Infra Insight Blog

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is the country’s oldest and largest civil engineering organization. Since 1998, the ASCE has issued a quadrennial assessment of the U.S.’s infrastructure networks known as the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The Report Card uses an A to F grading system and examines the country’s current infrastructure conditions and needs, assigning grades and making recommendations on how to improve those grades. For more than two decades, the ASCE’s consistent message has been that federal, state and local governments, in addition to the private sector, have not been prioritizing the development of an interdependent infrastructure system. The ASCE has explained that to remain competitive in the global marketplace, the nation’s growing infrastructure investment gap must shrink.

The 2025 Report Card provides a summary of how the country’s infrastructure systems are currently faring and proposes solutions for improving performance. For the second consecutive report, the Report Card grade presents a positive outlook. Incremental improvements were made across some of the historically lowest-graded categories, resulting in an overall cumulative grade of C, an improvement from the C- grade received in 2021. A C grade generally means the infrastructure is mediocre or requires attention.

The ASCE acknowledged that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has been a valuable tool in addressing some of the concerns identified in prior Report Cards. As noted in the 2025 Report Card, the IIJA investments and policy changes have already yielded improvements to the performance of the nation’s transportation, water, energy and waste networks. The ASCE credited the improvements in large part to the partnership between federal, state and local governments and the private sector. 

Highlights from the 2025 Report Card include the following:

• The 2025 grades range from a B in ports to a D in stormwater and transit. A B grade generally means the infrastructure is in good to excellent condition, although some elements show signs of general deterioration that require attention. A D grade generally means the infrastructure is in fair to poor condition with many elements approaching the end of their service life.
• Broadband was introduced as a new category and received a C+.
• For the first time since 1998, none of the 18 infrastructure categories received a D- or lower. Almost half of the categories (including hazardous waste, inland waterways and ports) saw improvements from the previous report. Two categories (energy and rail) received lower grades due to deficiencies related to capacity, future needs and safety concerns. Nine categories (including energy, transit, aviation, roads, schools and stormwater) remained within the D range, indicating a need to prioritize improvement efforts in these crucial areas.
• The ASCE determined that, at current federal investment levels, there is an investment gap of $3.7 million based on the estimated investment need of $9.1 trillion for all 18 categories to reach a state of good repair. However, if Congress were to revert to pre-2021 federal investment levels, this gap would increase significantly, resulting in a job loss of 344,000 in one snapshot year of 2033 and potentially resulting in a $5 trillion loss in gross economic output over 20 years from 2024-2043.

Notwithstanding the recent improvement, the ASCE has determined that the U.S. is still facing a substantial investment gap. Existing infrastructure systems continue to age and demands on those systems continue to increase. In order to sustain the promising momentum, continuous infrastructure investments are critical to equip stakeholders with certainty for long-term planning and execution of policies and projects that fully realize the benefits of robust resources. 

The IIJA, a critical piece of the current momentum, is set to expire during the fiscal year 2026 and will need to be reauthorized under a new administration and new Congress. Based on the Trump administration’s funding agenda to date, the future of the IIJA remains unclear.

The full Report Card can be found here and the Executive Summary here.