Product Comparison: Precast vs. Cast-in-Place Manhole Base
Photos show precast manholes stacked for deployment (left), being lowered into place (middle) and ready for fill and grading (right). Construction today is all about one word: impact. Low-impact construction is all about designing and producing a sequence and experience that will have the least effect on the existing landscape. That translates into a shorter construction process achieved via the mitigation of labor costs and resulting time savings. High-impact construction, however, can...
Aligning the Lines: Surveying and Scanning Combine to Build New Zealand’s First Underground Railway
The survey team was instrumental to building the initial 50-m-long tunnel portal for the TBM and then ensuring it stayed on the right path during boring. What often gets lost in the gloss of large construction projects are the small, precise elements that lead to the high-profile finish––the nitty-gritty details surveyors meticulously measure, set out and measure again to ensure buildings are straight, floors are level, tunnels are the right shape, and railway lines are correctly aligne...
Future Proof: Geofoam Pre-Games Construction Challenges as Airports Expand
For Salt Lake City and Denver airports, general contractors Ralph L. Wadsworth and GH Phipps (left and right, respectively) worked with Atlas Molded Products to develop precise configuration plans for geofoam blocks, which were installed by hand during construction. Ask any construction professional about their work and most will say they enjoy that every day is a little different. Even after more than 37 years of hands-on experience, Matt Outsen, who specializes in complex concrete s...
Better Gardiner: Two Deteriorating Bridges Rapidly Replaced
(Image Credit - MaineImaging.com) Gardiner, Maine, is a small city (population less than 6,000) in Kennebec County. Founded in 1754 on the banks of the Kennebec River near the furthest point upriver that deep-draft vessels can reach, it’s a nationally accredited Main Street America community, and was initially famous for cutting, warehousing and shipping pristine Kennebec ice throughout the United States and internationally. A perfect storm of quaint, in other words, and the quaint exte...
Threading the Needle: Rebuilding 100-Year-Old Transit Infrastructure Above the Streets of Chicago
The city of Chicago features an undeniable legacy of design innovation. Based on a long history of pushing the limits of possibility through experimentation, Chicago has been something of a smart-city laboratory ever since the Great Chicago Fire left huge swaths of property ripe for redevelopment in 1871. Home to more than a few 20th century design giants, including famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the father of skyscrapers Louis Sullivan, among others, Chicago has long been regarded as on...
Redeveloping Underutilized Spaces: Growth of the Life Science and Consumer Goods Market Sectors Offers Real Estate Development and Repositioning Opportunities
Increased capacity plumbing and ventilation systems were specified by Montroy Andersen DeMarco in the laboratory section of the Secaucus, N.J., research and office facility of The Martin Bauer Group, a global manufacturer and provider of quality tea and botanicals. (Peter Dressel/Wilk Marketing Communications) Commercial and industrial real estate markets are undergoing a transformation. Many employees have been seeking a remote work environment for several years, and COVID-19 shutdowns acc...
The Purple Pioneers: Irvine Ranch Water District Continues To Innovate
IRWD’s Michelson Water Recycling Plant repurposes water for multiple uses. The Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) has always set itself apart as a proactive and pioneering organization in mitigating environmental challenges. In the early 1980s, for example, IRWD pioneered what’s now known as “purple pipe” used to convey recycled water for other uses. Purple pipe now is the universal symbol for pipes conveying recycled water, with purple used to distinguish such conveyance from potable water...
‘Adaptive Reuse’ Leads to Innovative Partnering Opportunities
Where the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino once stood, Atlantic City will create a development corridor to connect a convention center to retail space, boardwalks and beaches. (Wikimedia Commons) As public assets become weathered through time, repair and maintenance costs accumulate. Without attention, the assets lose value and eventually become inefficient and unsafe. With local-government budgets stretched to the breaking point, thousands of public assets throughout the country have spiraled...
High-Strength Steel Takes Salesforce Tower Chicago to New Heights
Salesforce Tower Chicago anchors Wolf Point, a mixed-use development at the confluence of the Chicago River’s three branches. (Steelblue) The Chicago River has been transformed into a vast recreational park, with opportunities for residents and visitors to access and enjoy the river at almost every mile. The most-notable stretch is the Chicago Riverwalk, which extends about 1.25 miles from Lake Michigan to Wolf Point. Here, an extraordinary mixed-use development is being completed that feat...
Help Wanted: Smart People; Transportation Industry Addresses Workforce Expansion and Diversification
Bentley Education partners with the National Society of Black Engineers to engage with talented engineering students. The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is a generational investment, promising impactful progress in rebuilding and modernizing America’s aging infrastructure, tackling the climate crisis, improving road safety, and more. Infrastructure owners are actively launching “shovel-worthy” projects for designers and contractors to deliver on IIJA’s promise,...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
