Jan 24 2012
The President will be speaking before a Joint session of Congress and the American people tonight to discuss the State of the Union. The first State of the Union was delivered by President George Washington in January 1790 and since then has become a vehicle for a sitting President to outline his legislative agenda for [...]
Jan 20 2012
We are repeating this post because we thought the information would also be of interest to the readers of this blog. It was first posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 As the Louisiana Section was gearing up to release its first state Report Card this month, members realized that spreading the word of their findings [...]
Sep 26 2011
Have you seen the new Audi ad? Check out what the folks at Foreign Policy’s Passport blog had to say about it. (And if you haven’t seen it, you can view a clip here as well.) My take on the new Audi commercial was slightly different – “Yes, let’s spend even more money on avoiding [...]
Aug 31 2011
In the wake of an earthquake and Hurricane Irene pummeling the East coast, there is now a spotlight on infrastructure. Thousands of bridges and roads needed to be inspected to make sure that they were safe for use. The graphic shows the grades from the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. These natural disasters are [...]
Aug 11 2011
Building America’s Future (BAF) unveiled their own study on transportation infrastructure titled, Falling Apart and Falling Behind, which highlights how crumbling transportation system makes the nation less competitive. Falling Apart and Falling Behind findings fit with the results of ASCE’s recent Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Surface Transportation Infrastructure. [...]
Jul 26 2011
Have you ever wondered how much congestion costs you or what underinvestment in infrastructure really means? As if the nation’s economy isn’t struggling enough, a new study about to be released by ASCE finds the cost of deficient transportation infrastructure to American households and businesses is staggering. Wednesday, July 27th ASCE will release, “Failure to [...]
May 26 2011
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is inching closer to releasing a surface transportation authorization bill, which it hopes to mark up by the Fourth of July. This week the big four of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), James Inhofe (R-OK), Max Baucus (D-MT), and David Vitter (R-LA) released [...]
Aug 27 2010
Today is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. During that terrible ordeal thousands of lives were lost, destroyed, or significantly altered. We must never forget that poor and unresilient infrastructure, inadequately maintained and mixed with Mother Nature can have devastating results. For the most part, we do realize that. Unfortunately, disasters like Katrina do have [...]
Aug 05 2010
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (who is a big friend of ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure) is currently on day 3 of a 4 day cross state trip to lobby residents for support for additional funds for roads, bridges and public transit. He is making this pitch to residents to get their buy-in when he [...]
Jul 28 2010
By Max Frazier, ASCE Government Relations Summer Intern The Hunter’s Point Bridge has been going through the approval stage for the past ten years in the San Francisco Bay Area. The bridge is a major financial and land-use component of the 10,500 home project proposed by Lennar Developers located in the old Hunter’s Point [...]