How to Improve America's Infrastructure in Four Easy Steps

Rob Palter shares insights from a recent round of interviews with "government leaders, private investors, and private operators in the field of infrastructure" about how the United States can improve the poor state if its infrastructure.

1 minute read

June 18, 2014, 8:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell

When it comes to improving U.S. infrastructure, "regulatory and political issues stall the process, prolonging construction and development," according to Palter's article. "Some of this is inevitable and positive, such as improved environmental planning and better safety standards. But in too many cases, projects undergo death by a thousand meetings. Most solutions to these process problems have tended to be legislative in nature (e.g., PPP frameworks, new infrastructure delivery organizations, creative tax or financing structures) and generally fail to get implemented or get implemented in a sub-optimal manner."

Drilling down on some of the specifics, here are a few examples of how to improve the planning process (the article goes into a lot more detail in these areas:

Shorten the planning process
Shift risk toward the private sector
Be a pioneer
Think about how not to build

FULL STORY: Improve America’s infrastructure quickly? Yes, we can

Friday, June 13, 2014 in The Hill

Infrastructure United States Approval Process American Society of Civil Engineers

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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