Washington State’s Infrastructure Earns a “C”
Emily Pollock posted on January 29, 2019 |
Part of an infographic that the Washington ASCE released on the ASCE’s 2019 Washington State Report Card. Despite the fact that Dams is the state’s highest-ranked category, that ranking has actually decreased since the last report card in 2013. (Image courtesy of ASCE.)
The American Society of Civil Engineers has given Washington State an overall grade of “C” on its infrastructure report card. The report card, created by the Inland Empire, Seattle and Tacoma-Olympia Sections of the ASCE, was modeled after the national ASCE report card. The average grade is the same as the last Washington State report card in 2013, but higher than the most recent national average of “D+,” recorded back in 2017.
The state received a B- in dams; C+ grades in bridges and in schools; C- grades in drinking water, roads, transit and wastewater; and a D+ in stormwater. “A blanket statement for all these categories is that there’s an investment gap. There’s this trend of long-term neglect of funding,” said Richard Fernandez, chair of the ASCE’s Washington Infrastructure Report Card Committee.
However, there are some encouraging trends buried in the data. All the transport-related categories (except for aviation) showed improvements since the 2013 report. These category improvements appear linked to increased transportation funding over the past few years. In 2016,…