By most accounts, the 2016 presidential election campaign was bitter, unconventional, attack-laden and thoroughly devoid of policy debates. Yet, many will agree one of the major areas of policy discussed, and which has been carried on after Donald Trump won the election, has been the issue of infrastructure investment.
Why has the topic of infrastructure become so important in the current economic (and political) climate? According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America’s so-called grade on infrastructure is a D+. The ASCE estimates $3.6 trillion will be needed by 2020 to bring most services up to speed. Things like energy, transit, drinking water, hazardous waste, dams and aviation, to name a few, are in dire need of investment.
And yet, according to The Economic Impact and Financing of Infrastructure Spending by Isabelle Cohen, Thomas Freiling and Eric Robinson of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., a dollar spent on infras