Infrastructure has been a hot topic in the past couple of weeks, as ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) has released its Infrastructure Report Card—something Peggy Smedley has reported on here on the blog and on The Peggy Smedley Show in depth. There has been much progress made, and yet there is still much work to be done. Let’s review the foundation, the facts, and the future of infrastructure.
The Foundation
Infrastructure is the foundation and the lifeblood of communities. It helps us move, live, and work, and without it, we can falter.
This is precisely what NUCA (National Utility Contractors Assn.) past Chairman Dan Buckley said at the March 11, 2025, U.S. House hearing on water infrastructure financing. “Clean water and sanitation are not luxuries—they’re the lifeblood of civilization.” He urged that we need more federal investment because the scale of this crisis demands it.
And clean water is just one area of infrastructure to consider. We also need to consider aviation, bridges, broadband, dams, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, ports, rail, roads, and so much more. We are only as strong as our infrastructure, and we must rebuild if we want a strong foundation for generations to come.
The Facts
We are making slow progress. The ASCE 2025 Infrastructure Report Card suggests our cumulative GPA rose from a C- in 2021 to a C in 2025. It is slow, but steady, progress, but with the current state of our infrastructure, we can’t afford to move this moderately.
The report projects an investment gap of $3.7 trillion between 2024 and 2033, up from the $2.59 trillion gap identified in the 2021 report card. Even though we are making progress, the gap is still growing because simply too much work needs to be done.
Similarly, we also see the 2025 first quarter Civil Infrastructure Construction Index from FMI Corp. This index increased to 57.7% from 50.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024, which is the 10th consecutive quarter of expansion, but there are still a number of hurdles looking to the future.
The Future
FMI Corp., suggests uncertainty lingers for the days ahead, especially with the labor shortages that exist in the construction industry. 72% of respondents indicate that the current backlog levels are either higher or consistent with backlogs at the end of 2023. Work needs to be done, but there are not always the resources needed to get them done.
At the same time, nearly 40% of respondents report they have insufficient personnel to meet their 2025 backlog demands and 70% of respondents report their hiring objectives closely align with projected revenue growth.
What is needed today more than ever is innovation. We need creativity in the construction industry to complete complex projects faster than ever before. Let’s work together to solve some of these infrastructure problems we face.
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