Road Work Ahead: Four Solutions for Repairing the Nation’s Infrastructure

By Barry B. LePatner, author of Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press, October 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47267-6, ISBN-10: 0-226-47267-1, $25.00)

We all know the nation’s vast infrastructure problems cannot be fixed overnight. However, by aggressively moving toward a solution now—rather than just applying a series of ineffective “band-aids”—we can begin to make real improvements that will benefit our country for generations to come. Barry LePatner says tackling our critical transportation and infrastructure problems will require a national commitment and a strategic plan that should include the following solutions:

Create a national clearinghouse and database, accessible to every state transportation agency and the general public. The database will identify all design and construction issues affecting our nation’s infrastructure. Much as the airline industry has alerts that immediately advise all airlines of problems with an aircraft, this database should alert all state transportation departments of any bridge failure in the nation and include methodologies for remedial design as well as maintenance problems for all of the nation’s 600,000 bridges.

This information can no longer be buried in state files, particularly given the fact that politicians in many states have evinced a history of ignoring significant problems and leaving them for future administrations. By making this information the subject of alerts and available to the public, we will enable state transportation engineers to take preventative action more quickly, help members of the public avoid the unsafe bridges, and put politicians and officials on notice that they will be held accountable for neglecting to take appropriate action.

“There is already evidence that making infrastructure problems public can lead to protective measures,” says LePatner. “In May 2008, nearly a year after the collapse of Minneapolis’ I-35W bridge, Minnesota’s Department of Transportation closed the Winona Interstate bridge because inspectors had documented rusted and corroded gusset plates in 2006 and 2007. The bridge had not been closed until that point because officials said they did not deem the corroded plates to be critical until federal officials preliminarily identified defective gusset plates as the potential cause of the I-35W bridge collapse. Equally important, MnDOT officials had no prior knowledge that a failure of gusset plates similar to those they experienced on the I-35W bridge had occurred over the Ohio River in 1996.”

State governments should step up their efforts to protect their citizens. State governments must do everything in their power to ensure they have informed their citizens—either through hearings, press conferences, or news releases—about bridges that have received structurally deficient ratings. In addition, they should be obligated to develop a game plan for correcting problems within six months of a bridge’s designation as “structurally deficient.” The public should receive annual updates on the remediation progress and be given notice if funding for the repairs is not provided within 18 months.

Enact a plan to deal with our nationwide shortage of civil and structural engineers. These professionals are trained in advanced inspection methodologies and are experts in remediation of deficient bridges. But the lack of these types of engineers on the staffs of state transportation departments—positions that have been systematically downsized due to decreased transportation funding—prevents them from adequately performing the inspections critical to assessing the safety level of each state’s bridges.

“Not only should we create initiatives to help encourage the nation’s young people to pursue these careers, but state transportation departments must increase compensation to hire and retain engineers to keep them from departing to private industry,” says LePatner. “Engineers are often the first to be laid off from state transportation departments because of their high salaries. This can no longer be the case. State governments can and must find other areas to cut.”

Invest in advanced technologies that help save money and provide more accurate inspections. By the time cracks appear in a bridge’s structure, the costs for remediation have skyrocketed. The problem is, many of the inspection techniques today fail to detect cracks until they are visible to the human eye. In addition, FHWA has acknowledged that visual inspections of bridges are highly subjective and not totally reliable in detecting incipient structural problems.

“Technology exists to anticipate bridge remediation years before rust, corrosion, and cracks in the structure appear,” says LePatner. “We just need to fund it and use it. Enabling bridge inspectors to ensure precision and objectivity in their evaluation process, which in turn allows us to catch problems earlier when they’re easier to fix, can save us millions of dollars in unnecessary remediation costs.”

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 About the Author:

Barry B. LePatner is the founder of the New York City-based law firm LePatner & Associates LLP. For three decades, he has been prominent as an advisor on business and legal issues affecting the real estate, design, and construction industries. He is head of the law firm that has grown to become widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading advisors to corporate and institutional clients, real estate owners, and design professionals.

Mr. LePatner is widely recognized as a thought leader in the construction industry. His new book, Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press), which was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, has created a national debate among owners, designers, and other key stakeholders. Mr. LePatner has been featured in BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, the Chicago Tribune, and other prestigious publications. His articles and speeches on the perilous state of our nation’s infrastructure have garnered him widespread attention. He has appeared on many television and radio broadcasts, including a CNBC appearance and several National Public Radio segments. A November 2007 Governing Magazine article stated, “If there’s a guru of construction industry reform, it’s LePatner.”

A nationally recognized speaker, Mr. LePatner has addressed audiences on topics central to trends affecting the real estate and construction industries at recent events sponsored by: The International Economic Forum of the Americas, the Real Estate Board of New York; FIATECH, the National Realty Club, the Construction Owners Association of America, the Construction Management Association of America, the Construction Financial Management Association, and MC Consultants Inc.’s Construction Defect and Construction Law Conference. He also routinely presents CLE-accredited courses to other law firms and organizations on how the construction industry actually works and how they can best protect their clients from the vagaries of the construction process.

LePatner co-sponsored “Real Estate Outlook,” an annual executive seminar series for corporate and real estate leaders; “Protection, Survival, Readiness: Project Strategy in the Post-9/11 World,” a seminar presented to institutional, developer, and corporate real estate executives; and “Secure Space,” a building security seminar for corporate owners and developers. He has also presented “Construction Cost Integrity: Equitable Risk Allocation Agreements” and “Protecting the Owner from Pitfalls in Today’s Construction Projects,” a series of Continuing Legal Education lectures to law firms and their in-house real estate departments; and the highly successful “Marketing for Design Professionals” course at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Summer Program, from 1990-2004 with A. Eugene Kohn, founder of KPF Associates.

Mr. LePatner has written extensively and is widely quoted in the media on the subject of construction law. He previously co-authored the legal sections of the Interior Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill 2001, and Structural & Foundation Failures: A Casebook for Architects, Engineers & Lawyers, McGraw-Hill 1982, with Sidney Johnson, P.E.

Recently published articles include: “Sarbanes-Oxley’s Wake-Up Call to the Construction Industry,” The CPA Journal, December 2007, co-authored with Henry Korn, Esq., and Anthony Chan, CPA; “Today’s Construction Contracts: Drafter Beware,” Legal Times, September 2007; “The Industry That Time Forgot,” Boston Globe, August 2007; “Construction Cost Increases: Owners Should Know the Difference Between the Myths and Realities,” New York Real Estate Journal, October 2006; and “Are You Prepared—Disaster Management Plans Help Owners Protect Their Investments” in the March/April 2006 issue of Commercial Investment Real Estate magazine. Articles published in the New York Law Journal include: “Caveat Advocatus—Drafting Construction Agreements for Your Client’s New Construction Project Ain’t What It Used to Be,” March 27, 2006; “Insuring a Construction Project Against Water and Mold,” October 25, 2004; “Building Security Measures and Owner Liability After Sept. 11,” May 1, 2003, co-authored with Henry Korn, Esq.

In May 2002, LePatner was elected by the American Institute of Architects to receive an Honorary AIA Membership, one of the highest honors the organization can bestow upon an individual who is not an architect and which is granted to those who have devoted their careers in service to the architectural profession.

In July 2001, LePatner was elected to the Board of Trustees of DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. He has also served on numerous advisory committees, including: the Advisory Board, Society for Marketing Professional Services, 1990-93; the board of the New York Building Congress; Board of Advisors, Legal Briefs for the Construction Industry, 1981-89; American Institute of Architects Advisory Committee, 1984; and the National Academy of Sciences, 1984-85. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.

About the Book:

Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press, October 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47267-6, ISBN-10: 0-226-47267-1, $25.00) is available at bookstores nationwide, from major online booksellers, and direct from the publisher at www.press.uchicago.edu.

For more information, please visit www.brokenbuildings.com.

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