Final Thoughts: Which Costumes Have You Worn Throughout Your Engineering Career?
It’s Halloween season: the time of year when we get to dress up and act like a different person or character for a day. We can take on another role, different from the role we play at home or at work. I asked my young neighbor what he was going to be for Halloween, and he said, “Harry Potter, just like the last two years.” He must like playing the role of that character; he can be magical! How many characters have you played as an engineer? How many costumes have you worn? Do you like the chara...
Change Leader: Steering Infrastructure Toward More Private Investment
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. Elizabeth Dubeck is a corporate/project finance lawyer with O’Melveny in Los Angeles, a global full-service law firm that performs litigation and transactional work, and regularly advises on large public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure projects, including water-related services. Voting for Changes In Financing California...
ReEngineering the Engineer: Teaching IPD: Integrated Project Dharma
In 2016, Fitzpatrick Engineering Group was invited to be a signatory for a true Integrated (Lean) Project Delivery (ILPD) project for a regional hospital system. Most of the design team (everyone but the architect) as well as the general contractor and his subs had all worked together at this hospital on a previous project. There were 11 signatory companies to the contract: the owner, the design team (A/S/MEP), the general contractor and some of his subcontractors. We worked almost six months...
Future Forward: Energy Networks Provide Incentives (Including Cash) to Use Less Energy
This page profiles innovative and impactful applied research in civil and structural engineering to spur continuing thought and dialog to create a better 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. Curtis Tongue is the chief marketing officer and co-founder of OhmConnect (www.ohmconnect.com), which works with California’s energy providers to allow residents to e...
Change Leader Full Interview: Steering Infrastructure Toward More Private Investment
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. Elizabeth Dubeck is a corporate/project finance lawyer with O’Melveny in Los Angeles, a global full-service law firm that performs litigation and transactional work, and regularly advises on large public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure projects, including water-related services. V1 Media: Please provide a summary of you...
Future Forward Full Interview: Infrastructure Operators Increasingly Look to Industrial Wireless Networks
This page profiles innovative and impactful applied research and development in civil and structural engineering to spur continuing thought and dialog to create a better 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. Curtis Tongue is the chief marketing officer and co-founder of OhmConnect , which works with California’s energy providers to allow residents to earn cash-b...
Auto Auto Parking: It’s About More Than Just Parking Your Car
When it comes to discussions of moving people around, self-driving cars, ride-hailing services and bike-sharing companies are grabbing all the headlines. These industries and associated technologies certainly are interesting: for a long time we’ve dreamed about kicking back and letting our cars drive us to our destination and park themselves; we love our phones and the convenience of apps that bring a car to our doorstep with a few taps; and the increased global interest in bike riding, dedicate...
Square Building in a Round Hole
Integrating virtual construction and geospatial technologies into design-build projects reduces risk and improves control costs. It’s hard enough to build a complex industrial structure 12 stories tall. Putting the structure into a deep, concrete-lined hole is even more difficult. And then you’ll need to do it twice. That’s the challenge facing Abe Torres and his colleagues at PC Construction. When the job is finished, however, they will have helped solve a problem more than 200 years o...
112-Foot-Tall Reinforced Soil Slope Project Challenges Bay Bridge Construction Team
There are many aspects of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s recent reconstruction that could be considered engineering wonders. After nearly 12 years of construction, engineering challenges and cost overruns, the new eastern span opened in September 2013 to replace a seismically unsound portion of the structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The new self-anchored suspension bridge, with a final price tag of $6.5 billion, was designed to withstand the strongest eart...
Infrastructure Outlook: The Competitive Cost of Waiting to Invest in Infrastructure
As the U.S. population keeps growing, we can’t simply maintain the status quo. And to bring change, we need infrastructure investment: approximately $57 trillion during the next 12 years. In the past, the United States spent billions of dollars on improvements to outdated infrastructure; and although there’s a need to repair and upgrade, it can’t be our sole focus. We can no longer spend billions of dollars solely on improvements. It’s time to invest in “smart” and connected technology to meet...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
