The summer of 2007 was defined not only by it being the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love and the tenth since Princess Diana died, nor by the headlines of the war in Iraq, extreme heat waves, out-of-control Hollywood teens, controversial Barry Bond’s record-breaking season, and toy recalls, but remarkably, by public works infrastructure and the environment.

Unfortunately it took the tragedy of the Minnesota bridge collapse to catapult the need for infrastructure improvements into the public’s field of vision and therefore, that of mass media’s. News coverage on bridge deficiencies, how they are assessed, and funding issues appear regularly since the failure. This summer, many Americans realized for the first time that bridges can fall down, that a bridge’s safety is not guaranteed because it’s a public facility, that many of our nation’s bridges were built before the Summer of Love, and that there is much we don’t know about structural health, design, investigation, and maintenance.

This event was followed one week later by the transit system shut-down in New York after a high-volume, short-duration storm. This incident underscored our country’s problematic stormwater and sewer system issues. The public learned first-hand about the impacts of combined sewer overflows (which still exist in 772 cities nationwide) on the environment, and how infrastructure capacity and maintenance are linked to our economy.

The environment had its day in the sun too. Following on the heels of last year’s blockbuster movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," this summer’s Live Earth concert marked the launch of SOS: The movement for climate change (www.liveearth.org). Global warming is on the minds of more people now than ever before.

While infrastructure and the environment are typically deemed less worthy of print or air-time coverage than Paris Hilton’s or Britney Spear’s latest escapade, I disagree. These are news topics charged with many elements that spark interest: controversy, finger pointing, politics, engineering and science, finance, and most significantly, impacts on people’s daily lives and the economy. Unfortunately, the good things that happen with infrastructure or the environment (such as bridge replacements, new park lands designations, and infill neighborhood developments, which often constitute significant public spending and effort) typically only make news on the local level, and even then, they get little fanfare.

Our goal should be to keep infrastructure and the environment in the limelight so that we can push policy change; federal, state, and local spending on needed public works projects; technological innovation; and research. Out of our nation’s experiences this summer, including the realization that bridges can fall down and that our actions do impact climate change, I hope this fall will be the dawn of several positive changes: that structural health monitoring will become mainstream; that bridge inspection techniques will be improved; and that developers and regulators will increase their acceptance, use, and requirement of sustainable design practices to offset the human impact to land development. Additionally, I hope that political hopefuls will pledge to fix our infrastructure and protect our environment with well-thought-out plans that consider funding, operations, and research for future success. And lastly, I hope Americans consider candidates’ past voting records and experiences with infrastructure and environmental issues when making their decisions.