Congress is looking to create an Infrastructure bank, to allow private investors to buy into infrastructure projects. Given the broke state of the treasury, and the 2 trillion dollars in infrastructure costs the ASCE projects will be required in five years, anything the government does that works is a good deal. Does this infrastructure bank’s introduction have anything to do with a certain political party’s low approval ratings? Maybe, but even with political drama the idea of giving surveyors and engineers their traditional income base back is still a good idea.
To keep the little things out of the loop, current ideas on restrictions would be a 25 million dollar minimum for rural projects and 125 million dollar minimum cost for urban ones. Things that come to mind here are bridges and roads. With the need of information and the networks to share it growing parallel to the world population and development, utilities also will be attended to by cities beset from constantly falling power lines and spotty communication. Whatever the utility or structure is that gets the work, surveyors and contractors have something to look forward to, if they continue to keep up with current best practices.
Does this sound like good news to you? Is the government just setting up another exploitable entity? Does the idea of being beholden to a private investor bother you when taking on government contracts? Be sure to put your opinion up, and get ready for a busy political session!
