Public works  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Public works (or internal improvements historically in the United States) are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings (municipal buildings, schools, hospitals), transport infrastructure (roads, railroads, bridges, pipelines, canals, ports, airports), public spaces (public squares, parks, beaches), public services (water supply, sewage, electrical grid, dams), and other, usually long-term, physical assets and facilities. Though often interchangeable with public infrastructure and public capital, public works does not necessarily carry an economic component, thereby being a broader term.

See also

• Contingencies fund
• Infrastructure
• Internal improvements
• Public good, an economic discussion.
• Madaket Ditch, one of the first public works projects in America

Individual programs:

• Egyptian Public Works
• New Deal, USA, 1930s
• Opera Publica
• Public Works Administration, part of the New Deal in 1930s