Infrastructure boosters rallied for their cause earlier this month at a series of gatherings in Washington, D.C. and other U.S. locations to find ways to shrink the estimated $1.4-trillion funding gap to upgrade aging highways, bridges, water systems and other public works. But it remains unclear how much impact the high-level interchanges will have on federal legislation in this election year.
Infrastructure advocates must wait until 2020 for another crack at funding gains for highways and transit, the sector with the deepest deficit—$1.1 trillion, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates.Signed last December, the $305-billion Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act locks in higher authorizations for five years, but with increases that industry officials find disappointingly modest.