As inflation rises, infrastructure projects become harder to fund
Despite the recent one trillion-dollar investment into infrastructure that President Biden signed into law, many local governments are still being affected by inflation. Infrastructure projects that would be funded through the act cos more than they used to, making the projects harder to finance and complete. Many leaders are reprioritizing projects, simply lowering the scale significantly, or putting them on hold. This is because even with the money from the federal government, many projects involving asphalt, steel, and other building materials cost too much to afford right now due to the ever-rising prices of building materials. "Those dollars are essentially evaporating," explained Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "The cost of those projects is going up by 20%, by 30%, and just wiping out that increase from the federal government that they were so excited about earlier in the year."