Georgia’s Infrastructure Is On Our Mind
January 08, 2014
The 2014 Report Card for Georgia’s Infrastructure will be released next Monday, January 13th, in the South Wing of the State Capitol on the very first day day of Georgia’s legislative session. Highlighting the infrastructure needs across the state, the Report Card will provide a new GPA for Georgia’s infrastructure as well as new grades......
Infrastructure Is the Missing Ingredient to Healthy School Lunches
December 30, 2013
The Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project lead by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this December titled, Serving Healthy School Meals: U.S. Schools Need Updated Kitchen Equipment. They found that 55% of school food authorities (SFAs) need kitchen infrastructure changes at one or more schools to meet......
Celebrating Infrastructure Successes in 2013
December 27, 2013
Looking back over 2013, we have many successes in making infrastructure a priority to celebrate. Here are a few that really made our year: 1. The 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure was launched in March as a tablet and smartphone app gaining more traction with the media and decision makers than ever before and......
Meet IP3, the New P3 Where Citizens Are the Owners
December 19, 2013
If you follow the infrastructure financing debate about how America is going to fund our future infrastructure needs, you have probably heard the term P3 or public-private partnership discussed as an innovative financing structure to utilize private investment in public infrastructure. However, with the release of the American Enterprise Institute’s new report, Road Pricing and......
The Countdown Begins – Our Federal Funding for Transportation May Run Dry Next Year
December 18, 2013
Transportation is a key issue in 2014 as the Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2015 and MAP-21 is set to expire in September. In some states, transportation projects are already being put on hold because of the uncertainty of future federal funding. The UPDATE Act introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) is just......
An Invitation: ASCE’s Congressional Fellow Program Accepting Applications
December 16, 2013
“Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried,” said Winston Churchill. It’s safe to say the man had a point. For the past 18 years, ASCE has selected a member as part of ASCE’s Congressional Fellow program and allowed them to work and learn on Capitol Hill. A year later,......
Lighting Airports Runways with LEDs Saves Big for Raleigh
December 09, 2013
America needs solutions to our infrastructure issues that can work today, and what if it’s as simple as switching out the lights? The replacement of the entire airfield electrical system at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) represents the first major air carrier airport in the United States to complete a full airfield conversion to FAA-certified LED......
Congress Headed for a Fight on Science
December 05, 2013
Congress appears ready to start of new fight on what until recently has been a largely non-partisan issue. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) has circulated draft legislation to reauthorize and replace the America COMPETES Act. Entitled the “Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, Technology Act of 2013” or FIRST Act, the......
Blumenauer Proposes Gas Tax Increase
December 04, 2013
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced legislation that would incrementally raise the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax to 33.4 cents-per-gallon. Blumenauer’s proposal, the Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials (UPDATE) Act, increases the gas tax by 15 cents, which is in line with a proposal that was included in the 2011 Simpson-Bowles budget reform recommendations.......
On Infrastructure, Funding is the Challenge
December 02, 2013
In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Philip Howard, of the small-government reform group Common Good, said that when it comes to U.S. infrastructure, “funding is not the challenge.” Where to begin? Funding is an immense, complicated, and ever-changing challenge facing our country’s roads, bridges, water systems, dams, and other infrastructure. Our inability......