Investing in Better Procurement Processes Can Enable Better Infrastructure Outcomes.

Editor’s Note:  This post is the first in a two part series about how procuring infrastructure systems, technologies, and services can be an entry point to resilience in cities, rather than an obstacle to it.

Many cities across the United States are home to legacy infrastructure systems. These older water, transportation, and communications systems are not only poorly suited to current needs, but they are also nearing (or well past) the end of their usable lives after decades of underinvestment and deferred maintenance.

The motivation for investing in resilience—taking measures to adapt and modernize systems amid rising environmental and social pressures—could not be greater, especially at a local level.

However, local government resources for infrastructure transformation are limited at best. As a result, local leaders are caught in a tug-of-war. On one side are high-priority incremental repairs to keep critical services up-and-running. On the other side is all the up-front planning required to invest in long-term capital projects. Both are costly. Both are necessary. In the coming years, more places will inevitably be confronted with a stark choice: keep making short-term fixes or find the resources to make major upgrades and replacements.

Continue reading.

The Brookings Institute

by Shalini Vajjhala and Ellory Monks

November 26, 2018



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