John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Written by Mary Scott Nabers
President and CEO, Strategic Partnerships Inc.
Public pension funds represent about 18 percent of American-based institutional investment in infrastructure. And, at the end of the first quarter of this year, the number of public pension funds investing in unlisted infrastructure funds rose 12 percent from last year and 76 percent from five years ago.
Infrastructure is the foundation that makes everything in the U.S. economy possible. Infrastructure is also essential to our national competitiveness. When done right, infrastructure investments produce broad-based prosperity for American businesses and workers, facilitating social mobility and enabling access to opportunities, people, and ideas.
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Thom talks to caller Bob about the fact that we should all be upset by our national need to invest in infrastructure.
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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
The Engineering & Construction (E&C) industry strongly affects the economy, the environment and society as a whole. It touches the daily lives of everyone, as quality of life is heavily influenced by the built environment surrounding people. The construction industry serves almost all other industries, as all economic value creation occurs within or by means of buildings or other “constructed assets”. As an industry, moreover, it accounts for 6% of global GDP. It is also the largest global consumer of raw materials, and constructed objects account for 25-40% of the world’s total carbon emissions.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Montgomery County Schools an Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund grant. With funding from the grant and additional support from partners,Curriculum Associates, Golden LEAF Foundation and Dream Builders Communications, the school system launched a new initiative, “A Culture Creating Effective Systems for Success” (ACCESS). Montgomery County Schools started a one device per student (1:1) program and outfitted eight buses with WiFi hotspots.
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PWC
OXFORD ECONOMICS
Oxford Economics estimates that if conditions stay as they are – what we are calling the baseline projection – capital project and infrastructure spending growth will likely remain low, hovering at about 2%, over the coming year, before inching up in 2017 and reaching about 5% in 2020. The improvement would be driven mainly by higher oil. However, even at 5% growth, infrastructure spending growth would be well below its double-digit levels before the global financial crisis.
Description: EPA is working to bring focused attention and coordinated action in more than 50 environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed communities. This involves listening to community leaders and residents to understand their needs and then working with local, state and other federal partners to leverage our collective resources in support of local goals. In […]
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Since the very beginning of professional sports, cities have been contributing public funds to the constructions of stadiums in the hopes that such facilities would benefit their communities economically and culturally. However, more and more research calls the public sponsorship of sports into question. Is it truly advantageous for cities to invest in sports facilities, or would cities do better to reroute public funds to other community-building projects?
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The USDOT has pledged up to $40 million (funding subject to future appropriations) to one city to help it define what it means to be a “Smart City “and become the country’s first city to fully integrate innovative technologies – self-driving cars, connected vehicles, and smart sensors – into their transportation network.
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Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) addresses the house floor on issues of transportation infrastructure. “So now I’ve taken to calling us 4th world,” said DeFazio. “We used to be the world’s leader in infrastructure and now we’re vaulting over everybody, including places like Zimbabwe, to the back of the pack.”
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