The First Facility Management Blog

The District Of Columbia has, on average, the oldest commercial buildings among the states, according to a new study of the age of the U.S. commercial building stock conducted by SMR Research Corp. Older buildings are those most likely to be energy inefficient.

As for buildings by type, the oldest in the U.S. are mixed-use buildings, such as apartment buildings with stores on the first floor. Funeral homes are the second oldest type of commercial building, followed by churches.

SMR’s study of building construction dates used public property records from local tax assessors. The firm studied 4.61 million commercial buildings where the tax records included the year in which the structure was built. The study spanned the entire nation except for Vermont, Louisiana, and Illinois, due to insufficient available data.

Buildings in the Northeastern states have the oldest average age. Nevada has the newest buildings, followed by South Dakota, Alaska, and Arizona.

In DC, SMR tallied 31,855 buildings and calculated an average age of 69.8 years. In Nevada, looking at 67,532 buildings, the average age is only 20.5 years.

Nationally, SMR found, the average age of U.S. commercial buildings is 41.7 years. Of the 4.61 million buildings studied, 14.3% were built within the last 10 years. But 15% were more than 75 years old.

Looking at buildings by use, medical services buildings (other than hospitals) are the newest, with an average age of 34.3 years. Fully 32% of all medical buildings in the U.S. were built within the last 20 years.

The second newest building category was warehouse/storage facilities, no doubt because of the recent growth of personal storage units. The average age is 34.8 years.

Mixed-use buildings, by contrast, have an average age of 66.6 years. Funeral homes are 61.7 years old, on average, and churches average 55 years old.

Despite frequent allegations that the U.S. has a crumbling industrial base, SMR found that industrial facilities are slightly newer than most other buildings, with an average age of 40.7 years. SMR looked at 292,087 of these properties.

The study was designed to help focus the marketing programs of suppliers of energy efficient building materials, equipment, solar panels, and construction services. It includes average ages and a percentage distribution of buildings by age group for 24 categories of buildings, plus data on buildings in 47 states, DC, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The tax data include additional information on individual buildings, including assessed values, square footage, names and addresses of owners, current owners’ purchase dates, and whether the building is occupied by the owner. There are more than 9 million commercial buildings in the United States. About half had ages disclosed in the tax records.

The study results — by building type and by state — span two spreadsheets and are available through SMR’s Web site.

Back in April, I posted an article about the new headquarters for Mayr-Melnhof, an Austrian wood processing company. And while this building appears to float, Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio in the Netherlands has done that one better by designing a whole community that actually floats.

So instead of fighting rising tides in the region, the world’s first floating apartment complex, The Citadel, will work with this natural resource to incorporate its benefits into the infrastructure of the development. As a result, the complex will use 25% less energy than a conventional building on land by tapping into water cooling techniques.

From Inhabitat:

The project will be built on a polder, a recessed area below sea level where flood waters settle from heavy rains. There are almost 3,500 polders in the Netherlands, and almost all of them are continually pumped dry to keep flood waters from destroying nearby homes and buildings. The New Water Project will purposely allow the polder to flood with water and all the buildings will be perfectly suited to float on top of the rising and falling water.

Built on top of of a floating foundation of heavy concrete caisson, the Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a car park, a floating road to access the complex as well as boat docks. With so many units built into such a small area, the housing complex will achieve a density of 30 units per acre of water, leaving more open water surrounding the structure. Each unit will have its own garden terrace as well as a view of the lake.

A high focus will be placed on energy efficiency inside the Citadel. Greenhouses are placed around the complex, and the water will act as a cooling source as it is pumped through submerged pipes. As the unit is surrounded by water, corrosion and maintenance are important issues to consider. As a result, aluminum will be used for the building facade, due to its long lifespan and ease of maintenance. The individual apartments are built from prefabricated modules. The Citadel will be situated on a shallow body of water, and in the future numerous buildings, complexes and residences will float on the water alongside it.

On May 19, 2009, the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a project of the William J. Clinton Foundation, announced a global program developed in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), called the Climate Positive Development Program. The program will support the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate cities can grow in ways that are “climate positive.” Climate Positive real estate developments will strive to reduce the amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero.
 
Sixteen founding projects on six continents, supported by local governments and property developers, will demonstrate Climate Positive strategies, setting a compelling environmental and economic example for cities to follow.
 
Rapid urban growth and climate change are putting the world’s cities in a vise grip of escalating infrastructure, energy, and health and human services costs that will be magnified by the pressure of climatic adaptation. How cities change and grow is therefore a critical component to tackling the climate crisis.
 
“As the Earth’s population increases and our cities grow, we need to ensure we have the models in place to sustain our way of life in an increasingly urbanized world,” President Clinton said. “The Climate Positive Development Program will set a new global standard for developments that will minimize environmental impacts and benefit economies as we build and rebuild homes, schools, and businesses.”
 
To reduce the net greenhouse gas emissions of these projects to below zero, property developers and local governments will agree to work in partnership on specific areas of activity. This includes implementing economically viable innovations in building, the generation of clean energy, waste management, water management, transportation, and outdoor lighting systems.
 
When the initial 16 projects are completed, nearly one million people will live and work in Climate Positive communities. These communities will be located in:  Melbourne, Australia; Palhoça, Brazil; Toronto, Canada; Victoria, Canada; Ahmedabad, India; Jaipur, India; outside Panama City, Panama; Pretoria, South Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa; Seoul, South Korea; Stockholm, Sweden; London, UK; San Francisco, USA and Destiny Florida, USA.
 
“We know that when it comes to combating the threat of climate change, cities are acting in many ways,” said Toronto Mayor David Miller, Chair of the C40 Group of large cities leading on climate change. “Climate Positive is yet another way cities will be able to continue to lead this important fight. This initiative is particularly important as the world becomes more urbanized and I want to thank CCI for making it a reality.”
 
“I am sure our effort to fight global warming will be a successful one if initiatives like the Climate Positive Development Program continue to be widely accepted around the world,” said Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul. 

The Ohio Council of Local Sections of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2009 Ohio Infrastructure Report Card that gives Ohio’s infrastructure a grade of C-. The report graded the current condition of 10 infrastructure areas that are essential to the state’s economic prosperity and quality of life. Areas graded are aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, electricity, parks and recreation, railroads, roads, schools, and wastewater. The ASCE Ohio Council estimates that an investment in infrastructure renewal of more than $46 billion is needed over the next five years to address the state’s crumbling infrastructure.

This assessment of Ohio’s infrastructure follows the January 28, 2009 national release by ASCE of its fourth Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, The 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. This report card, like its predecessors, was designed to provide a grade for the current condition of components of America’s crumbling infrastructure, raise public awareness, stimulate debate, and propose, highlight, and promote solutions. ASCE graded the nation’s overall infrastructure condition as a D, and estimated the projected cost for repairing the nation’s infrastructure as $2.2 trillion over the next five years. ASCE has called for a renewed partnership between citizens; local, state, and the federal governments; and the private sector to work together to define the most critical projects and get the support needed for immediate action.

Ohio’s infrastructure grades ranged from a high of B- for bridges to a low of D for roads. The areas of drinking water and wastewater also had low grades of D+. There are reasons for concern and need for investment in all the areas evaluated in the report.

Aviation infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of C-. Ohio ranks third in the nation with 124 paved and lighted general aviation airports. Only 58% of runways, 57% of taxiways, and 62% of aprons (the area where aircraft are parked, loaded, and unloaded) meet the satisfactory condition index. These percentages are below Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Office of Aviation established goals. Ohio’s commercial service airports are meeting capacity requirements. ODOT has estimated that $9.8 million a year is needed to maintain airports at their existing condition and an additional $117 million is required to provide improvements to meet the state systems goal that 85% of runways, 80% of taxiways, and 75% of aprons have a satisfactory rating.

Bridges in Ohio received a grade of B-. Bridges in Ohio are crucial components of one of the largest transportation systems in the United States. Many bridges in Ohio have reached their expected service life and are in need of rehabilitation or replacement. The council estimates that it would cost $3.6 billion to replace all the structurally deficient bridges and rehabilitate two-thirds of the functionally obsolete bridges in Ohio. This estimate does not include any design, roadway, nor land acquisition costs associated with these projects.

Dams in Ohio received a grade of C. There are more than 2,600 dams in the state of Ohio. Nearly 70% of dams are privately owned. There were 1,597 state-regulated dams in Ohio in 2007. Of the state-regulated dams, 33% are rated as being deficient. It is estimated that $309 million is required to make repairs to the 524 deficient dams in the state. As of 2007, 43% of Ohio’s high hazard dams had Emergency Action Plans (EAP), a key measure in reducing the risk to the public. An EAP is a formal document that identifies potential emergency conditions at a dam and specifies pre-planned actions to be followed to minimize property damage or loss of life in the event of a dam failure.

Drinking water infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of D+. Approximately 90% of Ohioans receive water for daily needs from one of the more than 6,000 public water supply systems in the state. An estimated 99% of the burden for funding public water supply is borne by the local government agency. ASCE estimates that Ohio has $9.68 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs. The Ohio EPA Division of Drinking and Ground Water estimates that drinking water stimulus project funds will total approximately $58.5 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As of April, 2009, the Ohio EPA had received project funding requests for more than 1,400 projects for a total of $3 billion.

Electricity infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of C+. Electric generation, transmission, and distribution systems in Ohio are satisfactory, reliability problems are relatively few, and those that exist are being addressed by system improvements. However, mandates related to alternative energy and environmental protection pose problems for Ohio’s electric utilities in the future. In 2008, the Ohio legislature passed a bill that requires that 12.5% of energy come from alternative energy sources (including renewable, conservation, and clean thermal) by 2024. Furthermore, federal regulations may have a great impact on Ohio’s electric generating capacity, as approximately two thirds of our electricity is provided by coal. There is a strong possibility that coal-fired generation will be required to drastically reduce CO2 emissions in the future which could impose large financial burdens on our current system.

Parks and recreation infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of C-. Park systems in Ohio provide a crucial economic element in terms of jobs and financial impact. An additional $26.5 million is needed each year to properly operate the state parks and other divisions, and an additional $29.9 million is needed annually to eliminate the maintenance backlog over the next 10 to 20 years. These same needs are also being felt at the local levels as well. Facilities at many urban recreation centers are past their expected service life and are in need of repairs or at risk of being closed for health and safety reasons. A study by the Ohio State University in 2004 stated that people visiting Ohio’s state parks alone contribute an estimated $1.1 billion to the state’s economy annually.

Railroads in Ohio received a grade of C-. Railroads provide critical services to industries important to Ohio’s economy, hauling raw materials, parts, and finished products. Railroads are also an important industry in Ohio, employing more than 8,000 workers and paying approximately $500 million in wages in the state. ODOT has estimated that the cost to improve the 30 worst railroad choke points in the state would cost $1.19 billion. There are nearly 16,000 railroad crossings within the state. Since 1990, motor vehicle/train crashes at grade crossings have declined 66% and the number of fatalities has dropped 77 percent. However, between 2005 and 2008 there were still 482 accidents, including 45 fatalities. Columbus is the second largest and Dayton the sixth largest city in the U.S. without passenger rail services.

Roads in Ohio received a grade of D. With over 125,000 miles of roads, Ohio has one of the largest and most utilized roadway networks in the United States. ASCE found that 43 percent of Ohio’s roads are in critical, poor, or fair condition. It is estimated that by the year 2014, Ohio will have a highway budget shortfall of more than $10 billion at the state government level alone. Congestion in the large urbanized areas in Ohio is getting worse. Each year, the Texas Transportation Institute publishes a ranking of highway congestion in the 50 largest urban areas throughout the U.S., as ranked by hours of delay per person. In 2002, Columbus was ranked 41st nationally and was the only Ohio city included. By 2005, Columbus’ ranking rose to 34th, and Cincinnati and Cleveland joined Columbus as Ohio cities included on the list (ranked 40th and 49th, respectively).

School infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of C. The quality of schools in Ohio is crucial to the state’s long-term viability and ability to compete in the global marketplace. The American Federation of Teachers estimated in 2008 that Ohio schools require $9.32 billion in infrastructure investment. This ranks Ohio 6th in the country for total funds needed. The Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) was created in 1997 as a separate state agency to oversee the rebuilding of Ohio’s public schools in 614 school districts. During the 1998-2007 fiscal years, the OSFC managed yearly appropriations across all its programs totaling $5.92 billion, or approximately $592 million per year. In 2007, the OSFC reported that all facility needs in 123 school districts have been fully addressed.

Wastewater infrastructure in Ohio received a grade of D+. Aging systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated wastewater into U.S. surface waters each year. An estimated 95% of the burden for funding municipal wastewater treatment systems is borne by local government. It is estimated that Ohio has $11.16 billion in wastewater infrastructure needs. It is clear that operations, maintenance, and capital investments in wastewater treatment facilities are not keeping up with the decaying infrastructure and the increasing demand placed on these facilities. Older systems that mingle storm and wastewater collection systems are plagued by chronic overflows during major rainstorms and heavy snowmelt, which results in the discharge of raw sewage into surface waters. The U.S. EPA estimated that the volume of combined sewer overflows discharged nationwide is 850 billion gallons per year. According to the U.S. EPA, sanitary sewer overflows, caused by blocked or broken pipes, resulted in the release of as much as 10 billion gallons of raw sewage annually.

ASCE’s Board of Directors has been giving special attention to improving America’s infrastructure on several fronts, including championing the need for investments in infrastructure renewal with policy makers at the national, state and local level. As part of this effort, and to broaden the dialog on infrastructure renewal, ASCE has been encouraging its Sections and Branches to develop and promote Infrastructure Report Cards for their region, state, and city or county. Sections and Branches can localize the national Report Card by focusing on infrastructure that is relevant to their region, state, or local area.

It is no surprise that the continuing economic uncertainty throughout world markets and the lingering impact of a global credit crunch are seen as the greatest risks faced by real estate companies.

“In this time of great economic uncertainty and lack of liquidity, many companies are proactively looking for ways to manage risk, streamline operations, and enhance their business relationships effectively so they can hit the ground running when markets begin to stabilize,” says Howard Roth, Global and Americas Real Estate Leader, Ernst & Young.

The 2009 Ernst & Young real estate business risk report, produced in conjunction with strategy consultancy Oxford Analytica, itemizes the 10 top business risks faced by the industry as ranked by leading sector analysts. The top 2009 risks in order are:

1. Continued uncertainty and impact of the credit crunch. Tighter credit is just one threat to real estate from the crunch; the economic downturn is affecting commercial vacancy rates as well as property valuations.
2. Global economic and market fluctuations. Due to capital flows and business expansion, the real estate industry has become a truly global industry and, as such, is increasingly susceptible to global market fluctuations.
3. Impact of aging or inadequate infrastructure. Particularly in the U.S., but also in other markets around the world, a lack of key transit and utility infrastructure is a threat to economic and real estate growth. (This is huge for the facilities profession!)
4. A global war for talent. Globalization of business has also created a worldwide talent pool with countries forced to compete for human capital.
5. Changing demographics. Aging and urbanizing populations are changing competitive dynamics and creating new markets in real estate.
6. Inability to find and exploit non-traditional global opportunities. With competition increasing worldwide from sovereign wealth funds and others, many global investors face a tough time sourcing new deals that will meet return expectations.
7. Pricing uncertainty. With few transactions taking place in the real estate market, valuations are a problem for existing owners as well as buyers and sellers.
8. Green revolution, sustainability, and climate change. Real estate is at the forefront of the green movement with pressures intensifying to build and operate in sustainable ways and minimize the carbon footprint throughout all types of real estate. (Another huge issue for facilities.)
9. Economic vulnerability and regulatory risks in developing markets. Developing markets are a key focus for global real estate firms but regulatory risk in these markets is constantly changing as authorities seek to jump start economies.
10. Increasing energy costs. Few analysts expect more than a temporary respite from high oil prices as new supply will be unable to meet renewed demand. (Probably one of the most relevant and tangible for fms right now.)

Given the risks outlined by analysts in the report, it is time for owners, investors, and users of real estate to use the time afforded by this lull in real estate activity to prepare their businesses for the next period of economic growth.

“There will be a fundamental shift back to traditional real estate underwriting principles, including comprehensive cash flow analysis and prudent levels of debt and equity in consummating real estate transactions. This ‘back to basics’ movement will lead to the greater transparency necessary to restore confidence between buyers and sellers,” says Roth.

The real estate sector has felt the tightening conditions in credit markets perhaps more than any other sector due to its heavy reliance on capital. Financial conditions for real estate projects are undoubtedly worsening, and the current financial market landscape is expected to persist for the next couple of years.

According to Mark Costello, America’s Leader of Ernst & Young’s construction and real estate advisory services practice, “Real estate is typically the second highest cost item on an income statement after payroll and so provides excellent opportunities for companies to unlock hidden value, particularly through a back to basics approach.”

On the construction side of the industry, two out of three capital projects are currently over budget or behind schedule, according to Malcolm Bairstow, Ernst & Young’s Global Advisory Services Leader for the real estate and construction sectors, which he adds is a statistic exacerbated by the uncertainty surrounding the economy and the availability of financing. “Yet, deploying risk mitigation or accelerated delivery methods after careful assessment of a project can also reduce risk and cost and bring in projects on time and on budget,” Bairstow adds.

“The real estate industry as a whole is focused on simplicity, transparency, and quality deals. However, when things are going really well, it tends to mask organizational inefficiencies,” says Costello. “Companies which address those issues now and solidify their businesses will be in a much better position to address future risk threats.”

Photo by Steve Schulte 2005

The first infrastructure project to move forward under the new federal economic stimulus package was announced earlier this week on 2/24/09. The project, a replacement bridge in Miller County near Tuscumbia, MO, was approved for construction as a top priority for the State of Missouri at a cost of $8.5 million, which will be funded by the stimulus plan. Because of the desire for rapid and economical construction, steel was selected for the bridge’s main span.

“The Show Me State again showed the nation we are leaders in transportation by having the first economic recovery act project in the country under construction,” said Missouri Department of Transportation director Pete Rahn. “We promised we would be ready to go to make the best use of every dollar we receive through the economic recovery act to create jobs and make our highways safer. We delivered on that promise and then some.”

The new 1,000-ft long, 28-foot-wide steel bridge will replace the existing 75-year-old Osage River Bridge, which is the same length and just 20 foot wide. The bridge crosses a Missouri River tributary near the middle of the state, where the average daily traffic is more than 1,000 cars per day. However, it has been off-limits to large trucks since 2007 because of its poor structural condition.

The new bridge, built by general contractor APAC of Kansas City, will use 395 tons of structural steel for the bridge’s 570 foot main span and will be positioned just upstream from the existing bridge.

“We’re pleased to have a project so close to home–only about 35 miles from our fabricator shop–close enough for our employees to be able to see and use,” said Gary Wisch, DeLong’s vice president of engineering. “We’re also proud to be the steel fabricator for the first project built with funds made available by the federal stimulus bill.”

Decades of underfunding and inattention have jeopardized the ability of our nation’s infrastructure to support our economy and facilitate our way of life. On 1/28/09, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure—assigning a cumulative grade of D to the nation’s infrastructure and noting a five year investment need of $2.2 trillion from all levels of government and the private sector.

Since ASCE’s last assessment in 2005, there has been little change in the condition of the nation’s roads, bridges, drinking water systems, and other public works, and the cost of improvement has increased by more than half  a trillion dollars.

“Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity,” said ASCE president D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., F.ASCE. “Our leaders are looking for solutions to the nation’s current economic crisis. Not only could investment in these critical foundations have a positive impact, but if done responsibly, it would also provide tangible benefits to the American people, such as reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, clean and abundant water supplies, and protection against natural hazards.”

As the nation’s infrastructure receives focused attention from the White House, Congress, and the public, ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure provides an assessment of the condition and need for investment of 15 infrastructure categories, including, for the first time, levees. While there has been some improvement in energy since 2005, overall conditions have remained the same for bridges, dams, drinking water, hazardous waste, inland waterways, public parks and recreation, rail, schools, solid waste, and wastewater, and have worsened in aviation, roads, and transit. Security, a category that was added to the Report Card in 2005, and which received an incomplete grade, has been removed from the list of assessed categories and added into the methodology used to assess each individual category. Grades ranged from a high of C+ for solid waste to a low of D- for drinking water, inland waterways, levees, roads and wastewater.

The Report Card also presents five key solutions for raising the nation’s infrastructure GPA. These include:

• Increasing federal leadership in infrastructure,
• Promoting sustainability and resilience,
• Developing federal, state, and regional infrastructure plans,
• Addressing lifecycle costs and ongoing maintenance, and
• Increasing and improving infrastructure investment from all stakeholders.

“The nation’s infrastructure faces some very real problems, problems that pose an equally real threat to our way of life if they are not addressed appropriately,” said Andrew Herrmann, P.E., F.ASCE, Report Card for America’s Infrastructure Advisory Council Chair. “However, while it may not happen overnight, these problems are solvable if we have the right kind of vision and leadership.”

U.S. surface transportation and aviation systems have declined over the past four years, with aviation and transit dropping from D+ to D, and roads dropping from a D to a nearly failing D-. A three percent annual growth is expected in air travel, and despite recent successes—such as the opening of three new major runways—travelers continue to face increasing delays and inadequate conditions in the nation’s airports as a result of the long overdue need to modernize the outdated air traffic control system and the failure to enact a federal aviation program. 

On the country’s roadways, Americans are spending 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, costing the economy $78.2 billion a year, or $710 per motorist. Additionally, 45% of major urban highways are congested, and current annual spending is less than half of the actual need to substantially improve conditions. And, while transit use increased 25% from 1995 to 2005, nearly half of American households still do not have access to bus or rail transit. According to the Federal Transit Administration, the cost to improve to good conditions is more than twice the current annual federal capital outlay of $9.8 billion.

Of the infrastructure categories that have seen no real improvement, solid waste remains the highest grade, C+. This is due largely to the fact that more than a third of the 254 million tons of solid waste produced in the U.S. was recycled or recovered, representing a seven percent increase since 2000, and that per capita generation has remained relatively constant over the last 20 years. However, the increasing volume of electronic waste and lack of uniform regulations for disposal creates the potential for high levels of hazardous materials and heavy metals in the nation’s landfills, which poses a significant threat to public safety. 

Showing no significant improvement or elevated level of decline, the nation’s bridges were assigned a barely average grade of C. While some progress has been made in recent years, more than one in four (26%) of the nation’s bridges remain either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. And, current investment in bridge construction and maintenance, $10.5 billion, is less than the $17 billion needed annually to improve current bridge conditions.

Additionally, at a grade of C-, public parks and recreation, as well as rail, have shown no tangible improvement. Despite the $730 billion per year they contribute to the U.S. economy, and the nearly 6.5 million jobs they support, parks, beaches, and other recreational facilities continue to be underfunded. There has been record spending at the state and local level, but National Park Service facilities face a $7 billion maintenance backlog. Rail is also facing a significant need for investment—more than $200 billion through 2035. Travel in a freight train is three times as fuel efficient as a truck, and travel on passenger rail uses 20% less energy per mile than vehicular travel.

While their shared grade of D may not have dropped in the past four years, dams, hazardous waste, and schools all demonstrate a need for immediate attention. As dams age and downstream development increases, the number of deficient dams has risen to more than 4,000, including 1,819 high hazard potential dams. And, over the past six years, for every deficient, high hazard potential dam repaired, nearly two more were declared deficient.

Redevelopment of brownfields sites over the past five years generated an estimated 191,338 new jobs and $408 million annually in extra revenues for localities, but federal funding for “Superfund” cleanup of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites continues to decline steadily. In addition, there has been no comprehensive, authoritative nationwide study of the condition of America’s school buildings in more than a decade. Currently, the National Education Association’s best estimate to bring the nation’s schools into good repair is $322 billion.

Debuting on the Report Card at a barely passing grade of D-, the condition of the nation’s levees, and their impact on public health, safety, and welfare, requires significant investment and leadership. More than 85% of the nation’s estimated 100,000 miles of levees are locally owned and maintained. The reliability of many of these levees is unknown, and many are more than 50 years old and were originally built to protect crops from flooding. With an increase in development behind these levees, the risk to public health and safety from failure has increased. Rough estimates put the cost of repairing and rehabilitating the nation’s levees at more than $100 billion. 

Also scoring a grade of D-, the nation’s drinking water and wastewater systems and inland waterways face equally difficult problems. Leaking pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water a day, and there is an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities that are near the end of their useful life and to comply with existing and future federal water regulations.

Additionally, aging systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated wastewater into U.S. surface waters each year, and an estimated $390 billion must be invested over the next 20 years to update or replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demand. Finally, while the average tow barge can carry the equivalent of 870 tractor trailer loads, 30 of the 257 locks still in use on the nation’s inland waterways were built in the 1800s and another 92 are more than 60 years old. The cost to replace the present system of locks is estimated at more than $125 billion.

The one positive note on the Report Card, energy, rose from a grade of D to D+. This comes from the progress that has been made in grid reinforcement since 2005 and the substantial investment in generation, transmission, and distribution expected over the next two decades. However, as demand continues to increase—by 25% since 1990—public and government opposition and difficulty in the permitting processes are restricting much needed modernization, and projected electric utility investment needs could be as much as $1.5 trillion by 2030. 

The 2009 Report Card was developed by an advisory council of 28 civil engineers representing each of the infrastructure categories, as well as a broad spectrum of civil engineering disciplines. Each category was evaluated on the basis of capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, and resilience. A detailed report, which accompanies the grades released last week, will be released on March 25, 2009.

John Masek, licensed Civil and Structural engineer, has asked for assistance from FacilityBlog readers. Masek is working on project that will have an impact on facility managers in any area where earthquake design is required. He is looking for input from as many facility managers, building engineers, owners, and others as possible. The goal of the project will likely lead to new design and construction requirements, so he is looking for FacilityBlog readers to provide input on what their recommendations are.

Here is some brief background on the project. EERI is a prominent nonprofit research organization, whose goal is to find and promote effective seismic design and earthquake damage mitigation implementation processes, methods, and technologies. Specifically, EERI is conducting this research project to determine practical methods to cause seismic design and construction of building or facility contents (walls, ceilings, lighting, electrical equipment, mechanical equipment, piping, process equipment, specialty equipment specific to a facility’s use, HVAC equipment, ductwork, computer equipment, storage shelves or racks, facades, etc.; known collectively as nonstructural items) to be anchored or braced to resist earthquake loads in a manner which will provide for personnel safety and desired facility function. This is not a technical survey related to code equations or design provisions; rather, the survey seeks practical implementation suggestions.

Those interested in participating in the project can click this link to respond to the questionnaire. The questionnaire is menu driven and has been customized to focus on items relevant to the respondent’s field of expertise. It will take about 15 minutes or so to complete, depending upon the level of additional comments the respondent chooses to make. ALL input is confidential and will only be listed by respondent type (i.e. facility manager, owner, building engineer, architect, engineer, etc.)

If you would like to discuss this project with the EERI Principal investigator directly, please contact:
John P. Masek, P.E., S.E.
Member EERI
jpmasek@vieengineers.com
801-671-8108