The United States has been coasting on a wave of prosperity for several decades, but much of its infrastructure was built during the middle of the 20th century and is aging and increasingly in need of a major overhaul, according to the ULI/Ernst & Young annual infrastructure report Infrastructure 2009 — Pivot Point.

Although the primary purpose of both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Act) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s new Financial Stability Plan is to provide stimulus to the lagging economy as a whole, both plans promote funding construction activity and infrastructure development as part of the solution. The details of how these programs will be implemented are still unclear, but both have the potential to revitalize U.S. infrastructure markets.

The new calendar year got off to a tough start, and while global infrastructure securities were not immune to general market forces, performance was comparatively resilient compared to many asset classes, including global equities.