Well, FWIW, the campus I'm familiar with has been around long enough that it has outlived many employees. And yet the institutional knowledge remains. Not sure

Well, FWIW, the campus I'm familiar with has been around long enough that it has outlived many employees. And yet the institutional knowledge remains. Not sure where you get the idea that I think the answer is solely institutional knowledge as you seem to imply. It is but a part of the whole solution, which includes record keeping, standard practices, etc. The articles shows a single example of a more persistent problem plaguing NYC. Not being able to deal with 500 feet of water and sewer in 10 years and millions upon millions of dollars indicates a deep problem, and there is no acceptable excuse for it. NYC has kicked the can down the road for a long time, and now they are paying the price for that. My issue is that many places and institutions have been doing this as well, and it will bite us in the ass.