When thinking about infrastructure in the state of Michigan, it should not be overlooked that architects in Michigan are an integral part to developing infrastructure projects. And we are a component of making buildings better and safer, but also integrating our buildings within the context of infrastructure and major utilities. So when I talk about the major utilities I’m describing, gas power, natural gas that is and electricity and the water and sewer systems. So those are critical infrastructure components for buildings that need to be considered when developing infrastructure, for a, a region, a city or rural area. the state as a whole and right now the talk across the country is that the infrastructure is aging rapidly and decaying. And so we need to now have a serious conversation on how to improve infrastructure development and funded throughout the country, especially in the state of Michigan.
Architects in Michigan have been working hard with our legislators to add to the conversation, be a resource, and have a fruitful conversation about collaborative efforts between architects, engineers, surveyors, to improve the quality of our infrastructure and plan for the future. Not only do we want to design infrastructure for today, but we want to do our best to plan ahead, to avoid any future, pitfalls of major infrastructure collapse. So a lot of people think about infrastructure when they drive on the highway and they, use our state roads or local roads and roads are just one part of infrastructure development. and, and they are a critical component to developing our cities and towns and architects in Michigan need roads and highways in order to get building products and goods to new project sites or existing buildings so that we can redevelop our cities and towns.
For the next generation. and Michigan are critically important to the development of infrastructure as well as our allied professions of civil engineers and landscape engineers and surveyors across the state. And we are open to working together with our fellow engineers and trying to make our overall infrastructure development more sustainable as a whole and as a system. So architects in Michigan looks systemically to improve infrastructure. whenever a new highway or roadway is getting constructed or rebuild, if there’s an existing highway that is going through a major renovation, it is a critical idea to consider all of the, integrated infrastructure components, as I mentioned before, water and sewer, conveyance, electricity and natural gas so that we don’t have to dig holes one time for the sewer, patch it up and then come back, dig up a whole for electrical conduit, which creates a very dysfunctional infrastructure system when you’re constantly interrupting traffic flow and people moving from place to place.
And not to mention the impact it has on the roadway when you have multiple, cuts and holes and patches that, disruptive, continuous surface of pavement, which have a long extending effects to our vehicles. So our personal vehicles, take on damage two wheels and tires all the time. our, our commercial trucks and buses that move people and goods are also taking on a lot of this impact because of bad infrastructure. And so we definitely want to consider, integrating with our fellow engineers and architects together so that we can develop a more holistic and and affordable solutions to infrastructure in the state of Michigan.
because we’ve had a lot of impact to climate change in this country and globally as well. The, the conversation around infrastructure should also be considerate of the topic of resiliency and architects in Michigan have been working on this locally at the state level as well as at the national level with our fellow professionals to think about how to design in anticipation of a future weather events like a tornado or hurricane rather than reactively in the past, once a tornado or hurricane moves through a city or a town, it’s, it’s a far greater solution to try and develop a plan ahead of time before something major occurs. The cost of repairing a city or a town, not just the buildings, the roads and the schools and major, major amenities to a city, homes, things like that. The infrastructure is severely impacted as well after a tornado or hurricane and creates a large and very expensive cleanup process.
So resilient design thinks about taking these major catastrophes and facing them head on before they occur so that we can reduce our, liability and expenses after a major event happens. And this is a subject of architects in Michigan that is crucial to the future generations who are driving, living, working in cities and towns that we want to be very considerate of. And we don’t want to leave a feature that is uninhabitable. And that is a major discussion around infrastructure and architecture and engineering and construction topic right now. We look forward to developing better cities, towns, and rural areas through improved infrastructure and resilient design strategies in anticipation of a climate changing and the negative global impact of that climate change.
If we as professionals in development of cities and towns were more involved in the development of our infrastructure and utilities we could integrate the pipes, roadbed, wastewater, and storm water into one sustainable underground system that is economical and longer lasting than the traditional practice of trenching the roadways individually for each utility system. Better coordination can lead to more sustainable cities that are more accountable for their units of water, gas, and electricity in the supply and waste end of the whole system. There are many factors to consider, but if we were to take more time up front then we could achieve a cost-effective future infrastructure. Architects in Michigan are up for the challenge and work hard to seek partnerships with our fellow engineers and planners to create this better, and more sustainable future. We must work harder than ever to stay relevant as professional design service providers.