Last week we surveyed top leaders in the industry asking one simple – yet powerful- question: “What is your current perception of your Infrastructure Market?” The result, 51% of executives responded that the market is ‘getting worse’. According to Census Data and a USA Today analysis, infrastructure investment will drop 7% this year and would mark the first decline in state and local construction spending in almost 20 years. Clearly, something needs to be done.

Our survey also revealed that U.S. executives think that lack of financing is the most problematic issue facing infrastructure project development. This is scary, especially when most states are cutting their budgets while 70% of all infrastructure spending occurs at local level. Despite this dependency on an ever-shrinking public budget, only half of the states in the country have legislation that allow public-private partnerships. The United States is falling behind China in building the infrastructure that will fuel competitiveness over the next century and lack of P3 legislation deprives the states of even a full tool kit.

There are many challenges to renewing North American infrastructure competitiveness, but also many opportunities. Of US infrastructure executives surveyed, 70% see greatest opportunities for their firms in the domestic market followed by those of Canada and Mexico.

In our coming 2nd Annual North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, we will hold a series of round table discussions around financing the Next Generation’s infrastructure including PPP opportunities and the creation of the National Infrastructure Bank. We have also identified more than 400 billion dollars in the Top 100 North American Projects that, if properly funded, have the potential to produce over 500,000 jobs.