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Key Findings

1. U.S. transportation and water infrastructure funding and finance are not nearly as broken as some believe, but a national consensus on infrastructure priorities is needed, accompanied by select policy changes in funding and financing.
2. Annual spending increases by transportation and water infrastructure owners of 2.5 to 3 percent would largely eliminate existing maintenance backlogs by 2030.
3. The federal government should focus on maintaining and modernizing vital federal infrastructure and on targeting nationally significant projects that are beyond the capacity of individual states and cities.

To hear many politicians and pundits tell it, infrastructure in the United States — including highways, roads, bridges, public transit, and water resources, such as drinking water and wastewater facilities — is in an embarrassing state of disrepair. Unfortunately, the hyperbole obscures real needs in some — but not all — locales, as well as the value of a targeted approach to fixing what actually is broken in the nation's policies on funding and financing of transportation and water infrastructure.