Future Forward (Powered by ACEC): Workforce Shortage: It’s Not a Mystery—It’s Math
In a time when attention is pulled in many directions, one critical issue often goes under the radar. Talk to colleagues across sectors, and you’ll hear a consistent message: the skilled workforce is shrinking, the pipeline is tightening and the impact is already showing up in our economy.As director of workforce development with the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), I hear every day from our firm and industry leaders who are sounding the workforce-shortage alarm with increasing...
Infrastructure Outlook: Wastewater Treatment Technologies Transforming Water Management
Industrial wastewater treatment is more important than ever. Stricter environmental rules and the push to save water are driving industries to upgrade their treatment methods. This column looks at the latest equipment reshaping how factories clean and manage wastewater, helping them meet regulations while cutting waste and costs. You’ll learn about the tools making a real difference in keeping water safe and industries running smoothly.The global industrial wastewater treatment equipment market...
Executive Corner: 2025 A/E M&A Year in Review
As we prepare to formally wrap up 2025, the big-picture story for the A/E industry largely remains the same. Firms across every discipline, size and geography are churning out yet another strong year of growth, revenue, profitability and backlog. In fact, leaders largely shrugged off the tax, tariff and policy reverberations and instead focused on an emerging 21st-century capex-driven design and construction landscape of AI-led data centers, energy infrastructure and manufacturing hubs. Organiza...
Thoughts From Engineers: Projects and Partnerships that Inspire
In 2012, I visited the construction site of Deep Space, one of the largest underground auditoriums in the world. It was the latest project at the 1,100-acre “Intergalactic Headquarters” of Epic Systems, a medical software company in Verona, Wis., just outside Madison, Wis. The auditorium spans 1.2 million square feet and seats up to 11,400 people. With three massive LED screens—including one that stands 68 feet tall—the space generates significant heat during events.To maintain comfortable tempe...
Transportation Troubleshooting: Game Changer: How Cities Rise to the Challenge of Large Events
When a major event comes to town, it’s not just about the game, concert or convention—it’s about moving thousands of people safely and efficiently while keeping everyday life on track. For cities and transit agencies, these moments are high-stakes tests of planning, coordination and creativity.Los Angeles is preparing for an unprecedented run of global events: the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Beyond adding thousands of buses to its fleet, Los Angele...
Engineering The Future: Choose the ‘Yes, And’ Rather Than the ‘No, But’ Category
As we start a new year, we’re filled with hope and the promise of change. Our firms, agencies, universities and organizations look at our mission, vision and strategic plans to measure how we did in 2025 as well as what adjustments we need to make to ready for the future.In previous columns, I’ve discussed streamlining permitting and delivery, the reality of the workforce shortages that will get worse during the next decade, and the growing needs of U.S. infrastructure. With a $3.7 trillion back...
From the Editor: Are We Looking in the Right Places To Lower Construction Costs?
At Valparaiso University, our senior civil and environmental engineering students work together in teams on projects that involve structural, transportation, water resources and environmental engineering disciplines. Each team has a representative from each discipline. The first semester takes them through the proposal stage, some preliminary design and evaluation of alternatives. At the end of the semester, each team must come up with a cost estimate for their project based on general square fo...
Infrastructure Outlook: Optimizing the Value of Digital Transformation
The digital transformation taking place in cities and towns across the country is at the stage where the major barrier to adoption is no longer a lack of awareness or even a fear of the unknown. Rather, those municipal leaders who have yet to fully engage with digital asset management are most likely experiencing a condition that psychologists call “choice overload.” With so many systems, software and platforms vying for their attention, the fear of investing in the wrong solution has understand...
Transportation Troubleshooting: From Wishful Thinking to Urban Linking: Deck Lids are Transforming Cities
In the evolving landscape of urban transportation, highway deck lids—sometimes known as “caps”—are transforming how cities reconnect neighborhoods, create vibrant public spaces and unlock new economic opportunities. These innovative structures are increasingly recognized as transformative features for modern urban highway projects, which can reconnect communities that were severed when the highway system was initially built. Often, these marvelous features may go unnoticed by the untrained eye,...
Thoughts From Engineers: Looking to Nature for Solutions
The city of Madison, Wis., sits within a chain of five lakes, each connected to the other in a staggered linear formation via the Yahara River, which winds roughly 42 miles through south central Wisconsin. Lake Mendota, widely viewed by freshwater scientists as “the most studied lake in the world,” is the largest in the watershed, draining a 230-square-mile watershed, 60 percent of which is in agricultural use. Thousands of acres of wetlands surround the five lakes. Cherokee Marsh sits most ups...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
