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

esponsibility for this activity within any single currently active federal body, and the specific form should be
crafted to assure the institutional linkages needed for research results to enter practice quickly and effectively.
The greatest proportion of work on infrastructure research and policy concerns issues specific to one
or another of the modes of infrastructure, but perhaps ten to twenty percent of concerns span modes and warrant
this focused interest. A research-funding agency, such as the National Science Foundation, could undertake to
establish one or more "Centers of Excellence" in infrastructure technology and modal agencies such as the
Department of Transportation, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and
others could be directed to channel some portion of their research spending---perhaps one to two percent
initially-into topics of cross-cutting significance, for which university and agency researchers would compete.
The loose confederation of university transportation centers, some of which competed successfully for
funding under the Department of Transportation's Congressionally mandated system of ten designated "centers
of excellence" (grown to fifteen under the new 1991 transportation legislation), is possibly a target model of an
effective system of university-based infrastructure research and training, and might provide the seed organization
from which a broader infrastructure research program could be grown.
Supplementing this government-sponsored, there should be tax credits or other federal incentive to
private sector participation in infrastructure research and development activities. The benefits of this broader
participation would be felt not only within the U. S. infrastructure system, but also in the export potential of new
U. S. infrastructure products and services and in the generally enhanced productivity of a nation better-served
by infrastructure.
The core of this incentive might be preferential tax treatments for private expenditures on infrastructure
research and development, public-private partnerships for new technology demonstration programs, and privately
financed programs of insurance and other mechanisms for sharing the unavoidable risks of new technology.
However, formation of a national infrastructure development bank, modeled perhaps on operations of the World
Bank, would establish a "lender of last resort" for demonstration projects that appear to offer high economic
returns but with institutional challenges that exceed what private financial markets are willing to accept. Capital
for this bank could be raised initially by small commitments from existing federal infrastructure trust fundsperhaps
two to five percent of current highway, airport and interstate energy transmission funds--and private
market underwritings. In addition, all state and local jurisdictions hoping to participate in projects funded by
this bank would be required to commit some fraction of their property tax and infrastructure use tax revenues
(e.g., licensing fees and sewer rates)-again, perhaps two to five percent---to the institution's capitalization.
CONCLUSION
As with any technological field, innovation in infrastructure faces many challenges but offers
opportunities as well. The challenges in infrastructure may, for many reasons, be greater than in other fields,
and the finding ways to encourage innovation has been especially difficult. The BRB is working to build
understanding of whether actions can and should be taken to meet these challenges and, in particular, what role
national policy and the federal government can play in this very locally oriented field.
Baseball star Yogi Berra is said to have opined "No matter where you go, there you are." In discussions
of infrastructure innovation, we are still at the stage of determining where we are, and where we want to go. The
BRB is working to help us find the way.
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