BY THOMAS M. DORAN

In the aftermath of the I-35W Bridge collapse in Minnesota, we've been told that much of our infrastructure is aging and in need of repair, or else it doesn't have the capacity or durability to handle what it is experiencing. Michigan also has other needs that demand funding, and infrastructure often fights for these same dollars.

Is spending more money the only way to get better infrastructure? There are technologies and tactics that have been implemented to reduce the cost of new infrastructure without sacrificing quality or compromising safety. In these tough economic times, it behooves us to investigate these options.

For instance, there are technologies to install underground utilities without digging trenches and incurring the direct and indirect costs that are associated with extensive excavations. These trenchless technologies can save money and time, and prevent disruption when utilities need to be installed in congested or urban areas.

Intelligent transportation systems (electronic message boards on highways, multimedia alerts and guidance, etc.), can be used to maximize the capacity of an existing road network by directing drivers to less congested roads in real time. The cost of such systems is often a fraction of the cost of more and bigger roads. Replacing more than one infrastructure element, such as a road and a sewer adjacent to it, at the same time can save money -- not to mention aggravation -- over rehabilitating them separately.

Taking advantage of advancements in materials of construction can significantly extend infrastructure life and thereby reduce cost. For example, the City of Southfield's Bridge Street Bridge used carbon fiber reinforced polymer as structural reinforcement to eliminate rusting, increase service life and reduce safety hazards. The construction of storm water ponds and wetlands in residential and urbanized settings can be visual amenities and produce significant savings by reducing the size of downstream sewers while also preventing the construction of larger treatment systems to accommodate these excess storm flows.

Finally, fixing something before it breaks works as well with multimillion-dollar infrastructure as it does around the house. Software can target infrastructure most likely in need of attention based on historical data and operational experience. If a water main can be repaired, relined or replaced several years before it would have failed, then significant expense can often be avoided.

Sometimes we can get more for less without compromising the outcome. This requires a disciplined process that is applied at the head end of projects to identify desired outcomes and then to consider many options, even the so-called crazy ones. In tough economic times the reward is well worth this effort.

THOMAS M. DORAN of Plymouth is a practicing professional engineer and a vice president with Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc., a 93-year old Michigan engineering firm. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit 48226 or oped@freepress.com.