How often do you think about infrastructure? From the moment you wake up to when you go to bed, it’s all around you—working behind the scenes to make your day easier and more efficient. We often take it for granted, but infrastructure is the foundation of modern life. We’re going to walk you through 100 ways you are dependent on infrastructure even if you don’t realize it, from the roads you drive on to the energy that powers your home.
To illustrate just how deeply infrastructure is woven into our everyday lives, this blog walks through a single day and highlights the unseen networks that keep our world running smoothly.
Morning Routine
Your day begins with the sound of your alarm clock. You turn it off, flick on the lights, and feel the warm air from your heating system. Already this simple routine depends on numerous energy infrastructure systems before reaching your home: the electricity was generated at power plants, upped at a transmission substation, sent through high voltage transmission lines, stepped down at distribution substations, passed through transformers, and delivered through local distribution lines to your home through AC to DC power inverters that manage the supply.
As you get up and get dressed, you head to the bathroom. Each time you use the sink or flush the toilet, you are interacting with an entirely new set of infrastructure systems. Clean water starts at reservoirs and dams, is treated at water plants, then moves through water pipelines into your home using advanced pressure and gravity systems. Wastewater flows out through sewer lines and continues to a treatment facility.
In the kitchen, you light up your gas stove to cook yourself breakfast. That gas was extracted from wells possibly hundreds of miles away, processed to remove impurities, pushed through transmission pipelines, pressurized at compressor stations, routed through a citygate, and finally delivered to your home through underground distribution pipes and a residential gas meter.
Your breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns and bacon relied on the vast network of agriculture and livestock infrastructure. Irrigation systems helped grow the potatoes and feed the livestock, and each ingredient was processed, stored at cold storage facilities, packaged, trucked across the nation and distributed to local grocery stores.
Your morning cup of coffee was almost certainly sourced from international markets, where it traveled halfway across the world in intermodal containers on cargo ships the size of small towns. The coffee beans were unloaded using massive cranes into cargo ports before transferring to domestic transport at freight terminals.
You check your phone for the daily weather. Forecasting has improved significantly over the past few decades, and it’s easy to take for granted how accurate predictions have become. Behind each forecast is a vast network of weather stations, satellites, and radar systems. These tools collect data that is processed by advanced programs running on powerful supercomputers to generate weather predictions.
Before heading off for work, you take out the trash and recycling bins. It’s collected curbside by waste collectors, where it will be transferred to recycling centers, highly-engineered landfills, or hazardous waste facilities, keeping your streets and home clean.
Commute
You step outside onto the sidewalk before getting into your car. The concrete beneath your feet was created from quarried limestone, gravel, and sand, then heated in industrial kilns and poured by municipal crews. Nearby, a storm drain quietly protects your neighborhood by moving excess water away and reducing the risk of flooding and water damage.
As you drive to work, road signs and traffic signals help direct the flow of traffic. Roads and highways span the country, constructed and maintained by local and state agencies. Bridges carry vehicles and pedestrians over rivers and other obstacles that were once difficult to cross. Bike lanes and pedestrian crossings are built into the system to ensure safety for everyone on the move, including those in vehicles.
On your way, you overtake a bus. Even if you do not personally use public transit systems often, these systems reduce vehicle traffic and improve efficiency by having fewer people on the road. Buses, commuter rail, city-trams, and subways are critical for millions of Americans.
You pass a train crossing. The nation’s rail infrastructure carries raw materials, fuel, and finished goods all across the country. Locomotives, freight cars, and high-rail inspection vehicles move through rail yards, ensuring that products and people arrive safely and quickly.
The car you drive is the result of global manufacturing infrastructure, assembled from materials sourced both nationally and internationally. Its frame is made of steel, while other parts include aluminum, plastic, and electronic components. As you navigate, GPS technology tracks your location using signals from satellites orbiting the Earth. Originally developed for military use, GPS is now a vital part of everyday life.
At Work and Around Town
After arriving at work, you power on your computer and connect to the internet. That instant connection depends on a significant amount of infrastructure we take for granted. What we know as the internet is actually a collection of fiber optic cables and server farms that house the data of every website, YouTube video, and email address. This data reaches your device through an ISP network modem and is broadcast locally by a router as Wi-Fi. Smartphones connect through nearby cell towers, which form the cellular networks that keep you online wherever you go.
At lunch, you walk across the street to a commercial center with restaurants, retail shops, a bank, and a grocery store. The businesses are supported by commercial energy connections, and the restaurant uses grease traps to prevent clogging the municipal wastewater system. You buy a sandwich and pay for it using a credit card. The transaction passes through encrypted financial networks designed to keep payments secure.
You continue your walk past the local elementary school and through the local park, along well-paved paths, around playing fields, and bridges over calming streams. All parts of the social infrastructure that make our communities fulfilling places to live.
Evening and Night
After work, you stop for gas at a nearby station. The fuel you pump began as crude oil, extracted from the ground by drilling rigs or offshore platforms. It traveled through pipelines to refineries, where it was processed into gasoline, diesel, and bitumen. From there, refined fuel was sent through pipelines to distribution hubs, then delivered by tanker trucks to your local station. The same oil also supplies chemical plants and is used in asphalt production, the surface that your car drives on.
After filling up on gas, you drive past towering wind turbines and a local solar farm. These renewable energy systems feed additional electricity into the grid, supported by battery storage that collects energy to release during times of intermittency.
Before you arrive home, you pass a police station and a fire truck rushing by with sirens on. Emergency services stand ready whether you use them or not. Dispatch centers coordinate emergency calls between fire stations, police departments, ambulance services and hospitals to help keep the public safe.
Back home, you pull into your garage and enter your home. Although most of us take it for granted, your house is a critical piece of physical infrastructure that enables our access to many other services and helps protect you. Most homes in the United States are constructed using wood, which is harvested and processed by lumber mills.
Once again, you enjoy the easy access to electrical, gas, and water infrastructure to prepare dinner. Afterwards, you settle in to watch TV, relying on broadcast signals and a coaxial cable. Streaming services use the same network as your internet connection.
As night falls, you plug in your phone, take a shower, and set your alarm. While you sleep, the systems that power your day continue to operate—quietly, reliably, and out of sight. The infrastructure behind modern life didn’t appear overnight. It’s the result of centuries of innovation, investment, and construction. You may not notice it, but it’s always there, working around the clock to keep your world running smoothly.
Infrastructure comprises the physical systems and structures that serve as the foundation of modern life. Despite being primarily large and physical components, they tend to be invisible as we take them for granted. Infrastructure supports every moment, from our most basic needs to the most advanced technologies. By understanding and appreciating it, we can advocate for the investment and innovation needed to maintain and improve these systems for generations to come.
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Written by Andrew Jefferis and Owen Rogers
The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) is an independent, national research and educational organization working to advance innovation across industry and public policy. The only nationwide public policy think tank dedicated to infrastructure, Aii explores the intersection of economics, law, and public policy in the areas of climate, damage prevention, eminent domain, energy, infrastructure, innovation, technology, and transportation.