Infrastructure Week Is Here At Last!
This past Friday, the House worked late into the night to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which reauthorized surface transportation funding and provided the largest infusion of funds into hard infrastructure in decades. 13 Republicans joined 215 Democrats to propel the measure across the finish line, making the final passage of the Senate-crafted bill 228-206. The political maneuvering and intensive negotiations were tremendous, and so is the impact this bill will have on our industry.
Earlier this week, ACPA Chairman of the Board David Howard shared a letter with ACPA Members underscoring the significant opportunity this legislation presents to our concrete pavement industry. You can read his important message HERE.
The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by President Biden shortly, provides $550 billion in new physical infrastructure spending. This includes a $304 billion infusion into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), approximately $100 billion of which is specifically for the highway program. We expect concrete pavement volumes to grow by upwards of 24% and an additional 2% annually over the 5-year duration of the bill. On the airfield side, a $3 billion investment in the Airfield Improvement Program, on top of the $3.35 billion annual appropriations, is expected to grow our activities in the industry by around 75%.
In addition to the blanket funding increase, the legislation included the $12 million Accelerated Implementation and Deployment of Pavement Technologies (AID-PT), which funds FHWA’s cooperative agreement with the CP Tech Center and nearly all federally funded concrete pavement implementation and deployment initiatives nationwide. This program, which was stood up by ACPA in 2012 and maintained since, has spawned numerous productive partnerships and provided for much of the state-of-the-art concrete pavement best practice guidance we have today. You can view a more detailed summary and breakdown of the IIJA HERE.
Thank you to all of those who joined ACPA and our allies in Washington to push for the passage of this bill! We can’t wait to see how each of your companies translate this new money into durable, sustainable, and safe concrete pavement.
