Podcast: The Infrastructure Show

Both policy makers and investors are supporting the increased use of private funds to finance new and renewed public infrastructure. This sounds like a good idea, but is it realistic? How do these public private partnerships, called P3s, work? What are their advantages and risks? To teach us more about P3s, we talk with David Pennington, managing director at BMO Capital Markets, who guides both public agencies and private investors on the path to P3s for infrastructure.

An important function of public transit is providing mobility for people with disabilities. This is particularly challenging because of the broad variety of needs and the complexity of providing appropriate facilities and services as a part of, or separate from, mainstream transit operations. Metro, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, serves the Washington, DC metropolitan area with rail transit, buses, and paratransit vehicles. Metro is a leader among U.S. cities in providing accessible transportation. To learn more about how Metro works to meet the needs of the disabled, we talk with David Shaffer, Metro’s Accessibility Policy Officer

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) was among the winners of the 2017 Federal Highway Administration biennial National Roadway Safety Award in the category of Infrastructure and Operational Improvements. DelDOT’s winner was systematic deployment of a high-friction surface treatment that substantially reduced road departure crashes, especially in wet weather. In this podcast we learn about this surface treatment and DelDOT’s overall highway safety plan from the agency’s Chief Traffic Engineer, Mark Luszcz

Wind has been an important, renewable source of energy for millennia. In recent decades wind power has come into its own, now producing more than 6 percent of U.S. electricity and growing rapidly. Today tens of thousands of wind turbines, many taller than 50-story buildings, dot rural landscapes, and soon will appear off our coasts. The design and construction of large-scale wind farms is a challenge involving energy planning, economics, and engineering. To learn about the development and implementation of the wind energy resource in the Midwest, and the construction and operation of wind turbines, we talk with Spencer Moore, Vice President of Generation of MidAmerican Energy Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, located in Des Moines, Iowa

Noise is an almost unavoidable result of the operation of transportation and other infrastructure systems. Trains, planes, and automobiles produce noise that can be a warning but is mainly a source of annoyance and sometimes health risk to neighbors, riders, and employees. Measurement and management of transportation noise are complex tasks requiring an understanding of physics, technology, human perception, and economics. To introduce us to some of the problems, methods, and interventions for addressing transportation noise we talk with Dr. Hugh Saurenman, president of ATS consulting, which conducts acoustic evaluations and develops mitigation strategies for transportation facilities.

The U.S. inland waterways system provides a highly efficient means for moving large quantities of bulk materials – agricultural products and natural resources – which is important both for domestic industries and the export market. But the locks and dams that support the waterway network comprise an aging infrastructure with limited capacity and almost no redundancy. Planned and unexpected lock closure for maintenance and rehabilitation impose substantial costs on our economy. In this podcast we discuss the condition, performance, and funding of the inland waterways system with Dr. Craig Philip, who is Research Professor at Vanderbilt University and Director of VECTOR, the Vanderbilt Center for Transportation and Operational Resilience. Before joining Vanderbilt, Dr. Philip spent 30 years in the barge industry, 14 as President and CEO of Ingram Barge Lines, now the largest domestic maritime operator in the United States

Ride matching or Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft have experienced extraordinary growth in major cities around the world in the past decade. What are the impacts of these services in our cities? What is known about the scale of TNC services and the demands they are placing on city streets? To tell us more about TNCs and their impacts on one city, we talk with Joe Castiglione, Deputy Director for Technology, Data and Analysis for the San Francisco County Transportation Authority

The integrity of our infrastructure can be critical to life safety. Nowhere is this more obvious than our bridges. There are over 600,000 highway bridges in the United States, as well as a large number of transit, railroad, and pedestrian structures. Having timely and objective knowledge of the condition of these bridges is essential to assure their safety and efficiency. That knowledge comes from a program of systematic bridge inspections.To help us understand the responsibilities and processes of bridge inspection, we’re talking with Dr. Sreenivas Alampalli, who is Director of the Structures Evaluation Services Bureau of the New York State Department of Transportation

Urban mobility and traffic congestion present challenges to cities around the world. Many modes and service concepts are intended to meet these mobility needs. Bus rapid transit, BRT, is a competitive option because of its service quality and capacity, as well as its potential to be less costly than fixed rail transit options. To learn about the promise and delivery of BRT in the US and around the world, we talk with Samuel Zimmerman, an experienced transportation planner, a consultant to the World Bank, and an expert on bus rapid transit

Cranes are prominent on the skyline of every city, serving as a measure of the pace of development. They are essential tools for infrastructure construction, a source of fascination for the sidewalk superintendent, and in some cases, a source of risk. To explore the role, functioning, and safety of large cranes in construction we talk with Greg Teslia, President, Crane Safety and Inspections, of Coral Springs, Florida