Download or read book The Road Taken written by Henry Petroski and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure. Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both historical and contemporary perspectives, explaining how essential their maintenance is to America's economic health. Petroski reveals the genesis of the many parts of America's highway system--our interstate numbering system, the centerline that divides roads, and such taken-for-granted objects as guardrails, stop signs, and traffic lights--all crucial to our national and local infrastructure. A compelling work of history, The Road Taken is also an urgent clarion call aimed at American citizens, politicians, and anyone with a vested interest in our economic well-being. Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and Petroski reveals the complex and challenging interplay between government and industry inherent in major infrastructure improvement. The road we take in the next decade toward rebuilding our aging infrastructure will in large part determine our future national prosperity.
Download or read book Roads to Power written by Jo Guldi and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roads to Power tells the story of how Britain built the first nation connected by infrastructure, how a libertarian revolution destroyed a national economy, and how technology caused strangers to stop speaking. In early eighteenth-century Britain, nothing but dirt track ran between most towns. By 1848 the primitive roads were transformed into a network of highways connecting every village and island in the nation—and also dividing them in unforeseen ways. The highway network led to contests for control over everything from road management to market access. Peripheries like the Highlands demanded that centralized government pay for roads they could not afford, while English counties wanted to be spared the cost of underwriting roads to Scotland. The new network also transformed social relationships. Although travelers moved along the same routes, they occupied increasingly isolated spheres. The roads were the product of a new form of government, the infrastructure state, marked by the unprecedented control bureaucrats wielded over decisions relating to everyday life. Does information really work to unite strangers? Do markets unite nations and peoples in common interests? There are lessons here for all who would end poverty or design their markets around the principle of participation. Guldi draws direct connections between traditional infrastructure and the contemporary collapse of the American Rust Belt, the decline of American infrastructure, the digital divide, and net neutrality. In the modern world, infrastructure is our principal tool for forging new communities, but it cannot outlast the control of governance by visionaries.
Download or read book Roads written by Penny Harvey and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roads matter to people. This claim is central to the work of Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox, who in this book use the example of highway building in South America to explore what large public infrastructural projects can tell us about contemporary state formation, social relations, and emerging political economies.Roads focuses on two main sites: the interoceanic highway currently under construction between Brazil and Peru, a major public/private collaboration that is being realized within new, internationally ratified regulatory standards; and a recently completed one-hundred-kilometer stretch of highway between Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, and a small town called Nauta, one of the earliest colonial settlements in the Amazon. The Iquitos-Nauta highway is one of the most expensive roads per kilometer on the planet.Combining ethnographic and historical research, Harvey and Knox shed light on the work of engineers and scientists, bureaucrats and construction company officials. They describe how local populations anticipated each of the road projects, even getting deeply involved in questions of exact routing as worries arose that the road would benefit some more than others. Connectivity was a key recurring theme as people imagined the prosperity that will come by being connected to other parts of the country and with other parts of the world. Sweeping in scope and conceptually ambitious, Roads tells a story of global flows of money, goods, and people—and of attempts to stabilize inherently unstable physical and social environments.
Download or read book Roads and Ecological Infrastructure written by Kimberly M. Andrews and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-06 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in association with The Wildlife Society.
Download or read book The Road to Renewal written by R. Richard Geddes and published by Government Institutes. This book was released on 2011 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Road to Renewal: Private Investment in U.S. Transportation Infrastructure, R. Richard Geddes surveys the current state of the American transportation system and finds that, like the roads themselves, the existing policy approach is in desperate need of repair. Drawing on the basic economic principles behind supply, demand, competition, and incentives, Geddes argues that a shift toward increased use of public-private partnerships (PPPs)--contractual agreements between public agencies and private parties that allow private participation in the design, construction, operation, and delivery of transportation facilities--could significantly improve the quality of America's transportation infrastructure. By learning to see themselves as customers and investors--rather than mere users--of roads and highways, Americans should expect to receive a reasonable return on their investment: thorough, effective maintenance of America's transportation infrastructure. The Road to Renewal shows how incorporating increased private participation can halt the deterioration of America's transportation system and become the foundation for a safer, more efficient transportation future."--P. [4] of cover.
Download or read book Transportation Infrastructure written by Saúl Antonio Obregón Biosca and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The transport infrastructure generates benefits in efficiency and interchange of goods and people. The increase of accessibility induced by transport infrastructure in a region causes employment growth, which causes a more positive economic future for the affected area by the infrastructure. The purpose of this book is presented to the practitioners, researchers and students as a comprehensive framework around the transport infrastructure for the following: i. Transport infrastructure, their economic influence and the territorial transformation. ii. The active mobility infrastructure, the design and the habitat influence in urban areas. iii. The fundamentals and main approaches around road infrastructure and pavement management. iv. The fundamentals and main approaches around road infrastructure, pavement design, assessment and management in road and airport pavement. v. An approach toward the assessment and management of railway infrastructure and the urban policies of tram systems in Europe. The transport infrastructure diversity presented in this book offers a valuable and representative point of view concerning its importance, considering the assessment aspects, management and especially the challenges in the field."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Rethinking America s Highways written by Robert W. Poole and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A transportation expert makes a provocative case for changing the nation’s approach to highways, offering “bold, innovative thinking on infrastructure” (Rick Geddes, Cornell University). Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, with exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America manages its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways.
Download or read book Strong Towns written by Charles L. Marohn, Jr. and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.
Download or read book The Costs of Road Infrastructure and Congestion in Europe written by Heike Link and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-05-20 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the results of the study "Infrastructure Capital, Maintenance and Road Damage Costs for Different Heavy Goods Vehicles in the EU" which was commissioned by the European Commission, DG VII. This study supported the preparation of the white book on transport infrastructure charging. The study an European consortium consisting of DIW (German has been conducted by Institute for Economic Research, project leader and responsible for the country reports for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden), INFRAS (responsible for the country reports for Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal and Greece), Consultancy Dr. Herry (responsible for the country reports for Austria, Finland, France and Italy) and NERA (National Economic Research Associates, responsible for the country reports for the UK, Ireland and Spain). The project ran from November 1997 to March 1998 and was monitored by a steering committee with representatives of the EU-member states. This book is dealing with the calculation of costs for road infrastructure and congestion and the allocation of these costs to vehicle types. It focuses on heavy goods vehicles. This is a topic of high relevance for transport policy both on the national and the EU-Ievel with a long tradition of political and scientific debate. The study contains a comprehensive methodological comparison of existing models for calculating road capital values and capital costs and for allocating infrastructure costs to vehicle types.
Download or read book The Impact of the IIRSA Road Infrastructure Programme on Amazonia written by Pitou van Dijck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the potential socio-economic and environmental impacts of the Initiative for Regional Infrastructure Integration in South America (IIRSA), a continent-wide programme. IIRSA aims at facilitating intra-regional trade and at improving trade and transport links with world markets. This is the first book on IIRSA and its potential implications for South America and more specifically for Amazonia. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the infrastructure programme and deals particularly with methods to assess the probable effects of road construction in environmentally fragile territories. To deepen our understanding of the potential impacts of roads in these areas, the book combines insights from economic and environmental sciences and gives a critical review of traditional assessments and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs). A comprehensive approach of assessing impacts is presented in three case studies of SEAs: the Corredor Norte in Bolivia, the road between Manaus and Porto Velho in Brazil, and the proposed road to link Suriname with Brazil.
Download or read book Africa s Transport Infrastructure written by Heinrich Bofinger and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will be of interest to governments in the region and to multilateral and bilateral aid and lending agencies, as well as to graduate students, faculty, and researchers in African studies and transport studies. --Book Jacket.
Download or read book Is Transport Infrastructure Effective written by Piet Rietveld and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When in 1989 the authors started research on infrastructure, they did not foresee that this would lead to a long-term involvement in this area. Our beginning happened to coincide with the publication of David Aschauer's article on public capital and productivity, which induced a large flow of publications in this field. Infrastructure has indeed been a hot topic in policy and research during the past decade. It is surprising, however, that the number of monographs on spatial and economic impacts of infrastructure has remained very limited. The aim of this book is to contribute to the literature in a consolidated way. A distinguishing feature of our book is that we analyze infrastructure impacts using various methods (both modelling and non-modelling) at a variety of spatial levels (from local to international). Other special features are that we make ample use of 'accessibility' as a bridge concept between the areas of infrastructure and the economy. Finally, we not only treat transport infrastructure projects as given, as is the usual approach in infrastructure impact research, but we also analyze the factors influencing infrastructure supply. We have adopted a mainly non-technical approach throughout most of the book. This means that it can also be used by readers without a strong back ground in statistics, modelling or micro-economics.
Download or read book Transport Infrastructure and Systems written by Gianluca Dell'Acqua and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 1134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transport Infrastructure Asset management in transport infrastructure, financial viability of transport engineering projects/ Life cycle Cost Analysis, Life-Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Assessment of transport infrastructure/ Infrastructures financing and pricing with equity appraisal, operation optimization and energy management/ Low-Volume roads: planning, maintenance, operations, environmental and social issues/ Public-Private Partnership (PPP) experience in transport infrastructure in different countries and economic conditions/ Airport Pavement Management Systems, runway design and maintenance/ Port maintenance and development issues, technology relating to cargo handling, landside access, cruise operations/ Infrastructure Building Information Modelling (I-BIM) / Pavement design and innovative bituminous materials/ Recycling and re-use in road pavements, environmentally sustainable technologies/ Stone pavements, ancient roads and historic railways/ Cementitious stabilization of materials used in the rehabilitation of transportation infrastructure. Transport Systems Sustainable transport and the environment protection including green vehicles/ Urban transport, land use development, spatial and transport planning/ Bicycling, bike, bike-sharing systems, cycling mobility/ Human factor in transport systems/ Intelligent Mobility: emerging technologies to enable the smarter movement of people and goods/Airport landside: access roads, parking facilities, terminal facilities, aircraft apron and the azdjacent taxiway/ Transportation policy, planning and design, modelling and decision making/ Transport economics, finance and pricing issues, optimization problems, equity appraisal/ Road safety impact assessments, road safety audits, the management of road network safety and safety inspections/ Tunnels and underground structures: preventing incidents-accidents mitigating their effects for both people and goods/ Traffic flow characteristics, traffic control devices, work zone traffic control, highway capacity and quality of service/ Track-vehicle interactions in railway systems, capacity analysis of railway networks/ Risk assessment and safety in air and railway transport, reliability aspects/ Maritime transport and inland waterways transport research/ Intermodal freight transport: terminals and logistics.
Download or read book Road Infrastructure and Economic Development written by Cesar A. V. Queiroz and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1992 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The average stock of paved roads per million inhabitants in high-income economies is 59 times that in low-income economies. And those roads are in better condition than the ones in low income economies.
Download or read book Sustainable Road Infrastructure Technologies and Assessments written by Di Wang and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-05-23 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The construction of sustainable road infrastructures has become an issue of concern to the international community. Road infrastructures require a large amount of non-renewable resources during the construction phase while containing abundant renewable energy resources (e.g. vehicle mechanical energy, internal thermal energy, and surface solar energy) during the operational phase. Therefore, reducing the dependence of road infrastructures on non-renewable resources, upgrading the construction and maintenance levels, improving the recycling level of infrastructure materials, and efficiently harvesting and utilizing clean energy from sustainable road infrastructures are of great significance in alleviating energy problems and promoting sustainable social development.
Download or read book Road Infrastructure Inclusive Development and Traffic Safety in Korea written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report combines empirical research on the relationship between road infrastructure, inclusive economic development and traffic safety with an assessment of policies and governance structures to help governments find ways to create effective, safe and inclusive transport infrastructures.
Download or read book Smart Road Infrastructure written by Runhua Guo and published by IET. This book was released on 2021-12-17 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smart roads are road infrastructures with integrated structural materials, sensors, information centres, and energy systems. The goals are extending service life and performance, reducing safety risks, and improving service quality. This book brings together the latest research into technologies for novel and smart road infrastructures.
