Underground Construction - February 2018 - 12

21st Annual Municipal Sewer/Water Infrastructure Survey
By Robert Carpenter | Editor-in-Chief

What About Infrastructure?

FEBRUARY 2018 | UConOnline.com

funding to address sewer water,
and stormwater infrastructure
problems and needs. Years of
inadequate spending and failure
to increase user fees to keep up
with maintenance simply have
left thousands of cities in dire
funding straits when the Environmental Protection Agency
comes calling, or major projects
cannot be delayed or ignored
further.
Finding funds
It's no surprise then that funding
woes dominated the minds of
municipal infrastructure personnel responding to the 21st Annual Municipal Sewer and Water Infrastructure Survey conducted by

from rural communities of less
than 500 to the nation's four
largest metropolises: New York
City, Los Angeles, Chicago and
Houston.
Almost 80 percent of municipal personnel list funding as their
top concern for 2018. "We're in
bad shape," lamented this respondent from the Midwest regarding
his city's finances. "We raised user
fees by 20 percent, but that barely
covers our operational costs.
We're so far behind in repairing
and expanding our infrastructure
that without a major investment,
our system is only going to get a
lot worse."
Said this municipal official
from the Northeast, "Everyone

Underground Construction magazine. In October and November
of 2017 the survey polled U.S.
municipalities about their top
concerns and issues for 2018,
along with infrastructure spending plans and working relationships with consulting engineers
and contractors. This exclusive
study also provides detailed insight of America's cities through
information and perspectives on
industry topics and technology.
The survey reflects only information regarding sewer, water and
stormwater piping infrastructure
and does not include figures or
data on pumping stations, treatment plants, etc.
Respondents ranged in size

Construction/Rehab Spending
SEWER

WATER

STORM WATER

12
11

2.1
1.5

3.8

3.6

3.7

5.0

5.1

5.0

2.1

1.9

3.8

4.3

2013

2014

4.4

4.6

4.7

2015

Rehabilitation

4.3

4.8

2014

4.7

3.7

New Construction

5.2

2018 projected

2.0

2013

1.7

1.8

2018 projected

2.1

2017

1.0

1.9

3.2

1.2

2016

1.1

million

3.6

2017

1.3

898

2016

1.0

1.4

2015

2.0

1.3

BILLIONS

In 2017, Washington politics
continued as usual - if anything,
even more bitterly partisan than
ever before. Congress remains
deeply divided down political
lines and even among the parties
themselves, crippling concerted efforts to accomplish the
multitude of high-profile issues
demanding immediate attention.
Political issues and international
threats abound, yet rhetoric and
posturing tended to occupy the
time of Washington.
Unfortunately, the state of the
federal government's progress
on key issues could adversely
affect efforts to enact infrastructure funding legislation. During
the 2016 presidential campaign,
several candidates, bowing to
rising public awareness and
concerns, proposed the need for
major infrastructure investment.
Hillary Clinton was advocating
spending $250 billion, while
then-candidate Donald Trump
advocated a $1 trillion public/
private program.
With Trump's election, 2017
became a year of hope for infrastructure. That outlook quickly
soured as an infrastructure initiative fell in line behind other
areas of higher priority. While
those issues are admittedly important, as 2017 progressed,
infrastructure investment plans
began to fade like a distant memory. For many cash-strapped
cities around the country, spending plans quickly stalled when it
became obvious no federal relief
was anywhere in sight. In fact, it
is more likely to be 2019 before
any serious relief for infrastructure develops.
Unfortunately, an inordinate
amount of cities still look to
the federal government as their
primary source of income and

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Underground Construction - February 2018

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