How is our infrastructure fairing following the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passage in late 2021? The American Road & Transportation Builders Assn., digs in and provides some interesting data, specifically on the state of bridges. Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at where we are and what we need to do to build a better and more resilient infrastructure future, together.
The association says one in three U.S. bridges needs repair or replacement. Yikes. More than 220,000 spans need repair, including 76,600 bridges that should be replaced. Placed end-to-end, these structures span more than 6,100 miles—and would take more than 110 hours to cross at an average speed of 55-miles-per-hour.
The need for repair and the deteriorating condition of our bridges are still happening way too fast. And let’s face it, our lives just might be at risk every time we drive over an old-dilapidated bridge. Now that funds are available, are we making any progress? The organization reveals some stats that say as of the end of FY 2023 approaches, states have only committed $3.2 billion in bridge formula funds, accounting for only 30% of the $10.6 billion currently available. As I see it, this is really something to talk about.
Eight states committed more than two‐thirds of their available bridge formula funds: Idaho (100%), Georgia (100%), Alabama (97%), Arizona (88%), Indiana (81.5%), Florida (80%), Texas (78%), and Arkansas (68%). Kudos to them. There are 31 states, however, that have committed less than 33% of available funds, as of June 30. States have four years to commit formula bridge program funds for specific projects, giving them additional flexibility to decide when to make investments. My question now, is what is holding them back?
This, of course, is simply one example. Our nation’s infrastructure spans far beyond bridges, and while obtaining and using federal funds is the first step in rebuilding, there is much more work that still needs to be done.
Rebuilding Together
One of the biggest challenges the construction industry faces as it embarks on a journey to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure is the lack of skilled workforce. This will be something that needs to be addressed if we want to make any progress in the days and years ahead.
In August, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) and the NGA (National Governors Assn.) Center for Best Practices released a policy brief identifying effective approaches for recruiting and retaining infrastructure workers.
The short-term and long-term strategies were collected from a group of practitioners, including America’s Governors’ offices and appointees, the federal government, infrastructure owners, operators from the public and private sectors, engineering contractors, and academics.
Taking a deeper dive of the near-term recruitment and retention strategies for engineering and infrastructure workers include:
- Identifying current workforce pain points and goals
- Evaluating compensation, flexibility, and advancement opportunities
- Incorporating caregiving needs into workplace programming and culture
- Supporting employees on the sidelines with flexible career re-entry tools
- Reducing time-to-hire and other recruitment barriers
- Reducing barriers to procurement success for small firms and disadvantaged business enterprises
- Reducing barriers to entry as the pipeline expands
- Offering place-based opportunities in communities benefiting from investment
- Building strategic partnerships with schools, skills, and community organizations
- Praising and promoting the technical achievements of infrastructure
Looking down the road a little bit further, we see some engineering education and infrastructure industry advancement strategies include:
- Increasing the affordability of education
- Creating multiple entry points to the engineering and infrastructure professions
- Developing college programming for engineering student retention and support
- Encouraging high school students to enter infrastructure professions.
While these are just some ideas, there is much more work that needs to take place to prepare tomorrow’s workers for the greater task at hand. As we move forward into a new era of work, we must place more focus on the worker, culture, infrastructure, transformation, and what is best for the future of it all. But as our research is showing we need to understand what workers want and need and there is clearly a disconnect and we need to do a better job of listening to what our workers want and need.
The aforementioned is a good start. But the worker of tomorrow is profoundly different than the worker of yesteryear. Until we truly recognize the difference between these workers, we will be repeating the same hiring mistakes as before and this will continue to impact people, productivity, and profits.
Certainly, this is only the beginning of our discussion as it relates to infrastructure. We are right in the midst of many conferences. Last week, I was in Budapest for Graphisoft’s Building Together Digital event and this week I am in Singapore for Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards. Stay tuned. There will be much more to report on where we are headed with our infrastructure and our workers.
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