Where Physical and Digital Meet: Smart City Works Infrastructure Week
The road to rebuilding America’s Infrastructure is long and winding, and despite promises from the current President, the US Congress and Senate, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 10th internationally in terms of quality of overall infrastructure.
We have all heard the stories about tens of thousands of bridges past their useful lifespan, highways that need to be rebuilt, inland waterways that are neglected, drinking water and wastewater systems that cause public safety issues.
Problems in the US are getting worse; a White House report says urban drivers spending an estimated 6.9 billion hours stuck in traffic, costing an estimated $160 billion in wasted time and fuel.
A study from the Value of Water Campaign found that if a water-reliant business, such as a brewery or a auto manufacturer, loses water service the company could lose up to $5,800 per employee per day. ASCE also found that more than $1.3 trillion in property lies in the path of under-maintained aging levees, dams, and other critical infrastructure, putting whole communities at risk. This risk has increased exponentially when factoring the surge in urbanization.
Our nation’s infrastructure has been in a slow-motion decline for decades now. Groups like the American Society of Civil Engineers have been trying to ring the alarm bell, releasing a national Infrastructure Report Card filled with D’s to let us know our infrastructure is failing – and to warn us that every day we wait, repairs become more expensive and Americans pay the cost – in lost productivity, higher costs of living and goods, and time spent sitting in traffic instead of working or being home with our families.