Abandon all hope, ye who enter here . . .

The world's governments are poised to spend $35 trillion (roughly $5,000 per person for everyone on the planet) on infrastructure in the next two decades.  The vast majority will go toward transport and urbanism - - much of it centered in the developing world.  This will be the largest build-out in human history - - so mark this on your calendar.

This is good news.  Too many places on the planet have been subject to the "Law of the Minimum" - - which states that by spending the minimum amount on public infrastructure you produce a civic culture of acceptance regarding the minimal performance of said infrastructure.  In many areas, where the Law of Minimum is fully developed, we need to look at previous chapters of the infrastructure book and correct the sins of our past.  The worst mistake that engineers can make is the failure to remedy those already made. 

London's Heathrow is a tremendous example of the point where the Law of the Minimum collides with short-termism and a lack of planning.  Heathrow was voted the worst airport in the world by passengers in 1982 and still was in 2009.  Almost 70 million passengers endure its lines annually, some 25 million more that the airport was made for.  The Law of the Minimum also has a temporal context - - Terminal 5 has relieved some of the capacity stress, after is was first suggested twenty five years ago.

Take a look at the video - - entitled The World's Unofficial Longest Line.  Taken at Heathrow, the clip starts at the head of a line waiting to enter a security checkpoint and pans back, and back, and back - - through the concourse, down a flight of stairs, along twisting corridors, up another flight of stairs, and emerging in an entirely different terminal before stopping at the end of the line (security lines clearly demonstrate that our future is a race between good innovation and bad innovation).  Granted public security represents an awesome societal challenge, and I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated.  But if we are willing to spend $35 trillion to disrupt the Law of the Minimum, a primary goal should be that the public gets something functionally better out of the deal. 

The song is "500 Miles" from the Proclaimers.