Constructing barge canals took a massive investment that didn’t pay off.
New York State Archives
The lasting problems of infrastructure aren’t of need or construction, but of overbuilding, delayed costs and the challenges of thinking ahead.
Resilience is a major key to success in poorly resourced schools.
Photo by Frédéric Soltan/Getty Images
Access to quality infrastructure is important for students to succeed. However, resilience should be encouraged in the pursuit of academic success.
A lot of coastal infrastructure wasn’t designed for the frequent flooding and crashing waves brought by rising seas.
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A bipartisan group of senators said it reached a deal on $550 billion in new spending on infrastructure.
The Bui Dam is a tangible reminder of China’s influence in Ghana.
Wikimedia Commons
China’s engagement with Ghana was solidified by its willingness to undertake an expensive project Western partners had run away from.
The “Big Inch” oil pipeline at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, around 1943.
Betttman via Getty Images
Proposals for new oil and gas pipelines can generate intense debate today, but during World War II the US built an oil pipeline more than 1,300 miles long in less than a year.
High-tide flooding has become a frequent problem in the Miami area.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
NOAA’s 2021 high-tide flooding outlook shows where the risks are highest and growing. Some communities are seeing 20 or more days of flooding a year now.
Lead in pipes can contaminate the water supply, resulting in poisoning.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Three experts explain a few aspects of American infrastructure that desperately need investment.
In 1872, John Gast painted ‘American Progress,’ showing trains and roads spreading across the American West.
John Gast, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons
Government investment in roads, railroads and other public services has always involved social programming, both for good and for ill.
Flooding caused by high tides in a Miami neighborhood on June 19, 2019.
AP Photo/Ellis Rua
Many coastal US cities are contending with increasingly frequent and severe tidal flooding as sea levels rise. Some are considering building seawalls, but this strategy is not simple or cheap.
Gas taxes have long been used to pay for roads and bridges.
AP Photo/Seth Perlman
A bipartisan group of senators proposed the gas tax should be indexed to inflation to help pay for new infrastructure spending, an approach Biden calls ‘regressive.’
A road crew paints a street in Los Angeles with coating designed to reduce heat.
John McCoy/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Here’s how reflective pavement works and what cities need to think about.
Cattle grazing on a farm near Tulbagh in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Peter Titmuss/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The collapse of local government in small towns is beginning to affect investment in farming, and the ability of agribusinesses to operate.
Railway bridge over the river on the border with Tanzania.
vladimirat/Shutterstock
Governments must ensure that transport infrastructure is developed with the ability to cope with current and future climatic shifts.
Gordonekoff / Shutterstock
When the weather gets wild, your internet connection can suffer. But other users are as much to blame as the wind and rain
A drilling pad for oil and gas in Robinson Township, Penn.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
Abandoned US oil and gas wells and their associated land cover more than 2 million acres, a recent study estimates – an area larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
Identity documents are important for access to many public and social services in Indonesia.
Raisan Al Farisi/Antara Foto
Poverty, vulnerability and discrimination are barriers many Indonesians face in acquiring identity documents.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
James Packer’s Barangaroo tower has not just changed Sydney’s skyline. It has changed the whole planning system.
Water flows from the Vaal Dam after several sluice gates were opened in February 2021. Heavy rains in the Gauteng province resulted in a spike in dam levels.
Deaan Vivier/ via GettyImages
Gauteng citizens need to know the uncomfortable truth: for the next six years, their water supplies will increasingly have to be restricted.
Electric cars charging at Washington, DC’s Union Station.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Electric cars offer benefits for low-income and minority drivers, including cleaner air and lower maintenance costs. But it will take more than rebates on new models to make EVs accessible for all.
The first container ship to dock in the new Lamu Port.
Official image from LAPSSET
The Lamu port is part of an ambitious transport corridor with the aim of integrating marginalised northern Kenya into the Kenyan economy and the nation.