Infrastructure: Transformation for Schools, Jobs, Health & Safety

from Transformational Infrastructure*

What do you think? Is it an education issue when children are demoralized by schools in disrepair? According to the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, spending on the nation’s schools fell $9 billion in 3 years from ’04-07. The NEA’s best estimate to bring nation’s schools into good repair is $322 billion.

What about jobs? Is it readying the workforce for the new economy when nearly half of American households are without access to bus or rail transit, and only 25% have what they consider to be a good transportation option? Instead, Americans spend 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost to the economy of $78.2 billion or $710 per motorist.

In terms of job creation, over 190,000 jobs are created in redevelopment of brownfield sites, yet funding for cleanup of the worst toxic waste sites has declined to its lowest level since ‘86.

Do you think infrastructure impacts health & safety when drinking water is unavailable? Leaking pipes lose an estimated 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water a day. How about when

· there is a growing volume of electronic hazardous waste
· 50 year old levees pose augmented risk to failure
· $7 billion in unfunded maintenance of parkland impacts air quality

These are just a few of the alarming conditions that gave our nation a “D” on the 09 Report Card described by Andrew Herrmann, ASCE,

Friday at Transformational Infrastructure presented by the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and CUNY Institute for Urban Systems. An estimated 15 categories need a 5 -year investment at $2.2 trillion.

Key infrastructure solutions proposed:

· Increase federal leadership to address the crisis
· Promote sustainability & resilience to protect the natural environment & withstand hazards.
· Develop national, state & regional plans that focus on system-wide results
· Address life-cycle costs & ongoing maintenance to meet the needs of current & future users.
· Increase & improve investment from all stakeholders.

The disconnect in our old-style, silo thinking about education, jobs, health and security with regard to infrastructure does not serve our national interest. These issues are connected. We know this - we’ve advised it. When an individual neglects home in the face of crisis abroad, there’s a cost. So it is for a nation. It is time to do for ourselves what we are doing elsewhere for others.

For more information: http://www.asce.org reportcard.

For further information about Transformational Infrastructure a conference presented by the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and CUNY Institute for Urban Systems go to http://baruch.cuny.edu/realestate