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Samuel Starks

Professor Jizi

UWRT 1104-015

29 March 2017

Annotated Bibliography

"America's Grades." ASCE's 2017 Infrastructure Report Card. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

This source, which is from the American Society of Engineers explains how in 2017 the

United States has made a bit of progress in improving the countrys infrastructure. However, the

grade the nations infrastructure that the ASCE has given is still a D+. A few areas of the

infrastructure have improved, some has declined, and some has remained unchanged. The areas

of infrastructure that saw improvement was resulted from governments acting on the situation.

This source is relevant to my inquiry because it tells the overall quality of the United

States infrastructure. Because the ASCE did test on the nations infrastructure, they were able to

provide data about the quality of the infrastructure. This source also provides a bit of insight into

other categories of infrastructure such as roads, dams, bridges, highways, and airports and their

quality. This source did provide a bit of background information because it reminded how

infrastructure can be improved if governments acted and improved on the situation.

This source is from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This organization is what

grades the nations infrastructure. This makes this source highly credible since its from a well-

known engineering organization across the country. This source is from 2017, thus making it

very up to date and more reliable.

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How to Fix America's Failing Infrastructure. Dir. Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Harvard Business

Review. N.p., 23 June 2015. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

In this video, the author Rosabeth Moss Kanter gives her suggestions on how to fix

Americas infrastructure. She encourages things such as using newer technologies to find faults

in our infrastructure. For an example, she mentioned how an app in Boston, MA as invented to

find where potholes were located as one driven over them. Kanter also suggest that America

should invest more in mass transit such as trains, buses, and even bike sharing. Doing this would

help get cars off the road and help ease congestion. While investing in these different forms of

transportation, she lastly suggests that America need to find a way to connect the different forms

of transport with each other such as connecting a metro rail line to an airport.

This video source is relevant to my inquiry because it talks about ways America can

improve its infrastructure, which is what my inquiry is about. Information I got from this source

that further helped my inquiry is that to improve Americas infrastructure, the nation not must

only fix the roads and highways, but the nation must also invest in our mass transit. This

practically showed me another viewpoint and solution to my inquiry question. Background

information I did receive from this video was that younger people are moving to cities and prefer

mass transit for commuting to work instead of driving so the country needs to consider investing

in mass transit. In the future, I can imagine that as cities get larger, more congestion will occur

unless there were different forms of transport.

This source is highly credible because it features Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who is the

author of Move: Putting Americas Infrastructure Back in the Lead which is a New York Times

Editors Choice. She is also a well-known at Harvard business school and even holds a

professorship award for strategy, leadership, and change. She provides insight and consults with
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major companies and governments worldwide. Even though she doesnt hold a background in

engineering or transportation, her leadership, advising, strategic skills still make her reliable

source to use when talking about infrastructure improvements. This source is also from 2015

which means its modern enough to rely on.

Kiracofe, Clifford A. "The United States' Crumbling Infrastructure." Beijing Review, vol. 60, no.

8, 23 Feb. 2017, pp. 24-25. EBSCOhost, librarylink.uncc.edu/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121472686&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

There is much money to be invested in to restore the nations infrastructure according to

this article. Billions of dollars must be invested to restore the nations levees (which most are

half a century old at this point), waterways, and bridges and highways. The ASCE even reports

that up to over a trillion must be invested just to restore the nations infrastructure. However, the

article states that the only way that this would happen is that the nation must set their focus on

repairing the infrastructure instead of focusing more on foreign issues. President Trump and his

administration must avoid spending excessively on the military, otherwise, that would be wasted

money.

This article is relevant to my inquiry because it explains a way that the country can

restore its infrastructure which is that the country must focus its budget on it instead of the

military. Even though the ASCE sends out reports of the condition the infrastructure every year,

its still somewhat neglected because the nations involvement in oversea affairs which leads to a

ton of military spending. This source provided a bit of background information of how much the

country has spent on the military and how much money the nation must spend to fix the
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infrastructure. That information is vital to my inquiry because I now know a reason why the

nations infrastructure is crumbling, which is partly thanks to military spending.

This article was written by Clifford A. Kirocofe, who is a former senior professional staff

member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He holds a BA, MA, and PhD in foreign

affairs. He also has worked in journalism as well. Even though Kirocofe does not have a

background in engineering, I still used this article as a source because it discussed the cost of

foreign affairs and foreign affairs is Kirocofes specialty. The money spent on foreign affairs can

add up and that same money could have been used to deal with domestic issues such as the

infrastructure.

Stawicki, Elizabeth. "Why Did the Bridge Collapse?" Minnesota Public Radio News. Minnesota

Public Radio News, 02 Aug. 2007. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/08/02/inspection>.

This story is about a bridge collapse that occurred in Minnesota in August of 2007. This

bridge was a major bridge carrying interstate 35-W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

The collapse took the life of 13 people. This bridge was already rated structurally deficient in

1990. The bridge had cracks, corrosion, and showed signs of fatigue. However, when the federal

government warned Minnesota about the bridge, it was never actually told that the bridge needed

to be closed to be repaired or replaced. When the state did have a choice to do something about

the bridges condition, they chose to do further inspection instead of reinforcing the bridge. This

bridge was supposed to replace in 2020 but unfortunately it collapsed 13 years prior.

This source is relevant to my inquiry because my inquiry is not only about fixing

infrastructure in America but its also about fixing it before major incidences occur on them, such
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as this bridge collapse. Information I got from this source was that Minnesota somewhat did not

take the condition of the bridge to be an extremely major issue as to why the might have chosen

to do further inspection of the bridge instead of repairing it. Thanks to this information, I learned

that governments must take issues such as improving infrastructure very seriously because this

could become a matter of life and death and it can also be very costly. This source did provide

me with background information such as the bridge being rated structurally deficient since 1990.

The author of this source is Elizabeth Stawicki who is a journalist with 7 journalism

awards. She also has a background in law. Using someone with 7 journalism awards makes this a

credible source. This source is also reviewed by Minnesota Public Radio News which has a

moral code regarding journalism and publishing.

United States. Cong. Committee on Appropriations. Crumbling infrastructure: examining the

challenges of our outdated and overburdened highways and bridges: hearing before a

subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, One Hundred

Thirteenth Congress, first session, special hearing, June 13, 2013, Washington, DC. 113

Cong., 1st sess. Cong. Doc. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. 12.

Page 12 of this document talks about the technologies and methods that is being put forth

into improving and monitoring the conditions United States bridges and highways. It is reported

that the number of structurally deficient or obsolete bridges has dropped almost 4 percent from

30 percent between 2001 and 2009. Even though new technologies and methods are used to

improve bridge conditions, there is still about a fifth of the total bridges in the nation thats

practically obsolete. There are major projects going on to repair or rebuild major bridges

throughout the country but to continue this process, further investment to fund these projects

must be pursued.
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The document talks about the amount of infrastructure in America thats needed to be

improved and the methods that are being used to improve them and to make this happen, funding

must be available. This document works with my inquiry because my inquiry is mainly about

improving infrastructure. My view on this whole situation is that I believe the funds are there to

improve the nations roads and bridges but the government sometimes fail to prioritize this issue.

Money is what is going fix the countrys roads and highways and without proper management of

the United States funds, the infrastructure will just keep on deteriorating.

This source could be highly credible, considering that this section of the document was a

statement from Polly Tottenberg, who is the commissioner for New York Citys department of

transportation. She has also worked in the US department of Transportation. By having someone

who chiefly deals with infrastructure, this source should be highly credible. This source is from

2013, meaning that its from a more modern time. The source also has many facts that is

supported with evidence as well.