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Finally, the Chamber has teamed with the RAND Corporation to benchmark the "D-Day" when U.S. infrastructure capacity caps economic growth. This report will include recommendations and a state-by-state assessment of infrastructure performance.
Educate
Through an aggressive communications program and a strong grassroots network, the Chamber will educate the business community, lawmakers, the public, and the media about the clear, quantifiable link between a strong and efficient infrastructure and the nation's economic well-being and global competitiveness.
Unlock investment
The Chamber will identify and seek to reform rules, regulations, and policies that have locked up potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment just waiting to be spent on critically needed power plants, pipelines, refineries, transmission lines, broadband lines, port facilities, railroads, airports, and privately constructed roadways.
Expand financing options
Let's Rebuild America will pinpoint ways to cut wasteful spending and ensure that dedicated infrastructure dollars are not diverted to other programs. The Chamber will also consider ways to spur public funding, including a possible increase in the federal gasoline user fee.
Nearly every component of the nation's infrastructure is underfunded and overworked. Road congestion costs the U.S. economy $63 billion annually in lost time and fuel, and poorly maintained roads contribute to a third of all highway fatalities.
Airline delays have hit record highs this year and are on target to cost more than $30 billion by year 2015 – more than three times the costof delays in 2000.
Railroads, ports, inland waterways, and transit systems are also overburdened. Railroads need nearly $200 billion in investment over the next 20 years to maintain existing infrastructure and to accommodate freight growth.
By 2020, every major U.S. container port is projected to at least double its volume of cargo. Transit investment is falling even as transit use increased faster than any other mode of transportation over a 10-year period ending in 2002.
Energy infrastructure is not capable of handling energy demand, which is expected to increase by a third between now and 2030. Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed over the next two decades to repair drinking and wastewater systems.
And the nation requires a stronger telecommunications system; the United States ranks just 15th in the world in broadband penetration.
How You Can Help
To show your support for a stronger infrastructure, contact your members of Congress; sign up for the Chamber's grassroots advocacy network at VoteForBusiness.com; join ATM, the Chamber-led coalition of transportation users and providers; or make a financial contribution through iSupportBusiness.com.
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Comments
Thank you for this excellent, focused, and much-needed Chamber initiative to get infrastructure projects moving. Here in Southern California -- and not only here -- community concerns about environmental and public health impacts are keeping many infrastructure projects from moving forward. The Chamber's program should include elements to address public concerns that new infrastructure will enable growth and lead to greater emissions and health impacts.
Why does Congress mandate the FHWA use only the lowest bids for all highway and bridge construction. It cost 3 to 5 times more to rebuild then to do it so it lasts longer in the first place.
It would be great if the Chamber can help lobby for legislation that allows for more private-public partnerships. This would permit private equity funds to get involved with building the infrastructure and provide necessary funding for the projects in a faster timeline. Countries around the world, like Australia and England, use private sector money to fund infrastructure projects. But we don't see this happening here in the US.
By the way, there is a lot of research on infrastructure at the Keston Institute for Infrastructure at http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/keston/.
This is long over due. We have the resources to make this an innovative and progressive initiative, if we move beyond updating and upgrading current systems, and look at new technology and move beyond old ideas of fossil fuel resources and embrace concepts that actually reduce and/or eliminate polutants so we can work to bring the ecological balance back to our world. We need to move beyond the politics and actually do what is right for our children and their future. We are beyond short-term, quick fixes. We need a progressive, intelligent, and well thought-out initiatives.
Why not start with the wasteful spending on an un-necessary war in Iraq?
So, what's happened to all the funds that have already been put into infrastructure? Jennifer & Edward have hit the mark on this one. It's been proven time & again that competitive markets benefit human kind the most. Private enterprise takes it out of the sitters with their hands out for their publically funded paycheck and puts it where people are motivated to get something done.
Thank you for the well stated Rebuild America objectives. A study to identify when the U.S. infrastructure capacity caps economic growth implies that this time is in the future. However, surely there are infrastructure pinch points that exist today. These should be identified now. They identification would provide a preface to the proposed study of when U.S. infrastructure capacity caps economic growth.
Funding is not a problem. Just "stop the pork". Until Politicians are "held accountable", the basic elements of our society will continue to be at risk, including Infastructure.
Throw the Bums out and at least get a "new set of crooks" (share the spoils among all the Imposters)
In response to Edward, why don't states create some type of scorecard for builders of highways and bridges and consider that in building new ones. Companies which built poor quality and short lasting projects in the past receive poor grades and is factored into receiving future bids. Not only will states and companies not just focus on costs but the long-term effect should reduce costs through quality. It also sends the message that if you want to continue to do business in our state, you better build quality to last at the right price.
In proposing this initiative, we should look at the long term and not be so focused on a short term fix. The federal government needs to raise the standard of minimum requirements regarding infrastructure life of components. If any of you have ever bid on a government project you know that every bidder is usually given a specification sheet describing the minimum standard acceptable. This specification can be quite lengthy and envolved. Using the lowest bidder process in this scenario is not the problem. The problem may well be low minimum standards. Government needs to raise the standards and then let private enterprise do what it does best.
In addition, we have an opportunity to be more innovative in our approach. To create a better nation for our children, new, cleaner, less wasteful technologies and energy sources should be encouraged. For example, fuel cell technology research should be better funded and technological, manufacturing and delivery systems better researched. I'd like to see more tax dollars appropriated to not only study these alternative systems, but funding also used to impliment pilot programs.
As a civil engineer it's almost heresy for me to say that a key concern should be that we do, in fact, focus short-term. Nearly all of us do so. Politicians look only to the next election cycle. The media is useless as they only report controversy so as to sell ink and to fill airtime with the crisis du jour; there are few "beat reporters" -- especially in the environmental, energy and infrastructure sectors -- to develop both long-term relationships and deep subject knowledge. Would they then tell a balanced story? That's impossible to predict, so we'll leave that for now. Taxpayers are also not focused, except during a crisis, and in the IMMEDIATE aftermath. Many pay scant attention to tax issues other than a few chosen passions. In my community we've had huge school funding battles of late, but little long-term interest in public safety and public infrastructure (such as the sidewalks/paths we had needed before school busing was cut, but that has become a desparate need now). Public saftey also include the police and fire personnel and equipment needed to direct traffic at school entrances and respond to pedestrians and bicyclists struck.
As for current infrastructure investments, I see little evidence of any consideration for life-cycle costs (e.g., that capital needed to build, maintain, operate, repair/replace) within government circles. As well, we have a history of both elected and appointed goverment officials intent upon "leaving a legacy" (a.k.a. "pork-barrel politics"). For a long-term solution we would need a means for new infrastructure investments to be independently examined for cost-benefit and life-cycle costs, an effort to honestly project: (a) if the project is worthwhile, and (b) what the project's lifetime costs will be to the taxpayers.
My last comment is about consumers and taxpayers... I have observed an American citizen tendency: we want, for example, to enter that special little room in our house, to be able to turn on the light and have light immediately, be able to do our business and flush without delay, to turn on the faucet and have proper temperature water instantly and ... we want it CHEAP. We, the consumers (and small businesses), need to make infrastructure investment OVER THE LONG TERM our priority, and a passionate one at that. If we fail to do so, fail to tell Congress and our local/state officials of our desire then we will reap our just desserts.
I also hope that the nearly decade of effort invested in this matter by the American Society of Civil Engineers in it's Infrastructure Scorecard <http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm> can be used in this initiative.
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