Many parrallels have been drawn between the current financial crisis and the Great Depression of the 1930's. We can also draw some lessons from how the U. S. federal government leveraged limited funds on large infrastructure projects to rebuild economic vitality. Encouraged by Mr. Michael Messner, Tech alum, partner of the Seminole Capital Partners and advisory board member of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, this project was conducted to explore how this might occur with the current and forthcoming rounds of federal stimulus funds. The three presentations below are case studies that illustrate how depression era infrastructure projects helped pull the U. S. economy up and how they continue to benefit our society. One such opportunity identified in this study is transforming "Redfields to Greenfields", where large industrial or retail properties which are "in the red" (i.e. toxic assets) are converted to public green space.

• "Panama Canal Case Study," Jeong, Crittenden, & Xu, 12/16/2009, Download PDF (~.35 MB)
• "Tennesee Valley Authority Case Study," James, Crittenden, & Xu, 12/16/2009, Download PDF (~.52 MB)
• "U.S. Water Infrastructure Economics Case Study," Pandit, Crittenden, & Xu, 12/16/2009, Download PDF (~1.1 MB)