Executive Corner: The Pandemic’s Impact on A/E Firm Ownership
A psychological shift seems to be taking place as we begin to migrate back to “normal.” More Americans are shifting their views on retirement, with many considering retiring earlier than initially planned. In a recent phone call, an A/E firm owner (aged 62) told me they had always planned to work full-time until they were 70, then scale back their hours for a few years after that. But since the pandemic, their goals have changed. They now are considering selling their firm and only working anoth...
Thoughts From Engineers: Water Reuse Enters the Spotlight
The Wichita Falls Resource Recovery Facility in Wichita Falls, Texas, became a national model for indirect potable reuse (IPR) in 2018 when it captured, disinfected, filtered and oxygenated wastewater before delivering roughly 20 million gallons a day to the city’s drinking water reservoir, Lake Arrowhead. A prime example of making the most of a city’s water supply, the city now treats and reuses what would have been discharged as effluent 10 years ago. Pure Water San Diego is in the process of...
Infrastructure Outlook: Building Back a Better Next-Generation Infrastructure
As we have changed our shopping patterns from the cart to an app and meetings from conference rooms to Zoom, infrastructure has been one of the last vestiges of the industrial era that hasn’t migrated to the digital era. This must change. President Biden recently echoed the same message in Louisiana. Reliable and safe bridges also bridge party lines, and literally unify people. “We’ve got to build back to a different standard, not to what it was,” the President said. “It’s got to be better.”...
Change Leader: Advancing Composite Materials Assessments Into the 21st Century
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. Dr. Bobbi Jo Merten is a civil engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation. This particular webcam interview was recorded by Todd Danielson, the editorial director of Informed Infrastructure. You can view a video of the full interview at the top of this page or by visiting bit.ly/3rbOovW. The Bureau of Reclamation, the l...
Future Forward: The Future Is Robust for the Burgeoning U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Industry
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. Jocelyn Knoll is a partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, and the chair of its Construction and Design Practice Group and co-chair of the firm’s Development and Infrastructure Industry Group. This particular webcam interview was recorded by Todd Danielson, the editorial director of Informed Infrastructure...
What Went Wrong At Surfside Collapse?
On July 6, 2021, Informed Infrastructure Editorial Director Todd Danielson interviewed Steven M. Baldridge, P.E., S.E., LEED AP, president of Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering (BASE), which he founded in 1995. A leading engineering firm in areas of high natural risk, the company now has offices in Hawaii, Chicago, Florida, Guam and India. The topic of the interview was the deadly June 24, 2021, failure and collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla. The full interview v...
Goodbye, Flooding! Hello, Stormwater Master Plan!
Photos show a “timeline” moving from severe flooding in Caruth Park before a new water-detention master plan was initiated, the StormTrap water-detention system being installed, and the final new field after project completion(below) Aging infrastructure in older, established neighborhoods is a driving factor in prioritizing projects reducing flood risks. Doing so requires detailed master-planning efforts and a comprehensive examination of detention options. An excellent example of su...
Municipal Sewer Cleaning: Train for Gain
Best-practice techniques and equipment options help municipalities and contractors clean sewer, storm and sanitary lines more efficiently. For municipalities and contractors with heavy workloads cleaning sewer, storm and sanitary lines, the fastest route to getting the work done on-time and on-budget often is learning best-practice techniques and equipment options, demonstrating them onsite, and then resolving specific problem areas in the field with expert guidance. “Traditionally, sewe...
ReEngineering the Engineer: We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
When I left my old firm in the early 2000s, my breadth of experience was mostly in hospitals and medical facilities—new and renovations. Having all my eggs in one basket wasn’t how I wanted to run my company, so I was determined to diversify the types of work my firm had to offer. Through the years, we expanded our portfolio of project types to just about everything except residential. Expanding into new building categories of work never seemed to bother me much. Structures are structures, to...
Advancing Composite Materials Assessments Into the 21st Century
Todd Danielson, Informed Infrastructure's editorial director, interviewed Dr. Bobbi Jo Merten, a civil engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation, via webcam.
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
TriMet’s Banfield Type 1 Substation Replacement Project
February Issue 2026
