John Hennessy III,
P.E.
While citizens have varying views and expectations regarding the role and responsibilities of local governments, most would agree that providing, maintaining, and updating public infrastructure is a fundamental governmental responsibility. On the local level, that responsibility extends from streets and buses, to sewer and water systems, to fire and police equipment, to parks and cultural facilities, to public buildings that citizens use to access government services.
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“The idea of green infrastructure in parks is beautifully suited to the whole notion of community engagement and empowerment…Citizens often feel they don’t have a voice in how their government works and the projects that they commit to and how money is spent, but in the notion of putting green infrastructure stormwater management in parks, it opens up a whole new realm of how and what citizens can do to influence the outcomes of how stormwater is managed.”
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This factsheet outlines key insights that will help policy and market makers understand how to meet investor expectations and expand the infrastructure market.
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…most Americans continue to only have one option for high-speed Internet access, according to the Federal Communications Commission, often a cable network with limited upload speeds. Smart cities are realizing they need to act or risk being left behind. However, many do not want to embrace the purely municipal model, where the city would engage in direct competition with existing providers…One way for those communities to move forward is with a public-private partnership (PPP). But for all the excitement around this model, there are few concrete examples from which to draw lessons.
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Water, along with adequate roads and a skilled workforce, set the bar for economic growth. A deficiency in any of these three key factors lowers the state’s ability to attract, retain, and grow businesses and jobs for advancing citizen welfare. By itself, investment in water infrastructure would add 36 thousand jobs each year for 20 years in New Mexico, according to the National Association of Water Companies. But funding is in decline to support such an aggressive investment plan.
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Today, cash-strapped U.S. cities and states are selling or leasing government assets, particularly transportation infrastructure. The sale or lease of such assets can be beneficial to the public; but the long-term nature of these deals makes them potentially far more risky than contracts to run bus service or repair city-owned vehicles.
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Cook County’s transportation system is one of its greatest assets, having a central—even dominant—role in the national and international movement of people and goods. As this plan Connecting Cook County will outline, this competitive advantage is being threatened by the actions other regions are taking, as well as the Chicago region’s own limits in confronting significant challenges.
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This video takes a look at how the U.S. Department of Energy is helping to support a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles at Mammoth Cave National Park, reducing carbon emissions and preserving the park’s natural beauty.
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Financing the various rail infrastructure projects will be challenging. Congress has not funded the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program—a program used to fund passenger rail projects—since fiscal year 2010 and appropriations to Amtrak have remained relatively steady at about $1.4 billion over the last 5 years. One potential source of funding is FRA’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, which is a $35 billion loan and loan guarantee program to finance, among other things, freight and passenger rail facilities. Since program inception in 1998 about $2.7 billion in loans have been executed, and no loan guarantees have been made.
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We visit the Salt Lake International Airport where the Utah Department of Transportation Division of Aeronautics is headquartered. Director Pat Morley explains what they do and why it’s so important to UDOT’s mission of innovating transportation solutions that strengthen Utah’s economy and enhance quality of life.
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