AASHTO Journal - ASCE Report Examines COVID-19 Infrastructure Impact

A “status report” issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers on June 25 outlines the COVID-19 pandemic’s “detrimental effects” on a broad swath of publicly-owned U.S. infrastructure assets – from airports and inland waterways to roads, bridges, and transit systems.

[Above photo by the WVDOT.]

That report – dubbed COVID-19’s Impacts on America’s Infrastructure – also notes that municipal and state budgets have had to “re-prioritize spending” due to falling tax and fee revenues, reducing fiscal support for parks, schools, and other publicly owned infrastructure. Examples include:

A projected 30 percent revenue decline in the next 18 months for the nation’s state departments of transportation.
An estimated $23.3 billion loss in airport revenue due to a 95 percent decline in domestic air travel.
An approximately 17 percent loss in annualized revenue in the drinking water sector, including more than $5 billion in losses related to suspending water service disconnections and increased customer delinquencies.
Dramatic nationwide declines in transit ridership declines – such as a 75 percent decrease experienced by the New Jersey/New York PATH; an 85 percent reduction in Washington, D.C., Metrorail ridership; and a 55 percent decrease in Los Angeles Metro ridership – which is reducing transit system revenues across the country.

ASCE’s report also provides several fiscal options help those infrastructure systems recover from the pandemic, including but not limited to:

Provide $50 billion in immediate short-term relief for state DOTs so that bridges, roads, and transit systems may remain safe and reliable; echoing the request to Congress made by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in April.
Provide $10 billion to mitigate the pandemic’s growing impacts on the nation’s airports, in addition to the $10 billion in relief issued via the in the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act.
Pass a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that addresses the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund before the current surface transportation authorization expires on September 30.
Fully fund the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation Program at the authorized amount of $60 million for 2021 and pass that Dam Safety Improvement Act.
Include federal drinking water and wastewater assistance for ratepayers and provide water utilities with federal economic relief to combat revenue losses resulting from COVID-19.

“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation’s infrastructure was already in a crisis,” explained K.N. “Guna” Gunalan, ASCE’s president, in a statement.

“Each American household was already losing at least $3,400 each year in disposable income due to poor and outdated roads, bridges, electric grid, water systems and more-systems that are critical to the public’s health, safety and welfare,” he added.

“I encourage Congress to review this report and its solutions, and make infrastructure investment a priority in their immediate response and long-term economic recovery strategy, so that we can get Americans back to work and use this opportunity to rebuild more resiliently,” Gunalan said.