From the Editor: What Does Sustainable Engineering Mean to Me?
It’s September, which means it’s time for the Informed Infrastructure Sustainable Engineering Special Issue. This is the third year a special issue has focused on engineering projects and research related to sustainability, which plays an important role in everyone’s life. Sustainable engineering affects water supply and quality, waste disposal, construction materials, pollution reduction, natural resources, environmental concerns, and much more. For this column, I tried to select some new (a...
Thoughts From Engineers: Water Two Times Around and More
In a cooperative undertaking among Florida’s wastewater and drinking-water sectors, rulemaking is moving forward to develop regulations and standards for the safe operation of potable reuse systems. In a country that for decades has operated centralized water-treatment systems to treat water principally for one application and one-time use, this is a significant development. More importantly, the policy-making underway in Florida isn’t an outlier, but rather part of a larger reuse movement wi...
From the Editor: Three Stories From My Personal ‘Infrastructure News Network’
This August 2023 column highlights three infrastructure topics I find interesting on personal and professional levels. Headline News: The Bridge Collapse There have been many articles written about the bridge on I-95 in Philadelphia, where a tanker truck turned over and the resulting fire caused the bridge to collapse. The heat from the fire caused the steel beams to fail, and the structure’s closure resulted in miles of backup and hours of delays for the motoring public. I’m sure it was a...
Executive Corner: Could A/E Firms Avoid a Recession?
The previous “Executive Corner” column noted that despite the looming economic conditions, the A/E sector may avoid a recession with continued growth supported by strengthening backlogs. This column includes some more empirical evidence that supports this claim and long-term expectations. Implied growth rates refer to the long-term growth expectations (typically five years) embedded in the market’s valuation of a company. These rates are derived by analyzing the company’s cost of capital and...
Thoughts From Engineers: Who’s at Risk for Extreme Storms?
The use of data and computer models to simulate complex physical processes, make predictions and more-effectively plan for the future has never been more important. Precipitation data, for example, have been key to the design and construction of our nation’s critical infrastructure for years. In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the agency responsible for the analysis of these data, which are compiled in the publication known as Atlas 14, the author...
Transportation Troubleshooting: How NEVI Will Jumpstart Growth of U.S. Electric Vehicle Charging Networks
Everyone in the U.S. transportation industry is excited about NEVI—or they should be. Enacted with the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program commits $5 billion to subsidize electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and build the charging networks needed to drive our transition to electric vehicles. Yes, the big challenges have just begun in implementing NEVI: vendors and supply chains may struggle to keep up with NEVI-funded d...
Workforce Focus: The Human Element of Increasing Employee Retention
The United States is expected to add as many as 1.5 million new infrastructure jobs each year through 2031. According to a Brookings analysis of BLS data (found at www.brookings.edu/articles/infrastructure-workforce/), an estimated 1.7 million additional workers will leave the industry during that time. Therefore, engineering consultant firms and transportation agencies are under immense workforce pressures and are turning to engagement strategies as a remedy, incorporating them into their diver...
ReEngineering The Engineer: Keeping It All Together
There’s never a dull moment in the life of a small business owner. As I look back over the last 40 years—and especially the last 20—there have been workload cycles to manage, staff to mentor, economic fluctuations to weather, technologies to champion, marketing challenges to overcome, and all the while trying to strike a balance between work and not work. For me, getting up each morning wondering what the day will bring has always been the motivation to go to work. The excitement of learning...
From the Editor: Learning Is a Lifelong Endeavor
I look forward to this time of year for many reasons. Of course, the warmer weather is one of my favorites. New spring growth changes the landscape every day. The farmers are in the fields planting their crops for the year. This also is the time of increased construction—at least the type visible as you drive along the roadways. Many people complain about construction zones, but, as a civil engineer, I find it comforting that infrastructure improvements continue. Graduates Embody the Learn...
ReEngineering the Engineer: Make Time for Knowledge and Experience Transfer
One of the more-difficult tasks for me (personally as a business owner) is hiring new staff. It doesn’t matter if it’s an admin, CAD/BIM support or an engineer; I find hiring stressful. Most candidates I talk to still are gainfully employed, and although this typically is a good thing (knowing they haven’t been fired for some reason), it’s challenging to get references. I can’t recall a candidate ever saying it was OK to call their current employer for a reference. If they’ve been a steady em...
Video: Crashes Drop Measurably After Rural Road Safety Improvement Project on US 521 in Lancaster County
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June Issue 2026
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