Congress passed a $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill on Friday – and it’s both a massive and somewhat limited investment in everything from roads to bridges to water pipes.

Only $ 550 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and $ 1.2 trillion Jobs Act is new spending, which will be spread over five years. About $ 650 billion of the spending in the bill would have been allocated to existing transportation and highway programs under previously allocated appropriations.

The new money from the bill (also known as the bipartite infrastructure framework, or BIF) will go to a wide range of projects, including highway repairs, high-speed internet services, and investments in electric buses. Notably, the infrastructure bill was supported by both Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans, and was the culmination of several years of attempts to advance infrastructure legislation that has passed through presidential administrations.

While this is a historic investment, however, the legislation allows only a fraction of the funding needed to address all of America’s infrastructural challenges. In some specific categories of the bill, including the replacement of lead water pipes and broadband, it will likely take much more than what has already been allocated to fully address the issues of access, safety and security. ‘equity. The bill includes $ 15 billion specifically for treating lead pipes, for example, while experts estimate it will take $ 60 billion to actually replace every lead pipe in America.

Yet passage of the bill – which contains critical funding the country has needed for decades – is significant and a significant down payment for future investments.

“Finally, infrastructure week,” joked President Joe Biden on Saturday, referring to the fact that President Donald Trump has often declared it “infrastructure week”, only to ensure that no progress is made on the legislation. infrastructure. “We did something that was long overdue, that has been talked about for a long time in Washington, but that has never been done.”

What’s in the invoice

The $ 550 billion in new spending includes significant increases in funding for transportation, internet access and clean water, much of which will be distributed to states who will then allocate the funds to regional projects.

Overall, funding for various provisions is lower than what Biden initially requested in his U.S. Jobs Plan, highlighting the compromises made between Democrats and Republicans in reaching the final version of the bill. Last March, Biden requested $ 100 billion for broadband, while the bill includes $ 65 billion; he also asked for $ 159 billion for roads and bridges and ended up with $ 110 billion.

Below is an overview of the legislation:

• $ 110 billion for roads and bridges: It is estimated that 173,000 miles of roads and 45,000 bridges are in major need of maintenance, and the biggest dollars in the bill would go to making them more structurally sound and repairing damage like potholes.
• $ 66 billion for passenger and freight rail transport: The bill aims to modernize existing rail services and extend lines to new geographic areas. Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn said the money, which represents the largest federal investment the rail service has received since its inception in 1971, will be used to enhance its offerings in the Northeast Corridor and increase its presence in no less than 160 communities.
• $ 65 billion to expand broadband access: The bill aims to provide high-speed Internet access to millions of Americans who currently do not have it, and includes funds for the deployment of broadband in rural areas and on tribal lands. In addition, it contains funds for vouchers to help low-income families afford Internet access.
• $ 65 billion to modernize the electricity grid: A key element of the legislation aims to strengthen the resilience of the electricity grid in the face of an increasing number of natural disasters, including forest fires and hurricanes. It is also dedicated to the construction of new power lines and the improvement of the renewable energy supply infrastructure.
• $ 55 billion for water and wastewater: The measure attempts to tackle water quality in a number of ways: it includes $ 15 billion to replace lead pipes, $ 10 billion to remove contaminants in drinking water and more than $ 20 billion. dollars for projects that meet broader drinking water and wastewater needs.
• $ 39 billion for public transit: These funds would make it possible to repair existing public transport lines, to modernize them and to facilitate access to them. A key goal is to make existing bus and train fleets greener, including by introducing more zero-emission buses and removing those that are not.
• $ 25 billion for airports: The bill seeks to upgrade air traffic control equipment and tackle long-standing repairs and maintenance that airports across the country need, such as runways and terminals. .
• $ 17 billion for ports and waterways: The bill attempts to reduce pollution near ports and alleviate congestion in order to streamline access and traffic to many places.
• $ 7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers: This funding includes $ 7.5 billion to establish a strong national network of electric vehicle chargers, the first system of this scale, and an investment considered essential for the adoption of electric vehicles.
• $ 1 billion to reconnect communities: In the past, roads, highways and bridges have been built to separate communities of color from white communities, an issue this bill seeks to address by removing existing barriers and building new infrastructure.

The United States needs many more weeks of infrastructure

These investments make significant strides in tackling the country’s infrastructure problems, although they are not enough to resolve them completely.

Across a range of arrangements, including clean water, public transport and broadband, experts believe that much more funding is needed to fully address the issues facing different cities and states. . The bill contains $ 39 billion for transit, for example, but the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that U.S. transit systems need around $ 176 billion worth of work right now and will need nearly $ 100 billion more by the end of the decade.

The success of the bill will also depend heavily on its implementation, which will vary from state to state. For many programs, the federal government would have to allocate a specific amount of funding to the states, which will then distribute the money to different localities. During this process, many towns and cities will compete for a limited funding pool, leaving the priority of projects to the discretion of the state.

With drinking water funding, for example, each state will receive a lump sum that it can then allocate to the places it deems most in need, an approach that does not necessarily guarantee an equitable distribution of the money. As E&E News reported, an August study by the Environmental Policy Innovation Center found that states were historically less likely to distribute funds from drinking water resources to smaller, more diverse communities.

Overall, the bill is unlikely to revolutionize America’s infrastructure, or even bring its transportation systems on par with countries like Singapore and the Netherlands. But the legislation marks key progress on a relatively popular issue that previously blocked Congress and contains big investments the country has long needed. While more action is needed to fully address the issues facing the United States, this bill is, above all, a start.