Professional and Career Topics

Some time ago there was a thread about the high costs of infrastructure renewal and questions about the potentially unachievable costs.  I responded by discussing how engineers can use asset management and risk assessment to get the most bang for the buck.  Today in ASCE SmartBrief this article was shared giving other good examples of how we can use technology, particularly the IOT, for the same purpose. Does anyone have any experience with using IOT to make smarter spending decisions?

 'Moneyball' approach to closing the $2 trillion infrastructure finance gap

TheHill		remove preview
'Moneyball' approach to closing the $2 trillion infrastructure finance gap This spring, President Trump Donald John Trump The billionaire exemption Former Bolton aide pushes back on report of nuclear freeze with North Korea US breaks record for longest economic expansion MORE and the Democratic leadership in Congress agreed on a number: $2 trillion is what it will take to get America's infrastructure a passing grade. View this on TheHill >

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Bevin Beaudet P.E.,M.ASCE
President/Owner
Bevin A. Beaudet, P.E., LLC.
West Palm Beach FL
(561)373-4442
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Public infrastructure should never be looked at like business assets. There is no associated profit with a road or bridge or sewer. Applying private business models to infrastructure investment is a no-win path. Using technology to monitor problems seems helpful but obviously as the Hill article alluded to, what do you do when the technology has problems or is degrading faster than the bridge that is being monitored? Current tech has limitations and in general, it's lifespan is never the same as the infrastructure it is monitoring. What is the lifespan of an OS compared to concrete?

There is data that can be harvested that should be able to help make better long-term decisions. Every public works project has boxes of inspection reports, materials reports, etc that are shelved after the project is completed and then forgotten about. Academics should be able to find a way to combine that data with weather data and loading data to determine accurate maintenance schedules for roadways and bridges. Is there additional data that can be harvested by inspectors during the project that can be better used to forecast the optimal maintenance or even the lifespan of that infrastructure?

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Yance Marti P.E.,M.ASCE
Civil Engineer IV
City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI
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