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

highways based on this total government R&D would be about 4 tenths of one percent.
Enabling System for Transportation Infrastructure
As shown in Figure 1, an attempt has been made to consider the institutions that
make up the system for legislating, overseeing, designing, building, advising, advocating and
researching aspects of the infrastructure in general and the transportation infrastructure
specifically.
Figure 1 shows these various interests as legislatures, industry, academia and agency.
Of course, the philosophies, concepts, and actions of these interests all impinge upon society
(John and Jane Q. Public). In fact, the health of society, as supported by the strength of the
economy, is guided and determined by the action of the other components. These
components of the system impact the transportation infrastructure in a number of ways.
Legislators
Legislation or rules that affect transportation infrastructure occur at various levels
of government. However, the primary legislation is enacted at the federal and state level.
Local policies and rules are generally adopted under the guidelines set at the state and
federal level.
Because of the impact that transportation has on society and the amount of resources
necessary to built and maintain transportation systems, the transportation departments of
government become a focus of politics and legislation. The complexity and technical aspects
of transportation departments should dictate that a high degree of technical ability and
professionalism would be employed in the leadership of transportation departments. In
some states, this is the situation, however, in a number of states it is not. In those states
that this is not the situation the leadership is provided by political appointees, often times
with little experience and leadership for such a position. In one midwestern state, with a
change of administration, the job description for district engineers was rewritten as a district
managers position. This creates the possibility the position could be filled by an appointee
without an engineering background. The situation that this creates is that the engineering
activities of the transportation department in that district would not be directed and
managed by a professionally trained engineer. If this should happen the responsibility and
the liability of engineering activities undertaken within districts then would be passed to the
central office and the chief engineer. Supervising these dispersed engineering activities from
the central office would be a significant responsibility for the chief engineer.
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