Infrastructure Application and Review - Essay Example

Infrastructure Application and Review Introduction Infrastructure means the technical structures that supports a society. These are the roads, watersupply and wastewater, floods, grids management systems, our communication which is the phone lines, broadcasting, internet and many others. The systems have been owned and managed by local or central governments in the past. These were termed as civil infrastructure, municipal infrastructure or public works, although they were developed and operated as private sector or government enterprises. From one's point of view, infrastructure facilitates the production of goods and services. Roads enable the transport of raw materials to the production plants and distribution of the finished products to the market place. Efforts to devise generic definitions of infrastructure have referred to the network aspect of the structures and the accumulated value of investments in the networks as assets. Such efforts defines infrastructure as a network of assets. The system as a whole is intended to be maintained at a specified standard of service by the replacement of its components(1). However, the principles that civil infrastructure is meant to have, is the unlimited service of life. Provide some specified minimum standard of service that are neither inherent to the concept or generally accepted by the societies served. Infrastructure may also refer to information technology, formal and informal channels of communication, development of tools such as software, social networks and political or the beliefs held by members of particular groups. More conceptual uses is the idea that infrastructure provides in organizing structure and support for the system or organization it serves. These could be in a city, nation , corporation or a collection of people with common interests. ADVANCED INFRASTRUCTURE In the study of infrastructure network design, it is very important for the engineer to address several fundamental issues. In the starting point of our analysis, we have to use the fundamentals. First, we need to consider these fundamentals in a progressive way. The first fundamental that we need to consider is the alignment. Progress is one great reason why infrastructures are being considered. In the process of planning the infrastructures of a certain place, the first thing to be done is to perform a topographic survey of the place in order to avoid problems that may arise in the future. Natural features of the place, such as rivers or streams needs a close study, and the ground condition must also be analyzed. The importance of the analysis of the ground condition is that the soil may not be suitable for the infrastructure to be built. There could also be existing hills in the area. These hills, or any other natural features could help in the physical aspect of the area later on. Rolling terrain adds beauty to a place if properly landscaped. In consideration to the community that would benefit in the infrastructure to be built, the horizontal construction must ease the transportation of the community. In the vertical construction, the weather in the area must also be studied. Construction of buildings must not add pressure to the comunity, rather, it must be designed to help the community in all aspects such as living conditions and financial conditions. In the process of building the infrastructure in a certain location, the community must be accessible to almost everything that comes in. In the deliveries of materials for construction, there must be sub routes so that it will not cause congestion in the area, whereby giving the residents the freedom to move easily. The transport system must ease the traffic system of the area, and it must be maintained at all times. The capacity of the area to contain such infrastructures could be one reason in the process. Research must be done first to ensure that the users would not be harmed in the future growth of progress. Surely, there would be expansion in the days to come. In this case, monitoring of the future expansion must be taken into account. Problems or issues mentioned must be sustainable. It must be predicted that the residents or people would cope up with the cycles or peaks and troughs. Overflowing, or excessive storage of materials that may affect the daily routine of the people must be in given priority in order to let the people feel that they are safe in the coming days. The drainage system in a community must never be neglected. As mentioned, a topographic survey must be performed before the construction of any infrastructure. The different elevations of the different sections of that certain location must be studied carefully so as to avoid flooding on the subsurface. The design of the drainage system must be fully understood in order to avoid delays in the construction processes. The design of the drainage system must be the first one to set in place before any building construction or road construction be done. In the construction of the drainage system, the following must be taken into account. First, the drainage system must be beneficial to all concerned. The use of substandard materials must never be allowed. In substandard materials, there are damages of the goods which cannot be seen right away. Damages could cause danger later on. These could be diseases that may later on become a health threat to the community. The drainage system to be laid must be approved by the community or the governing system of the place. Plans for alternative solutions in case a problem crops up are to be ready at all times. In the planning of a drainage system, the danger and safety of the community plays a big role. The system must conform with the topographical survey results. Flooding are avoided by the proper route of the drainage system. After the drainage system had been laid out. The next to be considered is the vertical construction or building construction. In the construction of buildings, the foundation must be laid first. Soil analysis must be done in order to know the type of soil in the area. In engineering terms, the process is called "soil testing". Soil testing or soil analysis is required to be done before any vertical construction is to erected in certain areas. This is because the depth of the foundation of any vertical structure would depend on the result of soil testing. If the quality of soil is not suitable for tall structures, then the governing body should only approve buildings with light materials, or there will be limitation to the number of storeys of buildings to be constructed. Another option would be the design load of the building to be constructed. The design of the foundation of any building depends on the load of the building it will be carrying. The most important and most critical aspect in the design is the determination of loads that can be applied to a structure during its ,life. And the worst possible combination of these loads that might occur simultaneously. Loads on structures maybe classified as dad loads or live loads. Dead loads are those of constant magnitude that remain in one position. This consist mainly of the weight of the structure and other permanent attachments to the frame. The live loads are those loads that may change in magnitude and position. Live loads that move under their own power are called moving loads. Other live loads are those caused by wind, rain, earthquakes soils, and temperature changes. Wind and earthquake loads are called lateral loads. In the event that construction begins, obstruction of the work may begin to arise. One obstruction may be the rain. At times, rain is an obstruction to the work process. Rain slows down the work of the workers. Another could be roots of trees that cut down in order to give way to the building to be erected. Such other obstruction causes the delay in the time frame of the construction. In many instances, the cost of the land where a structure is to be build is also a factor in the delay. There are cases where the cost of the land becomes a big problem, the owner may not want to sell the property, or sometimes, the parties involved cannot agree on the price of the land . The strength of the structure is one of the factors to be considered in erecting a building. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the load capacity of a building is a big factor to consider. A good civil engineer is to be considered. The engineer must be knowledgeable in the materials used in the construction. Life span of the building is very important because this will determine the future occupants of the building. Buildings with a short lifespan would not attract business. The structure to be erected must be able to sustain the worst storm to pass. Therefore materials to be used are supposed to be of good quality. Materials to be used must have the characteristic of buildability. In general, the economic factor of building a structure lies in the cost or budget of the structure. A very smart example of this, is that when the owner of the building decides to erect a structure in a given location, he must have enough cash to finish the erection of the structure. In other words, He must have cash from day one to the completion of the structure. If one decides to erect a building he must bear in mind that if he will not be able to finish the erection due to lack of funds, it will also delay the financial returns of the infrastructure. Over and above the factors discussed in the implementation of infrastructure, communications plays a vital role in almost everything. Today, infrastructure includes the present communication system. Modern communication is part of infrastructure and infrastructure is a part of communication. Legislation The legislation of the present infrastructures in the United Kingdom needs to be reviewed. A review of the key legislation that applies to infrastructure in the U.K. is to be considered. Fundamental acts are to be legislated. The Highway Act of 1980 includes the following sections: the meaning of highway must be emphasized. A highway is the public road, street or pathway that is owned and maintained by the state or local authorities for the use of the greater public as per the rules and regulations and restrictions made by the authorities for us to use. Since the highway is maintained by the state or local authorities, the implementation of highway engineering is a must. The scope of highway engineering comes to the picture. Engineering deals with highway authority. Adoption, maintenance, funding actions closures and others are the main duties of highway authority. The highway authorities have their duties to render. One of their duties is the maintaining of peace and order on the roads. This means that highway authorities have the right to impose highway rules and as such, they have the right to arrest highway users who do not follow the rules of the highway. The adoption of the rules in highway is very essential due to the fact that highway rules reduces accidents on the road. The highway engineering office is responsible for the funding of this branch of the government. Funds are used for the repair of the highway,, The funds are also used in the production of road signs and other important things that the highway need in order for the road users to be safe in using the highway. The highway authorities are responsible for the closures of highways and rerouting if it needs to be rerouted. Highway maintenance aims to review the main elements, consider treatments and appraise solutions. The main element had five key aspects to be maintained. They are the minor pavement, the major pavement, the footway, the drainage and auxiliary maintenance. The minor pavement works that are covered to address are the potholes, fretting, rutting, crazing and cracking, joint treatment., patching, sealing and returning and replacement. The major maintenance covers, partial or full reconstruction, treatment that includes replacement of base and foundation works. Next is the footing works which includes sealing, resetting paving, patching, overlay and reconstruction. The drainage work is the relaying drains, jetting pipe bursting relining and grips and ditching. Under the ancilliary maintenance is the maintenance of road signs. Routine maintenance is sometimes neglected by some engineers to be real engineering but the role of routine maintenance can never be under estimated are street cleaning gully emptying, sign cleaning, painting and others. Other issues that are with in the scope of this presentation that we have not considered structures that may be major or minor but just the same these are maintained by the structural sector of the state. The Railway Act of 2005 is responsible for the implementation of the proposals set out in the White paper "The Future of Rail", that was published on July 15, 2004. The act allows the Government to take charge of the setting of the strategy for the railway, and the streamlining of the structure of the rail industry at a national level. The act also provides for grater local and devolved decision making. It winds up the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), passing some of the functions to the Secretary of State and, in some cases, to the devoted administrations. It establishes the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), as a combined safety and economic regulator. The responsibilities for the railway safety regulation will then transfer to (ORR) from the Health and Safety. The commission and the Executive body has the responsibility of the Rail Passengers Council (RPC) that will be established as a single national body reporting to the Secretary of State and the formal federal structure of the regional committees that will be dissolved. It sets out revised procedures for the operators and the public sector, as a consequence of the other structural and organizational changes in the Act to follow when they wish to discontinue all passenger services on a line or from a station or close all or part of a network or a station. The water Industries Act of 1991 defines water services. This means that water services in a broader definition, is the proper distribution of clean water for consumption to the public. Under the act includes the different requirements for water service operators or distributors. There is a very great urgency to have a link to emergency actions. In other words, emergency measures are to be studied and implemented in cases of water shortages or any other problem that may arise. Adoption requirements and maintenance standards are to be given full attention. The compensation and other matters are also contained in the Water Industries Act of 1991. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, sets a duty of care on everyone. The requirement for an H & S policy, establishment of HSC and HSE is to be set. Related regulations e.g. CDM to the set of duty of care to everyone must also be included. The role of European six pact on health and safety of employees at work would boast the employment in the country because the workers are confident that they are being safeguarded at their work places. The act also includes elements of criminal law, and corporate manslaughter and others. The environmental protection Act of 1990 has the following criteria. This is policed by two bodies EA and EHO's. The fundamental is the protection of Floral and Fauna plus the environment as a whole. Examples include the regulations and licenses for dealing with the protected species. The Disability Discrimination act of 1995 had been passed in several sections. Section three covers goods, services and premises such as access issues. Access issue means that disabled persons must be given access to the benefits of the ordinary people. Section five covers public transport and effects bus and rail infrastructures There are limited exemptions under the act with regards to disability discrimination. Asset An Asset is anything owned by an individual or a business that has commercial or exchange value that is either tangible or intangible. E.g. a bridge has a value where as aright of access probably has no value.. There is a need to consider asset for a registry. Considerations of what and how it should be registered must be undertaken on a simple register. Requirements for a registry are legal requirement, financial log for depreciation, maintenance which include faulty identification, repair record and CDM. Safety and other requirements are also included. To be included in the registry are: all fundamental assets are recorded like land, buildings, structures and others. A hierarchy is used and categories drawn up, location data, condition data, age of asset and the material and log of purchase/ supplier. Under the reference and retrieval, most registers are now maintained or computer systems and regularly updated. GPS co-ordinates are used to find items. Photographs can be stored too. A data based is often used as this allows quick searches and is easy to use. All recorded items need to have a unique number. References can be based on route/catchment and others. In recording and logging, firstly, you will need to survey your assets and establish their condition and value. The system used needs to be simple but standardized thus making it repeatable. The frequency will all depend on issues such as the use and deterioration, but also in cases of accidents. Logging requires linking elements of several data together. It includes age and construction dates, the last survey recorded, photographic records, police records. Also done in logging is the inputting of data sheets and coding for features and conditions. Conclusion Infrastructure is our way of life now. The benefits that we get from these infrastructure that are around us, makes life more comfortable. Our way of communications is just second away. The roads and bridges, the tall buildings, our water distribution system, our handy tools, our electronic gadgets are all contributions of infrastructures. Our way of life had become a fast pace. The human population is now equipped and with just a stroke away, our lives had change its course enourmously. Infrastructure System development Infrastructure Merging roads highways and bridges make up our horizontal infrastructure. The freeways are very useful because traffic buildups are avoided. It makes driving very convenient to all road users. Information technology is a part of our infrastructure because of its contribution to modern technology. It makes work lighter, faster, and with the stroke of our hands there are a lot of work done. References Association of Local Government Engineers New Zealand: "Infrastructure Asset Management Manual", June 1998 - Edition 1.1 Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/infrastructure (accessed: April 24, 2008) Read More