Contact:  Anne Canty					For immediate release
	      212-854-5579
	      ac263@columbia.edu



New York City's Infrastructure Fails Grade,
Columbia Civil Engineer Says 


	Many of New York City's major infrastructure systems receive failing 
grades from Columbia University Civil engineering Professor Bud F.H. Griffis on 
a report card contained in Infrastructure of New York City:  A Policymakers' 
Guide.  Griffis' assessment ranges from a double A rating for Newark 
Airport to a failing grade for much of the City's waste disposal system. The guide, 
which also offers recommendations for ameliorating the current infrastructure 
crisis, was presented in draft form last spring at a day-long colloquium sponsored 
jointly by the New York Building Congress and the National Infrastructure 
Center for Engineering Systems and Technology (NICEST). 
	Recommendations contained in the guide include:
--- Development of a mechanism, such as a bonding agency, to raise more funds
for far-sighted infrastructure investment.
--- Establishment and funding by Congress of a major infrastructure research 
center.
--- Abandonment of short-term and short-sighted planning in favor of 50 and 100
year plans.
--- Development by Congress of a comprehensive infrastructure policy. 
	The recently released final version incorporates the input of colloquium 
attendees, including government policy makers and construction industry 
experts. The Policymakers Guide  is a tool for public and private sector
 policy makers.
	The report states that the New York metropolitan region in particular must
 recapture a larger portion of the tax dollars it sends to Washington, DC.  Each 
year, the metropolitan region sends $40 billion more to the Federal government 
than it receives in return.
	"It is clear that despite the need for more unified Congressional action, 
several New York legislators, such as Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan and 
Alfonse D'Amato have been among the country's strongest pro-infrastructure 
voices," said Griffis.
	"For 19 years," said Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "I have documented
 the striking imbalance of payments between New York and the rest of the States - 
New York is a 'donor state' without equal in the Union.  Last year alone we sent 
$18.9 billion more to Washington than we received, almost $200 billion over the 
last 15 years.  The devastating results on our infrastructure are quite plain.  
worse, a kind of entropy has set in as regards our public undertakings.  We used 
to be as none other when it came to getting something built.  Professor Griffis and 
the officials at NICEST are to be commended for this wake up call, clear as a bell.
	"There is hope.  In 1991, in the Intermodal Surface Transportation 
Efficiency Act (Ice-Tea), I got us $5 billion, in Trust Fund money, as repayment 
for building the Thruway, the model for the Eisenhower Interstate System on our 
own.  As a toll road.  (Eight years from Yonkers to Buffalo.  We have been 15 years 
musing over a trolley line across 42nd Street.)  This huge infusion of capital - 
one third of a billion dollars for 15 years - could produce two or three spectacular 
events.  Yes: events.  Something the rest of the world would notice."
	Senator D'Amato said: "As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, 
which has jurisdiction over issues involving mass transit, and during 14 years on 
the Senate Appropriations Committee, I've fought for funding for projects of merit 
that encompass the whole of New York's infrastructure concerns, including 
transit, rail, air, highway, tunnels, bridges, and services of all types."
	"I congratulate Professor Griffis and the colloquium for focusing attention 
on New York's infrastructure needs in their multiple complexities.  His guide is a 
valuable starting point from which consensus solutions ultimately can be 
developed from what at first appear to be competing interests and perspectives."
	 The guide also has a section devoted to promising new technologies.  
Ultimately, according to Griffis, expenditures on infrastructure research will 
save time and money as well as eventually yielding construction jobs.  One  new 
system uses magnetic imaging technology and surface penetrating radar to, in 
effect, see through the road surface and map the maze of underground utilities 
without excavating.  This technology could shorten the time line on and reduce 
the cost of major municipal construction projects, such as Columbus Avenue, by 
up to a year, but, it has not been perfected for lack of research funds.
	NICEST is a consortium of 17 laboratories, engineering firms and research 
universities, including those affiliated with the National Center for 
Infrastructure Studies. The New York Building Congress is a private association 
founded in 1921 and its 300 members represent every segment of the design, 
construction and real estate industries, including architectural and engineering 
firms, general contractors, insurance companies, labor unions, manufacturing 
and utility companies, real estate owners and managers, attorneys, builders, sub-
contractors, suppliers and construction industry associations. 
	Griffis spent 26 years with the Army Corps of Engineers, is a Principal in 
the consulting firm of Robbins, Pope and Griffis, P.C., and since 1986, has been at 
Columbia University as Professor of Civil Engineering Construction and Director 
of the National Center for Infrastructure Studies. While at the Army Corps, he 
worked on a number of high profile infrastructure projects including the
Camp David Airbase in Israel, the design of Fort Drum, and the ill-fated Westway 
project. 


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