A theme emerged from panelists, speakers, and policymakers upon the release of ASCE’s 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure: The investment can’t stop now.
The overall report card grade rose from a C- in 2021 to a C in 2025. There is little doubt that the historic investment in infrastructure that occurred between the two issuances played a significant role in the improved grade.
The No. 2 “key trend” in the new report card states: “Recent federal and state investments have had a positive impact, but the full force of increased funding will take years to realize. Sustained investment is key to providing certainty and ensuring planning goes to development, as well as making larger infrastructure projects attainable.”
Further reading:
- 2025 report card emphasizes need for sustained investment
- 5 key takeaways from the ‘2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure’
- Infrastructure report card numbers are telling; what do they say about your sector?
Chief among the federal investments this decade was the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021 and authorized $2.1 trillion in infrastructure spending between 2022 and 2026.
IIJA was ‘badly needed down payment’
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., was among those speaking at the Solutions Summit, a series of speeches and panels about the report card in the immediate aftermath of its March 25 release in Washington, D.C. Larsen, the ranking member of the House’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, says his state has received nearly $10 billion in funding for more than 1,600 projects.
“Decades of underinvestment had left us with obsolete and crumbling infrastructure,” said Larsen of the pre-IIJA era. “State and local governments across the country couldn’t address this deficit alone.”
Later in his speech, Larsen added: “We can keep these positive trends going if we maintain (IIJA) investment levels. In fact, let’s get more. The (IIJA) was a badly needed down payment. But it was just that: a down payment. It can’t be a one-time deal.”
The report card’s assessment bolster’s Larsen’s sentiment.
For all 18 report card categories to reach a “state of good repair,” the investment needs to total $9.1 trillion. If federal investments continue trends of the past few years, there will be $5.4 trillion in public and private infrastructure investment from 2024 to 2033, according to the report card, which relied on public data and ASCE’s 2024 Bridging the Gap study to reach that figure. So even with sustained levels of funding, there will be a $3.7 trillion gap.
To prevent that gap from growing further, the most pressing need is for Congress to decide how to fund IIJA programs when authorization expires next year.
ASCE President Feniosky A. Peña-Mora, Sc.D., P.E., NAS, CCM, F.CIOB, NAC, Dist.M.ASCE, emphasizes the importance of keeping the momentum going.
“This conversation is so critical because it's about communicating, educating, and advocating for continued investment in infrastructure and to be able to ensure that everyone understands, even though they need not think about it, how important infrastructure is to their everyday lives,” Peña-Mora said.
At the Solutions Summit, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, referred to the Interstate 70 bridge replacement in Rocheport, Missouri. The project received an $81.2 million federal government grant in 2019. The project, which was completed late last year, had a price tag of $220 million. The federal grant allowed the state to spend elsewhere to replace other bridges, Graves said.
Graves also pointed to another aspect of infrastructure advancement. The report card notes “the need to reduce delays in the project permitting process.”
“When projects take forever, when it takes seven years before you can turn a shovel of dirt, that’s just ridiculous,” Graves said. “It just should not be that way. And when you have to navigate the myriad of agencies to get permitting, it shouldn’t be that way.”
One project that seemed to be in a never-ending holding pattern was the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky. The double-decker bridge, which opened in 1962, was long in need of repair and upgrading.
Impact felt at local level
Funding from the IIJA has made it a reality.
“We’re finally funding the Brent Spence Bridge,” said Tony Klimek, P.E., F.ASCE, a retired civil engineer from the Cincinnati area who has been a longtime advocate for infrastructure and participated in this year’s ASCE Legislative Fly-In, an event where ASCE members met with members of Congress to stress the importance of investing in infrastructure. “That has been the poster boy of bridges for the last 20 years. I moved in the area in the mid-’90s, and we were talking about building it. It’s been taking a while. We’re finally getting the funding for that.”
Such progress also is helping brighten the outlook for ASCE state infrastructure report cards. Klimek is seeing the benefits while working on the dams chapter for Ohio’s report card, which is due out this year.
Tzufit Boyle, P.E., PMP, F.ASCE, a senior discipline engineer in the Boca Raton, Florida, office of H2M architects + engineers, is also working on her state’s report card, due out this year as well. She notes that federal funding is also helping in Florida.
“We’ve seen a lot of investment in Florida, certainly, from the IIJA,” said Boyle, who also attended the fly-in and is an ASCE Region 5 governor. “And in Palm Beach County, all of our municipal airports, as well as our main airport, Palm Beach International, have received millions of dollars in funding for improvements of our runways. We’re in the process of doing an evaluation for all of Florida to release our report card. So it’s really an exciting time to see the funding actually doing something.”
And the need is universal across states.
“The funding levels that we have now are pretty historic,” said Brad Williams, P.E., M.ASCE, a bridge engineer in Alabama and also an ASCE Region 5 governor who participated in the fly-in. “I would hate for us to have a dip in the funding when the IIJA ends because it would mean a reduction in programs that we have, and money coming into the states is really needed.”
Continued federal investment also is good for the American people. The Bridging the Gap study calculated that U.S. families would save $700 annually if Congress “continues to act” with investment levels established in recent years.
Fortunately, policies and legislation related to public works tend to be bipartisan, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said at the Solutions Summit.
“We clearly need more investment in infrastructure,” said Sheldon, ranking member of Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works. “You kind of can’t go wrong with that. And to do it in a bipartisan fashion is the right way to go about doing it.”
If that happens, the report card grade is likely to further improve. More importantly, it would mean the nation’s infrastructure is being built, maintained, and repaired better than before. And therefore, our society is safer.
“Our work is not yet complete,” said Darren Olson, P.E., BC.WRE, M.ASCE, chair of ASCE’s Committee on America’s Infrastructure, which produces the report card. “As federal, state, and local policymakers look to the future of the nation’s infrastructure, it will be critical to weigh the consequences of failing to properly invest in our most vital networks.
“We’re finally starting to see a path out of this. But it’s going to take a long time. It’s not going to be one report card cycle or two report card cycles. It’s going to be at least a handful of report card cycles to get us back up to a spot where we would be proud to bring this report card home.”
Also of note
- While infrastructure funding is paramount, uncertainty continues to linger about its future. Federal judges in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., though, recently issued rulings ordering the White House to reinstate already-awarded funding from the IIJA and the Inflation Reduction Act.
- ASCE sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern over the elimination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program.
- A final rule from the Federal Highway Administration repealed the requirement for state departments of transportation to establish declining greenhouse gas emission targets and measure and report on them.
- According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 39,345 people died in traffic crashes in 2024. It is the first time since 2020 that the number was below 40,000.
