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

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR INNOVATION
IN THE PUBLIC WORKS INFRASTRUCTURE:
VOLUME II - WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS
INTRODUCTION
This report is Volume II of a two-volume set. Volume I includes a survey of professional
and technical literature on innovation, infrastructure, and technology transfer issues, and
summarizes the contributions of a group of experts to a national workshop on the topic. The
current report, Volume 1I, comprises the proceedings of the workshop.
That workshop, "Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works
Infrastructure," convened a group of nationally recognized experts to discuss barriers to
innovation in the public works infrastructure, share insights, and suggest ways innovation could
be promoted to benefit the condition of the nation's public works infrastructure.
The workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Federal Infrastructure
Strategy Program. It was hosted by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research
Laboratories, in Champaign, Illinois. The program included sessions for presentation of papers
and group discussions to develop recommendations for overcoming barriers and taking advantage
of opportunities to innovate in the public works infrastructure. Participants were strongly
encouraged to make recommendations for enhancing the role of innovation.
The program was organized into three separate topic sections: (1) opportunities for
innovation, (2) barriers to innovation, and (3) enhancing technology transfer. For the group
discussions, participants were divided into three groups corresponding to these topics. At the
end of the workshop, there was a plenary session for reporting on each group discussion. A
chairman and a recorder were assigned to each discussion group and were responsible for
producing the final group discussion summary. Three group discussion agendas were sent to all
participants to be used as a starting point for their discussions.
Contents of this volume include the following: a reproduction of the workshop agenda, the
text of all the workshop papers, reports on the three workshop group discussions (as submitted
by the recorders), summaries of the workshop presentations and group discussions, and
biographical sketches of all workshop participants.
The authors would like to express their deep sense of gratitude to all who participated in
the workshop: Prof. Arthur Baskin, University of Illinois; Dr. James A. Broaddus, Construction
Industry Institute (CII); Mr. Joel Catlin, American Water Works Association; Prof. J.M. De La
Garza, Civil Engineering Dept., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Prof. John
P. Eberhard, Carnegie-Mellon University; Mr. Michael B. Goldstein, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson;
Dr. Francois Grobler, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USACERL);
Prof. Neil Hawkins, University of Illinois; Dr. Andrew. C. Lemer, Building Research Board; Prof.
Stephen Lu, University of Illinois; Mr. Carl Magnell, Civil Engineering Research Foundation
(CERF); Mr. Benjamin Mays, Government Finance Officers Association; Mr. William D.