West Coast Infrastructure Exchange

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Problem

The West Coast states face a $1 trillion infrastructure financing gap over the next 30 years. The Great Recession and slow economic recovery have strained the tax revenues of state and local governments, widening the already well-documented infrastructure investment gap.

Solution

The West Coast Infrastructure Exchange (WCX) was created by Oregon, Washington, California, and British Columbia to help redesign the way they plan, build, and finance public infrastructure. WCX works to attract private investment in public projects, share best practices, bundle smaller projects and incorporate climate resilience. This multi-state collaboration will help find innovative ways to fund necessary projects that may not otherwise get completed by relying only on traditional public funding. Through these infrastructure projects, the WCX aims to promote job creation and improve the region’s long-term economic competitiveness over time.

Moving Montgomery Forward with Gigabit Speed Networks

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Problem

The current absence of a high-speed, ultra-secure, and interconnected network prevents Montgomery County from reaching its economic growth potential by investing in a vibrant life sciences community.

Solution

County Councilmember Riemer has proposed that the county government help facilitate the creation of a high-speed, secure, and interconnected fiber network that will be built based on a co-op, public utility model. The proposed network will connect with the County’s own fiber network and will be funded and built by private sector, anchor institutions already in the life sciences corridor and networking firms seeking to gain a foothold there. The resulting infrastructure will attract additional investment, new companies, and high-paying, high-tech jobs to the county to increase economic competitiveness and growth.

ETOPIA: Statewide Broadband Expansion

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Problem

In our expanding digital world, broadband access has become a critical infrastructure for consumers and businesses alike to remain economically competitive.

Solution

Senator Unger is proposing to create an inventory and mapping of broadband availability around the state of West Virginia, to develop a framework for increasing and upgrading internet infrastructure across the state. His proposal also requires intergovernmental cooperation and coordination on finding the best ways to implement these technological improvements effectively. Through increased broadband access, Unger hopes to increase economic competitiveness by ensuring equal access to high-speed internet for all and by attracting more businesses to West Virginia.

Bottom Up Water Planning

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Problem

Changing climate conditions, population growth, and agricultural innovation are placing significant strains on water management systems. Finding a way to more effectively set public policy for water planning is critical.

Solution

In Texas, Rep. Johnson has helped lead the way to implementing a regional approach to water planning. Beginning with local or regional water development planning that is then incorporated into a statewide plan allows those closest to the resources and needs to strike the right balance between competing interests. Changing to a regional approach for deciding the priorities for water infrastructure allows for the needs of private water rights owners, private and public utilities, and government agencies to coordinate their efforts to maximum effect.

Preservation First

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Problem

Michigan is struggling to find resources to fix its crumbling roads and public support for spending more money on transportation infrastructure is dwindling unless government can show that these projects are sustainable.

Solution

Rep. Townsend has proposed legislation this year to require that any jurisdiction seeking to use state or federal money to build new road capacity must show that its existing roads are in at least “good” or “fair” condition, as defined by state’s Asset Management Council. This policy forces state and local road agencies to be accountable for the condition of their roads before they seek to add to the system, rebuilding faith in government to improve economic outcomes for all.

Economic and Fiscal Impact Statement for All Road Capacity Expansions

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Problem

The general lack of public confidence in government’s ability to make wise investment decisions in transportation leads to underinvestment in such projects, reducing the city’s economic competitiveness and potential for growth.

Solution

Rep. Townsend has introduced legislation to create outcome measures for transportation infrastructure investments that require the Department of Transportation and local agencies to show that their spending plans will generate an economic and fiscal return for the taxpayer and the economy. This matters for everyone because one of America’s greatest deficits is our failure to invest in infrastructure and the only way we will create the political will to do so is to show citizens that government is making wise investments.

Smart Streets

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Problem

South Bend’s thriving downtown began a transformation in the 1960s and 1970s which brought widened one-way, fast moving streets that rewarded the motorists and devalued the downtown, moving people and markets to the suburbs.

Solution

Mayor Pete Buttigieg has helped lead the Smart Streets initiative, an effort to improve the role of streets within South Bend, Indiana. The initiative centers on the economic development goal of creating a sense of place and supporting a vibrant and walkable downtown. The public design-build process was innovative as it brought divergent segments of the population together to achieve rapid consensus, allowing design and engineering work to start the first project phases within a year of the first public input sessions.

Albany Broadband Initiative

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Problem

The citizens of Albany are either limited to target broadband speeds or have no affordable access to broadband at all, creating a gap in the ability of some parts of the community to participate in the global economy. 

Solution

To include all residents in the ongoing digital revolution, the City of Albany has created a Broadband working group consisting of community leaders to identify a reasonable assessment of the opportunities for the City, the most viable business, sustainable financial and operational models including one-time and recurring third-party funding sources (E-Rate, NYS Broadband Grant, URI, etc.), and the deployment plan that will enable the City to take advantage of these opportunities in conjunction with broadband‐friendly public policy development. Broadband expands opportunity to citizens, communities, businesses and government entities by connecting individuals and organizations to advanced communications, telemedicine, telecommuting, etc. Additionally, access to broadband helps attract and retain new businesses, helping entrepreneurs compete in the global market.

CSOnet

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Problem

Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) cities across the country overflow hundreds of billions of gallons of raw sewage into rivers, lakes and oceans every year. South Bend is a CSO city and as recently as 2008 overflowed 1.5-2 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Saint Joseph River annually. The City also used to have 25-30 dry weather sewage overflows to the river each year.

Solution

CSOnet is a real time decision support system that empowers the City of South Bend with understanding, control and optimization of its sewer system. CSOnet minimizes sewer overflows to the river and maximizes the capacity of the existing infrastructure.
In 2013 South Bend commissioned and launched a Sewer Watchdog tool within CSOnet that closely monitors the City’s sewer system in notoriously problem areas. This tool has empowered crews to be far more effective at solving problems, as they have gone from searching for problems to reactive maintenance, and most recently to predictive/preventative maintenance.

Mountain Accord

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Problem

The Central Wasatch Mountains are “ground zero” for millions of Utah residents and visitors alike to obtain clean drinking water, experience a variety of outdoor recreational activities, and, for some, to earn a paycheck. It’s a checkerboard of land management jurisdictions, including the U.S. Forest Service, the Salt Lake City and Metropolitan Water Districts, private property owners, the ski, lodging and restaurant businesses, the Utah Department of Transportation and Salt Lake County. As growth has accelerated along both the Wasatch Front and Wasatch Back, population pressures on the watershed and natural environment have increased. Over the past few decades, more than 80 studies have partially examined the Wasatch but until now, no effort has built a comprehensive plan that seeks to balance the many competing uses and systems.​

Solution

Mayor Ben McAdams helped lead the Mountain Accord initiative, an effort to bring as many stakeholders together as possible to collect and review data and gather public comment on four main areas: environment, recreation, economy and transportation and to see if consensus could be achieved to move forward from a blueprint to an approved environmental impact statement. The result was a set of agreed-to actions to influence local, regional and statewide planning and to initiate efforts to enact meaningful protections for the Central Wasatch in the face of growing pressures on this iconic and cherished landscape. Mountain Accord was a grassroots, bottom up, data driven activity that had to be supported by all of its signatories, including elected officials, private property owners, the ski industry, the environmental community, the transportation authority and others.

 

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