The need for infrastructure is not limited simply to what can be built, but extends to the development of new products, services and ways of doing things.
Metropolis, Popular Science,[xliv] and The Plan: Urban Development, all featured articles on Infrastructure in January/February of 2010. The articles range in focus from products to urban planning, but they all illustrate a belief that new products and systems will not only make infrastructure less expensive to install or maintain, but will change its reputation from mundane to mystical, inviting a new level of client and community interaction and new models of infrastructure delivery.
From sexy bullet trains to buildings that grow food to wastewater systems that return drinkable water-new solutions are constantly emerging. Pothole sensing cars are three years to a working prototype. Self-healing concrete is already being tested. A neighborhood-sized saltwater purifier will be on the commercial market within a year. The military takes delivery of its first broadband blimp this year for areas where hardwiring would be difficult. These and other new products and systems can help change the game and make infrastructure more affordable and likeable.