Two years ago, the infrastructure law financed 40,000 projects

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Dive brief:

• Two years after President Joe Biden signed it into law, the Investment in Infrastructure and Employment Law is fueling thousands of projects across the country and has helped boost construction employment, according to a White House progress update. The five-year, $1.2 trillion federal IIJA includes $550 billion in new funding.
• The update came with state by state fact sheets already map showing projects and awards that have been identified or are ongoing.
• The White House also said the law appears to be moving forward employment in construction. “While many of the economic benefits of the legislation will occur over the coming years and decades, job gains in the construction industries suggest that some benefits have already begun to emerge,” according to the statement.

Diving knowledge:

So far, nearly $400 billion has been announced for more than 40,000 projects across the country, according to the White House. The announced funding, which is gleaned from the agency’s press releases, is preliminary and non-binding, while the awarded funding represents actual obligations, according to the White House.

Most of the IIJA’s money flows into building roads and bridges, they said White House data analyzed by CNBC, followed by rail, broadband, energy and water projects. In recent earnings calls, heads of AECOM, WSP i Granite construction he said the infrastructure law is giving his businesses a boost.

However, the The size and complexity of the IIJA pose challenges to actual implementation, according to Brookings research. Funding flows through more than 400 programs and is channeled through various federal, state and local entities. The Infrastructure Law Build America Buy America provisions established a US-made mandate for certain construction materials in all federally funded infrastructure projects. Some construction groups oppose the move, saying it could delay work and increase project costs.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, years of underinvestment in infrastructure have taken their toll. Gave US Infrastructure a “C Minus” in its most recent report card, with the country’s roads, bridges, airports and water systems rated in “poor to mediocre condition” and many in need of upgrades to withstand the impacts of climate change. The IIJA aims to mitigate this repair and resilience backlog.

Increase in employment in construction

The White House identified rapid increases in employment from January 2021 in two major construction sectors: civil and heavy engineering, up 9%, and building construction, up more than 11%. In recent months, they have been largely driven by employment growth in the construction of highways, streets and bridges, as well as the construction of non-residential buildings, especially manufacturing facilities, airports, terminals buses, factories and warehouses, his research shows.

In an effort to improve the quality of construction work, the Biden administration is also doing little updated the Davis-Bacon Actwhich establishes prevailing wages that contractors must pay workers on federal projects.

Contractor employer groups have sued the federal government over the recent final rule change in Davis-Bacon: Associated Builders and Contractors and its Southeast Texas chapter filed a lawsuit against the federal government in U.S. District Court US for the Eastern District of Texas and Associated General Contractors of America filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

while the great demand for construction workers has fluctuated in recent months, the industry’s overall need for more labor isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, said Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors. That success is a double-edged sword: struggles to find and retain workers threaten to do so curb the infrastructure ambitions of the feds.