In 1998, the American Society of Civil Engineers developed and published its first report card on the infrastructure of America, assigning letter grades to various areas of infrastructure importance. Since that time, ASCE has updated the report card in 2001, 2003, 2005 and most recently early 2009. This latest report card, 2009reportcard , explains and illustrates the problems and difficulties that our country is having in maintaining its critical infrastructure and recommends possible solutions to consider to fix these deficiencies. In addition, many states have developed their own report cards to highlight areas of concern on their local levels.
At their Spring 2008 meeting, the Ohio Council of local ASCE sections formed a committee to develop a Report Card on the State of Ohio's infrastructure. Kevin Carpenter was appointed as chairperson of the report card committee. Solicitations went out in April and May via the Council and sections to invite members to participate on the committee. The first meeting, held in June 2008, determined which areas of infrastructure the committee believed was important to investigate. The categories that were selected included:
- Aviation
- Bridges
- Dams
- Drinking Water
- Electricity
- Parks and Recreation
- Railroads
- Roads
- Schools
- Transit
- Wastewater
