Blog

[Thank you for your patience after a long time away...]

This Week in Infrastructure Systems [#TWIST]:

• NPR's Planet Money podcast, "A Pesticide, A Pigweed And A Farmer's Murder," discusses the case of a farmer who was murdered after confronting one of his colleagues about potential dicamba drifting onto his cotton fields. You see, farmers had been using genetically engineered seeds that were resistant to Roundup, a powerful herbicide that is used to control unwanted plants including pigweed. Unfortunately, the pigweed evolved to become resistant to roundup, and some farmers sought to use dicamba as a potent alternative. Compounding this situation even more, current dicamba formulations are not approved due to potential drift onto neighbors' fields. I encourage you to listen to the podcast to learn more about this interesting case.

• With titles like "Rural America is the New Inner City," and "Rural America is Stranded in the Dial-Up Age," the rural-urban broadband divide has re-entered American consciousness through the Wall Street Journal's coverage, among others. This is reminiscent of the time when rural electrification had not been completed. It is immensely expensive to extend electricity access to sparsely populated areas because the economics may not work out from a basic benefit-cost perspective. Nonetheless, we decided we realized that just like water, wastewater, roads, or gas/oil, electricity is a lifeline utility for modern life. We as a society decided then that urban-rural inequalities with respect to lifeline utilities are not acceptable. Today, we have to figure out how to pay for extension of broadband internet access to rural areas, just as we figured out how to pay for extension of electrification to rural areas. Fast internet is no longer a luxury, but a lifeline.

Delivering up-to-date broadband service to distant reaches of the U.S. would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, experts estimate, an expense government, industry and consumers haven’t been willing to pay.

-Levitz and Bauerlein, WSJ, 15 June 2017

This week in infrastructure systems:

Self-Healing Pavements

One of my undergraduate classmates (OK, she was a couple years ahead of me) at Howard, UT-Austin's Raissa Ferron, had her research on self-healing concrete highlighted in the Cockrell School's publication, In the Lab.  Dr. Ferron is hoping that bacteria entrained in the concrete can help "heal" cracks in the concrete as they are exposed to the elements. The challenge is keeping the bacteria alive long enough to provide this resilience function.

What the Candidates are Saying

For those folks interested in understanding how the Democrats or Republican candidates will address infrastructure, especially urban infrastructure needs, Blair Levin of the Brookings Institution is doing a 3-part series that may provide some important insights. Consider the introduction to the series:

This is the first in a series of three blogs on cities, technology, the next generation of urban development, and the next administration. In this one, I’ll discuss Hillary Clinton’s recent technology plan and in particular, the significance of her endorsement of, and a willingness to invest in, a civic Internet of Things.” In the second, I will lay out why the federal government should focus on how cities are likely to be the primary government jurisdictions on the leading edge of using new technology to transform the public sphere. In the third, I will suggest five specific policies for how either a Clinton or Trump Administration could accelerate economic growth and social progress by helping cities use emerging technologies.

I have been trying to do my own informal research into what the candidates are saying about infrastructure, and it just isn't a focus right now in our domestic politics. That said, the candidates aren't silent on the issue, and I hope to provide a few additional insights from across the Web in the coming weeks.

GOP Propose Phase-out of Federal Funding for Local Transit

The Engineering News-Record reports that the GOP are proposing a plan that will phase-out federal funding for mass transit. Their position is, reportedly, that mass transit serves only a small population, and is inherently a local affair. While this is the position articulated in the party platform, and not a legislative proposal, it does strike an interesting point of view at a time where the US clearly needs additional infrastructure investment, including in the public transit of its largest cities.

Panama Canal Puts Pressure on US Ports

The Panamax expansion is now putting pressure on US East Coast port cities to catch up on the complex infrastructure upgrades that are required to fully accommodate the increased capacity and larger ships. For example, Construction Equipment Guide is reporting that the Port of Savannah can accommodate the ships, but the Savannah River is still not deep enough to accommodate the largest ships. More complications may be found at other ports where land-side connections to transportation infrastructure may not be prepared to handle the increased container volume.

Can Ports Drive Renewable Energy Development?

Ogdensburg, NY is showing how wind energy can fuel the growth of business at our ports. The increased need for equipment and facility development can spill over into jobs in the transportation and shipping industries. Specialized equipment requires upgraded rail, maritime, and ground transportation, which also require maintenance, operations, and logistics workers. NY Lt. Gov. Kathleen Hochul spent some time this week demonstrating the positive cascading effects of state investments in their infrastructure.

This week (11-15 July) in infrastructure systems:

• IEEE Spectrum highlights the "Tesla Autopilot Crash Exposing Industry Divide" concerning the development and use of self-driving cars. This story is part of IEEE Spectrum's "Cars That Think" series [RSS feed][Follow @CarsThatThink on Twitter] looking at the integrated systems of sensors, software, hardware, and human behaviors that are making the humble automobile more exciting and innovative. Tesla's Autopilot feature is an interesting example of a futuristic feature that circumvents some of the regulatory, ethical, and societal risk management challenges faced by autonomous vehicles by, at least formally, not removing the human from the loop. Well, a recent accident challenges all of this, and it remains to be seen what this means for self-driving cars going forward.
• The US is seeking opportunities to expand the use of "living shorelines" to protect coastal areas. I wrote a paper on this topic with Professors Seth Guikema and Roshanak Nateghi, among others, but we were simply looking at the possibility of using extended life cycle cost analysis to evaluate these opportunities. In this piece, Scientific American discusses the innovative approach by the Army Corps of Engineers to streamline permits employing "living shoreline" defenses such as wetlands with sea and marsh grasses, sand dunes, mangroves, and coral reefs, instead of bulkheads, sea walls, or other grey infrastructure. This parallels important advances in stormwater management and infrastructure, and I'm curious to see how much it improves the resilience of coastal communities.
• EPA continues work with states to improve protection from lead in drinking water. At an event on campus here at GW in February, I mentioned that Flint is just a particularly loud canary in the coal mine. There are many communities affected by lead in their drinking water, but the unique combination of political, social, and economic flashpoints made Flint a more compelling example. The EPA is trying to strengthen compliance with the current version of the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), even while trying to repair breaches in public confidence in the law. In some instances, a utility may be in compliance with the LCR even while exposing its customers to significant public health problems. As Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou states:
  

  What separates these cases from Flint and DC, is that in Flint and DC the contamination was first discovered through lead poisoned children and their parents at a time when the utility met federal standards and assured everyone that the water was safe to drink. In Flint, it took 18 months for the problem to be confirmed, not by the City but by Virginia Tech; in the District it took 2.5 years for the problem to be made public, not by the water utility but by the Washington Post.

• And in the world of sports, at the upcoming Rio Olympic Games the US Rowing Team may vanquish all its opponents except one: Rio's water. Substantial flaws in sewage infrastructure, land use, economic development, and equity have left the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon dirtier than many of my readers' toilets. Moreover, as Wired reports, the suits don't prevent exposure through non-dermal pathways. This may leave the athletes vulnerable to inhalation risks as viruses and other pathogens are aerosolized. This may leave athletes seeking to optimize their preparations looking for ways to strengthen their immune systems as well as their aerobic capacities.

I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as I did. This week in Infrastructure Systems:

• Bloomberg will be hosting a discussion on "The Future of the Grid: Spotlight on Cybersecurity" this upcoming Tuesday, 12 July. It looks to be an exciting discussion on the challenge of modernizing both the infrastructure components and the control systems that operate them. From the website:

Last December, a coordinated cyber attack cut power to more than 100 Ukrainian cities and towns by leveraging commonly available tools and tactics against the control systems which could be used against infrastructure in every sector. This attack represents one of the first known physical impacts to critical infrastructure resulting from cyber warfare. Could a similar cyber grid attack happen in the U.S.? Join Bloomberg, in partnership with Siemens, for a breakfast conversation exploring this important issue.

• I've written earlier about the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act on this site, and interested parties might find a *brief* description of the changes here. I encouraged others to attend an EPA webinar on the changes to the bill last week Wednesday. Well, that webinar was a disaster, with not enough audio slots for the 1300 listeners to follow along. Never fear, one of my colleagues obtained the slides and you can now have a copy for yourself.
• I'm not sure what "walkable" means in 95º+ heat and 90%+ humidity, but Houston is looking to change the alignment of its major highways to introduce more walkable development and reduce traffic impacts. I have the same question that a couple council members had--"Why are we focusing only on cars??" To me, walkable means there is reliable, safe, clean, and cost-effective public transit available. From the article and the council member questions, it is not clear this is being considered:

“I am really concerned about the fact we are focusing solely on road expansion and highway expansion without incorporating rail and other methods,” Council Member Amanda Edwards recently told the Houston Chronicle.

Another council member, Robert Gallegos, told the paper that “it just seems like we are headed down the same road.”

• Finally, while Brexit has rocked financial markets and political arenas, the UK electricity generation sector will also be profoundly affected. The Energy Collective's Rod Adams asks "Will an Independent UK Emphasize Nuclear Energy?" The answer seems to be YES. Europe for some time has relied on nuclear electricity to improve the environmental performance of its generation mix, but several EU nations are opposed to the use of nuclear power. Well, one of the consequences of Brexit may be an increase in the use of nuclear power in the UK:

During the 5-year spending review, the UK will devote at least £500 to innovation in energy systems focusing on systems that are “reliable, clean and cheap.” That sounded good, but the following sounded even better. “As part of that programme, we will build on the UK’s expertise in nuclear innovation. At least half of our innovation spending will go towards nuclear research and development…Our nuclear programme will include a competition to develop a small modular nuclear reactor – potentially one of the most exciting innovations in the energy sector.”