Blog

The Intersection of Infrastructure & Technology

November 17, 2017By: ASCE Staff

This week, ASCE participated in a series of panels highlighting the increasing interconnectivity of technology and infrastructure. The Hill’s Digitalizing Infrastructure “Digitalizing Infrastructure” examined how new technology is transforming investments in everything from energy to transportation infrastructure. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation discussed the......

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Tags: digital infrastructure, sensors, Smart Cities

Congressman Larson Introduces the “America Wins Act”

November 14, 2017By: ASCE Staff

Earlier this month, Congressman John Larson (D-CT) introduced H.R.4209, the America Wins Act – a bill which would invest $1 trillion, through taxing harmful pollution, in our infrastructure over a decade. Under this legislation, $400 billion will be invested  in existing federal highway programs and eliminate the $138 billion Highway Trust Fund (HTF) shortfall; $100......

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Tags: aviation, congress, dams, economics, gas tax, highway trust fund, infrastructure, infrastructure investment, infrastructure report card, rail, roads, transit, transportation, water infrastructure

Infrastructure Wins on Election Night 2017

November 08, 2017By: ASCE Staff

On November 7, voters across the country approved infrastructure investment ballot measures. In Maine, a resounding 72% of residents across the state voted yes on Question 3, allowing the issuance of $105 million in bonds for transportation projects around the state. $80 million will be provided to state highways and bridges, $20 million for multimodal......

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Kelly Barnes Dam Failure: Dam Safety Then and Now

November 06, 2017By: ASCE Staff

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Kelly Barnes Dam failure: an event that acted as a catalyst for improvement in dam safety. On November 6, 1977, Toccoa Falls Bible College was nearly swept away as high water erupted through the defects in the Kelly Barnes Dam, sending 25-foot waves through the campus. This tragedy......

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Tags: Dam Safety, Dam Safety Program, dams, National Inventory of Dams

GAO Examines Economic Impact of Extreme Weather Events

October 25, 2017By: ASCE Staff

This week the US Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) released CLIMATE CHANGE: Information on Potential Economic Effects Could Help Guide Federal Efforts to Reduce Fiscal Exposure, a report detailing the cost to the federal government of climate-related impacts that have already occurred, and how that cost is expected to rise.  Over the last decade, extreme weather......

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Tags: climate change, economic impact

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced in the House and Senate to Enhance Infrastructure Investment

October 24, 2017By: ASCE Staff

The Move America Act, bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate introduced (H.R. 3912 and S. 1229) to enhance America’s infrastructure by strengthening public-private partnerships. ASCE supports the legislation and has been working to advance it in both the House and Senate.  The House bill was introduced this October by Congresswoman Jackie......

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Outdated Gas Tax Rate Still Propping Up America’s Transportation Infrastructure

October 23, 2017By: ASCE Staff

This month marks the 24th anniversary of the federal gas tax’s outdated 18.4-cent rate enacted on October 1st, 1993.  First established in 1932, the gas tax goes toward the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) – the federal fund that pays for bridges, roads, and transit. The federal gas tax rate has been raised numerous times since......

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Tags: congress, gas tax, highway trust fund

3M Meeting Focuses Washington on AV Preparation

September 28, 2017By: ASCE Staff

The Jetsons’ world of driverless cars may someday be a reality and the technology industry is laser-focused on getting us there sooner rather than later. As private industry innovates, decision-makers in Washington are grappling with how best to regulate the autonomous vehicle (AV) landscape while retaining an emphasis on both safety and innovation. To spur......

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The Importance of Resiliency

September 27, 2017By: ASCE Staff

Within the past month, major hurricanes hit Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, two earthquakes only days apart, led to the loss of over 100 lives and the destruction of massive amounts of infrastructure in Mexico, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land have burned in the Pacific Northwest from wildfires. These events coincided with......

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Tags: earthquakes, hurricanes, NIST, resilience

Texas Report Card Gives Infrastructure a “C-“

September 20, 2017By: ASCE Staff

Texas’ infrastructure has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks following Hurricane Harvey. Today, weeks the cities of Port Aransas and Rockport were destroyed and Houston and South Texas flooded, the Texas section of the ASCE released the Report Card for Texas’ Infrastructure, and the report finds there is work to be......

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Tags: Hurricane Harvey, texas