Engineers drive infrastructure; and infrastructure drives the U.S. economy

The United States’ enormous network of roads and bridges, railroads, ports, electrical grids and internet service continues to age and creak under the weight of population growth and deferred maintenance. Experts agree that our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is hampering economic performance and costing all Americans time and money.

Deteriorating roads cause traffic delays and slow public transportation, making it harder and more time-consuming to move people and goods.

The population of the U.S. has more than doubled since the 1960s when most of the country’s major roadway network was designed and built. Other transportation infrastructure such as railroads and airports are even older and many water systems date back to the early 1900s. Many of these systems are overstretched and dangerous, according to experts. Civil engineers warn of safety concerns, highlighting the fact that thousands of U.S. bridges are structurally deficient, and millions of Americans still get their drinking water from lead-contaminated pipes.

After similar dangerous infrastructure failings made headlines in 2014, EWB-USA recognized that the ever-worsening infrastructure issues in the U.S. were disproportionately impacting historically underserved communities. The Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) was formed specifically to help address the growing infrastructure distress and deterioration in these communities.

CECorps volunteers are committed to using their engineering expertise to support communities that are historically overlooked. CECorps is a partnership of the American Water Works Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, and EWB-USA. This partnership gives CECorps access to some of the best civil engineers in the US.

The need for investment in infrastructure and associated engineering support is difficult to overstate. According to the White House:

• More than 45,000 U.S. bridges and 1 in every 5 road miles are in poor condition.
• Millions of Americans get water from lead pipes, even though lead exposure can have irreversible health effects.
• Climate-induced weather catastrophes are increasing accelerating the deterioration of all types of infrastructure.

The complexity of the infrastructure challenges we face underscores the need for the broad-based and cross-sector collaboration that characterizes CECorps’ approach to domestic projects. This approach has evolved to allow CECorps volunteers to directly support underserved communities with a project process and technical engineering expertise that our partner communities would otherwise not be able to access.

In eight years, CECorps teams have completed 53 infrastructure projects in 24 states and territories and provided technical engineering assistance to 48 communities related to water, sanitation, civil works, structural, energy, and agriculture. CECorps teams across the nation are working on currently 72 active projects.

As long-deferred infrastructure projects across the U.S. begin, thanks to the federal investment approved by Congress in November 2021, the engineering experts that volunteer with CECorps will be in even greater demand. Equally important will be the advocacy – from the engineering community, policymakers and others – to ensure underserved communities receive a fair and proportional share of this historic national investment to begin to address some of the infrastructure inequity that is engrained in our country’s systems.