public works

A US government poster from 1940 summarizing the Works Progress Administration's achievements Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for employment, health and safety, and recreational uses in the greater community. They include environmental protection (drinking water protection, preservation and restoration of forests and wetlands, soil erosion reduction, wildlife habitat preservation), public buildings (hospitals, municipal buildings, and schools), public services (dams, electrical grid, sewage treatment, and water supply and treatment), public spaces (beaches, parks, and public squares), transport infrastructure (airports, bridges, canals, pipelines, ports, railroads, and roads) and other, usually long-term, physical assets and facilities. Though often interchangeable with public capital and public infrastructure, public works does not necessarily carry an economic component, thereby being a broader term. Construction may be undertaken either by directly employed labour or by a private operator.

Public works has been encouraged since antiquity. The Roman emperor Nero encouraged the construction of various infrastructure projects during widespread deflation.