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 mas...
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 P/...
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 deman...
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...
Change Leader: Creating Change Requires Persistence … and Time
This particular interview was recorded by Todd Danielson, the editorial director of Informed Infrastructure. You can watch a video of the full interview above or by visiting bit.ly/46k3WSM. Ted Goldstein, P.E., is the Shuriken business development engineer for Atlas Tube. When Ted Goldstein began his engineering career in New York City, he never imagined he’d be living in Tokyo while inventing a new product that could change—perhaps even revolutionize—an industry that hasn’t change...
Future Forward: Build Better Than the Local Code
This particular interview was recorded by Todd Danielson, the editorial director of Informed Infrastructure. You can watch a video of the full interview above or by visiting bit.ly/44wGBMo. Aris Papadopoulos is the founding chair of the Resilience Action Fund and a distinguished expert in resilience at Florida International University. “A house built to a building code is the weakest house you can legally build,” notes Papadopoulos. “It’s minimum wage, so to speak. In what part of...
The Beyond 77 Corridor Study: Atkins Helps Develop Project Planning with an Eye to Policy
The Beyond 77 Corridor Study, facilitated by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO), started with a goal to find ways to reduce congestion and increase multimodal options along and around the 68-mile-long, 400-plus-square-mile study area. That early vision evolved considerably when the agency, at the recommendation of its study consultant, looked beyond just adding more lane miles or vehicular capacity, but through a more-comprehensive lens to consider policy and...
One River North: A Unique Engineering Challenge in Pursuit of the Best Building Possible
Unmistakable for the living fissure within, One River North dazzles as a vibrant exploration of the possibilities that exist at the intersection of nature and time. Designed by MAD Architects with support from Davis Partnership, residents will enjoy more than 13,000 square feet of open-air amenity space carving a canyon through the westward façade. Art, science, mental amusement or proof positive—in architectural engineering, math isn’t the only thing, it’s everything. Such is the sto...
Free the Fish: New Culverts Open the Pepin Creek Fish Passage
An aerial view of the installation site for Pepin Creek Fish Passage in Bellingham, Wash. In March 2013, the U.S. District Court in Washington state ruled in favor of 21 Native American tribes and required the state to significantly increase the existing effort to remove all state-owned culverts that blocked salmon and steelhead migrations by 2030. Washington state’s mandate: replace the old structures with a larger solution that supported the native stream beds, including using rock and d...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
