The term “smart cities” has been around for a while now. You can’t go to an event or pick up a magazine without some discussion on smart cities, and a lot of organizations have jumped onboard and created “smart” projects and initiatives. But in the…
Infrastructure Outlook: Infrastructure: How Do We Pay for It?
There is widespread consensus that America’s infrastructure needs help. It ranks 11th in the world, and the American Society of Civil Engineers has…
Change Leader: Vectorworks CEO Discusses BIM, New Releases
These profiles are based on interviews, and the opinions and statements are those of the subject and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by this publication.…
Future Forward: Using Climate Models to Better Engineer Future Pavement Surfaces
This page profiles innovative and impactful applied research in civil and structural engineering to spur continuing thought and dialog to create a better industry. These profiles are based on interviews, and the opinions and statements are those of the subject…
Executive Corner: When Those Aging Baby Boomers Just Won’t Retire
Alan co-founded a successful consulting engineering firm when he was in his thirties. Through the years, the practice grew steadily, adding new staff, offices and owners along the way. When Alan turned 60, he announced his intent to retire at age 65. That…
From the Editor: Small Firms, Big Productivity Gains
In the last 20 years, global productivity in the construction industry has grown by a measly 1 percent. By comparison, manufacturing productivity has increased by about 4 times that amount. In financial terms, productivity is the measure of output for a production…
Final Thoughts: Thankful to Be an Engineer and All That Comes with It
We’re in the season when many of us stop and think about the things for which we’re thankful. For some, it’s our family, our health, our jobs, our home. For others, it’s nature, the ability to travel, the freedom to speak. For some, it’s difficult…
ReEngineering the Engineer: Making Way for the Future
Like many others, my firm had a very busy 2017. We were fortunate to pick up a couple new clients at the beginning of the year, and that led to additional projects and a workload that caught us a little by surprise. We didn’t realize the pent-up demand for…
From the Editor: Infrastructure (and Humans) Under Siege
On Aug. 24, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, as a Category 4 hurricane. For the next five days, the storm dumped a historic amount of rain on the second-largest state in the union before heading back out to the Gulf of Mexico. On…
Infrastructure Outlook: Why Isn’t Infrastructure Relevant?
America has a life-threatening infrastructure problem.