Infastructure Renewal
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The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) graded the overall condition of the nation’s infrastructure a D—recommending $2.3 trillion of investment in infrastructure over the next five years. Traditional financing and delivery mechanisms are unlikely to generate sufficient resources and match supply to demand. Bridging the gap will require a flexible approach, with a careful mix of public and private dollars. By understanding the various public-private partnership tools available to them, and making the best use of these tools, states, working in collaboration with the federal government and local communities, can begin closing the infrastructure gap. Getting the maximum bang for the infrastructure buck will depend on exploiting the full range of innovative infrastructure financing and delivery solutions to leverage private dollars, while also developing new approaches to today’s challenging credit markets.
The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided for a large investment in infrastructure that is needed at this time. However, when dealing with such amounts of money, accountability and transparency in processes are a major concern. Capital projects are traditionally risky, which leads to waste through cost and time being exceeded — and occasionally fraud or corruption. State governments should look at the stimulus funding as a window of opportunity to go beyond mere compliance, and create lasting business value by transforming their processes and organizations.
