Since 2001, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has released the ASCE Report Card to assess the condition of the United States’ infrastructure, assigning a letter grade based on its condition and the investments needed for improvement. However, since its inception, grades have struggled to get out of the D range, although the 2021 report card marked a milestone—after 20 years, the country’s infrastructure earned an overall grade of C-, signaling incremental progress toward its restoration.
As we look ahead to the 2025 report, with significant investments from the federal government over the last four years, the grade is anticipated to improve. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2024, aimed at funding transformational national infrastructure projects, is a notable contribution to this effort. With $550 billion additionally invested, the hope was that some of the most dangerous pieces of infrastructure would be replaced.
As we await the results of the 2025 ASCE Report Card, how can facility leaders measure and report improvements along the way instead of once every five years? Implementing strategies that track and report on elements of infrastructure is a good place to start.
Despite some optimism that the ASCE Report Card grade will increase, there are some who view the grade as a “shame board.” Report cards are like taking a final exam after four years of work with no tests or quizzes along the way to monitor improvement. Without continuously monitoring infrastructure health in between these reports, facilities managers may struggle to accurately measure progress or “score” their assets—leading to failure.
How can the nation, states, cities, or towns properly assess infrastructure improvement over four years without a reliable method to track development along the way?
Data is key to ensuring stakeholders have visibility into assets to effectively track the status and health of the public infrastructure and communicate that to the public. It is a critical factor in determining how much funding is needed to improve, repair, or replace assets. Without proper asset management or analytics solutions, local, state, and city government officials and their facilities teams can’t properly measure the condition of their infrastructure, let alone track improvement over time.
Similarly, without true understanding of infrastructure health, how can city leaders and facilities management teams accurately budget for their needs?
Budgeting and capital planning ultimately falls on local municipalities that must ensure any funding is used effectively, but this is challenging when most governments lack sufficient capital to massively overhaul aging assets and are reluctant to increase taxes.
An asset management system can support facilities teams in making better short-term and long-term decisions by providing real-time insights to validate decisions, predict asset life cycles, and increase community support. In this way, an asset management strategy is akin to more frequent quizzes before the final infrastructure exam.
Bringing It All Together
A clear example of how data can be used to understand our cities’ budgetary needs to make tangible improvements to the grades of their infrastructure lies with the city of Asheville, N.C.
The city typically budgeted $1 million annually to maintain its public infrastructure, but the facility maintenance team recognized the need for more funding to maintain the aging facilities. While the Asheville City Council’s facilities assessment gave Asheville’s infrastructure a C grade, the facility maintenance team utilized a strategic asset management platform to demonstrate that the current budget was insufficient to maintain the grade. Without additional funding over the next two decades, the data revealed that many of the city’s buildings would deteriorate to a “failed state.”
This approach is one that should be replicated in towns and cities across the U.S. as a strategy to not only determine budgeting needs but to begin thinking about improving infrastructure in a new way that moves beyond reactive, emergency repairs.
However, while city leaders and facilities teams have made clear strides in the use of data and technology, and the 2025 ASCE Report Card is likely to show an improved grade, there is still much to be done to continue improving our nation’s infrastructure.
Jennifer Perkins is a government infrastructure specialist at Brightly Software, a Siemens company.