Massachusetts Infrastructure Report Card Now Underway!

The BSCES report card committee is excited to finally kick off the effort to research and develop an infrastructure report card for the State of Massachusetts. An infrastructure report card is a document that scores different areas of the nations or state’s infrastructure based on condition and functionality. Information in this report is utilized in advocacy efforts to pursue policies and funding that positively impact the civil engineering industry.  Each state can draft a unique report card that is focused on the state’s needs and issues.

Landing page for the Massachusetts state report card on the ASCE website. It currently links
to a 2013 document prepared by BSCES in response to ASCE’s 2013 national report card
summarizing current and future methods to improve Massachusetts infrastructure called
“Raising the Grade in Massachusetts.”

This group of volunteers came together over the past 16 months in part from outreach by the BSCES Government Affairs & Professional Practice (GA&PP) Committee and is ready to begin work. For this first Massachusetts state report card, we decided to take on writing the following report categories: Bridges, Roads, Transit, Drinking Water, Stormwater, Wastewater and Dams. These categories represent major infrastructure in the state and future report card updates can consider adding other categories depending on the committee’s interest.

The committee hosted a training session at Kleinfelder’s Boston office on November 18, 2025, led by Josh Shumaker, Director of Policy Research & Industry Relations at ASCE. The training covered the steps necessary to develop a report card and best practices for success. Following the training, we organized smaller groups responsible for each report category and prepared a detailed schedule. We expect to complete the report card in about 12 months with a release scheduled for early 2026.  Our tasks over the next year include research, writing, developing grades, reviewing narrative, coordinating with ASCE for publication, and release to the public.  This will be followed by promoting the report card – the fun part!

The purpose of the Massachusetts report card is to tell the incredible story of the Commonwealth’s historic infrastructure accomplishments and advocate for funding to support investments to maintain safe, reliable infrastructure into the future. ASCE’s state and national report cards earn media attention, gain lawmaker interest, and provide an accessible starting point for conversations by those interested in this important topic. The report card benefits from stakeholders like you adding voices to the ongoing public discussion.

According to the ASCE report card website, “the concept of a report card to grade the nation’s infrastructure originated in 1988 with the congressionally chartered National Council on Public Works Improvement report, Fragile Foundations: A Report on America’s Public Works. A decade later, when the federal government indicated they would not be updating the report, ASCE used the approach and methodology to publish its first Report Card on America’s Infrastructure in 1998.” A new national report card is prepared every four years, with the last being 2021, and the “methodology of the Report Card has been rigorously assessed so as to take into consideration all of the changing elements that affect America’s infrastructure.” States began developing their own infrastructure report cards during this time, often through the volunteer efforts of the local ASCE section and branch members. Massachusetts is one of three states without a state report card.

“Elected officials from both sides of the political aisle and at all levels of government regularly cite the Report Card, beginning with the very first release in 1998, when President Bill Clinton referenced the Report Card’s grade for Schools. News reports reference the Report Card on a daily basis, with mentions in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as on National Public Radio, NBC’s Today Show, 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News, and HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, among many others.”

The report card committee looks forward to updating BSCES members as we get closer to completing this important document!

Please reach out to bsces@engineers.org or Govern.Affairs.Comm@bsces.org for inquiries about the initiative.