The innovative power of 3D printing, commercial drones, self-driving vehicles, electricity storage, and the Internet of Things are pushing the North American infrastructure market toward a tipping point, according to the latest study by a infrastructure advisory firm.
CG/LA Infrastructure’s Building Prosperity: 2015 Strategic 100 North American Infrastructure Report identifies those strategic projects, all incorporating transformative technologies to unleash $376 billion in infrastructure opportunities over the next 12 months.
“Advanced technologies promise a transformation in the marketplace that will propel revolutionary new undertakings and modernize legacy projects in highways, bridges, rail, the power grid, and urban mobility,” CG/LA Infrastructure President and CEO Norman Anderson said. “Our challenge as an industry is to create a new market framework, creating better projects, faster approvals, and channeling great ideas into prosperity driving reality.”
The Strategic 100 by Region. The Gateway Project – the critical tunnel between New York and New Jersey – was ranked number one for 2015, a project crucial to the prosperity of the New York region. On a regional basis: New England had eight projects, valued at $28.5 billion; the Mid Atlantic had 17 projects, valued at $43.8 billion; the South/Southeast had 24 projects, valued at $39.1 billion; the Midwest had 5 projects, valued at $20.3 billion; and the West had 26 projects, valued at $163.6 billion. Canada had 12 projects on the list, collectively valued at $61.2 billion and Mexico had 8 projects, valued at $19.9 billion.
The Strategic 100 Rating System. In addition to technology, the Strategic 100 projects were ranked by CG/LA’s proprietary model, which scored projects according to the following criteria:
- Competitiveness - How does this project align with a region or state’s economic needs?
- Productivity - How does this project add value to a community by enabling improved economic productivity?
- Sustainability - Does this project enable a city to operate more sustainably?
- Business Opportunity - Does this project have a business opportunity in the next 3-12 months?
- Job Creation - What is the projected impact on creation of jobs on the local economy?
The Strategic 100 comes on the heels of CG/LA’s Blueprint 2025 initiative launch, an 18-month, 100-nameplate initiative for U.S. CEOs to craft an infrastructure plan for the administration that will take office on Jan. 20, 2017. Blueprint 2025 aims to raise infrastructure to a priority level on par with national security while generating long-term, bipartisan support through at least the next three election cycles.
