Thoughts From Engineers: How to Avoid a Regional Disaster
Some 160 years ago, in an effort to remedy the Great Stink of 1858, which refers to a time in London’s history when the Thames River was used as an open sewer, an unknown English engineer by the name of Joseph Bazalgette was hired to design and build a network of sewer pipes for central London. He decided to size the sewer pipes to be twice the diameter judged necessary to address the problem at hand. He wasn’t expected to plan and design for future scenarios but forged ahead anyway to avert pot...
Project Management Insights: Flailing Projects Can Be Turned Around
It doesn’t have to go down in the books as an epic fail. You’re a solid project manager and have several successes to your name. You know from experience that not everything runs entirely smoothly, and you have to be flexible for the occasions when things don’t go as expected. When there’s a hiccup, however, you don’t lose your cool; you’ve got this. Usually it’s because you’ve had ownership of the project from the start. You welcome the responsibility that comes with the position, and the fi...
ReEngineering the Engineer: Learning Is a Two-Way Street
My days seem to be much busier and seemingly more complicated through this whole COVID thing. I find myself working through emails and phone calls during the day, and using nights and weekends to keep up with my own projects—not healthy, really, but it’s where I’m finding myself. It has become increasingly difficult to find time to think it through and figure a way out. Yet every now and then, I get this nagging feeling something isn’t right. Through COVID, I’ve always been a bit concerned ab...
Infrastructure Finance: Milestone Bond Issuance for Jamaica Toll Road
The issuance of $225 million 5.75% senior secured notes in February 2020 by TransJamaican Highway Limited (TJH), the Jamaican toll road concessionaire, followed by the initial public offering of shares in TJH in March 2020, were watershed events for the capital markets in Jamaica and the Caribbean region. DANIEL P. WHITMORE TJH is the concessionaire to develop the East-West Highway, the first stage of Jamaica’s Highway 2000 Project. The toll road is an essential, proven asset for Jamai...
Code Update: IAPMO 2021 Uniform Codes and Standards
The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) continues to protect the public through its ANSI-approved development process where third-party oversight ensures a true consensus document. The Uniform Codes maintain the necessary balance between prescriptive requirements and allowable performance standards; it details exactly how a system needs to go together. The provisions in the Uniform Codes are specifically written to protect the public and aid jurisdictions th...
Project Management Insights: PM Resolutions for a New Year
We’ve recently completed an interesting and challenging year, and there appears to be resounding energy and positivity to turn the calendar and move forward. Firms still are conducting strategic planning, transitioning ownership and focusing on improvements within operations. These all are good activities. The show must go on—maybe a little differently and more remotely, but it must go on. Transitioning from year to year often brings resolutions to mind and—even if you don’t pledge them in y...
Executive Corner: Five Takeaways on 2020 A/E M&A Activity
The 2020 global pandemic will forever be remembered as when the simplest of norms and patterns across everyday family and office life were turned upside down. A/E leaders, whose patience and determination were tested just as they were 10 years ago during the depths of the Great Recession, once again rose to the occasion. Through care and compassion, instinct and intellect, they led our resilient design and construction industries, the steady and steely backbones of the country, to even greater h...
Thoughts From Engineers: The Shadow Cast by Lead Pipes
On the eve of the New Year, amidst a pandemic and presidential transition, the final revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) were published on Dec. 20, 2020. The new LCR modifies and updates parts of a law that was first passed in 1988. At that time, spurred by Safe Drinking Water Act mandates, hazards to public health from lead service lines (LSLs) were officially recognized. Widely used in everything from plumbing fixtures to welding solder, forces finally mobilized to end historically ent...
From the Editor: Engineers Need To Find Their Voice in 2021
What if you inspected a bridge and found severe rust deterioration of a fracture-critical steel member, and you reviewed previous inspection reports that documented the progression of this condition? And what if you took this information back to the office, and everyone agreed this was a serious problem? And what if you requested the governing body for funds to correct this problem, and they said they don’t believe the experts, refused to do anything about it and told the public to continue driv...
ReEngineering the Engineer: Patience Required: Getting Up To Speed Can Be a Slow Process
Our older daughter was an early professional casualty of the pandemic. Although she received her college degree in finance and marketing, she had a passion for event planning. She started working with a local woman shortly after college, part time. She went to full time in October 2019, signed a two-year lease for an apartment in Charlotte, and started her new life on her own. North Carolina instituted its shutdown on a Thursday. The following Monday, she got a call from her employer, putting...
Video: Crashes Drop Measurably After Rural Road Safety Improvement Project on US 521 in Lancaster County
AdventHealth Weaverville Hospital
June Issue 2026
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