NASHVILLE—Tennessee needs at least $41.5 billion of public infrastructure improvements during the five-year period of 2014-2019 according to a new report by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR). The need for public infrastructure improvements as reported by state and local officials is down $299 million (0.7%) compared with the year before, mainly because of a $611 million decrease in the Transportation and Utilities category that was driven by $1 billion in decreased costs for road projects already in the inventory.