In the next few decades, America has to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure just to maintain our current living standards. How will we fund such investments? How will we mange such investments? How will we insure that we get good value for the money?

Such questions can be debated endlessly. But if we are smart, we will study the big infrastructure projects of the past to see what worked and what did not. Nicole Gelinas essay entitled “Lessons of Boston’s Big Dig” is a good place to start such a study.