99 to 1. That was the nearly unanimous vote in the United States Senate approving America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 which the President signed into law. That amounts to nearly $6 billion for water resource projects and policies that will be administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers. According to CNN, “The America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 will, among other provisions, authorize federal funding for water infrastructure projects, expand the country’s water storage capabilities, upgrade wastewater, drinking, and irrigation systems, as well as authorize or reauthorize water infrastructure projects and programs.”
This could be a major step in the right infrastructure direction. The more water projects that are funded translates into more work grading and excavation contractors. There may even be more work than can currently be done by a severely limited skilled workforce. In its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) reported that according to the American Water Works Association, about $1 trillion is needed to maintain and expand service to meet water demands over the next 25 years.
This was a bipartisan effort that reauthorizes billions of dollars of federal spending on waterways, ports, and harbors and at the same time de-authorizes the inefficient spending on water projects.
While I’m glad and hopeful that America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 is now law and will bring work to GX contractors and create jobs and stimulate the economy even more…there is that part of me that is recoiling just a bit. It’s the part of me that has become a bit wary of anything having to do with the Government of the United States and infrastructure.
The need to repair and replace the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, and ports has held bipartisan agreement ever since I became aware of infrastructure. The question has always been, where will we get the funding? As far as I know, there have not been any new sources of funding that have been agreed to at the federal level specifically for infrastructure.
The America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 does include the Army Corps of Engineers reauthorization of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which is basically a loan program through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for water and wastewater construction projects.
What are your thoughts on this recently signed legislation?
Will this be a good thing for GX contractors?
