Report Card History

ASCE releases the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The overall grade climbs to C, and Broadband becomes the 18th graded category – starting at C+ and benefiting from greater public data. The Hazardous Waste mark climbed two steps to C, highlighting the benefits of increased federal investments in programs for sites within the Superfund and brownfield programs, plus more significant funding to address legacy pollution sites of the Energy and Defense departments. 2025 Report Card recommendations include Sustaining Investment, Prioritizing Resilience, and Advancing Policy and Innovation. Those set of recommendations largely align with previous proposals in 2021, 2017, and 2013 Report Card editions, with momentum on some of the component action items.

ASCE releases “Bridging the Gap,” an economic analysis for 11 of the 18 Report Card categories built on the prior “Failure to Act” report series. Bridging the Gap assessed the economic benefits of increased federal infrastructure investments from several recent federal laws, state and local actions, and private investments. The findings identified a $700 annual savings to American households if Congress continued investing at those levels beyond their expiration in 2026.

The CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS) becomes law. While most of CHIPS funding in appropriations goes to domestic manufacturing of microchips, the legislation advances several research efforts that ASCE supports. CHIPS significantly increased the authorized funding levels for research within the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Investments at that level and improved interagency partnerships help translate federally funded research to commercial applications, where engineers deploy innovative approaches.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) becomes law, directing additional investments and setting policy changes affecting energy and resilience projects within several other Report Card categories. ASCE’s 2024 Bridging the Gap economic study estimates that the IRA and 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will drive over $580 billion in additional public investments compared to prior funding levels – and only counting 11 of the 18 Report Card categories in that study.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) becomes law, including 43 recommendations from the 2021 Report Card. The measure will invest $1.2 trillion over five years, 2022-2026, and create or enhance programs covering all 17 Report Card categories as well as broadband. The IIJA was the culmination of decades of advocacy by ASCE members who worked tirelessly to educate federal decision-makers about infrastructure’s role in supporting the economy and our quality of life. Compared to prior investment levels authorized by Congress, IIJA support for roads and bridges grew 34%, aviation support grew 67%, and investments in other categories grew many times over. Large-scale investments are directed to neglected categories, like transit, hazardous waste, water, and broadband. As of January 2025, IIJA had invested $595 billion into 52,610 projects, which the private sector had leveraged to invest another $359 billion into physical infrastructure projects.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is signed into law. The legislation invests federal money to address the COVID-19 pandemic and provides flexibility to state and local authorities. Those decision-makers direct much of that investment toward infrastructure projects. 12.9% of the total bill funds go to water systems in 41 states, and 5.8% of the total is directed by 32 states toward broadband projects.

ASCE releases the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The overall grade climbs to C-, the first overall Report Card grade out of the D range. Stormwater becomes the 17th category, entering the grade chart as a D. While the COVID-19 Pandemic raised awareness of and urgency for high-speed internet services, the 2021 Report Card noted a lack of public data in its un-graded spotlight for Broadband. The lack of public data has been a recurring theme in many Report Card categories since the 1998 edition. The 2021 document also noted the persistent issues of growing maintenance backlogs and the benefit of increased investment from all levels of government, though trailing the needs.

ASCE releases several reports updating the economic analysis from the prior “Failure to Act” economic study series. The report analyses 11 of the 17 graded categories from the 2021 Report Card and, due to lack of investments in infrastructure, identifies a cost of $3,300 annually to American households over 20 years. The study also put an exponential cost on delayed action; of the total economic impacts projected from the 2020-2040 window, more than three-quarters occurred in the second decade.

As with the 2013 Report Card, the 2017 edition also assessed 16 categories, and the overall grade remained at D+. Rail continued its upward momentum, rising two steps to B in 2017 – a sharp climb from 2009’s debut rail grade of C-. The chapter noted that private rail companies continued strong investment in tracks serving both freight and passenger rail services.

In the fifth edition of ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, the overall grade jumped one step to D+, and Ports was added as the 16th category, debuting with a C grade. Along with Inland Waterways, the Report Card now covered the waterborne commerce that powers America’s supply chain at home and across the globe. The Rail grade rose two steps to C+, citing increased investment from the private sector. The document recommended “increased leadership in infrastructure renewal,” the development and funding of “plans to maintain and enhance America’s infrastructure,” and a third resilience recommendation reiterating 2009’s discussion of the subject.

ASCE releases a new report called “Failure to Act,” analyzing ten of the 16 Report Card categories for 2013. Failure to Act “answers the key question of how the conditions of the United States’ infrastructure systems affect the nation’s economic performance.” The report analyzed actual investment levels compared to a “B-level” infrastructure system through two approaches: 1) the need to build new infrastructure to service increasing populations and expanding economic activity; and 2) the cost to maintain or rebuild existing infrastructure. Failure to Act found a gap of $1.1 trillion over 8 years in 2010 dollars.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) becomes law. To save and create jobs during the worst recession since the Great Depression, robust infrastructure investments are directed to transportation and other Report Card categories. ARRA invested almost $50 billion in roads, bridges, rail, and transit; almost $5 billion supported navigable waterways, and several billion additional dollars went to the State Revolving Funds for Drinking Water and Clean Water. The legislation provided $7.2 billion for broadband deployment. In a 2017 report, the U.S. Department of Transportation noted that ARRA doubled the prior pace whereby projects rehabilitated bridges out of structural deficiency.

ASCE continued to update the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure in the spring of 2009, adding Levees as a standalone category with a debut grade of D- and significant identified needs. The Security category from 2005 did not return. The overall GPA from the 15 categories stabilized at D. Key recommendations from the 2009 Report Card speak to findings that remain true through the 2025 edition: “promote resilience in infrastructure” and “address life-cycle costs and ongoing maintenance.”

ASCE members in California and Pennsylvania become the first to release Report Cards for State Infrastructure. Both states have released regular updates since, with California set for a new edition in 2025 and Pennsylvania in 2026. As of March 2025, ASCE has supported the release of state report cards in 43 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

In the third Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, ASCE added chapters for Public Parks, Rail, and Security. Parks debuted with a C- and Rail started at C- and included both freight and passenger services. Security received an I for incomplete, and that chapter’s summary noted that public information was not available to assess the security of our nation’s critical infrastructure since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Report Card now had 15 categories, and the overall grade decreased one step to D, from D+ in 2001.

ASCE releases a progress report highlighting trends in each of the 12 Report Card categories from the 2001 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. Seven of the categories had negative trends, and five showed no progress. None of the categories showed improvements, and the report’s conclusion says that critical funding sources are threatened by delayed congressional action on reauthorization bills.

ASCE releases the second Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and begins a practice of updates with new grades every four years that carries through the present day. The 2001 edition adds two categories: “Navigable Waterways,” covering what is now the Inland Waterways chapter, and “Energy,” covering the transmission and distribution systems of electricity. The overall grade climbs to D+.

ASCE releases the first Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, providing a 10-year update to 1988’s “Fragile Foundations.” The new report separated the “Highways” category into dedicated Bridges and Roads sections and refreshed the “Water Supply” section with the more accessible label of Drinking Water. “Water Resources” was focused into a dedicated Dams chapter. The 1998 Report Card added school facilities and gave that system an F, saying that “nearly 60% of schools have at least one major building problem.” The overall grade with 10 categories was D.

A Congressionally-chartered council releases the report – “Fragile Foundations” – assigning letter grades to national infrastructure across eight categories covering transportation, water, and waste management. After two years of study, the National Council on Public Works Improvement found “convincing evidence that the quality of America’s infrastructure is barely adequate to fulfill current requirements and insufficient to meet the demands of future economic growth and development.” The document issued numerous recommendations, including a commitment to increased capital spending “shared by all levels of government and the private sector.”