Infrastructure Stimulus Spending: Lessons for Assessment and Engineering Education

摘要

According to the ASCE (2012), the United States earns an overall grade of D on its infrastructure and faces a funding shortfall of approximately $1.18 trillion over 5 years, or $236 billion per year. However, even in response to the deep crisis of 2009, only approximately $141 billion of $819 billion in one-time stimulus funds was committed to infrastructure (Yourish 2009). Why is it that the United States has such urgent infrastructure needs, but more funding is not provided even with opportunities such as the massive 2009 stimulus program? What are the implications for making the case for infrastructure investments and for engineering education?