Start here · Essential guide
The Hidden City: Utilities Under and Above the Street
A plain tour of the pipes, wires, ducts and lights that run beneath and above city streets, who owns them, and why they shape every renewal project.
Infrastructure and Services
Infrastructure and Utilities
The underground and overhead systems that renewal depends on.
Asset Management: Knowing What a City Owns
How cities inventory roads, pipes, bridges and buildings, judge their condition and risk, and decide which repairs come first when money is limited.
Bridges, Tunnels and Overpasses as Aging Assets
Why large structures such as bridges, tunnels and overpasses need steady upkeep, how inspection works, and how cities weigh repair against removal.
Capacity Check: Can Existing Infrastructure Handle New Housing?
How planners test whether water, sewer, power, roads and schools can absorb new homes, what counts as capacity, and what happens when a system falls short.
Dig Once Policies and Coordinating Street Work
Why cities try to bundle utility and road work so streets are not torn up again and again, how coordination works in practice, and where it gets difficult.
District Energy Systems for Dense Neighborhoods
How shared heating and cooling plants serve several buildings through underground pipes, where they make sense, and the costs and risks that come with them.
Electric Grids and Neighborhood Redevelopment
How local power distribution can limit or enable new buildings, what transformers and feeders have to do with redevelopment, and why upgrades take time.
Fiber Conduits in Street Projects
How laying empty ducts during road work can make future broadband cables cheaper to install, what the practice involves, and the limits of the approach.
Sewer Systems: Combined and Separate Explained
The difference between combined and separate sewer systems, why rain can cause overflows in older cities, and what that means for neighborhood redevelopment.
Street Lighting Choices: Safety, Cost and the Night Sky
The trade-offs behind street lighting: brightness, energy cost, glare, color, perceived safety and the night sky, and how cities decide what to install.
Water Mains and Why Old Pipes Matter
How aging water mains affect cost, timing and reliability of renewal projects, why pipes break, and how cities decide which ones to replace first.
Water Reuse and Greywater in Urban Projects
How buildings and districts can recycle water for flushing, irrigation and cooling, what greywater is, and the regulatory and health hurdles involved.
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