AN EVER-EVOLVING GLOBAL HUB, WORKING TO KEEP PACE WITH GROWING DEMAND

Foreword

The Future of Infrastructure

 

Known as ‘The City That Never Sleeps,’ New York City is a whirl of energy and reinvention, a magnet for creativity, talent, innovation and opportunity. How does New York City maintain its reputation as a place where people work, live and play at all hours of the day and night, while keeping pace with the infrastructure demands of its growing population? This question is reflective of the New York City-focused results of our second global Future of Infrastructure report.

As part of this research, we asked over 1,000 New Yorkers for their views on the city’s infrastructure and their ambitions for its future evolution. We found that while New Yorkers are proud of their city’s resilience and appreciate the reliability of its utilities and affordability of its mass transit, they require further improvements and advancements.

We live and work here, so we get it. AECOM has extensive experience delivering iconic projects throughout the New York metropolitan area. Addressing these challenges won’t be easy, but our network of planners, designers, engineers and management professionals have the knowledge and reach to help develop the infrastructure that will sustain the city’s growth and support future generations.

Paul Storella 
Senior Vice President and Chief of Strategy and Business Development, New York Metro, AECOM

Long a magnet for the world’s best and brightest, New York is a true global city, one of only two cities to achieve the Alpha ++ ranking, and first in the Global Cities Index, driven by its strong performance in business activity and human capital. In the 21st century, the long-time powerhouse of banking, commerce and culture has quickly added international tourist destination and technology hub to its CV. With over eight million New York City residents, 800,000 daily commuters from the surrounding metropolitan area, almost 14 million international visitors annually, and an influx of new tech talent expected, New York City’s growth has outpaced its infrastructure. 

New York City’s mass transit and road systems were designed decades ago for a populace that worked, played and lived differently. Construction booms, e-commerce and housing scarcity are all putting further pressure on transit systems as people and materials travel farther to their destinations each day. And political and environmental events are changing what is required from man-made structures. NYC’s infrastructure helped it become ‘The City That Never Sleeps’; now it’s time to ensure that its infrastructure can sustain the growth the city’s success has reaped.

INFRASTRUCTURE IS EVERYONE’S BUSINESS

In collaboration with Longitude — a Financial Times Company, AECOM’s Future of Infrastructure research harnesses survey data and opinions from over 10,000 infrastructure users in 10 major global cities, including New York to ask how satisfied, safe, inspired and engaged people feel with their roads and bridges, rail services and utilities.

NEW YORK CITY FINDINGS

New Yorkers are known to be passionate people with a variety of different opinions, so it’s no surprise to learn that they have definitive thoughts about their city. New Yorkers take great civic pride in the resiliency shown in the face of recent natural and man-made threats to their hometown, and appreciate the comparative affordability of the city’s transit systems and utilities. Still, many New Yorkers  are impatient with the perceived slow pace at which innovations are adopted into their aging systems, and would like to see their city remain remarkably innovative.

Of those surveyed, 67% feel the private sector should be more involved in the development of infrastructure.

The Voice of the People // The Future of Infrastructure

[City]: Satisfaction

New Yorkers are somewhat satisfied with the city’s infrastructure, with an index score of 6.5 out of 10 — ranking right in the middle of all city dwellers surveyed. When taking into account other aspects of infrastructure, such as innovation, engagement and resilience, the city’s scores drop to 4.00 out of 10, 'not very satisfied,' which is slightly below the average of all respondents.

When asked about some specific infrastructure categories, such as utilities, New Yorkers surveyed found their city to be more reliable than most. New York achieved a 7.4 index score for power reliability and an 8.1 index score for water reliability – in both cases this is higher than the average of all cities surveyed.

Scores for satisfaction, engagement, innovation, and resilience are based on a 1–10 scale.

  • 10–7.6

    Very satisfied

  • 7.5–5.1

    Moderately satisfied

  • 5.0–2.6

    Not very satisfied

  • 2.5–1.0

    Dissatisfied

While respondents only give transportation reliability an index score of 5.9 (lower than Hong Kong’s and London’s matching scores of 6.5, but ahead of Toronto’s 5.6), for the most part those surveyed do feel that, despite recent delays, public transportation gets them where they need to go, with 86% stating it is ‘acceptable’ or ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’

While 48% of respondents are not willing to pay higher fares, 41% of those surveyed would be willing to pay higher taxes to fund improvements in infrastructure.

In terms of roads and bridges, however, roughly one-third of residents in New York — as well as in Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Sydney — say these infrastructure elements are getting worse, explaining why roads are viewed as the first or second priority for infrastructure improvements in all of these cities.

“We’re going to continue to innovate and use technology to give our customers more options, convenience and ability to control their costs.” – Timothy P. Cawley, President of Consolidated Edison

Article / Engagement

Do You Know Your Community?
Five Steps to Working Closer

Do You Know Your Community?
Article / Skills

All Change?
Infrastructure’s Next-Gen Workforce

All Change?
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An Informed Engaged Public:
Key to Modernizing Infrastructure

An Informed Engaged Public:

The Voice of the People // The Future of Infrastructure

[City]: Engagement

Like all those surveyed around the world, New York City’s Engagement index is low, at 3.2.

Though that puts New York City just below the average global index of 3.3, that score still manages to rank New York City above Sydney, Chicago, Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore and Los Angeles in the global index for engagement.

Scores for satisfaction, engagement, innovation, and resilience are based on a 1–10 scale.

  • 10–7.6

    Very satisfied

  • 7.5–5.1

    Moderately satisfied

  • 5.0–2.6

    Not very satisfied

  • 2.5–1.0

    Dissatisfied

Some 47% of New Yorkers responding felt that they have not had the opportunity to provide feedback regarding public infrastructure issues in the past 12 months. While only 19% of respondents reported providing feedback on the price of services, the Participatory Budgeting in New York City (PBNYC), which has been called 'revolutionary civics in action' by the New York Times, is the largest and the fastest-growing participatory budgeting process in the United States. As this initiative continues to grow in scope, it will hopefully help to strengthen civic engagement within the city further — and enable more residents to feel involved in infrastructure development. Currently, 53% of those surveyed in New York agreed that requests for feedback about infrastructure improvements or investments come too late in the planning stage for their influence to be meaningful.

THE top Four major infrastructure projects delivered in New York IN the last ten years

Project

World Trade Center Transportation Hub

World Trade Center Transportation Hub
Project

NYC Hudson Bergen Light Rail Transit System

NYC Hudson Bergen Light Rail Transit System
Project

NYC Second Avenue Subway

NYC Second Avenue Subway
Project

Croton Water Treatment Plant and Pump

Croton Water Treatment Plant and Pump

The Voice of the People // The Future of Infrastructure

[City]: Innovation

The New Yorkers surveyed feel that their city is still striving to incorporate innovation into its infrastructure; New York City’s Innovation index is 5.8, significantly lower than London’s (6.7), but residents are still 'moderately satisfied' on this count

Interestingly, it is not new technologies that the New Yorkers surveyed identified as having the most perceived positive impact on their future quality of life; respondents cited the common existing technologies of solar power and fiber-optic broadband to be two of the top four technologies likely to have the biggest impact on their quality of life. While future-tech, such as virtual/augmented reality and driverless cars were identified as having the least potential impact.

Scores for satisfaction, engagement, innovation, and resilience are based on a 1–10 scale.

  • 10–7.6

    Very satisfied

  • 7.5–5.1

    Moderately satisfied

  • 5.0–2.6

    Not very satisfied

  • 2.5–1.0

    Dissatisfied

Overall, New York residents ranked fast rail connections to the airport third after solar power and fiber-optic broadband in terms of its impact on their quality of life. But this technology was viewed as particularly important by middle and upper income respondents, who identified it as the number one technology out of the 11 listed.

This aligns with the importance all New Yorkers surveyed place on public transportation in general. When asked about infrastructure improvements, respondents identified upgrading public transportation as their priority for the future, with enabling new forms of public transportation coming in sixth on the list.

“In the last century, the Port Authority was on the cutting edge of technology when it physically connected New Jersey to New York under the Hudson River. In the 21st century, connections are digital as well as physical - from cell service to free Wi-Fi...” - Kevin O'Toole, Chairman of the PANYNJ and Rick Cotton, Executive DirectorPort Authority chairman: What we're doing to modernize 100-year-old PATH

“We want all our customers to have access to solar energy, energy efficiency and other products and services that technology is making possible.” - Margarett Jolly, Director of Demonstration Projects for Consolidated EdisonCon Edison’s ‘Community Power’ to Bring Solar Energy to 350 NYCHA Households
Article / innovation

Right Here, Right Now:
Mobility as a Service

Right Here, Right Now:
Article / Accelerated delivery

Olmsted Dam:
Making Modern America

Olmsted Dam:
Article / Resilience

Making Cities Resilient:
A Cyber Stress Test

Making Cities Resilient:

The Voice of the People // The Future of Infrastructure

[City]: Resilience

The Resilience index for New York City is 5.7, which is also the average score of all cities surveyed. In New York, protection against natural disasters is the second biggest priority (14.5), after upgrading public transportation (17.4), and closely followed by improving environmental sustainability (14.3) and upgrading of utilities (13.3).

 

Scores for satisfaction, engagement, innovation, and resilience are based on a 1–10 scale.

  • 10–7.6

    Very satisfied

  • 7.5–5.1

    Moderately satisfied

  • 5.0–2.6

    Not very satisfied

  • 2.5–1.0

    Dissatisfied

Some 40% of New Yorkers surveyed are confident in the city government’s ability to protect infrastructure from natural disasters; 49% are confident in the city government’s ability to protect infrastructure from terrorism; and while 43% of respondents have been informed of drills or exercises to help prepare their city for emergency situations, 34% have not.

“As we have seen time and time again, our subway system is impacted by the forces of nature. Just as our employees work around the clock to clean up after a storm, we must also proactively protect our infrastructure.” - New York City Transit, President Andy ByfordNYC Transit plans flood resiliency project for April

The Future of Infrastructure

Infographic

New York at a glance

The top three future infrastructure projects in New york

Project

LaGuardia Airport Redevelopment Program

LaGuardia Airport Redevelopment Program
Project

East Side Access

East Side Access
Project

Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency

Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency