ASCE Critical Infrastructure

Wow! Amazing new online version of ACI-NA's "Centerlines" magazine

rrACI-NA's members now have access to Centerlines magazine in a spectacularly user-friendly new online format. It is available to all Centerlines subscribers and was announced today, January 30, 2008.

An editorial worth reading

Today's (January 29, 2008) New York Times has a strong editorial endorsing the bill by Senators Dodd and Hagel to establish a national infrastructure investment bank. Read it at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/opinion/29herbert.html?th&emc=th There is no doubt from ASCE's reports, as well as reports emerging from other commissions and research efforts, that our national infrastructure in all categories, including aviation, is in both disrepair and a state of failing to keep up with current and anticipated demand by users.

"The Infrastructure Crisis" in January 2008 Civil Engineering

If you read this blog, you probably also read Civil Engineering. If so, please forgive this post if it's redundant for you.

In the January 2008 issue of Civil Engineering (pp. 46-48, 59-61), Robert L. Reid looked at the major issues in aviation critical infrastructure: poor customer service, congestion, flight delays, inadequate runway capacities, outdated air traffic control system, inadequate investment in aviation infrastructure, the impacts of expanding use of smaller regional jets, and possibly outdated funding mechanisms. Reid quotes  Dr. Lance Sherry of GMU's Center for Air Transportation Systems Research, "In a nutshell, the problem we found is that nobody's in charge of the overall [aviation] system." (p. 60)