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From Modern Roots March to Safe Digging Month

31 Mar 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

Do you know what is below?   After a month of emphasizing modern roots, it is time to move into national safe digging month! Throughout March, Aii has been educating on the importance of building intuition about what is below your feet every day. While no one has X-ray vision, everyone…

Resilience of Regional Roots

29 Mar 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

Across the U.S., underground utilities occupy space at different depths. Many factors influence the depth you may find these pipes, cables, and wires, such as the local landscape, population density, and importantly, the regional climate. Due to regional climate variations within the U.S., these modern roots must be protected from…

How Low Do Modern Roots Go?

24 Mar 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

In any natural landscape, a wide variety of vegetation have different root networks belowground. The same is true for the Modern Roots that deliver water, Internet, and much more to all different types of structures. The utilities that run beneath our feet are buried at different depths depending on a…

Hey! Don’t Dig Yet! See This First!

22 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Are you planning to dig a hole? Maybe you’re just planting a small tree, installing a mailbox, or leveling out a wonky slope in your yard – but there may be something important underground that you can hit! Picture that you are standing below ground with your eyes at surface…

Why Roots and Not Overhead Lines?

17 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

If you have been following the Aii educational series Modern Roots March this month, you’ll know that we want to get you thinking about underground utilities like you think about the roots of plants and trees. The reason is simple: if you start to recognize that modern life is supported…

The Costs of Digging Blind

15 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Everyone knows you wouldn’t dig right next to the base of a tree if you thought there were roots underfoot. The same intuition should govern your decisions wherever you are because modern life is so interconnected that utilities, pipes, and wires run under your feet almost anywhere you are! That…

Identifying A Structure’s Roots

10 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Beneath our households, sidewalks, and backyards, a hidden network of utilities enables a multitude of services to be delivered to consumers, like roots to a tree. Across the U.S., there are more than 20 million miles of underground utility infrastructure. These range from municipal sewer lines to privately-owned telecommunications lines…

An Artificial Energy Crisis

09 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

An Artificial Energy Crisis   President Joe Biden said this week that “It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production.” He went on to cite onshore production statistics, comparing them to President Donald Trump’s first year in office, and stating that thousands of…

Detecting Modern Roots

08 Mar 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

A single call to 811 for an excavation project sets in motion a process that will reveal modern roots in a dig site. Damage prevention is a collaboration of different stakeholders who pass information on down the line until each party has completed their task and the site is ready…

A Call That Reveals Modern Roots

03 Mar 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Building anything, from a suburban family home to a 50-story skyscraper in a downtown business district, requires preparing the building site. A crucial part of the preparation begins before any machinery makes contact with the Earth: locating underground utilities at the construction site. Pipelines, cables, wires, and other utilities can…

Understanding Modern Roots March

01 Mar 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

Throughout your daily routine – whether it’s your commute to work, grocery shopping, or visiting grandma – your life is dependent on crucial pieces of infrastructure you may not even notice. The foundation of our ability to enjoy electricity, running water, and home heating rests on millions of miles of…

Push Toward Renewables Requires Mining and Fossil Fuels

23 Feb 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

The current push to electrify the U.S. transportation sector along with homes and businesses means that massive amounts of raw material will be needed to build out a more robust and smarter grid, deploy new renewable technology, and facilitate power storage. This electrified future that many long for will require…

South Carolina State Rep Joins Thank Tank Advisory Council

23 Feb 2022, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: February 23, 2022 Contact: John Cassibry, jcassibry@aii.org   South Carolina State Representative Joins Aii Advisory Council   Charleston, S.C. (February 23, 2022) – South Carolina State Representative Marvin Pendarvis joins the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) Advisory Council. In this volunteer capacity, Rep. Pendarvis…

Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse Shows Need for Immediate Bridge Investment

14 Feb 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

Embed from Getty Images Bridges are so integral to U.S. infrastructure and commonplace in our lives that we only notice them when something is wrong. Across the U.S., almost 10 percent of the bridges linking communities are structurally deficient. The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last…

Measuring the Impact of Storms on Critical Infrastructure

03 Feb 2022, Posted by John Cassibry in All Posts, Blog Posts

With harsh winter conditions ramping up and COVID-19 requiring more people to quarantine or work remotely, broadband resiliency has never been more important. Unfortunately, storms often cause power failures, leaving many without electricity and even internet service when they need it most. In January, an extreme winter snowstorm in parts…