Published: Friday, September 02, 2011, 12:15 PM
Next week, President Barack Obama is expected to announce a new initiative to spur economic growth and boost job creation. Investment in our nation’s infrastructure is likely to play an important role. One of the key focus areas of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was the funding of “shovel-ready” road and bridge projects, which had received all the necessary permits and were ready for construction immediately. Advancing these projects employed thousands of construction workers during the darkest months of the recession, and equally important, the undertaking helped us maintain the safety and reliability of our infrastructure network. This dual benefit is not lost on the president; that is why he wants to make a significant down payment in its future. With a new round of investment, we would have an opportunity to not just fix our existing bridges and roads but advance “design-ready” projects that can make America more competitive. Design ready is the phase before shovel ready, and it is where the creativity and innovation of the U.S. civil engineering community can be tapped. Today, transportation agencies around the country are planning for critically important infrastructure projects but lack the funding to advance them to the design phase. Whether the goal is to design a new tunnel, bridge, high-speed rail system or airport runway, these projects are about enabling American competitiveness, economic growth and, ultimately, the creation of jobs for a variety of workers.
It is a fact that the United States is investing a far smaller amount of its gross domestic product than nations that clearly see the correlation between infrastructure spending and economic growth. A recent report from Building America’s Future Educational Fund found the United States spends 1.7 percent of GDP on infrastructure versus Canada’s 4 percent and China’s 9 percent. Other nations are looking at the future capacity of their infrastructure networks to harness a larger share of global commerce; the United States seems to be stuck attempting to patch our crumbling, outdated highways and bridges. We should be looking at how infrastructure can improve our future.
As reported by the World Economic Forum, 10 years ago U.S. infrastructure ranked sixth in the world for the quality of its overall infrastructure. Today we’re 23rd. The days of managing our infrastructure by crisis must end. The president’s proposal can help us get there.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly a quarter-million civil engineers in the United States. While their unemployment rate is not as high as that of construction workers, there are thousands of talented engineers in need of work. Harnessing their abilities to design thousands of locally needed infrastructure projects not only helps states relieve the burden on their unemployment funds but also will contribute to their tax bases. Most importantly, while shovel-ready projects can spur short-term construction jobs, it is design-ready projects that will sustain jobs in the long-term. Industry studies show that $1 invested in design produces about $10 in construction activity.
More than 50 years ago, when the Interstate Highway System was built under the leadership of President Dwight Eisenhower, America became the envy of nations around the world. And that visionary highway project provided a huge boost to U.S. economic growth for decades. If, as a nation, we made a commitment to redesign our transportation infrastructure with the goal of making it the best in the world, we could employ hundreds of thousands of talented Americans and set the stage for a new American economic renaissance. We could show our exceptionalism, not just talk about it.
Kris is the former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation and former chairman of NJ TRANSIT and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. He is principal at TKG LLC, an infrastructure consulting firm.
© 2011 NJ.com. All rights reserved.
7 comments:
A couple of things.. it looks like the quality of the transportation system is tanking, the quality of roads - it looks like roads do not last for more than two seasons, especially the pre-fab (non-asphalt) type. The same freeways seem to get built or repaired every other year . Riding in my van and in the back, I can tell you all about the quality of the roads.
This seems to exemplify the infrastructure situation..I wonder if we are going the way I see in my line of manufacturing business, Chinese or Indian fabricated quality. If you do not monitor it well, you can get quality that is very variable. If you monitor the development and creation, you can get good quality.
I hope he makes some progress.
It is a well argued, well written article. It should
be taken seriously, initiated, implemented to the
extent possible in the given circumstances. American
economy needs to be fixed in many directions, not
only for the benefit of the Americans alone, but because
of the world is inter laced and more particularly with USA.
wow.... I am proud of Kris... keep it up..
completely agree with Kris' opinion (and please let him know that he looks good in the photo too!).
However, as you know, there are always detractors on every issue. Last week I was listening to an NPR program where one observer was quite parsimonious in giving credit to Eisenhower for the highway system. His main point was that it was free market, and not government programs, that are instrumental for development. First he said, that an "almost" highway system already existed (through local "free market" development) by the time Eisenhower started his program. In other words, the highway system would have appeared by itself even if there were no government initiative. Second, he was a bit scornful of Eisenhower saying that his vision was backdated and based-on his personal experience of bad roads during his criss-crossing of the country during the first world war. In other words, again, during the fifties, a reasonable enough quasi highway system already existed, but Eishnhower was no so much aware of it.
I looked at his LinkedIn page, I couldn’t help noticing that there was a sudden change in career trajectory shortly after the 2010 election which brought in a Republican administration. And after noticing his work history with Dems like Andrews and Gephardt, it caused me to wonder if there could somehow be a connection between these two events…..
now that he’s in the private sector he can find a way to avoid the ebb and flow of political fortunes the way Washington beltway lobbying firms on K Street do – by having partners with feet in all relevant camps.
It reminds me of the strategic advice I once heard about where to find sustainable business momentum when in the middle of a technology revolution. Namely, that the ones who most-reliably made fortunes (and maintained them over the long-term) during and after the California Gold Rush of 1849 were the ones selling goods and services to the miners. So today we have Wells Fargo (who started by transporting gold back east in its stage coaches for the miners) and Levi Strauss (who supplied them with sturdy yet cheap pants made of denim). I learned this, btw, when I was at Wells Fargo as it celebrated the financing of Levi Strauss Company going private.
Nobody knows of any remaining wealth from the few successful miners.
Accordingly, when it comes time for the current commissioner, James Simpson, to be cashiered, as it surely will, perhaps Kris can persuade him to join a firm to be called Kolluri Simpson, LLC, which will have relationships with and opportunities to consult and manage projects for any administration.
It is a surprise to me that US spends only 1.6 % of their GDP on infrastructure. If this trend continues, their roads will end up like the one in India ..that is in a matter of next 25 yrs. Learning from China , we learn that Infrastructure and power have to be put in place upfront for any FDI to materialize. At the same time it cannot be a pipe dream like that of Dubai where they tried to build infrastructure without any foundation. It was anachronism.
nice article from Kris. Now that I wear an "economic development" hat I am happy to see people in the U.S. thinking and writing about infrastructure. But I must say, I had no idea that there was such a thing as an infrastruture consulting firm. Cool.
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