RACINE, Wis. (September 19, 2013) – CASE Construction Equipment has partnered with award-winning author and infrastructure expert Dan McNichol to tour the U.S. and bring awareness to the challenges facing the nation’s aging infrastructure. The tour — titled Dire States: The Drive to Revive America’s Ailing Infrastructure — will make stops at CASE dealers throughout the U.S. and bring together citizens, government officials and construction professionals to build a community dedicated to advancing infrastructure-related projects. The primary focus in bringing these groups together is to identify new and innovative ways to spur the growth and development of American infrastructure and to showcase projects and communities that are already succeeding at it.
The tour will be documented heavily on the Web at DireStates.com, CASECE.com and through related social media channels.
“The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives our nation’s infrastructure a grade of D+ and estimates a needed investment of $3.6 trillion by 2020,” says McNichol. “America’s infrastructure is in trouble, and it’s not something we can gloss over when we see it on the nightly news. We’re going to barnstorm this country in an old and beat-down 1949 Hudson that is the perfect metaphor for our current infrastructure: it’s as old, rusty and energy defunct as our vital systems. Depending on this old car to get you to work everyday is as foolish as depending on our current systems for everything we need to function as a society.”
Jim Hasler, vice president of CASE Construction Equipment North America, says, “Dan brings a sharp and informed voice to the discussion on America’s infrastructure. Infrastructure plays a vital role in our quality of life, getting from one place to another safely and advancing the economic stability of the entire country. We are a nation that is still standing on the edge of a fragile recovery, and finding ways to move these projects forward will help create jobs and spur economic development and prosperity.”
The tour kicks off with a series of events in Massachusetts and will culminate with an event in March, 2014 at ConExpo in Las Vegas — one of the world’s largest construction industry trade events. McNichol is expected to bring the tour to more than 20 CASE dealerships throughout the U.S.
“Sitting and waiting for the problem to get better isn’t going to work,” says McNichol. “Through this tour, we will bring to light the hidden incremental cost of continuing to Band-Aid our infrastructure. We will build a community of professionals and thought leaders to redefine the expectations of what our infrastructure can be and establish new paths forward. Our country has stood behind infrastructure in the past through widespread project development, and it has always led to economic growth. This, almost more than any other issue facing us today, is what we should be focusing on domestically.”
For more information on the tour and an updated list of dates and events, visit www.DireStates.com.
