John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Conversations with infrastructure experts and stakeholders from around the U.S.
We’ve built a platform that we hope allows a broader spectrum of investors to access infrastructure investment directly, and on the flipside, allow those that require financing for infrastructure to tap into a broader pool of investors…By giving direct access, by putting the investor as close as possible to the underlying asset, stripping out intermediaries, we hope to be able to pass on a greater share of the returns from the asset to the ultimate investor.
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…both with the Trump administration and certainly with the Congress, there’s an acknowledgment that we need to do more, that infrastructure is the backbone of a thriving economy…Now, the differences begin pretty soon after you get past that statement, because I think there is great division in the country about whose responsibility it is. The Trump administration has sought to incentivize state and local governments in the private sector…I think state and local governments, certainly the members of our association, AASHTO, the state Departments of Transportation, see the federal component of investment in transportation infrastructure as critically important because it really is the foundation upon which state DOTs build to provide for the transportation investment needs within their states or within their communities.
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In some of the cities, the mayors have really stepped up…The action is really in the cities and in the states where you have governors and mayors with a vision, using some of their own resources, using private resources, using PPP’s and making things happen. You need to have leadership by elected officials, by people who are charged with the responsibility for infrastructure. Whether it’s transit, whether it’s airports, whether it’s highways, it’s incumbent upon the elected leaders to have the vision and the courage and the ability to really make things happen. Citizens really rely on the leaders in their cities and states to fix the infrastructure, improve the infrastructure, enhance the infrastructure, and it’s going on in many different places around the country as there’s a real void in Washington DC.
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Big infrastructure projects, typically, are one of those places where the government really does have a big role and the private sector has a big role and it’s sort of not a place for citizen volunteerism at the larger scale. I think there’s a real role for local civic and local planning…While a community may not be capable of figuring out whether the Tappan Zee Bridge needs to be replaced, they do know that this particular road floods every time it rains and that’s something that the government people often don’t know.
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I think there are a variety of very seismic forces that have been occurring in the American economy and America culturally which are driving to questions about cities. Historically, America has always understood itself and its future somewhat within the model of moving away from town, moving away from cities. That all has now flipped itself on its head in that more and more people are now moving back into cities. They’re staying in cities and cities are growing in ways that we probably didn’t expect 20-25 years ago when the suburban model or the exurban model was where we thought our future was going to be. That is a huge cultural shift for the United States.
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We didn’t get here to the state of our current infrastructure overnight. It took us decades. It took us a generation to get here. The report card obviously is a tool to help convey the condition so everybody understands what we’re talking about and the impact on our lives. While we’ve been doing it now for some time, it has taken time to build that momentum, to build the understanding so that, today, it is being regularly used as a communication point and regularly used to help drive the conversation at all political levels: at the state, federal and local levels.
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We do not lack any capacity to do what’s needed to be done. We have thousands of engineering firms and contracting firms who are ready to take on an increased workload, and what we’re waiting for is for government agencies and private parties to pull the trigger to unleash that capacity. The constraints on moving forward can be summarized in two words: political will. There’s insufficient political will to undertake such a program, both in the administration and in the Congress.
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Milo E. Riverso, Ph.D., P.E., CCM, is chairman of the New York Building Congress (NYBC). Riverso was installed as chairman during the Building Congress’ Annual Membership Meeting, held on January 25th. Mr. Riverso is president and chief executive officer of STV Group, Inc. He has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of program […]
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There are so many technological advances happening in every walk of life. To a large extent, we’re starting to see more and more of those affect the way that we live and experience the city each and every day. Sometimes those are all to the good, and sometimes they have unintended consequences…Whether it’s in traffic and congestion or public safety, there’s a lot more that cities and municipalities can do to harness the potential of that technology and innovation in a way that’s a little bit more, perhaps, purposeful and thoughtful than just “more technology is always good.”
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DJ Gribbin, and others gathered at the White House, want to devolve the burden onto the local governments and the states, pretend they did something, and that’s it. It’s all ideology, and part of Paul Ryan is ideology. All the people are fighting against real investment. They’re doing it from the ideology, including the hypocrisy of Grover Norquist who blessed the five cent increase in the inland diesel tax and called it a user fee. But, if we want to increase the diesel or gas tax on trucks and cars, “No, that’s a tax, you can’t do that.” What a bunch of shit.
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