Darren Olson, the man leading the ASCE 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, has a go-to phrase when it comes to infrastructure resilience.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he’ll say, equal parts frustration and optimism.
Olson’s words echo back across decades of costly disasters and infrastructure failures.
The Interstate 35 bridge collapses in Minneapolis in 2007. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Hurricane Harvey floods Houston in 2017. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Wildfires wreak havoc across Los Angeles in 2025. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Infrastructure resilience works best when it’s proactive, when the project funding and design decisions happen at the stage of the cycle before disaster strikes and not in reaction to the disaster.
“Infrastructure failures or accidents are what grabs headlines,” said Olson, P.E., BC.WRE, M.ASCE. “And people do pay attention to that. But it’s a shame, because we’d rather proactively invest in resilient infrastructure and not have to have that next failure occur.”
Olson and ASCE are set to launch the 2025 report card with a Solutions Summit release event in Washington, D.C., on March 25. ASCE’s Committee on America’s Infrastructure, which Olson chairs, publishes the report every four years, assigning grades to U.S. infrastructure overall and 18 individual infrastructure sectors.
Further reading:
- How ASCE's infrastructure report card gets made
- Alaska’s infrastructure grade improves to a C
- Texas infrastructure grade remains a C
It may seem counterintuitive, given that the report card assesses what is, but Olson sees it as a very powerful tool for the kind of proactive, “it doesn’t have to be like this” infrastructure resilience that drives ASCE’s advocacy efforts.
“One of the purposes of the report card is trying to have those disasters not be the eye-openers,” Olson said. “We want to talk to our elected officials about what the conditions of our bridges are and what the grade is for our bridges so that they invest in bridges before the next collapse.
“As civil engineers, we’re promoting public safety and welfare from the point of view of the experts in the field. It’s our job and our duty to notify our elected officials of what the condition of that infrastructure is before it fails.”
Making a tangible difference
Building infrastructure in Alaska is not easy.
You’ve got the earthquakes and the dozens of inches of snow, sure. But don’t forget the avalanches, the high levels of rain, and the thawing permafrost. “We have a lot to talk about when it comes to resilience,” said David Gamez, P.E., M.ASCE, a civil engineer in Anchorage.
Gamez chaired ASCE’s 2025 Alaska Infrastructure Report Card, released last month. The report graded the state’s infrastructure with a C.
“One of the key messages in our report card is the crucial role in focusing on long-term planning for resilience,” Gamez said. “The report card emphasizes the need for preventative maintenance, durable materials, and climate-adaptive designs, ensuring that infrastructure is built to withstand Alaska’s extreme weather and natural hazards.”
One doesn’t have to look far for tangible signs of infrastructure advocacy driving infrastructure resilience.
When a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Anchorage in November 2018, the damage was not nearly as bad as it could have been.
“Lessons learned from the devastating 1964 Good Friday earthquake led to stringent building codes and a strong focus on seismic design,” Gamez said. “As a result, while the 2018 ’quake caused infrastructure damage, there were no catastrophic failures or loss of life.”
In that sense, infrastructure investment and infrastructure resilience are not simply concepts to champion; they are very tangible goals for ASCE’s advocacy volunteers to pursue.
“I’m motivated by the hope that my involvement in advocacy will make a positive impact on the lives of people across Alaska,” Gamez said. “The best way I can do that is by informing our decision-makers and the public about the critical needs of our infrastructure.
“And seeing the impact of this advocacy – whether through legislative discussions, increased public awareness, or infrastructure improvements – makes the time and effort well worth it. I’m hopeful that the contributions that I and the many engineers who have been involved with advocacy will make a tangible difference, not just for today but for future generations.”
A communications tool
ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure is nothing if not a brilliant tool for fostering communication.
Communication to elected officials, communication to the general public, and especially communication among engineers.
“I think more agencies now talk with each other than they used to, which helps everybody,” said Jennifer Gora, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE, an aviation professional in Minnesota who serves on the Committee on America’s Infrastructure.
“In my world, a lot of aviation projects involve sharing information. It wasn’t always like that. But now, there's a conversation, especially if it's an airport agency to an airport agency because they're very similar. Here's what we've done – things that were good or bad and you can see what's best for what you’re trying to do in your project.
“The report card helps foster those conversations.”
Gora’s experience with ASCE advocacy is unique in that her 15 years of volunteering spans stints in multiple states, including Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota. She said each state presents different challenges with its infrastructure needs. The through-line for their report cards and advocacy efforts is the importance of streamlined communication. Using the report card to make high-level points about resilience.
“As engineers, we want to tell you the story, every component in the project. That’s just who we are. We are detail-oriented people. It’s hard for us to not get into the weeds,” Gora said. “But the report card can’t do that. It’s too much for somebody to fully understand.
“So the report card does what I call probably more like a top-level view. ‘Here’s what we’re seeing. Here’s what we’re recommending.’”
“Then if you really want to get into the nuts and bolts, you can start a conversation. And then when you're having that conversation, it’ll spark something else like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think of it that way, but now because of this thing you mentioned, what about this component or that idea?’
“It leads to a new solution that maybe nobody ever thought about before.”
And, in a larger sense, those conversations and ASCE’s infrastructure report card can help get ahead of infrastructure failure before disaster strikes. It, truly, doesn’t have to be like this.
“Why did this happen? How did it get that bad, and is there something we can do before the next one happens?” Olson said.
“And that’s really the main goal of the report card.”
ASCE releases the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure on March 25. Register to attend the Solutions Summit in person or learn more about how you can livestream the entire event.
