• Bridges to Prosperity helps build trail bridges in rural communities.
• The nonprofit is using AI to map these areas and identify prospective bridge locations.
• This article is part of "Build IT: Connectivity," a series about tech powering better business.

Not all maps are created equal. Huge swaths of land lack basic geographical data, including details as vital as the locations of rivers or roads.

To Bridges to Prosperity, a nongovernmental organization that helps build bridges in isolated rural communities, this data gap meant missing infrastructure.

Since its launch in 2001, the NGO has built or supported the construction of over 600 trail bridges in 21 countries, creating safe, accessible routes to medical clinics, schools, and markets. But building bridges is expensive, so in 2020, it pivoted from independently building bridges to partnering with governments to support their infrastructure efforts. Still, figuring out where bridges were needed was difficult.

Many rural waterways, especially the smaller streams and rivers that isolate entire villages during the rainy season, had not yet been mapped by governments or businesses. After analyzing 5,000 waterways around the world, the organization found that 38% of streams and rivers weren't on any existing maps.

"The rivers that are preventing them from getting to school, getting to markets, getting to clinics, to churches, to visit friends, that literally stops them from doing all those things, is not even a blue line on that map," Nivi Sharma, Bridges to Prosperity's CEO, told Business Insider.

"There is huge data inequity on how much we spend, how much investment we do in mapping certain populations, and how little we do for others," she added.

Bridges to Prosperity turned to artificial intelligence to fill the data gap. First, it built Fika Map, an AI tool that identifies locations where bridges could be built and estimates construction costs, among other capabilities. "Fika" means "to arrive" in Swahili.

The NGO also teamed up with Better Planet Laboratory to create WaterNet, an AI model that maps the world's waterways. They used satellite data to detect elevation and vegetation patterns, which the AI model then analyzed to approximate the location of waterways.

Bridges to Prosperity is using these programs with governments in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Zambia to help plan bridge construction and improve infrastructure across the countries.

Layering the data

Bridges to Prosperity had already been producing maps for areas where it had built bridges. This gave the NGO a starting database of geographical data that it could use and add to in order to build these programs.

"It's really easy to map where communities live by looking at satellite data, and most governments have schools, health clinics, markets, and critical destinations already mapped," Sharma said. "And so we started layering all this information together."

It also used data from less conventional sources, like the fitness tracking app Strava, to calculate travel times over uneven terrain.

But it still struggled to identify smaller rivers and streams.

"High-resolution satellite images are needed for the mapping of waterways in remote areas," said Marouane Temimi, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Temimi said there are two types of satellite data. For optical satellite data, cameras capture images of the Earth's surface. Clouds can disrupt this, blocking out target areas. Radar satellite imagery, on the other hand, uses radio waves, which means it can create images even when clouds are in the way. But it can be affected by wind.

The two types of data can be combined to build accurate maps — but they come with a cost. Temimi said that satellite data is usually collected by commercial sensors, so getting the information can be expensive.

Sharma said the NGO had to balance getting quality data with making sure both programs were affordable, scalable, and global.

"The whole argument around AI and its inclusiveness — it's not built with enough good training data," Sharma said. "It often overlooks the entire Global South, which is obviously what we're trying not to do. But that's the expensive part."

A tool for change

Bridges to Prosperity and Better Planet Laboratory measured the impact of the dataset by assessing the number of waterways identified. Previously, they estimated that there were 54 million kilometers of mapped waterways around the globe. The WaterNet database mapped another 124 million kilometers, or 77 million miles, which more than tripled the number of known waterways worldwide.

Sharma said that Fika Map and WaterNet could help governments complete surveying work for bridge construction in months, rather than years.

"It's a decision-making tool. It's an advocacy tool. It's a planning tool," she said. "It really tells the full story of rural livelihoods and what needs to be done to improve that development."

• Infrastructure has played an important role in President Biden's term in office.
• The bipartisan infrastructure law is one of Biden's signature domestic policy achievements.
• The outcomes of Biden's economic initiatives and projects will define his overall legacy.

As he enters his final few weeks in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden's political standing remains far below what it was when it entered office. Major infrastructure projects, however, could enhance the president's legacy long after he's left office.

Biden signed into law a highly consequential infrastructure bill, a goal that eluded President-elect Donald Trump. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, is already a defining aspect of Biden's presidency. And the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to once again make the US a leader in semiconductor manufacturing, could also change some minds on Biden's overall economic record.

While many of the upgrades are already in the works, the ramifications of these investments may not be felt for years.

Here's a look at some of the projects that could eventually reshape Biden's domestic legacy:

Brightline West

California has long been known for its car-centric culture.

However, in recent decades, there's been a major effort to bolster public transit throughout the state. In LA, the Los Angeles Metro Rail system is expanding its D Line. And a planned extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, or BART, into Silicon Valley is poised to be a critical link in the San Francisco region.

A newer part of California's transit equation is high-speed rail.

The California High-Speed Rail project, which will connect San Francisco to the Los Angeles Basin as part of its first phase, is currently under construction.

And then there's Brightline West, a separate under-construction high-speed rail route that will link Las Vegas, Nevada, to Southern California.

In September 2024, the Federal Railroad Administration signed an agreement that'll direct $3 billion to the Nevada Department of Transportation for Brightline West. The signing came after a December 2023 announcement that the project would be awarded funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

Brightline West is expected to begin operations in 2028, just in time for the summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Airport Improvements across the US

The Airport Infrastructure Grants (AIG) program is part of the $25 billion allocated for airport and air traffic control improvements within the infrastructure law.

These investments will address some of the most pressing needs at airport facilities across the US. A slew of airports, from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia to Hawaii's Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole, have already received funding from the program.

As part of the program, $20.1 million was awarded to the Atlanta airport in August 2024 to improve its taxiways and taxi lanes, while $49.6 million was granted to the Ellison Onizuka Kona airport to rehabilitate its Runway 17-35 that same month.

The replacement of the Blatnik Bridge between Minnesota and Wisconsin

The John A. Blatnik Bridge serves as a vital transportation link between Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin. The bridge opened for traffic in 1961 and is in dire need of repairs.

Biden visited Superior in January 2024 to announce that $1.06 billion will be allocated to replace the aging bridge. A new bridge will allow for increased capacity and the construction project is expected to boost the area's economy in a considerable way.

According to the White House, the bridge in its current state was set to close by 2030.

"For decades, people talked about replacing this bridge, but it never got done, until today," Biden said during his visit to the Midwestern locale.

The bridge is set to be closed for construction for four years, beginning in 2027, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Interstate 5 Bridge replacement between Washington state and Oregon

The Interstate Bridge, also known as the Columbia River Interstate Bridge, carries Interstate 5 between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.

The bridge is a critical economic link in the Pacific Northwest and regional leaders for years have sought funding to replace the two spans.

Through the infrastructure law, the project in December 2023 was awarded a $600 million grant from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program, also known as the Mega Grant program. The program was designed to set aside federal funding for complex projects that are likely to boost the economy.

In July 2024, the US Department of Transportation announced that the Interstate Bridge replacement project would also receive roughly $1.5 billion in funding from the Federal Highway Administration's Bridge Investment Program.

"Under the Trump administration, 'infrastructure week' was just a punchline, but President Biden turned it into a historic legacy of investing in America and American workers in states across the country," Democratic National Committee deputy communications director Abhi Rahman told Business Insider in a statement.

Semiconductor Plants funded by the CHIPS Act

Biden during his term in office has placed a major emphasis on strengthening the US' hand regarding advanced chip manufacturing.

And in November 2024, his administration finalized $6.6 billion in funding for the Arizona subsidiary of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The award will fund the construction of three factories in Phoenix.

Biden in November said the projects would create thousands of jobs, calling it the "largest foreign direct investment in a greenfield project in the history of the United States."

The investment is significant as it comes before Trump — who in the past has criticized the CHIPS Act — is set to return to office in January.

Investments in Clean Energy

The Georgia-based bus manufacturer Blue Bird in July 2024 was awarded $80 million from the US Department of Energy to bolster its production of electric school buses.

Blue Bird received the funding as part of the Biden administration's $1.7 billion investment to transform shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing plants into facilities that can produce electric and hybrid vehicles. The dedicated funding was part of the Biden-backed Inflation Reduction Act, which the president signed into law in 2022.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia in a statement said that the investment is slated to bring 428 manufacturing jobs and 250 construction jobs to Fort Valley.

"This is about converting fleets of diesel-powered school buses into clean energy vehicles for the future," the senator said.

Hackers trying to extort the Rhode Island government infiltrated the state's public benefits system, causing state officials to shut down online services that let residents apply for Medicaid and other assistance programs.

"As part of this investigation today, we discovered that within the Rhode Island Bridges system, a cybercriminal had installed dangerous malware that constituted an urgent threat," Governor Dan McKee said at a Friday night press conference, according to The Providence Journal. "That is why tonight we have shut down the system. That means customers will temporarily not be able to access any customer portal related to the services on Rhode Island Bridges."

The vendor "Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information from RIBridges," McKee's office said in a press release. Rhode Island has "proactively taken the system offline so that the State and Deloitte can work to address the threat and restore the system as quickly as possible."

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