ReEngineering the Engineer: Celebrate the Clever Things
I have worked my entire career at two small firms, and I really enjoy working on a diversity of projects. My previous firm, at that time, had a relatively small band of project types it worked on. When I started out on my own in 2004, my main goal was diversity. I’d been around long enough to see other firms (engineering and architectural) get hurt by lack of diversity when certain building types went out of favor. Although diversity requires different building types and materials, there is cro...
Infrastructure Outlook: Mind the Gap, Your Drinking Water Depends on It
Fifty years after the Clean Water Act passed, the U.S. government has invested more than $1 trillion to try and combat water pollution. Now, nearly one year after passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, improvements in U.S. water systems are as needed as ever. Approximately 95 million people still aren’t connected to a centralized treatment system, and 2.2 million people live without running water and indoor plumbing in their homes. These homes typically are clustered in rural or disadvantag...
Transportation Troubleshooting: Mobility Marketplace Will Improve How We Use Transportation Systems
Transportation technology is changing so fast that it’s easy to forget how our choices have multiplied in the last 15 years. As recently as the mid-2000s, many of the services we take for granted today did not exist. These include ride-hailing services; city bike-share programs; dockless e-scooters; and smartphone apps to book, pay for and obtain real-time status updates for buses and light rail. In that time frame, advanced technology in passenger vehicles has evolved from primitive GPS naviga...
Thoughts From Engineers: Where the Water Will Go
The local waterfront pub you’ve been in the habit of visiting for burgers and fries on Friday night is very likely to be flooded several times a year by the year 2050. Moreover, if past development patterns are anything to go by, this historic eatery probably will be in the same risky spot 10 years from now, albeit flood-weary and on shaky financial ground. Part of a long-lived and much-loved community—complete with housing, school and commercial districts—it has hung on for years despite a floo...
Executive Corner: Where Are A/E Values Heading?
With so much turmoil in the economy and stock market, many A/E business owners are probably wondering what this may mean for their own firm’s value. Interestingly, while the stock and debt markets are going through turmoil, many firms in the A/E industry—both publicly traded and privately held—continue making acquisitions, demonstrating revenue and backlog growth, and seeking to hire more employees. Furthermore, the future pipeline of projects from federal, state and local government agencies f...
ReEngineering the Engineer: At Some Point, You Could Be the One Asking For Forgiveness
Every now and then, I run across a project that seems “snake-bit.” No matter how complete our drawings were or how well we understood existing conditions, there seems to be this never-ending parade of issues for the life of the structural work. Some are unknown conditions that become known, some are contractor inflicted, and sometimes they’re design-team inflicted. It can make for a long construction admin phase. This fall, a three-story tilt-up school has been my problem project. The trouble s...
From the Editor: When the Going Gets Tough, the Engineers Get To Work
I was having a difficult time narrowing down a topic for my column this issue; there seem to be so many things happening at the same time. So rather than struggle with one topic (and adding words to fill the page), I decided to mention of few of the “many things” that have crossed my mind, perhaps sparking some discussions. Climate and Student Concerns Looking through the last few issues of Informed Infrastructure, there were at least a dozen articles or columns that mentioned climate change o...
Transportation Troubleshooting: Helping Transportation Agencies Overcome Rising Threat of Heat Waves
When I look at the challenge of making America’s transportation infrastructure more sustainable, climate-friendly and resilient to the weather extremes becoming more problematic with climate change, I find hope in how fast the policy landscape is changing. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, exemplifies this change. Supported by more than two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, the BIL embraces sustainability, greenhouse gas mitigation and c...
Thoughts From Engineers: Data for a New Era in Water Management
Engineers are trained to solve for unknowns, but we absolutely need solid facts elsewhere in the equation. Data are key, folks, and we all know our solutions are only as good as what we have to work with. The Internet of Water (IoW), a concept first articulated in 2017 (bit.ly/IOWater), tries to tackle some of these issues, recognizing that water data are more useful when brought together into one consistently formatted, widely accessible and integrated platform. Knowledge is power, as they say,...
Executive Corner: Plowing through the Economic Headwinds
Like any good New Englander, I always await the release of the Farmers’ Almanac this time of year to help plan for the upcoming winter. Based on this year’s ominous predictions from the oracles up in Lewiston, Maine, I’m considering upgrading the snowblower and buying stock in Canada Goose. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, “… This winter will be filled with plenty of shaking, shivering and shoveling.” Economic Winter Is Coming? So far, 2022 has certainly ushered in some economic headwinds. S...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
