Podcast: The Infrastructure Show

Electric power operates our homes and businesses, and it promises to be the future of mobility, as well. There is a constant need to match temporal and spatial variations in supply and demand for electricity across regions of the country. This need grows as we increase the share of electricity coming from renewable sources, particularly wind and solar, which are time-dependent. We rely on the electric grid to move electric power from sources to need centers.To learn how the grid works, and how it might be improved, we talk with James McCalley, who is London Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University

The health risks posed by lead water service lines are well known. Just how common is this invisible hazard in our potable water? What can we do to address it? To explore the problem, responses to it, and the costs, we talk with Steve Via, Director of Federal Relations for the American Water Works Association

Building or replacing highway bridges quickly can save traffic delays by cutting on-site construction time. What are the design and construction strategies that make this possible?To answer this question we talk about Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) with Professor Atorod Azizinamini, who leads Florida International University’s USDOT-funded Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center

On January 1, 2021, a new life began for the century-old James A. Farley Post Office in Manhattan when it became the home of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall serving Amtrak and Long Island Railroad passengers. Preserving the Beaux-Arts exterior of the McKim, Mead & White post office, architects created a 21st century interior space bridging New York’s design history and its future.To learn about the significance and the unique challenges of this complex, adaptive reuse project, we talk with Marla Gayle, Managing Director, Global Transportation Practice and Global Adaptive Reuse Practice with Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s New York Office

A national perspective on the condition and performance of our infrastructure is important for informing the dialog about investing in this system that is so important for supporting our society and economy. Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers works with its volunteer members to produce a comprehensive report card on the state of the U.S. infrastructure.To give us our 2021 infrastructure grade, we’re talking with Emily Feenstra, ASCE’s Managing Director – Government Relations and Infrastructure Initiatives

City streets do much more than just move traffic. They connect to our homes and businesses, supporting not just motor vehicles but pedestrian and bicycle traffic as well, and serving in the way of the ancient forum by proving spaces to shop, mingle, and play. Many large cities are diversifying the use of their streets by reconfiguring them to accommodate this multiplicity of functions safely.To learn about some of these initiatives, we talk with Jamie Parks, who is Livable Street Director with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Railroads helped grow our nation, supporting settlement and economic growth from coast to coast. Today, the rail industry plays a central role in the most efficient freight and logistics system in the world. The 7 national, Class I railroads are well-known to most of us, but less visible yet no less significant in the U.S. freight industry are about 600 short line and regional railroads that make the connections directly to customers.To learn about the role of these smaller railroads, we’re talking with Henry Posner III, who is Chairman of the Iowa Interstate Railroad and President of the Rail Development Corporation, a holding company with ownership and operating interests in railroads in the U.S., the Americas, and Europe

What’s the path forward for large cities once COVID-19 is controlled? Will workers and residents come back downtown? Will riders return to mass transit systems? How can we sustain them until then? Will the demand for private and public infrastructure rebound to attract investment and growth? Where will the money come from?To get some answers, we talk with Edward Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard, an expert on cities and the values they bring. In his 2011 book, Triumph of the City, he describes big cities around the world as hubs for opportunity and innovation

Is the Internet a part of U.S. infrastructure? Although the physical infrastructure that carries the data is largely invisible, broadband Internet communication has become a backbone of our society and economy, carrying messages that support work, learning, purchasing, social connections, and medical services. Despite its centrality to daily life, fast and reliable broadband connectivity is not available to everyone.To help us learn more about the functioning and coverage of the broadband network, we talk with Fabian Bustamante, Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University

River basins in the Midwestern U.S. are under growing threat from flooding driven by climate change. Within the flood control and protection portfolio of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a large project to mitigate flood risk for the towns of Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN, its neighbor across the Red River. The design itself is informed by a large-scale physical model developed by the Corps.To learn about the project and the model used to guide its design, we talk with Gary Bell, Research Hydraulic Engineer in the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory of US Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi