Blueprint America – Blueprint for Hampton Roads?

“There was a time when American investments in infrastructure and a willingness to plan long-term powered the growth of the most dynamic industrial economy on Earth.” That’s a bold statement from “Blueprint America,” the PBS series on the nation’s infrastructure which aired here in Hampton Roads on February 8th.

This episode, entitled “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City,” may be focused on the original “Motor City” Detroit, Michigan. But, the program title is an obvious double-entendre… with transportation infrastructure focused on moving beyond the automobile.

“National planning in this country is widely believed to be an un-American activity, an exercise in bureaucratic hubris best left to the French. In fact, national planning is as American as the family farm, the transcontinental railroads, the great hydro-electric dams of the South and West, and the interstate highway system. Not only were these and other characteristic elements of our culture and economy the product of national planning; the federal government itself was created in large part to overcome the barriers to national planning that existed under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, I would argue that no other nation has been so profoundly planned as the United States,” says Professor Robert Fishman, University of Michigan.

While the documentary focused on one city’s rise, fall, and budding renaissance, of interest was the discussion of rail:  its history, its future and innovations in engineering and in financing.

It was noted that railroads are what defined and connected America in its early years. Abraham Lincoln was a great proponent of railroads, and he carried out the transcontinental railroad portion of the Thomas Jefferson-inspired Gallatin Plan in the 1860s, in a time of crisis, i.e., the Civil War, when the country was under threat of being torn apart permanently. The Gallatin Plan embodied perhaps the most revolutionary vision of any national plan: the creation of a truly democratic society through the planned settlement of a whole continent.

In just six years, the Atlantic and Pacific were linked by rail cutting travel time from coast to coast from 6 months to 6 days.

Growth of railroads 1840-1880

The first great national plan bears the name of Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, although his 1808 “Gallatin Plan” owed as much to Jefferson himself as to Gallatin.

Indeed, it was the very success of the Jefferson/Gallatin vision through the 19th century that prompted the second campaign of national planning, which began exactly a century after the Gallatin Plan in 1908 with Theodore Roosevelt’s great conservation initiatives.

Looking at successful rail projects in Europe, the documentary highlighted Spain’s success:

“The countries that have seen the most growth and are the most harmonious are those – always – who have had the best infrastructure. And those that don’t have these types of solutions find themselves in a slow decline in their importance and their weight in the world,” according to ildefonso de matías, Managing Director of the Metro de Madrid.

AVE 200MPH electric train, Spain

In the last 25 years, Spain developed its high speed rail network and now boasts the most modern infrastructure in Europe. Transportation infrastructure was Spain’s “Man on the Moon” project. Six of the top 10 infrastructure companies in the world are now located in Spain. And, Spain’s on track with their goal of 20% of the country’s power from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Watch the entire documentary and check out previous programs, “Road to the Future.”

For a transcript and video of the PBS NewsHour report on Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, visit http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/jan-june10/detroit_02-08.html

Visit this Blueprint website link for more information from Professor Fishman.