High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Public works (or internal improvements historically in the United States) are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include bridges, parks, roads, municipal buildings, dams, railroads, schools, hospitals, beaches, 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.