CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The American Society of Civil Engineers released its 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure on Tuesday, giving the country a ‘C.’ It’s the highest grade the nation received since the organization began rating overall infrastructure performance in 1998.
The grade rose from a ‘C-’ in 2021. ASCE officials said an increase in federal funding for infrastructure needs brought points up in several categories; however, aging systems in need of repairs kept the overall score in a mid-level tier.
Experts factor 18 categories of criteria into their report. Chair of the 2025 Report Card, Darren Olson, said the data collection process is intensive.
“It takes us almost two years to get through this process, and we mined data from all available sources, whether it’s primarily government sources, nationwide data, or institutional data.”
Letter grades in eight of the 18 categories improved from 2021 to 2025, including dams, hazardous waste, public parks, roads and transit. Two categories, energy and rail, received lower grades than the prior report card.
Olson said he’s optimistic about the trends he sees.
“If we continue this trajectory that we’re on with increased funding for our infrastructure, we can see the grade start to improve, which then really leads to a more efficient economy and saving every family money,” he said. “That’s money back in their pocket that they’re not spending when the infrastructure around them fails.”
Olson claimed families spend on average $2,700 per year on expenses like car repairs needed from traveling on subpar roads or perishable groceries that must be replaced after a power outage.
One of the key points outlined in the 2025 Report Card is that “aging infrastructure systems are increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather events, creating unexpected and often avoidable risks to public safety and the economy.”
Olson said rebuilding efforts in Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene will likely focus on resiliency and sustainability. He said the challenge for engineers involves designing projects to sustain forces of nature previously considered unlikely.
“What we saw when roads would overtop and culverts would wash out, all of the critical infrastructure in their water pipes, electrical pipes, they would all be lost to. And so, can we design our systems to be more resilient so maybe the roadway would still overtop, but it wouldn’t fail so that once the storm has passed, that infrastructure would still be in a functional condition,” he said.
ASCE leaders will meet with members of Congress on Tuesday to further discuss the findings and outline legislative priorities.
“The purpose of the report card is to bring infrastructure, which is out of sight and out of mind, into the focus so that we all can understand where we’re at with our infrastructure prior to the next failure occurring,” Olson said.
The report card estimates that if current planned infrastructure investments are to stay stagnant for the next ten years, there will be an approximately $3.7 trillion gap in available funding and money needed for repairs. The gap grew from $2.59 trillion four years ago.
