Celebrating 250 Years of Progress: From America’s Founding to Our Bright Future
America’s vision is not captured in founding documents alone. Likewise, our incredible history is not just what is written in books. America’s vision and history live today in the steel and stone, the suspension bridges and subterranean tunnels, the power transmission lines and water treatment plants, and all the other forms of vital infrastructure that drive our economy and contribute to social good across the country.
Interestingly, a number of challenges we face today were also familiar to the people who shaped our early nation. Transportation. Power and energy. Water availability and water quality. Urban development. Defense and security. These are persistent challenges central to all aspects of society. However, driven by technology and needs, our approach to them has certainly changed over time.
Transportation has evolved from rough roads to modern interstates, from the breakthrough engineering involved in New York City’s first major subway to the modern train control updates of San Francisco’s transit system. Innovation in power once meant water wheels. Today, it involves new power generation technologies and moving power through transmission lines across vast swaths of land and water.
We have many lessons learned in our history, and the evolution of our industrial and infrastructure base provides many examples of successes and shortcomings. Here are three ways that we can learn from the past as we build for the future.
- Make the Most of What We Have
When well-built and properly maintained, infrastructure lasts. A few bridges and dams built before the Revolutionary War remain in operation today, as does an even longer list of infrastructure investments made in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Optimizing and modernizing existing assets tends to be a wise approach, especially in times when capital funding may be constrained. Asset enhancement and optimization is generally faster and less costly than new construction while improving reliability and sustainability. For example, water utilities can benefit from efforts to identify and reduce leaks and operating risks. Electric grid-enhancing technologies such as dynamic line ratings and power flow controllers are ready-now solutions to help increase the capacity of existing transmission infrastructure.
This approach can also apply to natural systems. Consider the Florida Everglades, which saw the largest environmental restoration project in U.S. history. The project scope included construction of several miles of canals, reservoirs, and new wetlands to create a natural filter capable of cleaning billions of gallons of freshwater to restore, protect, and preserve wildlife and communities.
Whether in the natural environment or the built environment, asset renewal helps ensure the investments made in prior years continue to pay dividends for our descendants, while freeing capital for other priorities.
2. Consider the Return on Investment (ROI) of Resilience
Historically, infrastructure value was simply judged by its cost and immediate utility. Today, we also consider its adaptive capacity and look beyond the trend of adaptive reuse in the property and building space, where there has been a focus on converting underutilized office space to much-needed residential units. Increasingly, both the public and private sectors are not only upgrading existing infrastructure, but also building new assets with future uses and sustainability in mind. This Future Ready view results in a better long-term ROI evaluation and allows engineers to incorporate resilience considerations into the design of infrastructure.
One example is The Spiral, a distinctive super-tall building. Every floor has a flexible double-height atrium space opening onto one of a series of landscaped terraces that spiral up the building as it sets back, creating space for pollinator gardens and human wellbeing. Forged, bolted steel connections meant less welding on site, improving quality, safety, and speed, while the structural design anticipates changes in use and live loads.
Across all categories of infrastructure, we should work to build greater resilience into our plans. Whether it’s rethinking coastal engineering, hardening the electric grid, or building the systems to tap brackish water and expand reuse, let’s consistently challenge ourselves to design for an uncertain climate and demands of 2076, not 1776.
The approach will pay off. One World Resources Institute analysis found that every $1 invested in resilience generates more than $10 in benefits over 10 years, with average returns of 27 percent. For maximum impact, let’s recognize these benefits and act accordingly.
3. Take a Connected Approach
In the early days of our nation, notable infrastructure projects were designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously. For example, in places like Lowell, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia, waterways provided efficient transportation, powering factories through water wheels and helping manage the water supply. By design, connected infrastructure was the engine of the community.
In contrast, in the last century, most roads, power grids, and water systems were conceptualized as stand-alone assets. Now, we’re finding that this approach can increase risk and leave value on the table. The future will require us to acknowledge key interconnections and implement system-level planning.
We should treat water as an economic issue. Power is linked to public health through air quality. Energy and data centers must be part of the same discussion. Transportation is key to building livable, sustainable communities with great places to work and efficient ways to move from home to work. In other words, we need to take a connected approach as we look at America’s infrastructure.
Digital will increasingly play a critical role. In many ways, the digital and physical worlds are merging. The highway of the future will be more than a road. It will be a data-gathering platform. Already, V2X projects are underway to use sensor systems, combined with intelligent mobility thinking. The communities most likely to thrive will be the ones that get ahead of this rapidly changing reality.
Technologies like ground-penetrating radar and LiDAR can provide unprecedented insights, enabling us to meaningfully extend the life of a bridge or upgrade older power infrastructure to handle bi-directional flow. Digital twins can simulate how a flood in one county might ripple through the energy and transit hubs of another.
The Next 250
America’s 250th anniversary should be more than a grand celebration of the past. Now is the time to plan for our future. Infrastructure helps determine what is possible for our communities and our economy. We are a nation that never stops innovating. We are also a nation that never stops building. Now, we need to do even more to build the confidence that America’s infrastructure assets and systems will work for everyone over the long term. We need to ensure that what we develop today is truly future ready.
