Infrastructure (also known as "capital goods", or "fixed capital") is a platform for governance, commerce, and economic growth and is "a lifeline for modern societies".[1] It is the hallmark of economic development.[2]
It has been characterized as the mechanism that delivers the "..fundamental needs of society: food, water, energy, shelter, governance ... without infrastructure, societies disintegrate and people die."[3]Adam Smith argued that fixed asset spending was the "third rationale for the state, behind the provision of defense and justice."[4] Societies enjoy the use of "...highway, waterway, air, and rail systems that have allowed the unparalleled mobility of people and goods. Water-borne diseases are virtually nonexistent because of water and wastewater treatment, distribution, and collection systems. In addition, telecommunications and power systems have enabled our economic growth."[5]
This development happened over a period of several centuries. It represents a number of successes and failures in the past that were termed public works and even before that internal improvements. In the 21st century, this type of development is termed infrastructure. [6]
Infrastructure can be described as tangible capital assets (income-earning assets), whether owned by private companies or the government.[7]
Infrastructure may be owned and managed by governments or by private companies, such as sole public utility or railway companies. Generally, most roads, major ports and airports, water distribution systems and sewage networks are publicly owned, whereas most energy and telecommunications networks are privately owned. Publicly owned infrastructure may be paid for from taxes, tolls, or metered user fees, whereas private infrastructure is generally paid for by metered user fees. [8][9] Major investment projects are generally financed by the issuance of long-term bonds.
Infrastructure debt is a complex investment category reserved for highly sophisticated institutional investors who can gauge jurisdiction-specific risk parameters, assess a project’s long-term viability, understand transaction risks, conduct due diligence, negotiate (multi)creditors’ agreements, make timely decisions on consents and waivers, and analyze loan performance over time.
Research conducted by the World Pensions Council (WPC) suggests that most UK and European pensions wishing to gain a degree of exposure to infrastructure debt have done so indirectly, through investments made in infrastructure funds managed by specialised Canadian, US and Australian funds.[11]
On November 29, 2011, the British government unveiled an unprecedented plan to encourage large-scale pension investments in new roads, hospitals, airports, etc. across the UK. The plan is aimed at enticing 20 billion pounds ($30.97 billion) of investment in domestic infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure as a new asset class for pension funds and SWFs
Pension and sovereign wealth funds are major direct investors in infrastructure.[12][13] Most pension funds have long-dated liabilities, with matching long-term investments. These large institutional investors need to protect the long-term value of their investments from inflationary debasement of currency and market fluctuations, and provide recurrent cash flows to pay for retiree benefits in the short-medium term: from that perspective, think-tanks such as the World Pensions Council (WPC) have argued that infrastructure is an ideal asset class that provides tangible advantages such as long duration (facilitating cash flow matching with long-term liabilities), protection against inflation and statistical diversification (low correlation with ‘traditional’ listed assets such as equity and fixed income investments), thus reducing overall portfolio volatility.[14][12] Furthermore, in order to facilitate the investment of institutional investors in developing countries' infrastructure markets, it is necessary to design risk-allocation mechanisms more carefully, given the higher risks of developing countries' markets.[15]
Supranational and public co-investment with institutional asset owners
Some experts have warned against the risk of "infrastructure nationalism", insisting that steady investment flows from foreign pension and sovereign funds were key for the long-term success of the asset class- notably in large European jurisdictions such as France and the UK [17]
Comparison of private versus public investment
An interesting comparison between privatisation versus government-sponsored public works involves high-speed rail (HSR) projects in East Asia. In 1998, the Taiwan government awarded the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, a private organisation, to construct the 345 km line from Taipei to Kaohsiung in a 35-year concession contract. Conversely, in 2004 the South Korean government charged the Korean High Speed Rail Construction Authority, a public entity, to construct its high-speed rail line, 412 km from Seoul to Busan, in two phases. While different implementation strategies, Taiwan successfully delivered the HSR project in terms of project management (time, cost, and quality), whereas South Korea successfully delivered its HSR project in terms of product success (meeting owners' and users' needs, particularly in ridership). Additionally, South Korea successfully created a technology transfer of high-speed rail technology from French engineers, essentially creating an industry of HSR manufacturing capable of exporting knowledge, equipment, and parts worldwide.[18]
The method of infrastructure asset management is based upon the definition of a Standard of service (SoS) that describes how an asset will perform in objective and measurable terms. The SoS includes the definition of a minimum condition grade, which is established by considering the consequences of a failure of the infrastructure asset.
The key components of infrastructure asset management are:
Definition of a standard of service
Establishment of measurable specifications of how the asset should perform
Establishment of a minimum condition grade
Establishment of a whole-life cost approach to managing the asset
After completing asset management, official conclusions are made. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the United States a "D+" on its 2017 infrastructure report card.[19]
Most infrastructure is designed by civil engineers or architects.[20] Generally road and rail transport networks, as well as water and waste management infrastructure are designed by civil engineers, electrical power and lighting networks are designed by power engineers and electrical engineers, and telecommunications, computing and monitoring networks are designed by systems engineers.
In the case of urban infrastructure, the general layout of roads, sidewalks and public places may sometimes be developed at a conceptual level by urban planners or architects, although the detailed design will still be performed by civil engineers. Depending upon the height of the building, it may be designed by an architect or for tall buildings,a structural engineer, and if an industrial or processing plant is required, the structures and foundation work will still be done by civil engineers, but the process equipment and piping may be designed by industrial engineer or a process engineer.
In terms of engineering tasks, the design and construction management process usually follows these steps:
Planning and Preliminary Engineering Studies
In general, infrastructure is planned by urban planners or civil engineers[21] at a high level for transportation, water/waste water, electrical, urban zones, parks and other public and private systems. These plans typically analyze policy decisions and impacts of trade offs for alternatives. In addition, planners may lead or assist with environmental review that are commonly required to construct infrastructure. Colloquially this process is referred to as Infrastructure Planning. These activities are usually performed in preparation for preliminary engineering or conceptual design that is led by civil engineers or architects.
Preliminary studies may also be performed and may include steps such as:
Determine existing and future traffic loads, determine existing capacity, and estimate the existing and future standards of service
Conduct a preliminary survey and obtain information from existing air photos, maps, and plans
Identify possible conflicts with other assets or topographical features
Perform environmental impact studies:
Evaluate the impact on the human environment (noise pollution, odors, electromagnetic interference, etc.)
Given various time horizons, standards of service, environmental impacts, and conflicts with existing structures or terrain, propose various preliminary designs
Estimate the costs of the various designs, and make recommendations
Detailed Survey
Perform a detailed survey of the construction site
Obtain "as built" drawings of existing infrastructure
Dig exploratory pits where required to survey underground infrastructure
Perform a geotechnical survey to determine the bearing capacity of soils and rock
Perform soil sampling and testing to estimate nature, degree and extent of soil contamination
Answer contractor questions and issue addenda during the tendering process
Receive and analyse tenders, and make a recommendation to the owner
Construction Supervision
Once the construction contract has been signed between the owner and the general contractor, all authorisations have been obtained, and all pre-construction submittals have been received from the general contractor, the construction supervisor issues an "Order to begin construction"
Regularly schedule meetings and obtain contact information for the general contractor (GC) and all interested parties
Obtain a detailed work schedule and list of subcontractors from the GC
Obtain detailed traffic diversion and emergency plans from the GC
Obtain proof of certification, insurance and bonds
Investment in infrastructure is part of the capital accumulation required for economic development and may affect socioeconomic measures of welfare.[22] The causality of infrastructure and economic growth has always been in debate. Generally, infrastructure plays a critical role in expanding national production capacity, which leads to increase in a country's wealth.[23] In developing nations, expansions in electric grids, roadways, and railways show marked growth in economic development. However, the relationship does not remain in advanced nations who witness ever lower rates of return on such infrastructure investments.
Nevertheless, infrastructure yields indirect benefits through the supply chain, land values, small business growth, consumer sales, and social benefits of community development and access to opportunity. The American Society of Civil Engineers cite the many transformative projects that have shaped the growth of the United States including the Transcontinental Railroad that connected major cities from the Atlantic to Pacific coast; the Panama Canal that revolutionised shipment in connected the two oceans in the Western hemisphere; the Interstate Highway System that spawned the mobility of the masses; and still others that include the Hoover Dam, Trans-Alaskan pipeline, and many bridges (the Golden Gate, Brooklyn, and San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge).[24] All these efforts are testimony to the infrastructure and economic development correlation.
European and Asian development economists have also argued that the existence of modern rail infrastructure is a significant indicator of a country’s economic advancement: this perspective is illustrated notably through the Basic Rail Transportation Infrastructure Index (known as BRTI Index) [25]
^Esmaeili, Behzad, et al. "Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum." Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice (2016): 04016020
^Goldsmith, H. (2015). Actors and innovations in the evolution of infrastructure services. The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning, 23-94.
^Hart, Steven D., et al. "Infrastructure and the Operational Art:A Handbook for Understanding, Visualizing, and Describing Infrastructure Systems" US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, (2014)
^Tatom, J. A. (1991). Should government spending on capital goods be raised?. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 73(3), 3-15. Tatom was citing Smith (1937), Book V. part 3, especially p. 682.
^ASCE Critical Infrastructure Guidance Task Committee. "Guiding principles for the nation's critical infrastructure." American Society of Civil Engineers,2009.
^Hart, Steven D., J. Ledlie Klosky, and Scott Katalenich. "Conceptual models for infrastructure leadership." Journal of Management in Engineering 30.3 (2013): 04014003.
^Kliesen, K. L., & Smith, D. C. (2009). Digging into the infrastructure debate. The Regional Economies, 4-9. Accessed at [1]. The article emphasized the distinction between capital assets or capital stocks and capital flows. The latter is the annual or quarterly change in the capital stock, otherwise known as fixed investment, which is part of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This article focused on capital stocks.
^Kao, T., Yung-Cheng, L, and Shih, M. (2010). Privatization Versus Public Works for High Speed Rail Projects. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Issue: 2159. Pp. 18-26.
^Amekudzi, A. A., and S. McNeil. "Infrastructure reporting and asset management: Best practices and opportunities (Transportation & Development Institute (American Society of Civil Engineers). Infrastructure Systems Committee., Trans.)." Reston, Va.: American Society of Civil Engineers (2008). page 2
^Koh, Jae Myong (2018) Green Infrastructure Financing: Institutional Investors, PPPs and Bankable Projects, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.12-51.
^Griggs, F. E. (2003). Perspectives in Civil Engineering. 1852-2002: 150 Years in Civil Engineering in the United States. American Society of Civil Engineers. Edited by Jeffrey S. Russell. Pp. 111-122.
^Puentes, R. (2008). A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century. Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Report: Blueprint for American Prosperity series report.
Bibliography
Koh, Jae Myong, Green Infrastructure Financing: Institutional Investors, PPPs and Bankable Projects, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. ISBN978-3-319-71769-2.
Larry W. Beeferman, "Pension Fund Investment in Infrastructure: A Resource Paper", Capital Matter (Occasional Paper Series), No.3 December 2008
A. Eberhard, "Infrastructure Regulation in Developing Countries", PPIAF Working Paper No. 4 (2007) World Bank
M. Nicolas J. Firzli & Vincent Bazi, “Infrastructure Investments in an Age of Austerity : The Pension and Sovereign Funds Perspective”, published jointly in Revue Analyse Financière, Q4 2011 issue, pp. 34– 37 and USAK/JTW July 30, 2011 (online edition)
Georg Inderst, "Pension Fund Investment in Infrastructure", OECD Working Papers on Insurance and Private Pensions, No. 32 (2009)
Ascher, Kate; researched by Wendy Marech (2007). The works: anatomy of a city (Reprint. ed.). New York: Penguin Press. ISBN978-0143112709.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Hayes, Brian (2005). Infrastructure: the book of everything for the industrial landscape (1st ed.). New York City: Norton. ISBN978-0393329599.
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