Practitioner Perceptions Of The U.S. Infrastructure
- Conference
- Location
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Austin, Texas
- Publication Date
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June 14, 2009
- Start Date
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June 14, 2009
- End Date
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June 17, 2009
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Construction
- Page Count
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10
- Page Numbers
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14.964.1 - 14.964.10
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--4862
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/4862
- Download Count
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433
Paper Authors
Enno Koehn Lamar University
Enno “Ed” Koehn is Professor of Civil Engineering at Lamar University. Dr. Koehn has served as the principle investigator for several research and development projects dealing with various aspects of construction. He also has experience in the design, scheduling, and estimating of facilities. He has authored/co-authored over 200 papers in engineering education, as well as the general areas of civil and construction engineering. Dr. Koehn is a member of ASEE, AACE International, ASCE, NSPE, Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, and is a registered Professional Engineer and Surveyor.
Hari Chintalapudi Lamar University
Hari Chaitanya is currently pursuing his Master of Engineering (Civil) degree at Lamar University. He worked as an Applications Engineer with Ultratech, Aditya Birla Group, Inc. where he assisted in checking the quality of ready mixed concrete. Hari is a registered Engineer in Training (EIT).
Balakrishna Sangi Lamar University
Balakrishna was awarded the Master of Engineering (Civil) degree from Lamar University. He has worked as a engineer with A.P.S.P.H.C.L. in the estimating department.
James Koehn Chadron State College
James F. Koehn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business and Economics at Chadron State College, Nebraska, where he is also the Director of the Nebraska Business Development Center. Koehn currently serves on the Education Advisory Committee of the Nebraska Board of Public Accountancy. He holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Accounting degrees from Rice University and earned a Juris Doctor from Baylor University. Koehn has worked for an international accounting firm in both their Houston and New York City offices, and he practiced tax and corporate law in Austin, Texas. Dr. Koehn is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the State Bar of Texas.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Practitioner Perceptions of the US Infrastructure Abstract
The degradation of the performance of the nation’s infrastructure over the past decades is reviewed in this paper, and a compilation of the state of the infrastructure is presented from various sources such as the Texas Transportation Institute, EPA clean water needs survey, and the Society of state dam safety officials. Specifically, a recent survey of the infrastructure of Texas reveals that 29% of the major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, 21% of the bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, the drinking water infrastructure need is $13 billion over the next 20 years, and 60% of the schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition.
In order to outline this problem, a practitioner who is also a member of the Texas Infrastructure Committee has been invited to address students, involving possible reasons for the poor infrastructure in addition to methods which may be utilized to upgrade and solve the problem. A comparison is also presented between the infrastructure rating of Texas, the San Francisco Bay area and the Nation.
Today, the state of the infrastructure is important for the construction and civil engineering community. For example, politicians have indicated that funding infrastructure projects may be an approach to solving the nation’s economic problems. This should strongly influence the employment level of civil and construction engineers.
Introduction
United States of America’s highways, transit systems, rail roads, air ports, and inland waterways drive the economy, enabling all industries to achieve the growth and productivity that has made the country strong and prosperous. With each passing day, aging and overburdened infrastructure threatens the economy and quality of life in every state, city and town in the nation.
In 1997, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) decided to raise the awareness and understanding of the role Civil Engineers play in the society. In 1998, the ASCE Board of Direction adopted a policy, “ Practitioner perceptions of the US Infrastructure”, which provides a report on what is needed to sustain well-maintained, efficient, safe and secure Infrastructure facilities and systems, sufficient to meet the current and future needs of a growing nation and to educate the public and political leadership so that they will be supportive of developing, enacting and implementing the practices and funding mechanisms needed to realize our long term vision.
As a service to the public, the Texas ASCE section also assembled an Infrastructure Report Card committee to review available records and access conditions of the critical components of state’s Infrastructure, and provide a report card for the public to use17.
Koehn, E., & Chintalapudi, H., & Sangi, B., & Koehn, J. (2009, June), Practitioner Perceptions Of The U.S. Infrastructure Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4862
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