APTA President Discusses ASCE Report Card at Summit

From left: Kristina Swallow, Paul P. Skoutelas, Barry Schoch, Garrett Eucalitto, and Jason Terreri.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) held a Summit March 25 in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the release of its 2025 Report Card for America’s Future. (see related story).

APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas participated on a summit panel entitled ‘The Road Ahead: Solutions to Improve the Nation’s Transportation Network.’

Also on the panel were: Barry Schoch, senior vice president, KCI Technologies, Inc.; Garrett Eucalitto, commissioner, Connecticut DOT, and president, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO); Jason Terreri, executive director, Syracuse Regional Airport Authority, and chair, U.S. Policy Council, Airports Council International – North America; and Kristina Swallow, past president, ASCE and assistant city manager, City of Tucson, AZ, who served as moderator.

Swallow noted that since the last report card three years ago, there has been substantial federal investment in transportation infrastructure throughout the U.S., particularly through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

“We have the responsibility for delivering service every day, building capital projects, and also the business sector—the goods and services that they produce to support the industry,” said Skoutelas. “The IIJA finally recognized the need to make major investments in our infrastructure, and transportation in particular—a good portion of that for public transit. It’s never as much as we would like. It doesn’t necessarily meet all the needs, as we know, and that is what the [ASCE] Report Card is all about.”

Skoutelas praised ASCE and the Report Card. “It’s something that we look to and anticipate. The investment has meant a great deal for our agencies to be able to plan ahead; to begin to make the kind of investments to both address state of good repair needs—$150 billion plus—and also to begin to make investments to catch-up, because public transportation has been woefully underfunded for decades in our country.”