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U.S. roads and bridges are in dire shape, but by using a targeted approach and undertaking comprehensive permitting reform, the administration can fuel “economic growth and prosperity for generations to come,” wrote CRH Americas Division President Nathan Creech in a Newsweek op-ed this week.

What’s going on: “Nearly half of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, hurting local economies and costing the average household the equivalent of an extra month’s rent every year,” Creech noted.

• Compounding the issue, America’s roadways also face a trillion-dollar funding gap in the next decade.

The opportunity: Dedicated federal transportation resources expire next fall, giving President Trump and Congress a chance to fix infrastructure and improve the quality of life of all Americans.

• Here’s how: “There are few places more efficient to invest hard-earned taxpayer dollars than roads and bridges. Smart infrastructure investment creates jobs for American workers, helps expand the economy and lays the foundation for a stronger nation,” Creech continued.
• America also needs a solid transportation network to realize the president’s goal of onshoring production, rebuilding U.S. dominance in manufacturing and keeping the country safe.

Make it count: Past efforts to shore up the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges have stumbled over their own red tape and complexity, Creech added. To really fix the problem, the U.S. needs full-scale, across-the-board permitting reform at the federal level—focusing as much on fixing aging construction as on building new capacity.

• A new plan should also give states the agency to determine where dollars are best spent, as well as “[allocate] more federal funds through state funding formulas and limit the use of discretionary grants.”
• Combined with comprehensive permitting reform—which the NAM has long championed—these improvements will prove “transformational for our nation,” Creech concluded.