President Obama has called a lot of attention to the state of American infrastructure and its future demands over the last month and many newsagents have commented, argued, and discussed the subject since the State of the Union address.
One common thought that perseveres through the articles is this: America’s infrastructure is falling apart and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
The concern is that while government officials are talking about the problem at length, there just simply aren’t the means to fix it in the near future.
VICE magazine has compiled a list of seven crucial pieces of infrastructure that need immediate attention. Included is the Baltimore Sewer System.
“Baltimore’s sewer system is over a century old. Spanning more than 3,000 miles of pipelines, the city’s sewers were the target of a 2002 EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment lawsuit that ended in the city signing a consent decree to fix the deteriorating pipes.
Fast forward to 2015: While the city has made some headway on the over $1 billion in rehabilitation the sewers needed, Baltimore Department of Public Works spokesperson Jeff Raymond was cagey when I asked whether the city would meet the 2016 deadline. “We are working literally every day to make sure that we’re solving our problems,” he said. “The federal government has not come down and provided money to match its mandates.”
The outlook is not favorable. With proper planning in place, could things start looking better?
Inframanage.com notes that fixing pipeline renewal or rehabilitation backlog is often much easier said than done.
Even when the funding is in place, the complexities of working on old live systems can be huge.
Often the planning and implementation can take a lot longer than first anticipated, and often also cost a lot more than first planned.
Adding to the complexity, old assets keep deteriorating and failing through these periods of backlog and catch up a rehabilitation.
Staying ahead of a backlog is desirable, as is smoothing peaks to provide steady workstreams for design, project management and construction without creating artificial (and generally more expensive) peaks in workload.
Since the NFL Super Bowl title was played this week, we will use a football analogy.
If you are in consent decree situations playing catch-up on the backlog is very similar to being well behind at half-time in an NFL Super Bowl game.
You can still come back, but it is an uphill battle, and your strategy and tactics have to be executed flawlessly.
As anyone who follows football knows – much better to be well ahead at the break.
Implementing infrastructure asset management practices is part of developing your strategy and tactics – do it well, and you will have a good game plan for success.
PHOTO CREDIT: Golden, Onion Dome Digesters by Kristian Bjornard via Flickr Creative Commons License
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