Podcast: The Infrastructure Show

A variety of natural and intentional events can disrupt components of the U.S. power grid, including large and small storms, vandalism, and cyber attacks. In this podcast, Thomas Overbye, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign describes the functioning of the grid, some of the risks it faces, its resilience, and mitigation actions for both grid operators and households.

Lead in the water supply is a serious threat to public health and a particular danger to children. Water supplies in many U.S. cities carry unacceptable lead concentrations because of the use of lead pipes, especially where protective water additives are not used. In this podcast we talk with Marc A. Edwards, professor in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering group at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, who has been actively engaged in both testing municipal water systems for lead, notably in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C., and advocating mitigation through the use of additives and the replacement of lead pipes

The threat of damaging storm surges grows as sea levels rise and the frequency of severe storms increases. Some U.S. cities on the east and Gulf coasts are particularly vulnerable to storm surges. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country, home to the nation’s largest refining and petrochemical complex, and it may be right behind Galveston in the path of the next big Gulf hurricane. This area has been hit hard by past hurricanes, which underscores the importance of protecting it. In this podcast, Prof. Wesley Highfield of the department of Marine Sciences at Texas A&M University at Galveston discusses storm surge risks, protective options, decisions to act, and lessons for other coastal cities

Unmanned aerial cameras – drones – are becoming a standard part of the infrastructure management toolkit. They are particularly useful for inspecting widely dispersed facilities in areas than can be difficult to navigate on the ground. Although there are important flight restrictions that preclude operations over populated areas, there is a growing set of applications in surveillance and inspection for large-scale infrastructure systems. In this discussion, Kevin Lewis of the Denver Department of Public Works describes the merits of using an off-the-shelf quadcopter drone to inspect critical flood control structures

Airports connect cities to the nation and the world, securing the economic viability of regions. Tampa International Airport supports important recreation and business markets, and its passenger throughput is expected to double in the next 30 years. To prepare for that growth, airport leadership has developed a three-phase master plan, construction for the first phase of which will be completed in 2017. Key changes include a new rental car facility, connected by a new people mover, and an expanded main terminal. In this podcast we learn about the master plan and the evolution of the airport infrastructure from Al Illustrato, who is Vice President for Facilities and Administration for the Tampa Airport

The New York State Thruway Authority is replacing the 6-decades-old Gov. Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City. To accelerate completion of the New NY Bridge, fast-tracked environmental permitting, procurement and labor agreements were combined with design-build contracting to advance a plan discussed for more than a decade to a new bridge opening in 2018. In this podcast we talk with David Capobianco, Director of Structural Design for the Thruway Authority about the features of the bridge and the process for delivering it

There are many floating bridges in use around the world, but the Seattle region has three large bridges of this design. The State Route 520 Bridge over Lake Washington, the Gov. Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, is the longest in the world. Heavily used and assaulted by wind and waves for more than five decades, this bridge has been replaced by a new facility. Here to tell us about this large and complex project is Julie Meredith, Washington State DOT Administrator of the SR 520 replacement program

The Gateway Program is a collaboration between Amtrak, the states of New York and New Jersey, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the U.S. Department of Transportation to address the rail bottleneck between New Jersey and New York, the busiest rail passenger corridor in the U.S. At the core of this program is construction of new twin rail tunnels under the Hudson River. These will supplement the 108 year old existing rail tunnels, which were damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and which have insufficient capacity to meet the growing demand. In this discussion we learn about the Gateway Program and plans for these new rail tunnels from Andrew Galloway, Chief of Corridor Development at Amtrak

Water needs for municipalities and agriculture can intersect and sometimes conflict. In this third interview in the series exploring some of the nation’s water challenges, we talk with Bill Stowe, General Manager of the Des Moines, Iowa, Water Works, who describes the problems that drainage of chemicals, principally nitrates, from nearby farms affects the quality of input waters and the treatment technologies and costs of potable water. Driven in part by substantial advances in agricultural productivity, solutions may lie in adjustments in farming technologies and regulatory actions that address the externalities of large-scale agriculture

Water infrastructure issues are much in the news in the U.S. — not only in the West, where drought continues to take a high toll, but also in other parts of the country, where the water needs for municipalities, energy production, commercial interests, and agriculture intersect and sometimes conflict. In this interview, one in a series of three exploring some of the nation’s water challenges, we talk with Bob Yamada, Director of Water Resources for the San Diego County Water Authority, about the mix of strategies adopted to meet the growing needs of the authority’s customers, and the new Carlsbad Desalination plant. This advanced technology reverse osmosis facility was built, financed, and will be operated through a public-private partnership under a water purchase agreement to serve the region for the next three decades.