred members of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) fanned out across Capitol Hill last month for the annual Legislative Fly-In with a message: U.S. infrastructure problems are solvable if we have strong leadership in Congress.

An ASCE release reports that the message was a one-two punch — both highlighting the nation’s need to eliminate the backlog of infrastructure deficiencies, modernize roads, bridges, water systems, and energy grid, plus reminding Congress that to promote commerce and protect public safety, welfare, and the environment infrastructure investment is a priority issue.

ASCE’s Legislative Fly-In, held 19-20 March in Washington, D.C., provided an opportunity for ASCE members to talk with their representatives in the House and Senate or their staffs about the need to invest in infrastructure. This year, members had the benefit of sharing the newly released grades in ASCE’s 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, released the Tuesday the Fly-In got under way.

The release notes that Fly-In attendees faced a 113th Congress comprising many members who wish to limit government spending and reduce the national debt, placing heightened scrutiny on all federal expenditures, including those to repair or replace the nation’s infrastructure.

One of those members of Congress is an ASCE member, who spoke to attendees at the Fly-In breakfast about the value of civil engineers going to Capitol Hill in person to provide technical perspective to members of Congress who are not engineers themselves.

“Who better to speak about energy issues and infrastructure than civil engineers?” said Representative David B. McKinley (R-West Virginia), P.E., F.ASCE.“We need people with training to be able to better articulate the position on these matters. So what civil engineers should be doing is [talking to their congressional representatives about] changing the priority in our spending so that we are addressing some of these issues in a better way.

“Specifically, civil engineers should be talking to their representative about where we want to spend our dollars, because we have the money; it is about the choices that we are making as a nation, and from an engineering perspective we are looking at the environment, we are looking at energy production, and we are looking at infrastructure. If we can focus on those issues and spend our money the right way, we are going to have better energy, we are going to have better infrastructure, and our environment is going to be cleaner.”

Armed with the 2013 Report