BlueGreen Alliance | High Road Investment in Public Infrastructure

Clean Infrastructure

High Road Investment in Public Infrastructure

Tell our elected leaders it’s time to Rebuild America’s Transportation Infrastructure

America runs on its transportation infrastructure. It's time to jump start investment in the roads, bridges, and transit and rail that America’s families, communities, and businesses need to support a prosperous 21st-century economy.

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Rebuilding America’s transportation infrastructure can mean huge gains for the environment, economy and daily life. With sufficient investment; forward-looking planning; leadership in manufacturing and using clean and efficient technology; and high standards for materials, projects, and operations, rebuilding these systems can be powerful driver of economic recovery and job growth.

The Challenge

Transportation systems should be a foundation of thriving communities and economies, but instead are in disrepair. Roads and bridges, ports, rail and transit systems are aging and overburdened, and often literally falling apart. Congestion wastes fuel and time and adds to pollution; systems planned for another era strand people away from jobs and keep businesses from customers, and aren’t designed for a modern economy or a changing climate.

Short-sighted planning with minimum standards has meant some projects are utilizing cheaper, weaker, imported materials that threaten safety and mean costly repairs. The lack of consideration to manufacturing and labor standards in many projects has meant that major public investments have not resulted in the good jobs and economic development communities expected.

Fortunately, we have the opportunity today to rebuild our infrastructure to support a prosperous, clean economy, and to do so with the smart planning and sound standards that ensure American communities and workers—as well as environment and economy—see the full benefits of these investments now and for decades to come.

The Opportunity

Rebuilding America’s transportation infrastructure can mean huge gains for the environment, economy and daily life. With sufficient investment; forward-looking planning; leadership in manufacturing and using clean and efficient technology; and high standards for materials, projects, and operations, rebuilding these systems can be powerful driver of economic recovery and job growth.

America’s transit systems generate significant economic growth by increasing property values and boosting business sales and local tax revenues while reducing congestion, pollution, and other costs. And they make a major economic impact directly. In addition to employing over 400,000 people operating bus and transit rail, and 20,000 people providing intercity passenger rail service, we found more than 750 companies in at least 39 states manufacturing components for transit and passenger rail today. Reinvesting in our transit and transportation systems—the right way—will be a benefit to jobs, communities and America’s manufacturing sector.

Key measures to achieve these goals include the U.S. Employment Plan, which promotes high standards f economic development outcomes where states and transit agencies are buying new buses, subways, trains or other transportation infrastructure.

Federally funded transportation infrastructure is covered by long-standing Buy America and Buy American rules that require projects to primarily utilize domestically manufactured products and components. 

Transportation systems are already being transformed as they adopt new data and communications technologies and integrate new kinds of equipment and providers such as autonomous, shared and electric vehicles with existing road and transit systems. Making sure these new technologies deliver on their promise of improved service, economic and social benefits means upholding labor, environmental and safety standards for our public infrastructure regardless of what technology is used to deliver it.

Key Facts

More than 750 companies in at least 39 states manufacture components for passenger rail and transit rail today. (Source)

In 32 states, 212 companies manufacture passenger rail cars and locomotives or major components and systems for these vehicles. (Source)

2016 after a decade of waiting, Congress passed a transportation bill providing long-term funding for a backlog of basic transportation needs. (Source)


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