GAI Contributes to ASCE 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) publishes state-by-state Report Cards that grade the status of vital U.S. infrastructure. Hear about the expertise that helped create the ASCE 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card from GAI contributor Arica DiTullio, PE, MS.


Q: Can you tell us about your involvement with ASCE?

ASCE Report CardArica DiTullio: I’ve been involved with ASCE for several years, and in addition to working on the 2018 Pennsylvania Infrastructure Report Card and its associated promotional efforts, I’ve taken part in the organization’s networking events and professional education and development events.

Q: What’s the goal of the ASCE 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card?

Arica: The Report Card presents a qualitative assessment of a variety of the state’s infrastructure components. It’s a tool that helps communicate the condition of the state’s infrastructure to residents, businesses, and policy-makers. ASCE conducts its Infrastructure Report Card initiative on a national level, though not every state produces a new Report Card within the same time frame.

Pennsylvania’s 2018 Report Card includes such infrastructure components as drinking water, schools, transit, ports, parks and recreation, and much more.

Q: What was your role in creating the 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card?

Arica: I was the ‘category champion’ for the solid waste portion. I led a group of volunteers and collaborators in data-gathering, research, grading, and producing the write-up.

Q: Where does the information that makes up the 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card come from?

Arica: All the information was obtained from publicly available sources—and for the solid waste portion that I worked on most of the data came from municipalities and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Q: Why were you selected to take part in creating the 2018 PA Infrastructure Report Card?

Arica: Infrastructure Report Card category champions were selected by ASCE, and the other contributors were volunteers; the overall Pennsylvania Report Card was the work of some 75 volunteers, almost all of whom have civil engineering backgrounds.

I was selected to lead my portion because of my qualifications as a civil engineer coupled with my experience in solid waste management. My expertise in the area definitely helped me lead my team in collecting relevant information from a variety of reliable sources, analyzing the data, and presenting the findings in a cohesive and comprehensible way.

When producing the write-up we really needed to consider how to present the Report Card’s findings in a straightforward way that anyone could understand—making it relevant for both an engineer and your next-door neighbor as well. We placed a lot of focus on making the results understandable by people of all backgrounds.

Q: And what is your overall personal takeaway from being involved in the Infrastructure Report Card?

Arica: Overall, I’d say that on a national level the United States would benefit from increased policy-making and funding focused on infrastructure improvement.

Contact Arica DiTullio PE, MS, 412.399.5455, for more information about GAI’s solid waste management and environmental services.


Arica DiTullioArica DiTullio, PE, MS, specializes in civil and environmental engineering with experience in environmental compliance, water quality analysis, hydrologic and hydraulic computations, site grading, erosion and sediment control, and stormwater management with a comprehensive understanding of federal, state, and local permitting and regulations.

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