In what some considered as a most unexpected result, the USA has chosen Donald Trump on its 58th presidential election.
As he takes the reins of leading one of the most powerful countries in the world, he is also expected to finally address the long overdue problems of US infrastructure and the dire need for infrastructure asset management.
Much attention now is now turned to his campaign promise to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure as part of his goal to “make America great again”.
Now, what can the most recent Trump victory mean for US infrastructure?
For us to assess the probable future of public infrastructure in American soil, let us go back to what the new president announced regarding the rebuilding plan of his administration even before the election.
Being known as a vocal entrepreneur turned Politician, the first economic promise of Donald Trump was not actually the immigration problem. If there was something on top of his agenda, it was infrastructure revitalization.
Surprised?
If you check Trump’s background and what he does before he ran for office, you probably shouldn’t be.
The president-elect has a wide background and real estate and is renowned for building infrastructures, from office towers, hotels, casinos, golf courses, to other Trump-branded facilities across the globe.
Per his interviews, his main priority is to fix inner cities and rebuild highways, tunnels, schools, bridges, airports, and hospitals.
He recognizes the desperate situation of most existing US public utilities and encourages the creation of additional ones which will make improve the quality of life of citizens. The leadership’s focus on rehabilitating the US aging infrastructure will also generate a lot of jobs.
Since the president-elect plans to organize a large-scale revitalization of critical infrastructure, he also announced during his campaign that he is going to allocate a large part of the national budget to this effect.
And the figure he announced was a whopping $1 Trillion.
This is good news for the infrastructure asset management professionals and companies, who are probably preparing to pitch in their products to the elected leader.
The construction industry will have its much-needed boost, and the jobs that will be generated by various government projects on infrastructure will also help the economy on a macro-scale and the common American worker on the micro-level.
And although the $1 trillion budget is already lavish for some, experts say that the figure is not enough.
Based on the American Society of Civil Engineers, the US needs a total of $3.6 trillion as public utility infrastructure management investment by 2020 just to push the country to where it is supposed to be given its population and land area.
Although Trump’s team is yet to release further details, I suppose that infrastructure asset management would be an important component.
Apart from stirring a construction boom because of substantial infrastructure investment, emplacing and executing an infrastructure management plan will ensure that the USA’s infrastructure system will be great again in the next several decades or more.