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

  • Call for papers and sessions open for ITS America 2019
    November 1, 2018
    ITS America is accepting paper and session proposals for its annual meeting in Washington, DC on 4-7 June 2019. Submissions based on this year’s theme - ‘Intelligent Mobility: Safer, Greener, Smarter’ - should relate to topics on intelligent mobility: moving people, data and freight. Authors of the accepted papers will present findings in a session organised by ITS America’s programme committee which will feature a moderator appointed by the event
  • Webinar – EV industry for land, sea and air
    March 7, 2014
    Gain an insight into market intelligence for the electric vehicle (EV) industry for land, sea and air with the IDTechEx webinar on Thursday 13 March. This will be a 15 minute overview and demonstration of the IDTechEx Market Intelligence Portal for electric vehicles land, sea and air. There will be time for questions and answers at the end. This webinar will discuss: Market forecasts for electric vehicles; Unique research focus - responding to an emerging trend; and demonstration of the IDTechEx mark
  • CDoT to trial monitoring system along US toll lanes
    July 2, 2018
    The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDoT) says its trial of dynamic tolling will alleviate congestion and give drivers more reliable travel times. The technology will be implemented along the US 36 between Denver and Boulder and a segment of Interstate 25. Dynamic tolling uses sensors and other measuring devices to assess the amount of traffic on the road and vehicles' speed. The system increases tolls if it detects traffic slowing down in a managed lane which then decreases when there is free mov
  • CTS extends contactless payments to Sydney's trains
    November 28, 2018
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) is extending Sydney’s contactless payment system beyond light rail and ferries to include the Australian city’s train network. The technology allows commuters to pay for ticketing via credit cards, smart watches and other electronic devices, alongside the Opal card. CTS’s Asia-Pacific team and Transport for New South Wales initially made the contactless system available for the city’s Manly ferry service in 2017. In March this year, the contactless system was ext