3 infrastructure trends for 2024

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With supply chains untangling, inflation cooling and the possibility of lower borrowing costs, there are many positive signs for infrastructure in 2024.

The Employment and Infrastructure Investment Law is more than two years into its five-year funding cycle, with a third of the money disbursed, and experts say its momentum is growing. The result of this financing are emerging and a wave of IIJA-funded projects will be completed by 2024, particularly in the roads and bridges sector.

Beyond dollars, Maria Lehman, vice chair of the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council and past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, sees a more holistic, creative and collaborative approach to the industry.

“[The pandemic] it’s changed the propensity to fight change, because you have to deal with the fight you’re dealing with, and that means doing things differently and same, same, same won’t do,” he said Lehman. a much greater acceptance of this than there has been in the past.”

Here are three infrastructure-related trends that builders can expect to see more of in 2024:

Revised Federal Regulations

With a flood of public money comes revised regulations for civil builders.

“There are so many ways you can hit a wall right now if you’re taking federal funds,” said Jennifer Flickinger, a partner in the government contracts group at HKA Global, a construction risk management consultancy.

For example, in August, the White House clarified the rules on which construction materials must be produced for federal infrastructure projects in the US through its Guidelines Build America, Buy America. too updated the Davis-Bacon Acteffectively raising wages for government jobs, and announced a final rule that will require project labor agreements on federal construction projects cost $35 million or more.

Amid the flood of funding and tax credits, builders who historically haven’t done federal work are taking publicly funded jobs, and these new entrants are at greater risk of accidental default, Flickinger said.

For example, builders seeking clean energy credits may not understand how they are subject to the Davis-Bacon rules. And to comply with BABA, builders must research where certain materials come from, where vendors get them, and how best to get them to the job site on time.

Historically, increases in federal funding have also meant more audits, Flickinger said.

“In the beginning, contractors should take a step back, really understand this funding source, [and] understand those requirements,” Flickinger said. “Where the funds come from really determines what rules you have to meet.”

There are also more regulatory changes on the horizon: a proposal rule relating to the certification of the cyber security maturity modelwhich conveys the Defense Department’s information security requirements for civilian contractors, will likely be completed by 2024, Flickinger said.

This could lead to new stipulations, including email encryption and restrictions on the use of equipment from certain countries. Progress is also expected Buy net requirementswhich aim to green the federal government’s procurement practices.

More digitization

While infrastructure projects have used digital platforms for everything from blueprints to document management for some time, the complexity and capability of these tools is expanding rapidly, said the global partner of HKA and civil engineer Caryn Fuller.

“Some of the challenges we have are [whether or not we are] actually using these programs properly,” Fuller said. “It is [important to make] Make sure everyone who is using these platforms is properly trained and knows what platform they are using.”

In other words, while the technology can increase the productivity of builders, it’s not without its challenges: Latecomers to a job may not receive adequate training on how to use a platform and “may not necessarily know the proper protocol and procedures,” Fuller said. Incorrect data entry could result in some project members not having access to the information they need.

Increasing connectivity also opens up new types of risk: a whole lot of cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure in the last year, it has hit the energy sector harder, which is subject 39% of all critical infrastructure attacks. december Ransomware affects water and wastewater infrastructure he also highlighted the risk to these sectors.

To help protect against cyber threats, civilian contractors are subject to Controlled Unclassified Information Policies, which are the federal government’s ever-changing requirements for sharing and safeguarding information.

“We’re seeing more stressors from bad players than we’ve seen in the past,” Lehman said, and that requires hardening infrastructure and being careful with digital information sharing. “[Bad actors] they’re looking for the weak link, they’re not looking for Fort Knox.”

New procurement and delivery methods

Delivery methods for massive infrastructure projects are rapidly diversifying beyond classic design-and-build approaches, said Jill Kurth, AECOM’s Los Angeles Metro executive.

“[Increasingly, project teams are] bring contractors directly into the dialogue, and [they are] talk about not just delivery strategy, but how to structure contracts to make them more efficient and effective to acquire,” Kurth said.

For example, there are ways to bundle RFPs to be able to bid on projects at scale or to better share procurement risk with clients. At the same time, builders are getting involved in the process much earlier, so there is more collaboration, risk sharing and transparency among the many actors involved in bringing a project to life.

While this is generally considered a positive development in the industry, it also brings more complexity. For example, as contractors outsource procurement work, there is a risk of communication breakdowns with subordinates and suppliers over material quality or deadlines. At the same time, the BABA and Buy Clean requirements add another challenge.

“The biggest risk from a supply chain standpoint is really understanding where products are made,” Flickinger said. “The further you get away from everything that’s going on in your own company and your own business, the harder it is to make sure you’re 100% compliant.”

Still, while supply chain vulnerability remains an issue, the cracks are thinning and industry professionals are adapting to the new reality, according to Lehman.

Public and private customers often pre-purchase items that have long lead times, such as certain valves, traffic signal controllers and transformers, to avoid delaying a project, he said. This advance planning benefits both suppliers and builders.

“We have too much to do and not enough people or resources to do it, so we have to do it differently,” Lehman said. “That’s exciting for me.”