Need to Know” anchor Jeff Greenfield explores why it now takes nearly four times as long to complete infrastructure projects in the United States than it did in the 1970’s.
infrastructure

Building bridges
Across the industrialized world in places like China and Germany, high-speed railroads and gleaming new airports. And here in the United States? According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, we have infrastructure so outdated that it will take some $2.2 trillion dollars to fix.

The legacy of Robert Moses
Moses, in the totality of his reign as ‘Master Builder,’ “built 13 bridges, 416 miles of parkways, 658 playgrounds, and 150,000 housing units, spending $150 billion in today’s dollars” across the City of New York.

Parking meter rates rise again in 2012
As the year starts, Chicagoans have gotten another reminder of why the parking meter lease has been so deeply unpopular.

Making a case for the gas tax
The coming federal gas tax reauthorization showdown puts millions of workers and billions of dollars on the line. If the federal government can’t create a unified response to this infrastructure crisis, each state must act, writes Samuel I. Schwartz.

No bridge over troubled water: Our economy depends on a functioning transportation system
Can the nation afford $56 billion on highway spending alone? Samuel Schwartz argues that the costs of failing to improve our national infrastructure are the ones we really can’t afford.

An indecent proposal for our country’s infrastructure future
Is it fiscally responsible to cut transportation spending now when this country’s infrastructure needs are only growing?, asks Samuel I. Schwartz.

Inkjet printing solar panels: cheap and almost green
Solar energy is one of the easiest and greenest of the renewable energy sources, but its high price is holding it back. One of the most promising new research developments involves printing thinner, cheaper panels with an inkjet.