Aerial panorama of Chesapeake Bay Bridge at sunset
Evening rush hour traffic at Queens
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
Highway I-90, Seattle
New York City
Riverside, California
US Roads and Highways System at South Florida
- A $1.2 trillion (€1 trillion) infrastructure plan introduced by the White House was approved by both Democrats and Republicans
- The plan will increase the turnover of specialized engineering and design firms by $126 billion (€106 billion) in just six years
- The package will help create 82,000 jobs in the engineering sector, with an added $62 billion (€52 billion) in wages
- Data comes from a report by the American Council of Engineering Companies
- Share prices of companies in the sector have risen by an average of 58.8% over the past year
A bipartisan compromise bridging the Democrat-Republican divide on infrastructure has been reached. New numbers give a clearer idea of what impact the measures will have, as well as the nationwide scope of President Joe Biden’s proposed reforms, now that both parties in Congress have come to a consensus.
The White House’s $1.2 trillion (€1 trillion) infrastructure plan, now endorsed by both parties in Congress, will increase the turnover of specialized engineering and design firms by $126 billion (€106 billion) in just six years.
This data comes from a recent report published by the American Council of Engineering Companies, an association representing engineering businesses in the United States.
Design of new works (as well as maintenance of existing ones) is set to become one of the fastest-growing sectors in the infrastructure world, thanks in part to this robust financial stimulus package.
The bipartisan infrastructure plan will create 82,000 jobs in the industry, amounting to an additional $62 billion (€52 billion) in employee wages. Design firms are also expected to make an additional $75 billion (€63 billion) contribution to national GDP. These will be the initial effects of Biden’s reform. Once the planning stage is over, Biden’s changes will be reflected in all phases and players involved in the construction of large-scale, complex infrastructures.
A package of important measures for the American economy
The American Council of Engineering Companies’ report on engineering and design firms also tells a second story: such a significant impact on this specific area of the construction industry suggests that the president’s measures will have a massive return on the economy as a whole.
“This is the first time we have taken a hard look at the numbers to see how a massive infrastructure investment would directly benefit America’s engineering industry,” said Linda Bauer Darr, ACEC’s president and CEO, in a press release. “If the package spurs growth in our industry of this magnitude, then the impact to the broader economy must be huge.”
US Bipartisan infrastructure bill: a plan marked by negotiation
The approved measures are the fruit of a political compromise (for now) that brought Democrats and Republicans to an agreement on a few shared objectives. The parties met in the middle after two proposals at opposite ends of the spectrum: the $2.3 trillion (€1.9 trillion) American Jobs Plan that President Biden put forth in March, and the Republican response, based on a more contained $568 billion (€480 billion) counter-proposal.
Congress’ agreement is a first step toward the measures the Biden administration plans to implement in the infrastructure sector. It’s a reflection of the need for timely intervention, as the infrastructure gap grows by the day.
According to Darr, “The historic levels of investment in the bipartisan agreement will unleash the talent and ingenuity of America’s engineering industry to transform our built environment in ways that will benefit the nation for years to come.”
Bipartisan infrastructure plan: sector’s businesses up and running again
First came the announcements, then the promises, and finally the green light for projects. The race toward American “reconstruction” has revved up the engines of the companies involved, particularly large engineering and design firms, which have now been running again for months. Companies are launching new projects and are performing at encouraging rates in the Stock Exchange.
According to consulting firm Zacks Investment Research, over the past year, share prices of companies in the sector have risen, on average, by 58.8%. This outpaces the 44.1% median rise of the S&P500, the top 500 stock market performers as reported by Standard & Poor’s**.
When the bipartisan infrastructure plan was announced on June 24, against a 0.6% stock market rise for the S&P 500, many major construction and engineering company stocks jumped an average of 3.7%. (ho fatto una media di titoli menzionati nello Zack.
These figures demonstrate the new sense of excitement surrounding the sector, and is also linked to some major projects launched in the past few weeks, including the construction of the first high-speed train in the U.S., in Texas, connecting Dallas to Houston.
America is revving up for a long period of growth by focusing on infrastructure. Companies are taking up the challenge, and are already at work inaugurating the construction sites of the future.
