Engineering Society Releases Final Failure To Act Report

As a preface to ASCE’s 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which will be released on March 19, the Society unveiled during a teleconference on January 15 its fifth and final report in the Failure to Act series, The Impact of Current Infrastructure Investment on America’s Economic Future, which addresses the comprehensive impacts of under-investing in infrastructure in the U.S.

ASCE has a sober message for elected officials, policy makers, businesses, and general public: unless the U.S. invests an additional $1.57 billion per year in infrastructure—drinking water and waste water, electricity, airports, seaports and waterways, and surface transportation—between now and 2020, the nation will lose $3.1 trillion in GNP (gross national product), $1.1 trillion in trade, a $3,100 per year drop in personal disposable income, $2.4 trillion in lost consumer spending, and a little over 3.1 million jobs.