The 2014 Report Card for Illinois’ Infrastructure was released this week by the Illinois Sections of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
A panel of professional civil engineers throughout the state graded each infrastructure category according to the following eight criteria: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience and innovation. In 2010, the infrastructure grade for Illinois was a D+, reflecting delayed maintenance and underinvestment across most categories. In the 2014 Report Card for Illinois’ Infrastructure, the state’s infrastructure G.P.A. jumped to a C-, showing the progress made with leadership and solid infrastructure programs.
Over the past four years since the 2010 Report Card for Illinois’ Infrastructure, leaders at the state level and in Illinois’ cities—large and small—have started to make some steps to rebuild their aging infrastructure. Programs such as CREATE have started unclogging rail and traffic bottlenecks and the Illinois Jobs Now effort by the state provided $31 billion to start fixing Illinois’ biggest infrastructure problems. These efforts have paid off and both the rail and drinking water grades have gone up since the last report card. Plans like Chicago’s commitment to replace and repair aging water pipes shows how “thinking big” can create even bigger results.
But while some of the grades have gone up, Illinois’ infrastructure isn’t a B student yet. Aging infrastructure and delayed maintenance have taken their toll. Illinois’ average bridge is 40 years old, which is close to retirement age for a bridge. Chicago has been replacing water pipes put in when Ulysses Grant was president. And more and more people and goods spend time stuck in traffic on Illinois’ roads and rails.
Read the full 2014 Report Card for Illinois’ Infrastructure at http://www.isasce.org/index.php/report-card/.
