Skip to main content

Trump calls on Congress to produce $1.5tn bill for infrastructure

President Donald Trump has announced a plan in his State of Union to push Congress to approve a $1.5tn (£1.05tn) scheme which he described will “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.” A report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association revealed that 54,259 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient with Americans crossing them 174 million times a day. The president added that every Federal dollar should be leveraged by
February 1, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

President Donald Trump has announced a plan in his State of Union to push Congress to approve a $1.5tn (£1.05tn) scheme which he described will “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.” A %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external report American Road &amp; Transport website link false https://www.artba.org/2018/01/29/54000-american-bridges-structurally-deficient-analysis-new-federal-data-shows/ false false%> from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association revealed that 54,259 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient with Americans crossing them 174 million times a day.

The president added that every Federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with State and local governments, and where appropriate, tap into private sector investment to fix the infrastructure deficit.
 
Shailen Bhatt, CEO and president of ITS America, believes that the president’s announcement represents a major opportunity for the ITS industry. Speaking to ITS International, he said: “If you want to leverage dollars, there’s no better tool in your toolbox than ITS technologies.”

Other key findings in the report showed that 226,837 U.S. bridges and 17,726 interstate highway bridges have identified repair needs. In addition, it revealed that Iowa has the most structurally deficient bridges with 5,067 followed by Pennsylvania’s 4,173 while at least 15% of bridges in Rhode Island, Iowa, West Virginia South Dakota, Pennsylvania and Nebraska all fall under the structurally deficient category.

Related Content

  • National law enforcement challenge webinar
    January 9, 2015
    Laser Technology (LTI) is partnering with the International Association of Chiefs of Police's (IACP) National Law Enforcement Challenge (NLEC) traffic safety recognition program to broadcast a live webinar on 20 January 2015 at 0930 am (MST). The 2015 National Law Enforcement Challenge Quick-Start Guide webinar will give new and returning applicants helpful information about the Challenge and the most effective tips to jump-start the application process. The NLEC is a friendly competition between agen
  • Georgia approves regional transit authority for metro Atlanta
    April 17, 2018
    The US state of Georgia is to establish a regional transit governance and funding framework for metro Atlanta. A new entity, called the Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (ATL), will be created and charged with regional transit planning for 13 counties in metro Atlanta. By 2023, the region’s transit systems, including MARTA, CobbLinc, Gwinnett County Transit and GRTA’s Xpress service, will operate under the ATL brand name. More than 60% of commuters in the region travel to a different county to work, a
  • Jura shows off LetterScreen++ secure ghost image service
    October 28, 2014
    High-security design software business Jura Group will show off its machine-verifiable secure ghost image service called LetterScreen++ at CARTES. The service creates the secondary image on passport data pages by building up the portrait from lines of microtext.
  • Ertico prepares for World Congress 2015
    December 15, 2014
    Hot on the heels of the 21st ITS World Congress in Detroit, Ertico - ITS Europe is already writing session proposals, contacting speakers and putting together the demonstration programme for the 2015 ITS World Congress. This will take place from 5-9 October in the French city of Bordeaux, one of the most advanced cities in Europe in terms of ITS adoption, and will have the theme of ‘Towards intelligent mobility – Better use of space’.