Introduction to Infrastructure: An Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering

Foreword

We view our nation's infrastructure—the built environment—from a variety of personal perspectives shaped by locale and experience. A useful perspective, however, is that given by the federal budget, nearly three-fourths of which is annually spent on just five issues—defense, social security, welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid. All but defense are considered social issues, matters that affect us as members of society, and spending on them is intended to maintain or improve our quality of life. Engineers concerned with the built environment recognize that sound infrastructure also contributes to our quality of life—our economic health and our physical well-being. In this respect, spending on infrastructure and spending on social issues benefit society in the same ways. Infrastructure, however, is not viewed in the same light, yet it competes for the same dollars. When we consider infrastructure in the context of social issues, we recognize that spending on infrastructure is a wise investment in our health, our mobility, and our overall quality of life.

To see infrastructure as a major factor in determining our quality of life, we need only to travel back in time 100 years. In the early 1900s, only 14 percent of homes in the United States had indoor plumbing, and fewer than 8 percent had telephones. There were just 8,000 automobiles, and only 144 miles of paved roads. The average wage was 22 cents per hour and fewer than 6 percent of Americans were graduated from high school. ...