. good morning. i'm pat lawson muse. welcome to "viewpoint." the washington region is one of the fastest growing and most attractive regions in the world. all of the growth, of course, presents challenges for our infrastructure highways roads, bridges, waterlines public supply and safety. it's all addressed. in the 2014 state of the region infrastructure report. here to talk about that this morning are stewart freudburg, the deputy executive director. tan i don't span know and robert griffith is the deputy planning director. thank you for being with us on

"viewpoint" this morning. >> good morning. >> the tragic smoke incident is one of a number of troubling incidents we've seen here in this area raising questions about safety as well as metro's ability to maintain the system and to continue to handle the capacity 700,000 trips a day. what are your thoughts about that? >> first of all, thanks for having us here this morning, pat. we really appreciate that. metro is an absolutely critical system to the region. as you say it moves 700,000 trips per day. it's essential for our economy and the future growth that we anticipate going forward, and having a safe transit system is absolutely critical. metro has invested a huge amount of money in improving the safety and reliability of the system over the last five years. it's a safe system. it's a very tragic accident. it's under investigation. people will get to the bottom of what happened and i'm movements

will be made and build upon the improvements that have already been made. >> improvements cost money, mr. griffiths, more than $1 billion a year to continue current service levels and $6 billion to add capacity and make improvements. where is that money going to come from? >> it comes from a number of different sources. the important point that you make is the first thing we have to do is maintain the infrastructure that we have now so that billion dollars a year over the next ten years is absolutely something that has to be done because the local jurisdictions have to make up the difference between meeting

our existing obligations first and then finding new sources. >> of course the local governments are being asked to kick in more this fiscal year. every year they're asked to kick in more. you ride metro. >> yes, every day. >> what are your thoughts about it? >> i feel comfortable. if you've been out there on the roads, you realize that's not a cake walk either. it's important metro like all the other elements in the report of infrastructure are fundamental to how we get by every day in our economy and metro is a key piece. it's mott the only piece, but i think that's what our report shows, that all these are connected, too. there's electricity, water connection. so i think if people understand the interconnectedness of

infrastructure, they're all combined and all support our economy and our way of life. >> mr. freudberg, what are the key findings of your report? >> probably the center is the finding that across the infrastructure areas we studied which were transportation water, energy public buildings and public safety communication, we have at least a $58 billion gap over the next 15 years for all of those sectors that we need to be investing above and beyond what we're already regional

economy. the other findings will that maintaining this infrastructure is fundamental to the protection of actually the public's health and well-being in this region. it's central to our future economic growth and development. it's really our way of life, requires maintenance and long-term investment in infrastructure in this region. that's really the central finding and we are investing already, but we still need to do more to make sure we address our current needs and the needs for the 1.6 million people coming here in the next 30 years. >> all right. we've going to delve a little more deeply into those specific needs after we take a quick break. stay with us.

welcome back to "viewpoint." we're talking with cog this

morning. mr. glif fifths it's estimated this home will become home to more than 1.6 million residents by 2030 more than a 30% increase. how well are we going to be able to accommodate all that growth? >> the local jurisdictions have in their current and long-term plans, are focusing that future growth in compact areas, that we call activity centers, mixed use that provide opportunities for people both the live and work and to get around not even by automobile or bus, but even walk and bike within these compact centers. we're seeing some of that in terms of the resurgence of many neighborhoods in the district of columbia arlington, bethesda other places in the region. looking to the longer term we've soon replanning with the silver line opening in the tyson's corner area a lot of the

planning in fairfax county is going to concentrate the new residents moving the that area in the tyson's area a walkable environment with good transit access. looking at it in terms of totals about half of the new growth in terms of residences are expected to occur in these 141 activity centers three out the region. 75%, three out of every four new jobs will be in these activity centers. combined they only represent less than 10% of the total land area of the region. so it makes it easier from a transportation standpoint to interconnect these centers using transit and then to improve circulation within them to allow opportunities for walking and biking to take some of the demand both off our highway system and off of transit. >> and off the water dlooifry system. >> the same planning the same projections use right-hand the same in our drinking and

wastewater projection. local governments are looking to find ways to concentrate and focus and find smarter ways of actually being able to make growth happen in a way that leverages limited resources. we're trying to do things smart and coordinate. >> we're seeing a matrix of aging worn out water and wastewater pipes. they recently found 60% of the large valves it needs to use in case of emergency don't work. talk about that. >> to start off, this is not an issue just in this region. it's a national issue. we have collectively a society, we've not mutt enough attention, funding and priority on these issues. one of the issues it's buried. >> out of sight, out of mind. >> we have wastewater systems at

the end of these systems, we invest a lot of money in those plants cutting-edge technology meeting new requirements doing lots of things. but the pipe systems have been pushed down and there's been a lot of deference of main naens. what we have is an in balance between the pipes that send the drinking water to us and the pipes that take the wastewater to the plants. so while we've done a great job and have marvelous facilities it's that pipe system that has generally been neglected. deferred enough that it's causing the problem. that's the part we have to focus on. >> it is a national problem. how are other cities handling this? >> they're faced with the same issues. i think what we in this region are trying to do are find ways to leverage and use examples in other places finding different ways of funding, trying to find rates that you can develop that better support and the different

kinds of funding that you need trying to find ways of using public-private partnership, being able to do design build, other mechanisms that allow you to stretch your dollars to go further. you still have to come with the money. we or trying to find ways like the d.c. water sen tri bond. finding more economic ways of getting the money to do the work with the projects that need to be done and finding ways to do that in smarter ways. we're setting some examples testing things out and borrowing where we can from others who are doing good an innovative things. >> we'll continue our discussion with cog right after we take this break. stay with us.

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snow ma geddon event. but pepco and other electric companies companies. >> the derecho was a signature event that had multiple impacts on people's power at home as well as on our 911 system. there's already that interconnection. they're spending money on undergrounding, on improving the redundancy of multiple lines above the ground more reliable circuits. i think it's making a difference. i think the reliability has improved and there's measurable data that's being provided with the regulatory agencies to demonstrate that. this investment was absolutely essential across multiple infrastructures. we are seeing differences in the

electricity sector. you need electricity to run the water system the metro system the wastewater system. we need it for our homes. we need it for the 911 system. that's an interconnection. you actually need water for cooling, for example, cooling a data center where all our internet connections are, you need it in hospitals and operating rooms. those are all water cooled systems. you, of course need to be able to get around this region to get to work and to do all those things to get to the hospital in an emergency, and then of course you have what's under the ground all those communication systems, ought the water and sewer systems under the same road system. >> mr. griffiths, listening to him talk about all these systems and the way they're con neblted brings to my mind more traffic jams more construction sites on the side of the road more

detours, long time. talk about the challenges of local communities and governments, getting these changes made and using innovation to make it happen. >> certainly all the systems are interconnected. when there's a water main break that causes a traffic jam, detours all over the place, unexpected emergency. in terms of the regular maintenance and construction that we have to do you do have the local agencies trying to do it in the off periods. we know in the metro system they've done a lot of track work a lot of work has gone in to maintaining the system. so it is a problem in terms of scheduling and how they have to make these needed repairs in the way least disruptive to our traffic and the riders on our transit systems.

it does -- they do try to coordinate so you have one week the utility goes in to replace something and the next week they come in and do something else, you end up repaving the same segment of street three times within a year. most of the work has been in trying to coordinate those activities. >> i would note too, trying to get ahead of the curve. so what you're actually doing is making repairs strategically, you can collaborate with the transportation folks and when you are doing something, you aren't doing break-in work not as much emergency work that of course disrupts everything and you're able to plan stuff both in terms of how you do it in pieces as well as when you do it. at some point you hopefully will get to the point where you have fewer breaks, so you have fewer unplanned work. you always have to do maintenance, you always have to respond to the number of

emergencies. you want to minimize the number of emergencies and plan your work strategic think. this is the part everybody is working on. >> help reduce the cost. preventive maintenance. if you wait till it's crumbling, then it's much more expensive than if you go in and do preventive maintenance early on you can extend the life of the roadway systems. >> with water repairs, talking about break-in work that can be at least lee times as expensive as. you're not making your dollars go as far when you're always dealing with break-in emergencies. >> and three times more inconvenient for consumers. >> absolutely. that's an issue for everybody who supports this infrastructure. we know the ratepayers are the ones that have to pay. they want service and reliability. our local governments and utilities doing this, want to make sure everyone is happy.

>> got to take a break. stay with us.

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guaranteed for two full years! plus, get a $300 bonus with a two-year agreement. welcome back. mr. freudberg, your report makes several recommendations to get this work done faster and cheaper. >> yes. there's actually five recommendation ms. the report. the first has to do with setting up something called an infrastructure exchange which would be a consortium of infrastructure find opportunities for bunding together innovative ways for accomplishing everything we node to do. innovative financing, we want to look at out-of-the-box ideas, not just the traditional rate and tax increases, but are there cross cutting things that you might be able to do where you

invest in, say, a parking garage that generates money but that's a storm water control system. there's solar panels on garages to help finance the costs. there may be other examples. you want to get the public involved. the public absolutely depends on all this infrastructure needs it wants us to work appropriately, reliably. we need them to be partners in making sure the investments are being made. we want to share what the best ideas are from all over the world, best practice sharing. finally our board of directors which is the regional body will advocate for what it believes is essential to make sure the funding is there and other actions are taken to support the infrastructure of the future and the future growth. >> mr. griffiths, we talked about the century bonds in the district that d.c. water using. local jurisdictions are doing a lot of innovative infrastructure

development. in d.c. and montgomery county they're using solar panels which you just alluded to. in prince george's county there's a green infrastructure program. tell me about that. >> i think tan would be more -- >> they're dealing with the other part of water challenges storm water management and trying to find ways to be able to get financial incentives to have the private sector actually help local governments achieve what they're required to do what they want to do to restore and protect water quality. our water and wastewater utilities are doing things innovative d.c. water and the green century bond and also being able to find ways to use technology to find ways to recover energy and be able to have fewer greenhouse gas emotions do things smart, actually save and be advocates for and make things happen. there's a lot going on. >> transportation -- the

public-private partnerships have become -- less and less federal money has been available nationally to deal with our infrastructure. in maryland and virginia they've had transportation increases to deal with that. but we're also going with the private sector. you look at the express toll lanes on the beltway. they're talking about having a public-private partnership for the purple line to get that transit project built faster and quicker and more cheaply. we are looking at the private sector as being a key ingredient of how we're actually going to maintain and expand our infrastructure over the coming decade. >> that may be the way the purple line gets built in maryland. >> it may be. >> mr. freudberg, all this has an economic benefit that you alluded to earlier and that's jobs lots of jobs. >> yes. one of the great things and almost all of these investments is the people who can work on them are the people who live live in this region.

the example that that tanya gave most of the people that work on that we hope will live in prince george's county or the region. the same is true of many of these other projects. this is essentially investing in ourselves. that is really i think the key to the success of this is that it's a lot of money, but it's investing in ourselves for our own future. that's what we hope will make the big difference in making this work. >> all right stewart freud berg tonya span know and robert griffiths, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you for being with us. that's "viewpoint." stay with us for "news 4 today."

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...and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum, tum tum tum...♪ smoothies! only from tums. today many parts of our region will be under a winter weather warning or watch starting tonight. >> we're keeping an eye on the radar and the roads this morning. storm team 4 meteorologist amelia segal will tell us what is coming our way and when. good morning and welcome to "news 4 today." i'm adam tuss. >> i'm angie goff. today is sunday january 25th. ready for another round? >> let's go straight to storm team 4 meteorologist amelia segal. >> a winter storm warning will begin for the panhandle of west virginia washington county and maryland and frederick county virginia this morning. that will run through tomorrow