Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works ...

activities. Another important source of innovation consists of actual practice; practitioners
often develop innovative solutions to their problems. Innovation areas are as varied as
problem areas exist in practice, such as management, standards, products, materials,
methods, finance, and other areas. Furthermore, innovation is relative to the potential user.
Anything that is new for the potential user is an innovation.
As mentioned, this report addresses challenges and opportunities for innovation in
the public works infrastructure. The term public works infrastructure also is used with ample
meaning, and includes systems under public responsibility to provide support for:
transportation (highway, rail, waterways, air, etc.), water supply and distribution, power and
energy generation and delivery, communications, solid waste collection and disposal. The
meaning of public works infrastructure also includes environmental remediation services.
Although it is very difficult to estimate the impact that innovation can have in
rendering the public works infrastructure more efficient and effective, there are some
numbers that indicate the potential that exists. Figures are available from different sources
to support the value of R&D results applied in practice. The California Department of
Transportation has concluded that cost savings directly attributable to R&D products in
practice are between 2.8 and 5.4 times the investment in R&D [CaIDOT 87]. The Army
performed a measurement of R&D product payoff for selected successful innovations, and
determined it to be $37 for each dollar invested in the R&D phase of these products
[Shaffer 92]. It is clear that innovations can have a dramatic impact in lowering the effort
of building and maintaining the public works infrastructure.
However, the US is not taking good advantage of this potential benefit from
innovations. Comparisons have been made in some areas of research spending, with
research spending in other industrialized countries. Figures provided by the American Road
and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) indicated in 1989 a commitment of $2
million in the US for research in intelligent vehicle and highway systems, compared to a
$750 million investment in Europe and a $700 million in Japan [GAO 89]. In addition to
this lack of investment, there is a problem of transferring innovations into practice. The
rate of adoption of innovations in the US is very slow, with more than 20 years required in
many cases to reach most users.
This report is composed of two main parts. Part 1 attempts to summarize the
challenges and opportunities for innovation in the public works infrastructure identified
through a literature survey. This literature survey includes a review of recognized models
of the process of generating and adopting innovations. It also addresses specific challenges
and opportunities for innovation in the public works infrastructure, discussed in the
literature. Finally, it provides some recommendations to overcome the challenges and make
use of the opportunities.
Part 2 consists of the proceedings of a workshop that was held on March 3-4, 1992
at USA-CERL, to discuss the promotion of innovation in the public works infrastructure.
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