Planning America’s Energy Future at ASCE 2014 Shale Energy Engineering Conference
July 24th, 2014 | By: Whitford Remer
This week, ASCE’s inaugural Shale Energy Engineering Conference was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It included three days of plenary panels, technical sessions and a visit from the Commonwealth’s Governor, Tom Corbett. In his remarks, Governor Corbett reminded the audience that 10 years ago the United States was an importer of natural gas, and today, those pipelines are literally being reserved- with Pennsylvania leading a movement to export gas abroad. Gov. Corbett went so far as saying the rapidly growing natural gas industry in the United States “can change the geopolitics of the world.” But the Governor also issued a stark warning that engineers must be stewards of the environment saying “we look to you to be the guardians of how to do it right.” ASCE President-Elect, Bob Stevens said the Conference allows for diverse stakeholders to come together and focus on “growing working relationships across the industry,” specifically pointing out that there were multiple organizations that create shale extraction standards presenting together, including the American Petroleum Institute and National Council of State Legislators. The Marcellus Shale Coalition estimates energy companies have invested more than $500 million on road upgrades in the region, proving that our infrastructure future cannot be solely focused on one sector over another. America’s energy future is in the hands of many, including civil engineers, and it is a responsibility Conference attendees showed that they relish.Sometimes It's Best to Look Beneath You: A Successful Geothermal Project at Portland International Jetport
July 1st, 2014 | By: Infrastructure Report Card
Commit to Success
America’s infrastructure needs a national commitment to bring existing infrastructure into a state-of-good-repair, and in the long term we must modernize and build in a targeted and strategic manner. This means leadership at the federal, state, and local levels of government, by businesses and individuals, to communicate the importance of our nation’s infrastructure, to craft innovative solutions that reflect the diverse needs of the nation, and to make the investments the system needs. By employing strategies to use every dollar more efficiently and by deploying creative solutions to infrastructure development such as public–private partnerships, we can implement the right projects on time at the right price.
Airport Finds Sustainable Success Underground
The centerpiece of the Portland International Jetport’s $75 million terminal expansion project was the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling system that reduces operating costs and emissions. A creative first in the airport industry, the $3 million project was able to make use of a $2.5 million Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Voluntary Airport Low Emissions (VALE) grant.
The system will maintain a constant temperature inside the terminal building by injecting heat into the ground during the summer and taking heat out of the ground during the winter. The system has 23 miles of high-density polyethylene piping and 120 ground wells that reach as deep as 500 feet. The system moves more than 475 gallons of water per minute with a 125 horsepower pump.
The new systems replace an oil-fired system and will save $160,000 in operating costs and prevent the emission of 1,000 tons of carbon per year, promoting both healthier infrastructure and alternative energy.
Tags: aviation, energy, Maine, report card, success, sustaina
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Lighting Airports Runways with LEDs Saves Big for Raleigh
December 9th, 2013 | By: Infrastructure Report Card
America needs solutions to our infrastructure issues that can work today, and what if it’s as simple as switching out the lights? The replacement of the entire airfield electrical system at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) represents the first major air carrier airport in the United States to complete a full airfield conversion to FAA-certified LED airfield lighting. Beginning in 2008, the $20 million, two-year project replaced roughly 230 signs and 3,200 bulbs lighted with incandescent lighting — everything from taxiway edge and centerline lighting to runway centerline lights, obstruction lights, touchdown zone lights, runway end identifier lights, and elevated and in-pavement guard lights — with LED technology. The transition will save approximately $400,000 per year in energy and maintenance costs, including labor and parts. With AIP funds covering 75 percent of Phase One and North Carolina state funds and federal stimulus funds combining for Phase Two, maintenance savings alone are expected to recoup the airport’s portion of the project’s cost within 18 months. Find out more here on RDU’s website.Tags: Airports, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, solutions, transportation
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New National Geographic Event Offers Opportunity to Reexamine Electric Grid
October 23rd, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
On October 27th, the National Geographic Channel presents American Blackout, a two-hour programming event that imagines the first two weeks immediately following a catastrophic blackout from a cyber-attack on the United States that takes down the power grid. This movie should serve as a stark reminder about the importance of our electric grid. At ASCE, we are concerned with what we can control, such as investing and upgrading of our mostly antiquated power grid. While the film is indeed impactful, the great news is that we—you, me, and our elected officials—can control the reliability and vitality of our nation’s electricity. In the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, ASCE awarded the nation’s Energy sector a D+. Today, the U.S. relies on an aging electrical grid and pipeline distribution system, some of which originated in the 1880s. While demand for electricity has remained level, the availability of energy will become a greater challenge as the population increases. As part of our efforts to better understand the importance of infrastructure, we conducted a series of economic studies we call “Failure to Act” that look at how underinvestment hurts our economy. Unless the investment gap is filled, blackouts and brownouts will increase costs for households and businesses. If we close the gap in investment (at total of $107 Billion) in our power system, we can protect 529,000 lost jobs and $656 billion in lost personal income by 2020. Solutions for our energy needs are prevalent. We need to be more lenient in the siting of new transmission lines that will relieve congestion and facilitate the transfer of electricity from renewable energy sources as we phase out our backbone of coal fired power plants. We must reduce the long and costly permitting process that unfairly target overhead power lines; when a transmission line can cost up to ten times as much to permit it than it does to build it, we have a problem. And finally, we need political leadership at all levels to have the courage to invest in our systems, assure reliability, and plan for the overall life-cycle costs of this critical infrastructure. Only by working together can we hope to improve our energy grid and avoid an American Blackout.Tags: economic study, energy, infrastructure, report card, sustainability
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Get to Know North Carolina’s Mediocre Infrastructure
June 5th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Today, North Carolina’s civil engineers released a new Infrastructure Report Card. After spending a year diving into the details of the state’s infrastructure – from bridges to beaches to dams – they determined that North Carolina’s infrastructure only deserved a mediocre C grade. Like many areas of the country, North Carolina has some work to do to make sure maintenance gets done, aging parts of the system get a modern overhaul, and the infrastructure keeps up with the state’s growth.
The state-wide report examined eleven categories of infrastructure, grading their capacity, resiliency, funding, and reliability. Here’s what they found:
- Aviation earned a D+, in part due to an estimated $763 million needed to bring all airports in the system to a state of good repair.
- Beaches and Inlets were awarded a C-. Many shoals and inlets are functioning at significantly less than authorized depths. Continued erosion of federal and state funding has a significant impact N.C.’s beaches and inlets.
- Bridges earned a C-. North Carolina’s bridges require $281 million more per year in order to make significant strides in raising the grade of North Carolina bridges.
- Dams earned the lowest grade of a D. Ten percent of North Carolina’s high hazard dams are deficient and only 34 percent have Emergency Action Plans. One-third of North Carolina’s dams are over 50 years old.
- Drinking Water earned a C+. North Carolina has over 530 public water systems which serve approximately 7.3 million North Carolinians (75 percent of the state’s population).
- Energy was awarded the highest grade in the report of a B+. North Carolina has a solid foundation of energy and energy infrastructure to meet its current and 20-year planning horizon needs.
- Rail earned a C+, in part due to only 30 percent of the state’s short lines being able to accommodate new, heavier rail cars. It is estimated that freight rail investment needs over the next 25 years will total $545 million.
- Roads earned a C. The scale of the state maintained highway network, current economic circumstances, and the trend of reducing the state transportation agency’s resources and personnel have been challenges to providing and maintaining a sustainable quality of service.
- Schools earned a C. Over 58 percent of North Carolina schools will require renovations in the next five years. Additionally, approximately 10 percent of students are in mobile classrooms. The projected cost to meet facility needs for the next five years is approximately $8.2 billion.
- Stormwater earned a grade of C-. Most of North Carolina’s population lives in communities that have no dedicated source of funding to improve stormwater quality. Statewide sources of funding such as the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund are being reduced and North Carolina’s communities have fewer and fewer options when trying to address their stormwater improvement needs.
- Wastewater earned a C. North Carolina has documented a need of over $4 billion of additional wastewater infrastructure investment needs through the year 2030. These funds are needed to replace aging facilities, comply with mandated Clean Water Act regulations, and keep pace with economic development.
Tags: bridges, continuing education, dams, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, ports, rail transportation, roads, state report cards, transportation, wastewater, water infrastructure
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New Report Shows Mississippi’s Infrastructure Needs a Different Approach
July 30th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
2012 Mississippi Infrastructure Report Card
Tags: civil engineers, economics, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, state report cards, transportation, wastewater, water infrastructure
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ASCE Needs Your Help — Give Us Your “Success Stories”!
July 13th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
ASCE is currently developing the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and we need your help in identifying “Success Stories” – examples of how public and private organizations have addressed specific infrastructure problems with some creativity and determination. While the 2009 Report Card showed there is much work to be done to raise the grades, we know there are countless examples of projects and programs from across the country that demonstrate progress is being made. It is
Success!
- Increased federal leadership
- Promotion of sustainability and resilience
- Develop federal, regional, and state infrastructure plans
- Address life-cycle costs and ongoing maintenance
- Increase and improve infrastructure investment from all stakeholders
ASCE ENERGIZED FOR LATEST ECONOMIC STUDY
April 26th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
ASCE has released the latest report in the Failure to Act economic study series today – Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Electricity Infrastructure. This report assesses the nation’s aging e
nergy facilities and analyzes how accelerating investments in the nation’s transmission, generation, and distribution systems will prevent unnecessary costs to businesses and household budgets by 2020. This report follows two other economic studies that focused on the nation’s surface transportation systems and the nation’s drinking water and wastewater systems.
ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure gave the nation’s energy system a D+. To better explain how the Report Card’s grades affect America’s economic future, ASCE has produced the Failure to Act series of economic reports focused on the real effects on our nation’s economic performance if the nation continues to under invest and defer spending on our energy grid.
This report concludes that by extending current investment trends for the nation’s energy assets through 2020, the U.S. would be investing $566 billion but that would still be $107 billion below the needed investments. To close this gap, an additional $11 billion in new funding annually is needed to decrease brownouts and blackouts and save American businesses $126 billion, prevent the loss of 529,000 jobs, and save $656 billion in personal income loss. America’s economic competitiveness would also benefit by protecting $96 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and $10 billion in revenue from U.S. exports.
ASCE held a discussion with a panel of experts this morning to release the report and discuss the energy infrastructure needs for the nation. The panel was moderated by ASCE President Andrew W. Herrmann P.E., SECB, F.ASCE, and included two former FERC Commissioners, Jim Hoecker and Curt Herbert Jr.; as well as Otto Lynch, who heads the energy section of the ASCE Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, and Samir Succar, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
For more information on ASCE’s Failure to Act series please visit – www.asce.org/failuretoact .
Tags: economics, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card
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