Infrastructure Systems Development
Research
Research
Current American procurement processes for infrastructure are poorly matched with
available public funding, current technology, and project management techniques. The
two most visible indicators of this mismatch are inadequate public sector funding for the
maintenance, operation, and replacement of infrastructure facilities, and the historic
inability of infrastructure systems to attract or make use of new technologies,
engineering, and management techniques.
Recent experiments with alternative delivery methods have produced hard evidence that, for many projects, more than one project delivery method is viable. As project delivery and finance methods become variables again, the optimization problem facing infrastructure decision makers is dramatically different. The emerging task is to sensibly manage these variables to produce collections of viable individual projects that are also viable at the portfolio level.
Managing the infrastructure portfolio using project delivery and finance methods as variables is the focus of our research. Infrastructure Systems Development Research at MIT seeks to develop the tools which will permit an integrated analysis and optimization of the public infrastructure portfolio. We provide innovative and integrative solutions for enhancing our nation's infrastructure - roads, sewers, waterways, power plants, ports, and other facilities.
Infrastructure Systems Development
Research is affiliated with the Construction
Engineering and Management Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
at MIT.
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