When Otto Lynch began his career as a transmission designer in the early 1990s, laying out the 500-kilovolt power loop around Washington, D.C., required a team of 30 engineers and six months of handwritten calculations.
Today, Lynch says he could do the same project in a day, on his own.
āThatās not a boast,ā said Lynch, head of Power Line Systems (PLS), which is part of Bentley Systems. āItās a measure of how dramatically the tools and technology have changed.ā
The catch: That same line can still take years to build due to bottlenecks caused by permitting, which involves navigating a maze of agencies, hearings, and competing interests that hold a project in limbo.
Closing the gap between whatās possible to design and whatās possible to deliver is the core focus of Infrastructure Week 2026, which is taking place this week in Washington, D.C.
As director of infrastructure policy advancement at Bentley, Rory Linehan translates hard infrastructure problems into improved infrastructure performance on the ground, in partnership with industry associations, engineering firms, academia, and government.
In February, Bentleyās Infrastructure Policy Advancement team released a white paper titled āBuilt to Endureā with Duke University, Microsoft, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Bentley is now using its findings to help build an urban resilience digital twin of two innovative cities in North Carolina: Durham, home to Duke, and nearby Chapel Hill.
Itās the same kind of policy-to-pavement throughline that explains why Bentley participates in Infrastructure Week. The event is organized by United for Infrastructure, a coalition of some of the largest business, labor, policy, and local government organizations in the United States. The coalition launched Infrastructure Week during the first Trump administration to push for a major infrastructure bill, and the event gained momentum with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law under President Biden. It has since become, as Linehan puts it, āa national lightning rodā for the countryās needed reforms and investments.
“Citing the latest ASCE report card, U.S. infrastructure has a C grade,” he says. “We face trillions in deferred maintenance and backlog that must be resolved before we can even begin to address the massive energy, water, and mobility requirements of a thriving 21st-century economy.”
Technology help modernize antiquated systems and provide āsource of truthā to maximize transparency across federal, state, and municipal agencies for infrastructure projects.United for Infrastructure has framed its 2026 agenda as āBuilding a Stronger America.ā The big idea is to use infrastructure as a lever for national security and economic competitiveness. That framing has four core priorities: maintaining robust federal investment in U.S. infrastructure systems; cutting through the permitting delays and bureaucratic red tape that slow projects and drive-up costs; securing a long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund’s fiscal future; and investing in resilience and the skilled workforce that builds and maintains it all.
Permitting is where the math gets uncomfortable. Up to $250 billion in new infrastructure projects each year sits somewhere in the pipeline, and many projects take 5 to 10 years to clear before construction can even begin.
āIn an era where we need a lot of new energy, a lot of new water, and where mobility needs are rapidly evolving, we need shovels in the groundānot projects in a pipeline,ā Linehan says. āPermitting reform is about maintaining environmental safeguards, in fact enhancing them where we can, but streamlining federal and state policies so we can expedite those projects.ā
Technology can undoubtedly help modernize antiquated systems and make sure they fit the delivery needs of 21st-centuryĀ projects.Ā Here are someĀ examples:
- Software solutions utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) can take an environmental impact statement at submission and immediately tell the applicant whether it meets the relevant criteria. This identifies gaps before the file reaches a human reviewer and can save months of waiting. Ā
- A unified data platform can harmonize the hundreds of federal, state, and municipal agencies that today each operate on their own software with different definitions and classifications. Ā
- One key element is digital twins, the immersive 3D virtual models that hold a projectās information, including environmental data, brownfield-or-greenfield history, and design. The models can give every reviewer the same single source of truth and help accelerate permitting by ācreating more transparency and allowing everybody to access it from the same spot,ā Linehan explains.Ā
The Bigger Money Question
The other big item on this yearās agenda is surface transportation reauthorization. Federal funding for the interstate highway system runs out at the end of September, and a new bill (or continuation of the current law) must be passed before then. The work is largely funded by the Highway Trust Fund, which has not been indexed for inflation since the early 1990s, so it does not have the purchasing power it used to. This means that whatever bill emerges, there will be less margin for waste, which gives digital infrastructure technologies an even more important role.
āTechnology can help refine some of these investments, better understand where to place them, and improve the delivery of them,ā Linehan says. āThatās a big piece for us.ā
Bentley is a global maker of infrastructure engineering software that enables users to connect disparate data, build digital twins, and use AI to gain new insights and efficiencies. The companyās broader case, threaded through each of these conversations, is that reauthorizing transportation funds, navigating permitting, and safeguarding against climate change share a common core: overcoming complexity to deliver for communities. Digital tools, AI, and digital twins can help ambitious policies become a built reality.
3D models and connected data helped propel the I-95 Rappahannock River Crossing project in northern Virginia.Why State and Local Governments Sit at the center
Federal headlines aside, Linehan notes that up to 90% of U.S. infrastructure is owned or operated at the state and local level. With that much localized control, there are many different legislative and regulatory schemas to navigate. But he argues that this motley quilt of rules also creates āa fashion of innovation,ā where states naturally try to outpace their peers on delivery and reform.
ThatāsĀ whyĀ Bentley is sponsoringĀ aĀ National Governors Association breakfastĀ in Washington, D.C.,Ā onĀ MayĀ 20.Ā BentleyĀ ChiefĀ Sustainability and Education Officer Chris Bradshaw will offer remarks before Linehan joins a panel on state best practices in permitting and infrastructure governance.Ā
The Resilience Frame
Bentleyās presence at this yearās Infrastructure Week opens on a related theme. Bradshaw is delivering the keynote on resiliency at the UFI Signature Event, hosted at the Business Roundtable. Linehan ties resilience directly to climate math: on the current trajectory, the world is on course to overshoot the Paris Agreementās 1.5 Ā°C goal, and likely the 2 Ā°C goal as well. Infrastructure, according to the United Nations Office for Projects Services (UNOPS), accounts for roughly 79% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
āInfrastructure has a very large and important role to play in making sure we achieve our climate commitments,ā Linehan said. In an era of rising energy demand from data centers and electrification, that role is getting harder, not easier.
The Twin Talks Capstone
Later in the week,Ā LinehanĀ willĀ hostĀ āTwin Talks Washington, D.C.: From Paper to PlatformsāModernizing Infrastructure Permitting for the Digital Age.ā Bentley is partnering in the event with engineering firm Stantec, the American Council of Engineering Companies, and Cornell University. The program features Rick Geddes, founder of Cornellās Brookes Center for Infrastructure; Hillary VonAhsen of Kimley-Horn and ACEC; Zach Kensinger, senior legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis; Jamie Piziali, municipal ombudsman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and Tennile Rubin, Stantecās senior principal in environmental services. A joint white paper authored by Cornell and Bentley will follow, outlining where technology can be applied to the existing permitting process and what an efficient process looks like.
āThe current permitting system was much required when it was set up in the 1970s,ā Linehan said. āIt needs to be updated, and technology needs to be better applied to the processes that exist around it, so we can keep U.S. competitiveness in the age of AI, keep energy prices reasonable in an era of inflation, and deliver the new highways and transit systems the economy needs.ā
The Through Line
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was the largest ever federal investment in U.S. infrastructure. With the current law sunsetting in just a few months, quick work must be completed by Congress to reauthorize the infrastructure programs at current or even increased levels. The U.S. House of Representatives recently took a big first step when it released the text of its BUILD America 250 bill, which would keep consistent or increase the levels of infrastructure funding. For instance, the new legislation calls for the largest investment ever in bridge infrastructureā$50 billion, representing a significant jumpāalong with consistent or increased funding for innovation and technology, which would help scale digital infrastructure technologies to project sponsors nationwide.
Bentley applauds the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for its work on the bill, which represents an important, decisive step in the right direction. It adds to the historic levels of funding created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and doubles down on the narrative that technology is an indispensable partner in project delivery, permitting reform, and asset management.
FAQ:
A digital twin is an immersive 3D virtual model that bundles a project’s design, environmental data, and site history into a single platform. Instead of hundreds of fragmented federal, state, and municipal agencies operating on isolated software, it gives every reviewer the exact same “source of truth” to maximize transparency and accelerate approvals.
U.S. infrastructure currently holds a mediocre “C grade” on the latest American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report card. The nation is buried under billions, if not trillions, of dollars in deferred maintenance and backlogs that must be cleared before the economy can support 21st-century energy and mobility needs.
The recently released text of the U.S. House bill calls for a historic $50 billion investment dedicated entirely to bridge infrastructure, representing a significant jump in funding. The legislation doubles down on technology as an indispensable partner to help scale digital delivery and advanced asset management nationwide.
