US Infrastructure

US Infrastructure PDF

Author: Aman Khan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-17

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 1351007017

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This book presents an in-depth look at US infrastructure and its challenges in the 21st century. While infrastructure has received considerable attention in recent years, much of the discussion has concentrated on physical, economic, or noneconomic conditions. The Trump administration has heightened interest in the topic, promising infrastructure spending during his tenure, yet little demonstrable progress has been made. This book brings together a multi-disciplinary perspective—structural, technological, economic, financial, political, planning, and policy—that has been largely absent in discussions on the subject, to provide a clearer and broader understanding of the challenges facing US infrastructure. The book is divided into three parts: Part I looks at the challenges from a structural, technological, and sustainability perspective; Part II from an economic, productivity, and finance perspective; and Part III from an institutional, security, and political perspective. Written primarily for policy makers, managers, and administrators in public and private organizations, as well as individuals and academics with an interest in the future of US infrastructure, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the US infrastructure problem, its causes and consequences, and suggests timely, specific measures that may be taken at the state, local, and federal levels to improve and better secure our roads, transit, public buildings, economy, and technology.

Rethinking America's Highways

Rethinking America's Highways PDF

Author: Robert W. Poole

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-08-03

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 022655760X

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A transportation expert makes a provocative case for changing the nation’s approach to highways, offering “bold, innovative thinking on infrastructure” (Rick Geddes, Cornell University). Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, with exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America manages its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways.

Public Works, Public Wealth

Public Works, Public Wealth PDF

Author: Everett Ehrlich

Publisher: CSIS

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 9780892064786

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America's infrastructure policy is at a crossroads, caught between rising demands and outdated programs to address them. Airports, highways, ports, and harbors are severely congested. Drinking water and wastewater facilities, bridges, dams and school buildings are in poor condition. The cost of these failures is great: time is lost to delay, commerce is impeded, business productivity is compromised, and lives are threatened. Yet federal investment in public infrastructure has decreased steadily as a share of both the economy and federal spending over the past two decades. The risk of under investment is only part of the equation. Of equal or greater concern is the prospect that the investments we make are not the right ones. Our nation's infrastructure policy favors new construction even when maintenance, renovation, and improved management offer better responses to the problem. Infrastructure policy favors politics over sound investment principles. And as our programs fail to change in response to new realities, additional spending will be progressively less able to solve our infrastructure problems. This report outlines the considerations involved in rethinking infrastructure policy--the types of infrastructure needed, the technology for providing it, and the sophistication of the various actors involved. It makes a case for folding public school buildings into the national infrastructure policy framework. Finally, the report presents a plan to restructure the federal role in infrastructure provision that would improve returns on public investment and strengthen America's economic foundations for the twenty-first century.

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