Infrastructure within the capital of the United States is in mediocre condition, a new report has found.

Releasing its 2021 Report Card for Washington D.C.’s Infrastructure, the National Capital Section of the American Society for Civil Engineers has reviewed the condition of the city’s public assets against eight categories.

Overall, it graded the city’s infrastructure as a ‘C’.

Whilst this is an improvement on the ‘C minus’ rating given during the most recent previous assessment in 2016, it means that the city’s infrastructure is in mediocre condition.

In its report, ASCE noted progress in energy and water infrastructure.

On energy, it said incentives had encouraged take-up of rooftop solar and thus greater generation of solar power.

The city will also benefit from a multi-year project which it is undertaking with energy provider Pepco that commenced in 2019 and will bury electricity distribution lines in order to protect them from storms.

Planning commenced in 2012 after a massive storm hit D.C. and left thousands without power.

Once complete, the $US500 million project will increase the city’s electricity resilience by 95 percent.

On water, meanwhile, progress has been made through the landmark Clean Rivers Project, which aims to prevent sewer overflows from mixing into local waterways through a series of tunnels, tunnel overflow structures, sewer diversion facilities and sewer separation works.

The importance of this should not be understated.

All up, the District’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant serves more than 2 million people between D.C. and the surrounding areas through nearly 2,000 miles of pipes.

During storms, overflows created by excess stormwater causes the sewerage to mix with local waterways and streams.

Thus far, the project has captured more than 10 billion gallons of combined sewage and 4,500 tons of trash.

Rather than floating down rivers, this has been diverted and treated.

A new project which began in Georgetown last April will prevent sewerage overflow into the Potamac River (pictured) by providing the area with separate pipes for stormwater and for sewage. Called sewer separation, it keeps stormwater from entering the combined sewer system, which can overflow during rain events due to the larger volume. This is one of several initiatives being undertaken within Washington DC to prevent sewer overflow into rivers under the Clean Rivers Project.

Nevertheless, the capital has significant challenges with road and transit infrastructure.

On roads, the city’s highways and streets are actually in good condition.

All up, a 2019 survey found that pavement on 90 percent of non-NHS roads and 96 percent of NHS roads was in good or fair condition.

Nevertheless, the city faces challenges with congestion and road safety.

Prior to the pandemic, average road commuter times throughout Washington D.C stood at 43 minutes.

This compares to 27 minutes nation-wide.

All up, commuters spend an average of 102 hours each year sitting in traffic, costing them an average annual amount of $US2,015.

Whilst this largely reflects the high number of commuters within the city, ASCE says more must be done to address this.

Whilst traffic volumes have eased during COVID, meanwhile, it warns that congestion challenges may return as the pandemic is brought under control.

Meanwhile, fatalities on the city’s roads have increased from 25 in 2010 to 36 in 2020.

To help combat this, the city has introduced a program which seeks to improve safety – with particular focus on pedestrians.

This involves redesigning problematic intersections, reducing the number of lanes, and beefing up enforcement against harmful vehicular behaviour.

Meanwhile, severe problems are evident in public transport.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA or Metro) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) provide public transit services in the D.C. metro region over a network comprised of heavy rail transit and bus components supported by circulator bus, paratransit and streetcar elements.

Over recent years, WMATA has been challenged as aging infrastructure has led to increasing State-of-Good-Repair (SOGR) and safety-related needs.

Maintaining this is proving to be financially challenging as ridership has been in decline since its peak in 2008.

Whilst significant investment has been undertaken in infrastructure and vehicles, the report says additional funding and new finance sources are needed to address $1.8 billion worth of upgrades and replacements which are needed to comply with safety and security directives.

Meanwhile, the city has a $6.6 billion backlog in State-of-Good-Repair related requirements.

Addressing these challenges will be particularly important in order to cater for growth in D.C.’s population, which is expected to increase from 672,200 in 2015 to 987,200 in 2045.

The latest report comes amid broader challenges which have been identified across the United States.

All up, the country’s infrastructure received a ‘C minus‘ rating in an evaluation conducted by ASCE earlier this year.

Across the nation, that earlier report identified that:

• A water main breaks every two minutes, whilst an estimated 6 billion gallons of treated water are lost each day.
• Growing wear and tear have left 43 percent of public roads in poor or mediocre condition, and
• There are 30,000 miles of inventoried levees across the U.S., and an additional 10,000 miles of levees whose location and condition are unknown.

In its report on Washington DC, ASCE’s National Capital Section calls for action in three broad areas.

First, it wants efforts to be maintained where grades have been improving.

This includes through sufficient funding provision, timely expansion and rehabilitation efforts and greater investment in innovative and resilient approaches.

Next, more public education is needed on the true and full cost of education provision.

This will help to underpin willingness to bear new or increased user charges where these are necessary.

Finally, smart infrastructure investments which are strategically based on long-term plans and priorities are needed.

Ranjit Sahai, P.E., ASCE’s D.C. Report Card Committee Chair, praised the city for its improvement but says more needs to be done.

“The capital’s infrastructure systems are getting closer to where we want them to be,” Sahai said.

“We have seen encouraging trends since the 2016 report was issued when the grade was a ‘C minus‘.

“But D.C. must continue to explore all solutions to improve the grades if we are to accommodate a growing population and economy in the future.”