Mary-Louise Hoffman
The Evergreen State College’s Center for Sustainable Infrastructure has published a report that seeks to encourage U.S. organizations to adopt new strategies to operate, manage and upgrade infrastructure systems.
Seventy experts from industry, academia and government agencies in the Paficic Northwest provided their insights for the report, CH2M Hill said Monday.
The report says investments in water, transportation and power systems can have direct implications for economy, communities and environment.
“Public and private sectors need to work together for a step change in how we manage, operate, and rehabilitate our infrastructure, and even in how we define our role as infrastructure managers,” said Liz Kelly, a vice president and senior consultant at CH2M Hill.
“Emerging technologies will also play a major role, as they present opportunities for lower impact and lower cost capital and operations and maintenance (O&M) solutions,” Kelly added.
The U.S. is forecast to spend billions of dollars to build infrastructure over the next few years, the report stated.
