The NY Times wonders if more cities will allow public infrastructure to be privately financed. Investment banks have "an estimated $250 billion war chest" as the U.S.'s infrastructure crumbles. Mayor Bloomberg has touted the need for more federal funding ("we have an infrastructure crisis"). While the banks tells the Times, “Ten to 20 years from now infrastructure could be larger than real estate,” one big question is whether they'll get the returns they want. Still,......

Starting this September the History Channel will be airing their new series, Sandhogs. The eleven episodes will focus on the people and the projects that maintain New York City's infrastructure, from the past to the present. They say, "For more than 150 years, a legendary band of mostly unknown urban miners has toiled in obscurity far below the streets of New York. They are the builders of water and sewage tunnels, subway systems and bridge......

Photograph of the red tow truck by sidewalk_story on Flickr A year ago today, a 24" steam pipe installed in 1924 broke and caused a massive explosion on Lexington Avenue and East 41st Street. Right after the blast, the Mayor called it a "failure of infrastructure." A woman died from a heart attack, while two people sitting in a truck right on top of the explosion were seriously burned: Passenger Judith Bailey suffered third-degree......

With talk of the MTA raising fares again after recently raising them (well, not the bus and subway base fare, but still), there are some suggestions about what the MTA can do instead. For instance, City Councilman Eric Gioia proposed that the MTA sell its midtown building at 44th Street and Madison Avenue to raise money. He said, "There's no justification for the MTA to be on Madison Avenue. This is a glaring example......

At the southeast corner of Lafayette and Spring in the SoHo-Nolita area, some sort of event (explosion?) occurred to knock off the heavy grates off the surface. The FDNY and NYPD closed down the street; it didn't look like a steampipe explosion or water main break (no water) - it looks more like an underground transformer vault (if anyone knows what these are, let us know in comments) explosion. The 6 line does run......

Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg speaking, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Governor Ed Rendell (not pictured), under Los Angeles freeways by Ann Johansson/AP It's Mike and Arnie, together again! The Time magazine co-cover pols, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, made a Los Angeles appearance with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to announce the creation of a "nonpartisan organization that will advocate for more, and smarter, federal spending on infrastructure." The Mayor and maybe......