| ▲ | youngtaff 3 hours ago | |
Why do the Army Corps of Engineers get so involved in civil infrastructure in the US - thinking of the Mississippi in particular? In other countries the government would be involved but it would be a civilian rather than military role | ||
| ▲ | macintux 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Corps_of_En... has a good overview. Note that 97% of the employees are civilians. | ||
| ▲ | wbl 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
The US did not have a civilian engineering school for a few decades after the founding. West Point was the only institution creating engineers. Given they had responsibility for port defenses the civil engineering of waterways was an easy addition. | ||
| ▲ | bumby 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
Not sure about the exact thrust of your question but a few points: - flood management is not easy to monetize so there is not much incentive for private industry. The timelines for design decisions (100 year, 500 year) often don’t mate well with private incentives - it crosses many property boundaries which makes it hard to manage unless you have the rights of a government - much of the work is still done by private companies but managed by the government, just like other infrastructure works like roads, bridges etc. | ||
| ▲ | nxobject 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
They're decentralized enough as well that some of their local offices have hilarious online presences. For example, Portland... | ||