The handwringing over the state of US infrastructure continues apace, with it seems a general consensus that more (maybe much more) investment is needed, but with a real lack of clarity on really how much more – and of course how to pay for it. Into that debate comes a new book from Dr. Henry Petroski , a professor of both history and civil engineering at Duke University, titled "The Road Taken," a very interesting look at the history of US infrastructure – and most importantly how decisions were made over the course of more than two centuries that contribute to and inform where we stand today. The operating policy for much US infrastructure development, especially lately, has been "good enough," Petroski says, meaning materials and techniques just adequate enough to do the job. Petroski is one that firmly believes much higher levels of investment are needed in the US, commenting early on that "American is now at a fork in the road regarding choices that must be made regarding US infrastructure," with much of the four million miles of roads and bridges having been "built for an earlier time, now in poor repair, and increasingly congested." The term "infrastructure" seems to have been first used in 1927, but saw almost no real adoption until the 1940s, when it was first applied to describe support for the military in terms of bases and camps to supply the fighting force. In the 1950s, a few urban planners began applying the word to roads, bridges and such. But the term didn’t really enter the common parlance until just the 1980s, when a few major newspapers began to place it in articles, usually in quotations to signify the newness of the word. Of course, just what actually falls under the umbrella of […]