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This year’s Report Card covers 16 infrastructure categories, and for the first time it provides information for all 50 states, including examples of initiatives and innovations that are making a difference.
Commenting on the March release of the Report Card, Kurt Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of port Authorities (AAPA), said that the AAPA was pleased that ASCE had included seaports for the first time in the Report Card. “The inclusion of seaports in this infrastructure analysis is recognition of the importance of ports and the connections to them, and to our nation’s freight transportation system.”
“AAPA played an active role in providing information and insight about seaports to ASCE. The ‘C’ grade given seaport-related infrastructure in its study reinforces our viewpoint that the federal government is not investing nearly enough in the landside and waterside connections to ports. The Report Card reiterates what other national and international studies have concluded about the neglected state of our nation’s port related transportation infrastructure, including recent reports from the World Economic Forum, Building America’s Future and the US Army Corps of Engineers, to name a few.”
“Among the information we shared with ASCE were the results of AAPA’s port infrastructure investment survey last year, which showed that US port authorities and their private-sector partners plan to invest US$46bn in capital improvements through 2016. We also conveyed our concerns about the poor condition of the water and landside connections to many US ports, making the case that while port authorities and their private-sector partners are investing heavily in their facilities, the federal government isn’t making concomitant investments in the road, rail and water connections with America’s seaports.”
“Including seaport-related infrastructure in the Report Card reaffirms AAPA’s viewpoint that this infrastructure plays a vital role in sustaining and strengthening America’s economy. Federal investments in seaport-related infrastructure are an essential, effective utilisation of limited resources, paying dividends through increased trade, economic growth, long-term job creation, and—importantly in today’s fiscal realities—more than US$2bn annually in tax revenues,” Nagle concluded.