Infrastructure Outlook: From ‘Good Enough’ to ‘Built to Last’: Rethinking How We Deliver Resilient Infrastructure
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) “2025 Infrastructure Report Card” presents a sobering assessment of the state of U.S. infrastructure, assigning an overall C grade. While this marks a modest improvement from previous evaluations, showing the positive impacts of federal investments, it underscores the persistent challenges facing infrastructure in the United States and beyond. For those of us working in transportation, this isn’t surprising. Aged roads, railways and runways acros...
Water Works: Stormwater Undercurrents: Finding Steadiness in a Time of Turbulence
Managing stormwater has always been about managing change, but recently it seems like changes impacting our industry are accelerating. New pollutants, permits and practices as well as shifting legal, political and climate dynamics all are realities of working in this essential and evolving part of our nation’s water infrastructure. So, it seems like a good time to ask: What can stormwater professionals count on not changing in the next five to 10 years? What underlying dynamics will stay the...
Future Forward (Powered by ACEC): Smart Engineering: Transforming Our Industry
Powered by: In today’s rapidly evolving engineering landscape, firms are grappling with significant challenges. Talent shortages, potential tariffs impacting supply chains and the push for sustainable designs are making it harder to deliver innovative solutions. However, there is a silver lining. With record backlog and technological advancements at our disposal, we have the opportunity to transform our industry. The key lies in embracing smart engineering. Smart engineering integra...
From The Editor: What I Have Seen and What Concerns Engineering Students
At this time of year, I typically reflect upon the highlights of the last year and think about what the current year may bring. I hesitate to put in writing what I think may happen in 2025. With the current administration’s massive—often seemingly random—funding cuts, it’s difficult to look to the future with any certainty. But I will reflect on some projects and changes that happened in 2024. The following are some headlines that could describe what I witnessed: The AI revolution is turning...
Engineering The Future: End of March Brings 2025 ASCE Report Card
Drumroll please, it’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) infrastructure report card time … By the time this column is printed, but before it was written, ASCE will have released its 2025 report card at https://infrastructurereportcard.org. We’re seeing small improvements; lagging data and current projects under construction will drive better grades in the future. Many of us at ASCE were apprehensive at some point about how we would do, and the same holds for our industry. The const...
Transportation Troubleshooting: E-Commerce: With Its Benefits Come Challenges for Transportation Infrastructure
As Americans order more products online for delivery to their homes or other locations, e-commerce has changed not just our shopping habits but also the structure of retail industries, labor markets and the fabric of commercial districts in our towns and cities. Yet a lesser-known set of challenges brought by e-commerce deserves more attention from transportation agencies and planners: the impacts on road networks and communities from e-commerce supply chains and freight logistics. Large-S...
Thoughts From Engineers: Reusing Captured Stormwater
The residents of ancient Mediterranean cities presumed a state of water scarcity, which meant they valued water and collected it any way they could. The central hallways of homes of the wealthy in the ancient city of Pompeii, for example, often featured a large basin positioned directly below a circular opening in the roof—ready to collect vital rainwater. Just 15 or so miles from Pompeii, the city of Naples has enormous aqueducts below city streets—nearly as substantial as the built environment...
Executive Corner: Will M&A Drive Value in 2025?
The value of a business is fundamentally defined as its expected future cash flow, discounted to their present using a risk-adjusted rate of return. As we look toward 2025 and how architecture and engineering (A/E) firms’ values may change, it’s crucial to consider what these cash flows will look like and the risks associated with not achieving them. Rates of Return in a Volatile Environment Determining the appropriate rate of return in a fluctuating interest-rate landscape poses challenge...
Future Forward: Help Recruit the Next Generation of Engineers To Shape Their Future
Powered by: It’s no secret that the engineering industry, like many others, is facing a shortage of qualified workers. In fact, it could be said that our industry has become a victim of its own success. After years of advocating for increased spending on infrastructure, post-COVID recovery legislation delivered an infusion of more than $1 trillion toward roads and bridges, rail, transit, airports, the electric grid, and water systems. For the engineering industry, what was once a dream...
Water Works: The Loading Rate Wars May Not Have a Winner
I expect most of us agree that innovation is good, and that sentiment holds true in the field of stormwater management. More than two decades of focus on improving the water quality and reducing the total quantity of stormwater discharges has spawned a substantial amount of innovation in the stormwater control measure (SCM) space. We’ve learned invaluable lessons through trial and error paired with laboratory and field monitoring that allow us to design SCMs to be increasingly effective, and our...
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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