Bridging the Gap between Engineers and Finance

Abstract

The reality of the nation's aging infrastructure dilemma is that we are only beginning to ramp up our efforts to address the planning and costs. The fact remains that the aging water infrastructure issue will never go away, so our industry must incorporate all of its best practices and available technologies to consistently meet these demands in the most cost‐effective manner considering both long‐ and short‐term needs while balancing sustainability with affordability. To do this, the respected and balanced disciplines of both engineering and finance must continually work together to promote asset management. Building a bridge across the disciplines of engineering and finance is in some ways like building a suspended‐span cantilever bridge. For the purpose of this article, the two cantilevers could be considered as representations for engineering and finance, whereas the gap could represent the aging water infrastructure crisis. The entire bridge structure includes representations for all of the practices and joint efforts between these two disciplines to span the distance between the two symbolic cantilevers.