One Week. One call to action. Many voices, united.
It’s #TimeToBuild
Infrastructure Week is a national week of education and advocacy that brings together American businesses, workers, elected leaders, and everyday citizens around one message: It’s #TimeToBuild. From May 15-19, leaders and citizens around America will highlight state of our nation’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, water and sewer systems, the energy grid, and more – and encourage policymakers to invest in the projects, technologies, and policies necessary to make America competitive, prosperous, and safe.
Our bipartisan Steering Committee and over 150 affiliates host events, drive media attention, and educate stakeholders and policymakers on the critical importance of infrastructure to America’s economic competitiveness, security, job creation, and in the daily lives of every American. As a business, union, non-profit, government, or an individual who depends on infrastructure, you have an important story to tell. Find a way to participate and tell America that it is Time to Build.
Why Join Us?
America’s infrastructure is crumbling, inefficient, and inadequately designed to meet 21st century needs. Yet it is also one of the rare issues on which both political parties, the business and labor communities, and leaders from the White House to State Houses to City Halls, find common ground. In the private sector, and at the state and local levels, innovators from the public and private sectors are investing in new projects, policies, and technologies to put America back in the fast lane.
Bethel’s Plumtrees bridge project nearing completion
BETHEL - After more than two decades of planning and a year of construction, the new intersection on Plumtrees Road near the schools complex is beginning to take shape.
On Tuesday, crews paved the realigned section of Whittlesey Drive leading to a new four-way intersection with Plumtrees and Walnut Hill roads. Officials said the traffic light at the intersection likely will be activated Wednesday and the new roadway will be opened to drivers by Thursday afternoon.
Plans originally called for construction on the $3 million project to be completed by October, but the work is running nearly four months ahead of schedule. The majority of the work should be completed by June, town officials said.
“The project is significantly ahead of schedule and has been running very smoothly,” said First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker. “It’s really been amazing how fast the project has come along.”
The replacement of the bridge and the realignment of the intersection - an area long been plagued by traffic jams and accidents - has been on the drawing board for decades.
Knickerbocker credited former First Selectman Judy Novacheck with helping to revive and move the project forward during her tenure more than 15 years ago.
“The state had plans to rebuild the bridge, but they weren’t going to expand it,” Knickerbocker said. “To her credit, she saw that the plans didn’t make sense and asked for the project to be redesigned into a four-way intersection with dedicated turning lanes.”
The project sat on the shelf for several years, and Knickerbocker said the state Department of Transportation was ready to pull its funding when he came into office in 2009.
“We began working on the project again in January 2010, but there was a tremendous amount of environmental and watercourse studies that took years to complete before we could move forward with construction,” Knickerbocker said. Construction finally began in April 2016.
The Plumtrees bridge, which was originally built in 1975, spans East Swamp Brook. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Chao on infrastructure: Trump plan out in weeks
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Monday that the Trump administration’s infrastructure plan will be out in a few weeks and will call for $200 billion in taxpayer money to generate $1 trillion in private investment.
“These funds will be used to leverage $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years,” Chao told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She said the federal investment in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges, as well as water, pipelines and other projects, will be offset by unspecified savings “in order to avoid saddling future generations with more debt.”
President Donald Trump’s pledge to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure over 10 years was a top campaign promise, but it has received little attention because health care and tax reform have been the big legislative priorities. Trump’s struggles to implement his immigration agenda have also been a distraction, as have the investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election.
Infrastructure is a rare policy area that appears ripe for bipartisan agreement. Large numbers of voters for Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton agreed that America’s roads and bridges are a big problem, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted just after the November election. But how to pay for these reforms has vexed policymakers. Unions and industries that would contribute to the rebuilding have been waiting for details.
It’s far from clear that Trump can rely on private investments for most of his $1 trillion plan. Such public-private partnerships have never been done on infrastructure of that scale.
Some Democrats say they worry that Trump’s plan will try to spur private investment by reducing regulations, such as environmental reviews and community consultations on projects, rather than providing more government money.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A recently released report has revealed that New Haven drivers are losing a lot of money all because of poor road conditions in the area.
The report states that New Haven drivers are spending around $2,200 per year in addition to regular operating costs. The reason for this is believed to be because of deteriorated and congested roads located in New Haven county.
The study was conducted by “TRIP,” which is a national nonprofit transportation research group.
U.S. Gets D+ Grade on Its Infrastructure Report Card
U.S. infrastructure has received an average grade of D+, meaning “poor and at risk” due to chronic underinvestment, according to the 2017 report card released earlier this month by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
“Our nation's infrastructure is aging, underperforming, and in need of sustained care and action,” the ASCE said.
The U.S. has received a subpar grade in each of the last six reports, stretching back to 1998. Each sector is graded on eight criteria, including capacity, condition and funding.
Rails was the only sector to earn a B due to $27 billion in improvements by the freight railroads. Ports, bridges and solid waste each received a C+. The remaining dozen categories — aviation, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, public parks, roads, schools, transit and wastewater — were in the D range.
The U.S. has been paying just half of its infrastructure bill for some time, the report said, and now has a $2 trillion 10-year investment gap. The engineers called for investment of an additional $206 billion a year to prevent a cascading impact on the economy, employment and personal incomes.
Among the report's findings:
• It is expected that 24 of the top 30 major airports may soon experience “Thanksgiving peak traffic volume” on at least one day every single week.
• A little more than 9% of the nation's bridges were rated structurally deficient.
• There are nearly 15,500 dams listed as “high-hazard potential.”
• Six billion gallons of treated water is lost every day in water-main breaks.