California's Infrastructure Grade is a 'C'
California’s infrastructure investment has not kept up with the state’s growing population demands and is continuing to delay much-needed renewal and maintenance, according to the California Infrastructure Report Card 2012 issued by Region 9 of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which covers the state of California. Released at the Capitol in Sacramento, the report card reveals that California’s infrastructure earned an overall grade of “C” and needs an additional annual investment of $65 billion.
In addition to issuing an overall grade, the report card provides an evaluation and letter grade for eight of California’s critical infrastructure areas: aviation, levees/flood control, ports, solid waste, transportation, urban runoff, wastewater and water systems. The grades are:
- Levees/Flood Control: D
- Aviation: C+
- Ports: B-
- Solid Waste: B
- Transportation: C-
- Urban Runoff: D+
- Wastewater: C+
- Water: C
More than 100 civil engineering professionals, with specialized technical expertise in the eight infrastructure categories, produced the report card. They analyzed technical reports, inspection records, budgets, maintenance schedules and other documents to arrive at letter grades for the infrastructure. The committee members evaluated reports on the physical conditions of the infrastructure areas, and studied funding sources and trends that impact maintenance and upgrades. In almost every category, lack of funding was cited as a reason for the low grades.
This is the second report of its kind for California. The first report card was issued in 2006, giving the state’s infrastructure an overall grade of “C-”. The slight improvement in California’s overall grade can be attributed to the nearly $42 billion voter-approved infrastructure bonds in 2006. However, that progress pales in comparison to the annual $65 billion investment as identified in the report card.