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...
ReEngineering The Engineer: Keeping It All Together
There’s never a dull moment in the life of a small business owner. As I look back over the last 40 years—and especially the last 20—there have been workload cycles to manage, staff to mentor, economic fluctuations to weather, technologies to champion, marketing challenges to overcome, and all the while trying to strike a balance between work and not work. For me, getting up each morning wondering what the day will bring has always been the motivation to go to work. The excitement of learning so...
From the Editor: Learning Is a Lifelong Endeavor
I look forward to this time of year for many reasons. Of course, the warmer weather is one of my favorites. New spring growth changes the landscape every day. The farmers are in the fields planting their crops for the year. This also is the time of increased construction—at least the type visible as you drive along the roadways. Many people complain about construction zones, but, as a civil engineer, I find it comforting that infrastructure improvements continue. Graduates Embody the Learning...
ReEngineering the Engineer: Make Time for Knowledge and Experience Transfer
One of the more-difficult tasks for me (personally as a business owner) is hiring new staff. It doesn’t matter if it’s an admin, CAD/BIM support or an engineer; I find hiring stressful. Most candidates I talk to still are gainfully employed, and although this typically is a good thing (knowing they haven’t been fired for some reason), it’s challenging to get references. I can’t recall a candidate ever saying it was OK to call their current employer for a reference. If they’ve been a steady empl...
Executive Corner: Despite Indicators, A/E Sector May Avoid a Looming Economic Recession
All the usual warning signs point to a potential U.S. recession, beginning as early as Q3 of 2023. We have an inverted yield curve with short-term interest rates significantly exceeding long-term rates due to aggressive monetary policy actions by the Federal Reserve. The Federal Open Market Committee raised the Federal Funds rate 10 times during the last year—from 0.25 percent in May 2022 to its present level of 5.25 percent—to combat inflation. This had driven up short-term borrowing rates. The...
Thoughts From Engineers: The Fight to Get the Lead Out
No issue captures the failings of our nation’s drinking-water infrastructure quite like the chronic and widespread problem of lead service lines (LSLs). Starkly highlighting racial disparities in the United States, LSLs can be found predominantly in poorer communities of color, all of whom are literally and figuratively on the wrong side of the pipes. We’ve long recognized lead’s toxic character—its ability to stunt mental and physical development and snuff out individual potential amongst the...
Transportation Troubleshooting: Five Steps to Build a Case for Road-Usage Charging
In the mid-1970s, the average fuel economy of a U.S. passenger car was less than 15 mpg. Thanks to regulations and advances in vehicle technology, that figure today is more than 25 mpg. With hybrid and electric-vehicle (EV) sales growing, we can expect that average to continue rising. This is a good thing for many reasons, including local air quality, climate change and the financial wellbeing of drivers. But because road and highway work largely is funded by motor-fuel taxes, better fuel effic...
Change Leader: Engineering and Nondestructive Testing Are Mutually Beneficial
This particular interview was recorded by Todd Danielson, the editorial director of Informed Infrastructure. You can watch a video of the full interview by visiting bit.ly/3Mvud7l. Ricky Morgan is director at large of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) and president of FlawTech America. With more than three decades of experience in the nondestructive testing (NDT) industry, Ricky Morgan knows that a key aspect of successful analysis is a positive relations...
Infrastructure Outlook: Drones Have Changed How Engineers Capture Data on the Jobsite
Through the years, drones and civil and structural engineers’ attitudes toward these tools have changed. Previously viewed as a gimmick, drones have proven to be indispensable, dynamic and flexible tools helping to lead the technological and autonomous revolution on the modern jobsite. The number of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has continued to grow, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports more than 314,600 commercial drone registrations in the United States. Struct...
Future Forward: Five Ways AI Is Going to Shape the Future of Water and Resilient Infrastructure
For quite some time, we’ve been aware of artificial intelligence (AI). But for most of us, AI was limited to fantastic science fiction tales in the movies or large-scale experiments conducted by scientists and engineers. Certainly, who thought it would be something of significance that would directly touch our daily lives? Recently there has been a shift in that perception, with a surge in popularity among individuals and organizations discovering ways to utilize AI in one form or another to be...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
