Report: Invest $1.7 Trillion in Infrastructure or Lose Jobs
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The nation needs to spend $1.7 trillion by 2020 to shore up its infrastructure, or it could lose more than 876,000 jobs, and hold back the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth by $3.1 trillion in the next nine years, according to a new report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Investing in infrastructure, especially highways and transit systems, would also create and save jobs and rejuvenate manufacturing, the ASCE said in the report released earlier this month. Download the full report, “Failure To Act,” here.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka agrees:
This report confirms what we have known for some time: If we do not substantially invest in infrastructure soon, we will put our economy, American business and American working families at risk.
Engineers: Infrastructure Fails to Make the Grade
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With Congress debating President Obama’s plan to rebuild our infrastructure as a key part of an economic stimulus plan, civil engineers—the people who know our roads, bridges and dams best—give our infrastructure an overall grade of ”D” and say repairs and upgrades are desperately needed.
In a report issued this week, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) says the nation’s infrastructure is poorly maintained, unable to meet current and future demands and, in some cases, is simply unsafe.
ASCE’s new 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure assigns an overall grade of “D” to the nation as well as individual grades in 15 infrastructure categories. Since ASCE’s last assessment in 2005, there has been little change in the condition of America’s roads, bridges, drinking water systems and other public works.
