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America's Aging Infrastructure: What to Fix, and Who Will Pay?

February 15, 2012 at 2:11 PM by envista

Published in Knowledge@Wharton

In the U.S., infrastructure is usually silent and forgotten -- until the power goes off, the ATM stops working or a neighborhood is consumed by fire. In September, for reasons still unknown, a

54-year-old gas pipeline blew up in San Bruno, Calif., killing eight people and damaging or destroying more than 50 homes. Seven weeks earlier, a 41-year-old oil pipeline ruptured in Michigan and

spilled more than a million gallons of crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. After a catastrophe, questions fly: How could this happen? Why wasn't the equipment upgraded? What if things keep falling apart?

Tragedies such as the ones in California and Michigan also raise a broader question, says Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of Wharton's Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. "Is America ready for the 21st century?" he asks. "The answer is no."

Most experts agree that America's infrastructure needs an upgrade. Some say it needs a complete re-think.

Why Does Our Infrastructure Resemble a Third World Country’s?

February 1, 2012 at 3:10 PM by envista

Excerpt of article on governing.com

Another significant reason for so much crumbling infrastructure is our fractured political economy, where lines of authority are unclear. City hall may be nominally in charge of city streets, but on a day-to-day basis, private utility companies for phone, gas, electric, cable and Internet service are the ones tearing up the streets. Not being in the road business, their repair jobs aren’t always the best. Sometimes such companies will tear up a street immediately after it has been resurfaced, because coordination between private and public departments is difficult.

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7 Practical Ways Municipalities Can Save Money

December 27, 2011 at 9:17 AM by envista

With the recession, the budget cuts at both the Federal and State level and the rising costs of everything, today's municipality is hard pressed to come up with ways of saving money! Here are seven things that, if enacted, will definitely save your municipality money:

1. Shared Services

Sharing the burden of similar services with other departments or even with other municipalities is a big potential money saver. School systems, trash pick-up, and animal control are just a few of the possible areas where better co-operation can lead to painless spending reductions.

2. Attrition

Public employees are always quitting, retiring or dying, and you don't have to replace every one of them. Attrition is an easy way of shrinking payroll because no one gets fired and there are no unemployment payments. Of course some people simply have to be replaced, but you may find they are fewer than you think.

3. Go Green

Nothing is more popular today than environmentalism and energy efficiency saves you money! Just replacing the light bulbs in municipal buildings to higher efficiency ones can make noticeable improvements on your bottom line.

4. Software Utilization

Computers offer a fountainhead of efficiencies, with lots of great software out there for management, productivity, coordinating the public right of way among others. Don't overlook this hidden gold mine of savings. While there may be some upfront investment, the long term ROI with savings is tremendous.

Read About Envista in it World Canada- Ottawa turns to hosted utility management solution

December 12, 2011 at 12:32 PM by envista

When utilities were tired of circulating and marking up documents for public works approvals, the city went for an answer in the cloud

For businesses, dealing with city hall can be a bit like stumbling through a maze. That can be compounded on physical infrastructure projects, which not only need municipal approval but also a green light from electric, telephone, cable and other utilities. So the city of Ottawa is turning to a cloud solution for managing what is broadly called “right-of-way” public works projects to straighten things out.

Rough Road Ahead says the American Society of Civil Engineers

November 28, 2011 at 3:35 PM by envista

American Society of Civil Engineers Releases U.S. Economy, Family Budgets Report

The nation’s deteriorating surface transportation infrastructure will cost the American economy more than 876,000 jobs, and suppress the growth of the country’s gross domestic product by $897 billion by 2020, according to a new report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The report, conducted by the Economic Development Research Group of Boston, showed that in 2010, deficiencies in America’s roads, bridges, and transit systems cost American households and businesses roughly $130 billion, including approximately $97 billion in vehicle operating costs, $32 billion in delays in travel time, $1.2 billion in safety costs, and $590 million in environmental costs."