PBS&J Highlights Focus

It was a little more than a decade ago, in 1997, that PBS&J Highlights debuted a new, magazine-style format and a new editorial direction for the then 18-year-old publication. Driving the changes and leading the publication into the new millennium was editor, Kathe Jackson.

Kathe made a personal commitment to making PBS&J Highlights more than just another company publication and took its mission, to provide useful information on subjects related to a single topic of interest, to heart.

During her ten years at the helm, topics such as disaster preparedness and recovery, water issues, homeland security, management strategies, America’s military, construction and environmental issues were covered. She laid the groundwork for what has become, arguably, PBS&J’s most high profile communications tool.

It seems only fitting in this issue focusing on infrastructure that we acknowledge Kathe’s dedication to developing a sound foundation for us to continue to build on as we proceed into the next decade and she moves on to lead Corporate Communications at PBS&J.

Fixing America’s Infrastructure: At What Cost?, gives an overview of the declining state of America’s infrastructure and the potential impact on the economy, and explores some of the innovative methodologies that can be employed to avert future funding shortfalls.

Rising construction material costs for infrastructure and the factors influencing these price increases are detailed in A Material Problem.

How do you decide the level of risk you are willing to assume in a public-private partnership (P3)? Public-Private Risk Sharing–Searching for a Win-Win, examines the factors that should be evaluated before making that challenging decision.

A View from the Top provides some insight into the federal government’s perspective on public-private partnerships and explores how they are implementing P3s.

Finally, Bridging the Gap, discusses user financing and some of the ways this strategy is being used successfully to cover infrastructure funding deficits.

Infrastructure is something that impacts us all as we go about our daily lives. When it’s functioning properly, we don’t even notice it. When something goes wrong, we cannot help but take notice.