Delivering Transformative Infrastructure.

In the seven months since President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law, headlines have given way to action.

To assess this progress and map the path forward, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), along with our co-hosts, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the National Smart Coalitions Partnership (NSCP), and the Innovative Infrastructure Initiative (I³), convened sixty leaders in Washington, DC, on May 17.

The group included representatives from state and local governments, nonprofits, private sector firms, and the federal government — including the White House. Here are some of the key takeaways of the daylong event:

Implementation requires tackling challenges at the local level:

Across the country, localities face common yet region-specific challenges. Participants identified complex policy requirements and local permitting as frequent pain points. They also raised concerns about the prioritization of initial capital deployment over long-term financial sustainability. When projects face obstacles related to a region’s economy or its specific environmental challenges, panelists said, it’s often unclear who is coordinating the regional agenda. Aggravating these roadblocks is a widespread lack of workforce capacity.

Equity must play a critical role in delivering infrastructure:

Successful collaboration across sectors requires participation from stakeholders with diverse knowledge. Engaging those without public-private partnership (P3) experience, including in rural communities, is particularly important. Participants encouraged leaders to work to bring local residents and representatives to the table. Open communication with communities is essential to identifying their needs, making informed decisions, and maintaining public trust.

Panelists highlighted the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP), which seeks to use public contracting practices to reduce the racial wealth gap.

Solution pathways must cut across traditional silos:

Panelists argued for a holistic, systems-level approach. Broadband, energy, transportation, and housing are all interrelated. Each modality therefore should be treated as a part of the whole, rather than as discrete pieces. Participants also identified the opportunity to use catalytic demonstration projects to promote cohesion at the state, county, and city levels. Successful projects will help various levels of government see themselves as collaborators, not competitors, for federal grants.

Participants identified their four concrete priorities moving forward: (1) redesigning RFPs to facilitate innovation in response to challenges and learnings; (2) building the capacity to run effective P3s in local governments, including by providing technical assistance to rural and disadvantaged communities; (3) dedicating resources to grow the workforce pipeline; and (4) making the contracting process more accessible to Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). Through it all, participants emphasized the importance of studying the successes and failures of IIJA-funded projects—starting now. Doing so will inform lawmakers on how to build on successes and learn from failures.

The greatest failure, participants felt, would be to miss the generational opportunity that the IIJA provides. Delivering transformative infrastructure requires localities to learn lessons across state lines, to replicate what works, and avoid what does not. Our partners at the I³ will be using the ideas from this session to do just that. They are planning activities over the coming year to learn from the continued rollout of IIJA and improve infrastructure for all. Sign up for the I³ newsletter at theithree.com and follow I³ on LinkedIn to stay in the loop.

The Innovative Infrastructure Initiative (I³) is a consortium that strives to champion and accelerate transformative infrastructure projects that use technology and innovation to meet pressing infrastructure needs. For more information, visit I³’s website at theithree.com.

Participants discuss big ideas for the future of infrastructure.