Transportation market update: Infrastructure bill projects ramp up

In a continuing series of conversations with IMEG market leaders and directors, Corey Stout discusses the transportation market with host Joe Payne. Corey touches on several topics, including the effects to date of the federal government’s massive infrastructure funding made available in late 2021.  

“Aside from repair and maintenance work, most of the projects have been in the planning stages and we’re seeing these projects go out for bid, two years later,” he says. Labor shortages have added to the slow-down of the process. “The state agencies have to assign the contracts and they're short-staffed; consultants have to do their work and they're short-staffed; and then the contractors have to get their work done and they’re short-staffed. But it’s coming around and we’re starting to see more and more construction going on everywhere.”  

Corey also talks about the importance of public engagement, the effectiveness of holding virtual community meetings, and the technology now being used to help motorists and pedestrians visualize and understand infrastructure projects. In one such project, IMEG created a 3D rendering and flyover video showing a combine easily moving through a proposed rural roundabout. This allayed farmers’ concerns by allowing them to “see that the intersection was going to function just fine with something as big as a combine going through it.” (Learn more.)  

As for the future, Corey says to expect more electric vehicle charging stations popping up along the highways, and, someday, the rise of drones as a means of personal conveyance and commerce. “I don't know what that's going to do to the infrastructure, but it’ll be kind of exciting to see how it’s going to go.”