Engineers educate lawmakers about aging U.S. infrastructure

Card, Society members embarked to Capitol Hill to share the results with their home district’s House representative, which many downloaded on their tablets.

“Engineers do critical work and this is the kind of information that I need to do my job,” said Representative Joe Heck (R-Nevada), after meeting a delegation of four Society members from his state. “The Report Card is a very useful tool [because] sometime we [members of Congress] talk in anecdotes. So, to have an outside entity such as ASCE, whose specialty is to look at these critical issues and has an assessment; that carries a lot more weight.”

Heck says what he learned from the civil engineers at their meeting was “about the importance of having intermodal transportation and developing a long-term funding strategy for infrastructure needs.”

Representative Frederica S. Wilson (D-Florida), who met with Steven Lubinski, P.E., M.ASCE, agreed. “Every day I am on the floor [of the House] talking about the importance of rebuilding the infrastructure of our nation,” says Wilson. “Hopefully before the end of this session, somebody will listen.

“I hope to use this Report Card to our advantage to make sure we let our [House] colleagues know how we are rolling the dice and playing games with our nation’s infrastructure,” Wilson said.

While sharing the Report Card, ASCE members also urged their representatives to pass a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) in this session. Traditionally reauthorized every two years, the last WRDA was passed in 2007. The Report Card gave dams a D, inland waterways a D-, levees a D-, and ports a C, and ASCE’s Failure to Act report on the nation’s marine ports and inland waterways stated that without a new WRDA, it threatens one million U.S. jobs and $270 billion in exports by 2020. The WRDA renewal would create a National Levee Safety Program, reauthorize the National Dam Safety Program, increase spending for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and restore the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

“Infrastructure is what drives the economy,” said Representative Rob W. Bishop (R-Utah), who met with Shaun Dustin, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE.“So, if you don’t have a robust, effective infrastructure, you don’t have an effective growth rate in the economy.

“There are some core areas that I know a lot [about] and there are a whole lot of other areas where I don’t know squat, so the [Report Card] analysis from ASCE helps out a lot,” Bishop said. “But these civil engineers are too smart for me, so I will have to listen to their ideas.”

A third issue ASCE members addressed with representatives was to find a long-term federal funding solution for the nation’s surface transportation systems, as the next reauthorization comes up again next year after being renewed only last year. Budgeting for the Highway Trust Fund, which allocated $15 billion in 2012, has not been adjusted since 1993, and while transportation demands have grown, soon the Trust Fund will be depleted.

ASCE has held its spring Legislative Fly-In in Washington, D.C., for the past fourteen years.