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Leadership begins by taking the first step and not waiting for others to act. As a profession, we have bemoaned the failings of politicians and bureaucrats to make the investments we believe are required to have an efficient and effective national infrastructure system—and by extension an effective and efficient competitive national economy. We developed tools like the American Society of Civil Engineers’ report card to measure the inaction of others and have spent a considerable amount of time talking to ourselves about how bad things are and how they should be fixed. Now is the time for us to take

The City of Salt Lake had a dilemma. In the center of a downtown parking lot, a large silver maple tree was slowly dying. Enclosed with impervious concrete, the tree was withering because water could not reach its roots. The city’s Urban Forestry Division approached our civil engineers who agreed to work on a pro bono basis to develop a sustainable solution to the problem. They redesigned the parking lot with pervious concrete, which allows water to seep through the surface directly into the soil beneath. It was too late to save the silver maple, but the Urban Forestry Division

I have grown passionate about improving America’s infrastructure for several reasons:  my personal migration to the U.S. more than seven years ago; my more than 35 years experience in the building products industry; leading a North American building products team for seven year; and being a father as well as a resident of this great country. The U.S. is growing faster than any other industrialized nation. Population is expected to reach 400 million by 2039, four years earlier than previous projections, according to the newest U.S. Census Bureau report.  Will our nation’s infrastructure be ready to handle almost 100 million

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is big news, and for good reason. A close second to �sustainability,� it�s difficult to navigate the waters of the AEC industry without colliding with the BIM revolution. However, lurking just below the surface, there are some issues that need to be negotiated before your BIM ship sails into the sunset of profitability. Advantages of model-based design and analysis have been well-documented. Element connectivity, material takeoffs, scheduling, clash detection, and photo-realistic visualizations, just to name a few. Beyond the capabilities built into the software, the model can be increasingly leveraged for use in external applications such

Some time ago, a colleague called to get my opinion on the use of TV cameras for underground inspection of drilled shafts.  His query related specifically to relatively tight working areas and “in the dry” conditions. After pressing him to elaborate further on the context of his question, I discovered that he was weighing the benefits of TV inspection versus human entry into the drilled shaft excavation site.  Photo: Raito Inc Going the distance with In-hole inspections This conversation is indicative of a larger movement that has been afoot for the past few years that seeks to discourage - or

Some economists have argued a second round of economic stimulus spending should focus on public works projects.�However, others have suggested that it would take too long for the projects to actually begin for them to provide the quick increase in hiring and spending that is required for a speedy recovery. The naysayers have a point if we’re talking about conventional projects, but I believe that’s not the case if we begin to apply a variety of Web 2.0 technologies that have become pervasive in other industries but have not been widely adopted in the public works field. It’s time for

Justin Sweet Recently I saw a blurb for a text that promises to pilot readers through the muddy shoals of mechanics’ lien laws. This exercise in puffery brought me back to my hostility to mechanics’ liens, those useless appendages to an already overcomplicated construction law. I vented my aggression on these worthless, even dangerous, legislatively created creatures in a column I wrote for the Construction Lawyer, an American Bar Association journal. I thought that my attack on this sacred cow would bring a torrent of abuse. I expected bruising phone calls and e-mails or shrill calls for my removal from

One day recently someone asked me, "Do you agree that the quality of engineering design has fallen over the past years?" My answer was yes, the quality of some engineering design has in fact declined as the profession of engineering has given way to the business of engineering. Plotnick To find out what to do about it, we have to look at why it happened. I talked to some friends about the causes. The key event that has led to this decline was the unfortunate acquiescence of the National Society of Professional Engineers to the antitrust claim by the U.S.

Following the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers established the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force to determine why the hurricane protection system in New Orleans failed. The task force consisted of over 300 experts from 25 universities, 23 firms and eight government agencies. Unparalleled in scope and depth of analysis, its findings tell only a part of the story. Tom Sawyer/ENR Katrina generated the largest storm surge to hit North America. Coupled with long-period waves, it overtopped and overwhelmed many hurricane protection structures. Much of what has been written since Katrina has focused on