Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTFoundations: A report on America’s Public Works, were increasingcongestion, deferred maintenance and age of the system;the authors of the report worried that fiscal investment wasinadequate to meet the current operations costs and futuredemands on the system.The NeedPublic opinion research conducted in 1997 by ASCE revealedthat while the general public reported a high degree of respectfor engineers, they lacked a meaningful understanding of therelationship between engineering and day-to-day life. Moreover,they displayed little interest in learning more about engineering.This research did reveal strong interest in traffic, cleanwater, the environment and other engineering-dependentquality of life issues, coupled with a belief that engineers wouldbe the most credible source for information and education onthose issues.To respond to the public’s compelling desire for relevant information,and to position civil engineers as credible sources forthat information, ASCE decided to re-examine the infrastructurereport card on the tenth anniversary of its initial release.ASCE found that in the decade since the Fragile Foundationsreport was released, the overall grade had dropped a wholeletter grade to a ‘D’. Moreover, a failing grade was assignedto the nation’s public school infrastructure, with near failinggrades in crucial areas such as drinking water, roads and dams.The grades surprised even the authors, and generated widespreadpublic attention.Report cards issued in 2001 and 2005, respectively, showed aslight upturn to a ‘D+’ in the overall grade before it sank backto a ‘D’. What is most telling, however, is the fact that the concernsin the 1988 report are the same ones found subsequently,such as inadequate capacity and deferred maintenance.The inadequate condition of the nation’s infrastructure continuesto be a persistent problem. Just as making the neededimprovements will be a long, expensive and labour-intensivetask, convincing political leaders and the public that somethingmust be done about it is equally challenging. ASCE plansto release a new version of the report card in March 2009.Given the twenty years of age, deferred maintenance andunder investment since the first report card in 1998, seriousimprovement is not anticipated.The ProcessTo develop the report card, ASCE assembles an advisory panelof the nation’s leading civil engineers, analyses hundreds ofstudies, reports and other sources, and surveys thousands ofengineers to determine what is happening in the field. Theadvisory panel determines the scope of the inquiry and establishesa methodology for assigning grades.For the 2005 report card, grades were assigned on the basisof condition and capacity, and funding versus need, generallyfollowing a traditional grading scale (e.g. if 77 per cent of roadsare in good condition or better, that would earn a grade of‘C’). Base grades were then reviewed by the advisory panel andadjusted, usually with a plus or minus but sometimes as mucha full letter grade, to reflect positive or negative trends or thecritical consequences should a catastrophic failure occur. Forexample, the failure of a bridge or dam would have much moreimmediate and deadly consequences than a problem relatedto solid waste disposal.The BenefitIn public opinion research conducted for ASCE in 2005, thepublic demonstrated significant recognition of the crisis facingAmerica’s infrastructure, as well as an understanding of therole of both engineers and the public in defining and adoptingsolutions. These findings represented a marked change fromthose in 1997.The report card allows civil engineers to speak with one voicefor the profession, not singular business interests. The impartialityand focus toward achieving a strategic goal for the bettermentof all make ASCE a powerful advocate. With such astrong reputation, ASCE and its report card are well-respectedadvisors to policymakers.Despite great accomplishments in highlighting the needs ofAmerica’s infrastructure and advancing the profession of civilengineering, much still needs to be done. The report card hassucceeded in convincing most people that something needsto be done, but it has yet to inspire the political leadershipto effect real change. As ASCE begins its task of updating thereport card for 2009, it will give particular focus to empoweringthe average citizen to take up this cause and fight for abetter system.During the last century, the United States saw unprecedentedgrowth and prosperity, and at the same time experienced acorresponding build up of public infrastructure. If the nationis to keep competing in the global economy, we must have theproper infrastructure to do so. The 2009 Infrastructure ReportCard must be the catalyst to pursue that goal.AustraliaLeanne HardwickeEngineers Australia (EA) undertakes public policy activities ata national and state and territory level with a view to contributingto the public debate on issues that are directly engineeringrelated, impact on the engineering profession or are in thebest interest of the community from the membership’s point304