Concrete Pavement Progress www.acpa.org 12 Infrastructure Funding Creates New Oppor tunities for Industry Contractors should plan ahead to overcome labor, equipment, and supply challenges By Sheryl S. Jackson THE SIGNING OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT in November 2021 represents a significant opportunity for the pavement construction industry. The $1.2 trillion bill contains an estimated $550 billion in new spending above baseline levels. This spending touches a broad swath of physical infrastructure, from transportation elements like highways, bridges, and public transit to fundamental systems like water, energy, and broadband. “This level of investment in infrastructure, especially highway infrastructure, has been a long time coming,” said Patrick Cleary, Senior Vice President of Cement Sales for LafargeHolcim. “State agencies that have had the pressure of funding expiring every year now have longer-term funding that can be used to implement strategic improvement plans.” “It is exciting to see the money that will go to individual states for transportation projects,” said Bob Leonard, Sales Manager for United States andCanada of GOMACO. “We don’t know exactly how the funds will be distributed and when, but the amounts designated for each state have been outlined.” [See How Much Will Your State Receive?, p. 13 for sources of information on dollar amounts.] “For Arkansas, the IIJAmeans a 30% increase in funding for transportation projects, and voters in our state approved continuing a half-cent I N F R A S T R U C T U R E I N V E S T M E N T A N D J O B S A C T Photo By Jonathan Ernst / Reuters – stock.adobe.com
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