Following months of political debate over the nation’s infrastructure spending needs, with multiple bills in play, the Senate took a major step forward in August, passing the $1 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The bill—which faces scrutiny by House members before it is sent to President Biden for signing—includes $550 billion in new spending over five years for a range of initiatives related to bridges, roads, railways, even broadband Internet. Allocations include $110 billion for roads, bridges, and major projects; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail projects; $65 billion to expand high-speed Internet access; $25 billion for airports; $17 billion for port infrastructure; and $7.5 billion each for electric vehicles and zero- and low-emission buses and ferries.
When it comes to buildings-related investments, the bill is noticeably light on earmarks for initiatives in the commercial, institutional, and multifamily building sectors. It would set aside $500 million for energy upgrades in schools, but that’s about it.
“There is much more that Congress can do to improve our nation’s building stock,” wrote former House Rep. (D−Mo.) Russell Carnahan in a recent editorial in the SmartCitiesDive newsletter. Carnahan, Co-founder of BuildingAction, a non-profit group that advocates for policies and investments aimed at improving the nation’s buildings, opined that infrastructure upgrades and building investments should go hand in hand. Buildings, he wrote, “serve the national interest” and “impact our quality of life in many of the same ways as other infrastructure” does. And investment in building upgrades and new construction projects—especially energy-efficient buildings—tends to outperform investment in other sectors when it comes to creating jobs, according to BuildingAction analysis.
In late May, a collective of 21 AEC industry organizations, including ABC, ACEC, AIA, ASHRAE, BOMA, and USGBC, co-signed a letter to Congress pushing for funding in the infrastructure bill aimed at enhancing the resilience of the nation’s buildings. Citing nearly 4,000 deaths and some $550 billion in damage from weather- and climate-related events between 2014 and 2019, the group claims that “with new investments to support forward-thinking planning, design, and construction, the building industry can be a leader in saving lives and reducing costs.”
Regardless, unless the Senate’s infrastructure bill sees a major shake-up in the House, or a second heftier spending bill makes its way through Congress, the AEC industry will have to wait for the next major infrastructure spending initiative to state its "buildings as infrastructure" case.
Related Stories
| Nov 2, 2010
A Look Back at the Navy’s First LEED Gold
Building Design+Construction takes a retrospective tour of a pace-setting LEED project.
| Nov 2, 2010
Wind Power, Windy City-style
Building-integrated wind turbines lend a futuristic look to a parking structure in Chicago’s trendy River North neighborhood. Only time will tell how much power the wind devices will generate.
| Nov 2, 2010
Energy Analysis No Longer a Luxury
Back in the halcyon days of 2006, energy analysis of building design and performance was a luxury. Sure, many forward-thinking AEC firms ran their designs through services such as Autodesk’s Green Building Studio and IES’s Virtual Environment, and some facility managers used Honeywell’s Energy Manager and other monitoring software. Today, however, knowing exactly how much energy your building will produce and use is survival of the fittest as energy costs and green design requirements demand precision.
| Nov 2, 2010
Yudelson: ‘If It Doesn’t Perform, It Can’t Be Green’
Jerry Yudelson, prolific author and veteran green building expert, challenges Building Teams to think big when it comes to controlling energy use and reducing carbon emissions in buildings.
| Nov 1, 2010
John Pearce: First thing I tell designers: Do your homework!
John Pearce, FAIA, University Architect at Duke University, Durham, N.C., tells BD+C’s Robert Cassidy about the school’s construction plans and sustainability efforts, how to land work at Duke, and why he’s proceeding with caution when it comes to BIM.
| Nov 1, 2010
Vancouver’s former Olympic Village shoots for Gold
The first tenants of the Millennium Water development in Vancouver, B.C., were Olympic athletes competing in the 2010 Winter Games. Now the former Olympic Village, located on a 17-acre brownfield site, is being transformed into a residential neighborhood targeting LEED ND Gold. The buildings are expected to consume 30-70% less energy than comparable structures.
| Oct 27, 2010
Grid-neutral education complex to serve students, community
MVE Institutional designed the Downtown Educational Complex in Oakland, Calif., to serve as an educational facility, community center, and grid-neutral green building. The 123,000-sf complex, now under construction on a 5.5-acre site in the city’s Lake Merritt neighborhood, will be built in two phases, the first expected to be completed in spring 2012 and the second in fall 2014.
| Oct 18, 2010
World’s first zero-carbon city on track in Abu Dhabi
Masdar City, the world’s only zero-carbon city, is on track to be built in Abu Dhabi, with completion expected as early as 2020. Foster + Partners developed the $22 billion city’s master plan, with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Aedas, and Lava Architects designing buildings for the project’s first phase, which is on track to be ready for occupancy by 2015.
| Oct 13, 2010
Test run on the HP Z200 SFF Good Value in a Small Package
Contributing Editor Jeff Yoders tests a new small-form factor, workstation-class desktop in Hewlett-Packard’s line that combines performance of its minitower machine with a smaller chassis and a lower price.
