{"title":"Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Federalism and Infrastructure: A Call to Action","authors":"Ryan D. Williamson, John C. Morris","doi":"10.1177/1087724X20969165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X20969165","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to governments around the world. The federal structure within the United States has further complicated effective responses to mitigate the personal and economic effects of COVID. Here, we argue that the Trump administration’s approach to federalism—highlighted by the pandemic—is incapable of efficiently and effectively addressing state needs and those needs are only going to grow as a result, further exacerbating the problem. This form of federalism, which we dub “transactional federalism,” is likely to have deleterious effects on state infrastructure, much of which is already in need. The long-term effects of transactional federalism are likely to weaken state efforts to address critical infrastructure needs.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724X20969165","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44071550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"COVID-19 Is Not the Only Threat We Face: Emergency Management in the Time of Pandemic","authors":"R. Little","doi":"10.1177/1087724X20969160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X20969160","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout the Spring and Summer of 2020 the United States was in the midst of a public health crisis unprecedented in the lifetimes of all but a few thousand centenarians. During this time, most of the country was in some stage of self-imposed quarantine, the economy was ravaged, and by the end of September, the death toll exceeded 200,000 (CDC, 2020). At the height of the pandemic, many hospitals quickly reached and then exceeded capacity, healthcare workers were stretched to the breaking point, and resources such as test kits, ventilators, gowns, and masks were in short supply. To prevent the spread of the virus, communities practiced social distancing, wearing face masks, and other practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Self-quarantining for 14 days was also recommended if there was reason to believe that a person had been in contact with someone carrying the virus. Demographic factors played a role in vulnerability to the virus with people in poverty, those over 65 years of age, and those of color and ethnicity particularly vulnerable. Although the impacts of COVID-19 have been devastating, an on-going pandemic does not preclude the co-occurrence of other extreme events such as hurricanes, major infrastructure failures, or industrial accidents. During a recent webinair on extreme events and the COVID-19 pandemic sponsored by the National Academies,","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724X20969160","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41403546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pitfalls and Potholes: Examining the Impacts of Covid-19 on the North Carolina Department of Transportation","authors":"C. McGee, M. Mayer","doi":"10.1177/1087724x20969162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20969162","url":null,"abstract":"Covid-19 has had devasting impacts across society and government worldwide in a span of a few short months. The disruption has been nothing short of catastrophic to the public and private sectors across the country and the responses have run the gamut. This commentary discusses the unique impacts of the global pandemic on public works and transportation at the state and local level through the lens of intergovernmental agreements and public private partnerships in the state of North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has realized budget deficits the previous two fiscal years with a significant projected deficit for the current fiscal year; however, NCDOT was not blind to a future of instability. Policy implications are clear: changes must be considered that reduce the likelihood of significant budget shortfalls and reasonable measures taken to provide practicable levels of service throughout public works.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724x20969162","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42128893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From the Editors","authors":"R. Little, John C. Morris","doi":"10.1080/01402390.2023.2221779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2023.2221779","url":null,"abstract":"Now that the 2004 election is over, it seems like a good time to remind new officeholders as well as reelected incumbents of the importance of libraries to the health of the nation, and of the need for their support for libraries. In our district in Washington County, we have a new representative to the Tennessee legislature who promises to set up a public forum to find out the concerns of his constituents. My wife and I plan to attend and let him know our thoughts. In many areas the local chapters of the League of Women Voters will be setting up “meet your elected officials” events to provide the citizens of Tennessee with opportunities to talk to their representatives. Then of course, TLA sponsors Library Legislative Day so that we can go to Nashville and make sure that our public servants understand what we do and why it is important.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46087512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identifying Actions to Control and Mitigate the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Construction Organizations: Preliminary Findings","authors":"Mohammad Raoufi, A. Fayek","doi":"10.1177/1087724X20969164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X20969164","url":null,"abstract":"Construction organizations face many challenges in coping with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the construction work environment. Although each organization is implementing its own strategies to mitigate this pandemic’s impact on operations and workers, the construction industry as a whole urgently needs to identify the most effective strategies for mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on its operations in the short term while preparing response plans and long-term recovery plans. This article presents preliminary findings of a survey conducted with construction organizations primarily in North America to identify and assess mitigation actions taken. Recommendations based on these findings are provided to help construction organizations during this pandemic. The results of this study will help in developing evidence-based operational strategies to identify new modes of operating for construction organizations during both the current pandemic and any future pandemics.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724X20969164","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42236731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pandemic and Sport: The Challenges and Implications of Publicly Financed Sporting Venues in an Era of No Fans","authors":"M. Mayer, A. Cocco","doi":"10.1177/1087724x20969161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20969161","url":null,"abstract":"Professional sport leagues suspended their seasons as Covid-19 became a part of daily life in March 2020, leaving stadiums and arenas across the country empty. Lost in the hysteria of the global pandemic has been the consequences that a lack of sports may have on many state and local government budgets in their efforts to fund their share of sport-related infrastructure expenditures. This commentary examines the history of public sector stadium financing in the U.S. and focuses on two current examples in Arlington, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada. The discussion highlights innovative measures and risk-mitigation strategies implemented after the Great Recession. Public sector finance challenges due to Covid-19 are discussed, before offering recommendations on strategies to limit public infrastructure risk surrounding sport facilities moving forward.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724x20969161","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65322562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Implementing Congestion Tolls on Currently Free Highways With Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Financial and Economic Benefits?","authors":"P. DeCorla-Souza","doi":"10.1177/1087724X19869939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X19869939","url":null,"abstract":"A trillion dollars in Interstate highway improvement and modernization work has been deferred due to lack of funding. More than half of Interstate and other freeway and expressway lane miles are classified as urban. Therefore, one approach that could be considered to generate needed revenue for freeway improvements in urban areas is implementing congestion-based tolls on freeways during peak periods when they are congested. Such an approach has been implemented in the Washington, DC metro area, on the I-66 freeway inside the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia. This article demonstrates how an analyst may estimate the financial and economic benefits of a concept involving imposition of congestion-based tolls on the entire urban freeway network, during peak periods only, in conjunction with transit service improvements using automated transit vehicles. Furthermore, the article evaluates potential benefits from using a public–private partnership for implementation of the concept.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724X19869939","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48651872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From the Editor","authors":"R. Little","doi":"10.1177/1087724x20943438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20943438","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724x20943438","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43410565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Project Labor Agreements Reduce the Number of Bidders on Public Projects? The Case of Community Colleges in California","authors":"P. Philips, Emma Waitzman","doi":"10.1177/1087724X20956662","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X20956662","url":null,"abstract":"Project labor agreements (PLAs) are commonly found on larger California public works in urban areas. Nonetheless, they remain a controversial public procurement practice. One issue not examined in the literature is whether as some critics suggest, PLAs reduce the number of bidders on public projects. Analyzing 263 bid openings for community college construction in California over the period 2007 to 2016, this first-ever study of PLA effects on the number of bids finds that controlling for the location where the project occurred, the size of projects, the business cycle and the season when the project was let, the number of bidders on a project was not altered by the presence or absence of project of PLAs. This study also finds that relative to engineer’s estimates available on 99 of these projects, the lowest bids on prevailing wage projects were not higher than the lowest bids on projects without PLA agreements.","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724X20956662","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46363169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Last subway: The long wait for the next train in New York City","authors":"N. Grigg","doi":"10.1177/1087724x20943441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20943441","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45483,"journal":{"name":"Public Works Management & Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1087724x20943441","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48993480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}