With the current emphasis on a balanced federal budget and correspondingly decreased federal participation in financing local infrastructure systems, infrastructure providers are faced with the challenge of developing new sources of capital to fund their projects. This book discusses critical infrastructure issues and brings together recognized experts in domestic and international infrastructure and finance. It provides perspectives on the issues and discusses less conventional financing techniques used in recently completed projects. This volume also discusses likely conventional financing mechanisms of the future. Table of Contents <ul>
<li>FRONT MATTER</li>
<li>I. OVERVIEW</li>
<li>II. INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES AND ISSUES: A PANEL</li>
<li>III. FUTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCE</li>
</ul>

Financing Tomorrow's Infrastructure: Challenges and Issues: Proceedings of a Colloquium

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment

Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems

National, Research Council

Science & Math

National Academies Press

Use of Underground Facilities to Protect Critical Infrastructures: Summary of a Workshop

Business & Money

Economics

Public agencies, private corporations, nonprofit institutions, and other organizations regularly invest millions of dollars in acquiring buildings and other constructed facilities to support their lines of business. For this investment, the owner receives a complex structure composed of hundreds of separate but interrelated components, including roofs, walls, foundations, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, fire, communication, safety, and architectural systems. These components and systems must all be maintained and repaired to optimize the facility's performance throughout its service life and to provide a safe, healthy, and productive environment for its users and occupants. Linking the Construction Industry: Electronic Operation and Maintenance Manuals is a summary of a workshop that was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on October 13, 1999. The workshop, planned and organized by the Federal Facilities Council and the National Institute of Building Sciences, brought together an invited audience of building industry stakeholders, including owners and operators from federal agencies and other organizations, building component and system manufacturers, publishers of building product data and maintenance manuals, and CMMS software developers to revisit the issue of electronic operation and maintenance manuals.

Linking the Construction Industry: Electronic Operation and Maintenance Manuals: Workshop Summary (Compass Series Federal Facilities Council Technical Report)

Federal Facilities Council

Industries

In this study outsourcing is defined as the organizational practice of contracting for services from an external entity while retaining control over assets and oversight of the services being outsourced. In the 1980s, a number of factors led to a renewed interest in outsourcing. For private sector organizations, outsourcing was identified as a strategic component of business process reengineering-an effort to streamline an organization and increase its profitability. In the public sector, growing concern about the federal budget deficit, the continuing long-term fiscal crisis of some large cities, and other factors accelerated the use of privatization measures (including outsourcing for services) as a means of increasing the efficiency of government.

Outsourcing Management Functions for the Acquisition of Federal Facilities

Engineering & Transportation

Committee on Outsourcing Design and Construction-Related Management Services for Federal Facilities

Transportation

The Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing: Year 2000 Progress Assessment of the PATH Program (Compass)

Committee for Oversight and Assessment of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing

Engineering

Concerned with the vulnerability of U.S. civilian and military personnel to terrorist bombing attacks, the U.S. Congress directed the Department of Defense to undertake a comprehensive research and testing program aimed at protecting people in buildings from such attacks. The Blast Mitigation for Structures Program (BMSP) was initiated in 1997 and has produced a large volume of experimental and analytical data that will permit the design of new, more robust buildings as well as the development of methods to retrofit a large number of vulnerable existing structures. This report reviews the BMSP program and investigates a process that would use existing institutional infrastructures (i.e., building code and standards-writing organizations, professional and technical organizations, universities, and research centers) to disseminate knowledge. Table of Contents <ul>
<li>Front Matter</li>
<li>Executive Summary</li>
<li>1 Introduction</li>
<li>2 Information and Technology Needs of Stakeholders</li>
<li>3 Translating Blast-effects Research into Practice</li>
<li>4 Conclusions and Recommendations</li>
<li>Appendix A: Biographies of Committee Members</li>
<li>Appendix B: Workshop Agenda</li>
<li>Appendix C: Workshop Keynote Address, Dr. Jay Davis, Director, DTRA</li>
<li>Appendix D: Workshop Synopsis</li>
<li>Appendix E: Selected Annotated Bibliography</li>
</ul>

Protecting People and Buildings from Terrorism: Technology Transfer for Blast-effects Mitigation

Committee for Oversight and Assessment of Blast-effects and Related Research

Recurrent problems with project performance in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the 1990s raised questions in Congress about the practices and processes used by the department to manage projects. The 105th Committee of Conference on Energy and Water Resources directed DOE to investigate establishing a project review process. Many of the findings and recommendations in this series of reports identified the need for improved planning in the early project stages (front-end planning) to get the project off to the right start, and the continuous monitoring of projects by senior management to make sure the project stays on course. These reports also stressed the need for DOE to act as an owner, not a contractor, and to train its personnel to function not as traditional project managers but as knowledgeable owner's representatives in dealing with projects and contractors. The NRC Committee for Oversight and Assessment of Department of Energy Project Management determined that it would be helpful for DOE to sponsor a forum in which representatives from DOE and from leading corporations with large, successful construction programs would discuss how the owner's role is conducted in government and in industry. In so doing, the committee does not claim that all industrial firms are better at project management than the DOE. Far from it-the case studies represented at this forum were selected specifically because these firms were perceived by the committee to be exemplars of the very best practices in project management. Nor is it implied that reaching this level is easy; the industry speakers themselves show that excellence in project management is difficult to achieve and perhaps even more difficult to maintain. Nevertheless, they have been successful in doing so, through constant attention by senior management. Table of Contents <ul>
<li>Front Matter</li>
<li>1. Introduction to the Government/Industry Forum</li>
<li>2. DOE's Role as Project Owner</li>
<li>3. DOE Project Management Accountability and Process Improvement</li>
<li>4. The Elements of Project System Excellence</li>
<li>5. DuPont's Role in Capital Projects</li>
<li>6. Weyerhaeuser Capital Management Process</li>
<li>7. CheveronTexaco Project Development and Execution Process</li>
<li>8. Question-and-Answer Session</li>
<li>9. Wrap-Up Observations</li>
</ul>

Proceedings of Government/Industry Forum: The Owner's Role in Project Management and Preproject Planning (Compass)

Committee for Oversight and Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Project Management

In November 1999, GSA and the U.S. Department of State convened a symposium to discuss the apparently conflicting objectives of security from terrorist attack and the design of public buildings in an open society. The symposium sponsors rejected the notion of rigid, prescriptive design approaches. The symposium concluded with a challenge to the design and security professions to craft aesthetically appealing architectural solutions that achieve balanced, performance-based approaches to both openness and security. In response to a request from the Office of the Chief Architect of the Public Buildings Service, the National Research Council (NRC) assembled a panel of independent experts, the Committee to Review the Security Design Criteria of the Interagency Security Committee. This committee was tasked to evaluate the ISC Security Design Criteria to determine whether particular provisions might be too prescriptive to allow a design professional "reasonable flexibility" in achieving desired security and physical protection objectives.

ISC Security Design Criteria for New Federal Office Buildings and Major Modernization Projects: A Review and Commentary

Committee to Review the Security Design Criteria of the Interagency Security Committee

Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a 7.8 mile system of bridges and underground highways and ramps, is the most expensive public works project ever undertaken in the United States. The original cost estimate of $2.6 billion has already been exceeded by $12 billion, and the project will not be completed until 2005, seven years late. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), the public steward of the project, requested that the National Research Council carry out an independent assessment of the project's management and contract administration practices, with a focus on the present situation and measures that should be taken to bring the project to a successful conclusion. This report presents the committee's findings and recommendations pertaining to cost, scheduling, and transitioning from the current organization dominated by consultants to an operations organization composed largely of full-time MTA staff. The report recommends that MTA establish an external, independent, peer-review program to address technical and management issues until the transition to operations and maintenance is complete; begin a media campaign now to teach drivers how to use the new system safely; and develop, immediately implement, and maintain a comprehensive security program. Table of Contents <ul>
<li>Front Matter</li>
<li>Executive Summary</li>
<li>1. Introduction</li>
<li>2. Cost and Schedule Procedures</li>
<li>3. Contract Administration</li>
<li>4. Reporting and Controls</li>
<li>5. Oversight of Management Consultant</li>
<li>6. Tranisition from Construction to Operations</li>
<li>7. Conclusions</li>
<li>Appendix A Committee Biographies</li>
<li>Appendix B Statement of Task</li>
<li>Appendix C Presentations to the Committee</li>
<li>Appendix D Documents Submitted to the Committee</li>
<li>Appendix E Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment</li>
</ul>

Completing the "Big Dig": Managing the Final Stages of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project

National Academy of Engineering

Transportation Research Board

Committee for Review of the Project Management Practices Employed on the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel (

Facilities now owned by the Federal Government are valued at over $300 billion. It also spends over $25 billion per year for acquisition, renovation, and upkeep. Despite the size of these sums, there is a growing litany of problems with federal facilities that continues to put a drain on the federal budget and compromise the effectiveness of federal services. To examine ways to address these problems, the sponsoring agencies of the Federal Facilities Council (FFC) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to develop guidelines for making improved decisions about investment in and renewal, maintenance, and replacement of federal facilities. This report provides the result of that assessment. It presents a review of both public and private practices used to support such decision making and identifies appropriate objectives, practices, and performance measures. The report presents a series of recommendations designed to assist federal agencies and departments improve management of and investment decision making for their facilities. Table of ContentsFront MatterExecutive Summary1 Context2 Facilities Asset Management3 Decision Making to Support Organizational Missions4 Environments for Effective Decision Making5 Alternative Approaches for Acquiring Federal Facilities6 Adapting Principles and Policies from Best-Practice Organizations to the Federal Operating EnvironmentBibliographyAppendixesA Biographical Sketches of Committee MembersB Committee Interviews and BriefingsC Interview Discussion Outline

Investments in Federal Facilities: Asset Management Strategies for the 21st Century

Committee on Business Strategies for Public Capital Investment

Technology

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