Jobs IRLDecoding DemocracyA Warmer WorldI've Always Wondered ...

Loading...

0:00
0% played
Stories Tagged as

Infrastructure

States get $42 billion to expand high-speed internet to underserved communities

by Mitchell Hartman
Jun 27, 2023
The federal funding aims to ensure internet access is as widely accessible as electricity.
Nearly a quarter of Americans don't have high-speed internet at home. People of color, low-income people and rural residents are least likely to have access.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

Philadelphia highway collapse will cost time and money

by Henry Epp
Jun 13, 2023
The race is now on to reconstruct the section of I-95 and minimize economic disruptions.
Firefighters work at a collapsed portion of Interstate 95, caused by a large vehicle fire, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 2023.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

New UK fiscal metric paints a rosier picture of the national debt

by Stephen Beard
May 17, 2023
The U.K. has adopted an additional fiscal statistic that suggests public finances are not in such a bad shape after all.
The U.K.'s new “public sector net worth” measure offsets debt by including government-owned infrastructure, such as railways.
Carlos Jasso/AFP via Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

How undersea internet cables connect the global economy

by Sabri Ben-Achour , Erika Soderstrom and Jarrett Dang
Apr 21, 2023
The U.S. and China are competing for control over these vital pieces of infrastructure.
Technicians work on undersea cable in December 2005. Undersea internet cables "carry about 99% of all our telecommunications," said James Kraska at the U.S. Naval War College.
Stephan Agostini/AFP via Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

Climate change is making spring pothole season worse, stretching local government budgets

by Henry Epp
Apr 11, 2023
Filling them is a short-term fix.
Justin Benjamin, a crew leader with the public works department in Winooski, Vermont, tamps asphalt into a pothole on East Spring Street.
Henry Epp/Marketplace
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

Pickleball’s popularity presents equity challenges for city governments

by Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham
Apr 11, 2023
For many major cities across the United States, pickleball’s rise in popularity shows equity gaps in infrastructure.
A pickelabll court located in Brooklyn, New York. More than 4.8 million people played the sport in 2021, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

A divide over how to heal a community divided by a highway

by Carly Berlin
Mar 17, 2023
A midcentury expressway tore through New Orleans' historic Black neighborhood of Tremé. A federal initiative wants to address that damage.
Amy Stelly, of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance Design Studio, in front of two expressway ramps. She lives in her childhood home near the interstate.
Carly Berlin
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

For public good, not for profit.

Donate

States, communities struggle to meet deadline in broadband funding process

by Paul Flahive
Jan 13, 2023
The deadline is this week to file challenges to FCC maps that will be used to dole out $42.5 billion in funding.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act provides about $42.5 billion in funding to expand broadband access, but the application deadline is fast approaching and some states are looking for more time.
Sandra Mu/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

Cash-strapped cities consider turning crumbling utilities over to the private sector

by Amy Scott and Richard Cunningham
Oct 20, 2022
Infrastructure repairs are usually left up to local governments, but smaller cities can’t always afford these repairs.
Above, a water treatment plant on Aug. 31, in Jackson, Mississippi. In places like Jackson and Duquesne, Pennsylvania, crumbling infrastructure has led to unclean drinking water.
Brad Vest/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

It's harder to keep sewage systems working in a low-lying place like Florida when power's out

by Stephanie Hughes
Oct 5, 2022
Florida's wastewater system relies on electric pumps. Keeping them going through storms can be expensive.
Camper trailers and vehicles are still partially submerged by floodwaters at the Peace River Campground on October 4, 2022 in Arcadia, Florida.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE