Developing an Infrastructure Scorecard for NYC

The New York Building Foundation provides grants to support professional development and education in the design, construction, and real estate industries in New York City. Although national and state infrastructure needs are well documented, infrastructure needs in NYC are not. The New York Building Foundation approached the Capstone team to develop a solution to improve documentation of infrastructure needs in NYC. The team created a comprehensive scorecard to provide citizens and decision-makers a better understanding of infrastructure issues that can lead to lasting change for the city. The scorecard evaluates five core areas of public infrastructure—roads, communications, airports, energy, and mass transit—on a five-star scale that analyzes access, capacity, reliability, finances, and equity/sustainability. The team studied various evaluation models and compared NYC infrastructure data to national data, finding that NYC largely has comprehensive and high-quality infrastructure, while identifying key areas to improve its reliability, equity, and sustainability.