Engineering the Future: Engineers Need To Be Among the Leaders and Decision Makers
“You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” That’s my one-line, takeaway quote to students and younger engineers when they ask for one piece of advice. In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world, if you stand still, you’re falling behind. Gone are the days when you could have a specialty and the design was basically “wash, rinse and repeat.” Artificial Intelligence will do those tasks. When I’m speaking to a group, I illustrate this by asking everyone in the group who is a project engine...
Transportation Troubleshooting: Enhancing the Passenger Experience at American Airports
“I think this is one of the most exciting periods in the history of aviation to work in this field.” That’s how my WSP colleague, aviation expert Gaël Le Bris, CM, ENV SP, P.E., characterizes the progress unfolding at airports and in the overall aviation sector these days. He’s well positioned to stake this claim—not only as a vice president on the U.S. aviation planning team, but as a visionary who has authored a study on “The Future of Airports: A Vision of 2040 and 2070” and is involved with...
Executive Corner: Can the Conventional A/E Internal Transition Make a Comeback?
Sometimes, business structures and models endure through generations; occasionally, they fight to stay relevant. For as long as anyone can remember, the reliable internal ownership transition, in all its subtle nuances and variations, has served as both the primary mechanism for exit-strategy planning and a symbol of “making it” in the profession. Harking back to an apprenticeship approach of centuries ago, young designers would hone their craft under the tutelage of their senior practitioners....
Smarter Solutions: Embrace an Alternative Duct Bank Pathway for Future-Ready Developments
Working on larger-scale projects (e.g., commercial offices, education and healthcare buildings, campus data center environments, etc.) can present unique challenges, among them the crucial need to ensure that spaces are resilient and able to seamlessly accommodate future growth capacity and other changes. When designing agile, future-proofed spaces, it’s necessary to consider the fact that more complex, larger schemes also need more extensive duct bank systems to hold all the communication cabl...
Infrastructure Outlook: From ‘Good Enough’ to ‘Built to Last’: Rethinking How We Deliver Resilient Infrastructure
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) “2025 Infrastructure Report Card” presents a sobering assessment of the state of U.S. infrastructure, assigning an overall C grade. While this marks a modest improvement from previous evaluations, showing the positive impacts of federal investments, it underscores the persistent challenges facing infrastructure in the United States and beyond. For those of us working in transportation, this isn’t surprising. Aged roads, railways and runways across...
Water Works: Stormwater Undercurrents: Finding Steadiness in a Time of Turbulence
Managing stormwater has always been about managing change, but recently it seems like changes impacting our industry are accelerating. New pollutants, permits and practices as well as shifting legal, political and climate dynamics all are realities of working in this essential and evolving part of our nation’s water infrastructure. So, it seems like a good time to ask: What can stormwater professionals count on not changing in the next five to 10 years? What underlying dynamics will stay the sa...
Future Forward (Powered by ACEC): Smart Engineering: Transforming Our Industry
Powered by: In today’s rapidly evolving engineering landscape, firms are grappling with significant challenges. Talent shortages, potential tariffs impacting supply chains and the push for sustainable designs are making it harder to deliver innovative solutions. However, there is a silver lining. With record backlog and technological advancements at our disposal, we have the opportunity to transform our industry. The key lies in embracing smart engineering. Smart engineering integrates...
From The Editor: What I Have Seen and What Concerns Engineering Students
At this time of year, I typically reflect upon the highlights of the last year and think about what the current year may bring. I hesitate to put in writing what I think may happen in 2025. With the current administration’s massive—often seemingly random—funding cuts, it’s difficult to look to the future with any certainty. But I will reflect on some projects and changes that happened in 2024. The following are some headlines that could describe what I witnessed: The AI revolution is turning sc...
Engineering The Future: End of March Brings 2025 ASCE Report Card
Drumroll please, it’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) infrastructure report card time … By the time this column is printed, but before it was written, ASCE will have released its 2025 report card at https://infrastructurereportcard.org. We’re seeing small improvements; lagging data and current projects under construction will drive better grades in the future. Many of us at ASCE were apprehensive at some point about how we would do, and the same holds for our industry. The construct...
Transportation Troubleshooting: E-Commerce: With Its Benefits Come Challenges for Transportation Infrastructure
As Americans order more products online for delivery to their homes or other locations, e-commerce has changed not just our shopping habits but also the structure of retail industries, labor markets and the fabric of commercial districts in our towns and cities. Yet a lesser-known set of challenges brought by e-commerce deserves more attention from transportation agencies and planners: the impacts on road networks and communities from e-commerce supply chains and freight logistics. Large-Scale...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
