Blogpost
5.7 minute read
July 20, 2026
Every few years, another infrastructure report card reminds us that California has more work to do. The grades may change slightly, but the underlying challenge rarely does.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2025 Report Card once again gave California an overall grade of C-. From transportation and water systems to schools, parks, and public facilities, the needs are well documented.
The bigger question is why progress continues to fall short despite increased funding, better technology, and growing public support for infrastructure investment.
Funding is essential. But funding alone doesn’t deliver infrastructure.
In my experience, public agencies also need the structure to prioritize projects, align funding, manage risk, coordinate stakeholders, and keep complex capital programs moving from planning to construction.
That is where Program Management becomes a strategic necessity. At its core, Program Management enables what I call strategic delivery: the disciplined process of turning infrastructure priorities into completed projects through planning, governance, coordination, and execution.
As infrastructure programs grow larger and more complex, strategic delivery is becoming just as important as securing the funding itself.
Moving From Priorities to Progress Public agencies rarely struggle to identify infrastructure needs. They know which roads are deteriorating, which drainage systems are undersized, which facilities need modernization, and which assets are approaching the end of their useful life.
The real challenge is delivering those investments in a coordinated, transparent, and sustainable way.
A Capital Improvement Program may identify dozens of worthwhile projects, all competing for limited resources and leadership attention. The question isn’t simply what should be built—it’s what gets built first, how projects move forward together, and how agencies maintain momentum when priorities, funding, and external conditions inevitably change.
Program Management provides that framework.
That framework is what allows agencies to align projects with community priorities, available funding, organizational capacity, and long-term objectives. It helps agency leaders answer the questions that determine whether a capital program succeeds:
- Which projects are most critical to advancing our strategic goals?
- Which projects are truly ready to move forward?
- How should limited funding and staff resources be allocated?
- Where are the greatest risks to schedule, budget, or public confidence?
- What information do elected officials, executives, and stakeholders need to make informed decisions?
When those questions are answered consistently across an entire capital program agencies are better equipped to deliver infrastructure that meets today’s needs while positioning their communities for the future.
Strategic Delivery in Practice
The principles of strategic delivery are consistent across programs: establish priorities, align funding, create effective governance, manage risk, and maintain momentum.
We’ve seen these principles at work across transportation, utilities, and education programs throughout California.
City of Rialto
In the City of Rialto, Harris worked alongside City leadership to develop a Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan that prioritized approximately $163 million in infrastructure investments across transportation, drainage, parks, and municipal facilities. The plan established a framework for evaluating capital needs, aligning funding, sequencing projects, and supporting informed decision-making. Today, Harris continues to serve as Program Manager for Rialto’s expanding Capital Improvement Program, providing program controls, GIS-based asset management, executive reporting, stakeholder coordination, and delivery oversight.
The value was establishing the governance, structure, and processes needed to deliver an entire infrastructure program with greater visibility and control.
San Diego Unified School District
The infrastructure is different at San Diego Unified School District, but the delivery challenge is similar. A large bond program requires the District to balance funding, phased construction, active campuses, and long-term educational priorities across a complex portfolio. Program Management creates the governance, controls, and visibility needed to coordinate those moving parts and keep the broader program advancing.
Valley Sanitary District
At Valley Sanitary District, strategic delivery requires an even longer view. Its 12-year Collection System Infrastructure Program is a four-phase initiative to rehabilitate approximately 246 miles of sewer pipeline with an estimated construction value of $57 million. Sustained program leadership and design management helped connect capital planning, budgeting, master scheduling, and asset management so the District can adapt to changing priorities while continuing to advance critical infrastructure improvement. Three different programs. Three different infrastructure challenges. The same fundamental need: a clear framework for turning priorities into progress.
Strategic Delivery Doesn’t Happen in Silos
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that infrastructure programs succeed when disciplines work together toward a common objective.
Transportation projects affect utilities. Stormwater improvements influence roadway design. Environmental permitting impacts schedules. Funding decisions shape project phasing. Community engagement influences implementation. Every decision has downstream impacts across an entire capital program.
That’s why integrated services matter.
Strategic delivery depends on bringing planning, engineering, environmental services, funding strategy, communications, construction management, and asset management together under a coordinated Program Management framework. When those disciplines operate independently, agencies often experience delays, competing priorities, and missed opportunities. When they’re integrated, decision-making improves, risks are identified earlier, and capital programs move forward with greater confidence.
For public agencies, the value of an integrated team is not simply about efficiency. It creates stronger continuity from planning through implementation. At Harris, we bring planning, funding, design, construction, communications, and long-term asset management together within a unified Program Management framework to help clients deliver infrastructure programs that create lasting community value. Raising the Grade Requires Strategic Delivery.
The ASCE Report Card reinforces the need for continued infrastructure investment, resilience, innovation, and long-term asset management.
But the measure of success won’t be how much funding is authorized. It will be measured by how much infrastructure gets delivered.
For public agencies, delivery readiness is becoming as important as funding readiness. Capital plans and funding strategies are essential, but agencies also need the governance, leadership, and Program Management discipline to translate those investments into completed projects.
As consultants, our responsibility is to help build that capability— to connect infrastructure needs with funding, funding with implementation, and implementation with long-term community outcomes.
That’s what strategic delivery is all about.
Ultimately, California’s infrastructure future won’t be defined by the dollars we invest. It will be defined by our ability to strategically deliver the projects and programs those investments make possible. That’s how we move from infrastructure needs to community outcomes—and how we’ll begin to raise California’s infrastructure grade.
For agencies preparing for a CIP update, bond cycle, grant opportunity, or major infrastructure program, the right question is not only whether funding is available. It is whether the organization is ready to deliver.
Funding creates opportunity.
Strategic delivery creates results.
