Johannes de Jong just about went berserk when he heard his company, elevator-maker KONE Corp., had pulled the plug on research into ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber hoisting rope, which de Jong thought could be the biggest advance in elevators since Elisha Otis introduced the safety brake in 1853.

"Boredom is an aspirational goal of mine," says Roger A. Johnson, deputy executive director of Los Angeles World Airports.

When a bridge collapses on the busy Interstate 5 artery in Washington state, fast-tracking seems an understatement.

Carl Mack can't help attracting a following. As a mechanical engineer for the King County, Wash., wastewater utility, starting in the late 1980s, he stewed that minorities rarely won internships.

Barnhart led the lifting and rigging firm that successfully planned and executed the touchy operation of transporting, hoisting and assembling in Seattle, the world's largest TBM.

Reinstill faith. Reaffirm the mission. And reinforce confidence. That was Phillip A. Washington's goal when he took over the reins of the troubled $6.5-billion FasTracks transit construction program as general manager of Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) in 2009.

Debra Sterling wants to get girls jazzed about engineering long before they graduate high school—the time when she first ventured into the profession.

When Tim Rhyne sat down with fellow Michelin engineer Steve Cron over lunch in the late 1990s, they didn't set out to reinvent the wheel.

"Grueling ... terribly complicated ... demanding ... a burn-out kind of project." Michael Adlerstein, leader of the $2.1-billion renovation of the 17-acre United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, minces no words when describing the 2.5-million-sq-ft multi-building overhaul, headed for completion this summer after six years of reconstruction within an active U.N. campus.

Digging tunnels, design-build delivery and diversity—Louis P. Brais, project executive for Bouygues Construction, is drawn to all three.