The Construction Industry Institute considers productivity to be such a complex challenge that the group allotted six years, rather than the usual two, for its research team to study the issue.

When he first met U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Paul E. Owen, Roland Lewis was quite impressed. "He was, literally, a rocket scientist," says Lewis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance.

Jim Crites has a Zen-like philosophy of balance that informs all he does. It led him to leave the Marine Corps to spend more time with family and landed him at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), where he has influenced expansion, sustainability, maintenance and every other aspect as executive vice president of operations.

When he was a 19-year-old aspiring musician, Mike Current decided he needed a better way to make a living, so he went to coal-mining school.

Ronald F. Dellaria, the inspiration behind a guide to help eliminate "BIM babble," is passionate about paperless deliverables.

The U.S. is using up natural resources "as if it had five planets to work with," says engineer William A. Wallace, whose commitment to sustainable design and construction spans a 40-year career.

Public-private partnerships—such as Florida's nearly complete $1.8-billion Interstate 595 Express contract or its next, upcoming monster project, the $2.1-billion I-4 Ultimate in Orlando—have become nearly standard procedure in recent years in the Sunshine State's Dept. of Transportation.

Some 1,500 photographers submitted images for the Year in Construction issue. Although we could not publish them in the magazine, we want to be honor as many as possible that judges selected for publication. This slideshow displays all the photos of the runners-up from the Year in Construction issue that clearly deserve exposure and show the work that goes on behind the camera, as well as in front of it. 

Zak Kostura This 4,000-lb stainless-steel structure, called Sky Reflector-Net, will help orient passengers as they walk through the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys Fulton Center, its refurbished transit hub in lower Manhattan. The determination to capture a perfect image is on display in the work of the participants in ENR’s 2013 Images: The Year in Construction Photo Contest. From squeezing into a tiny aluminum cart strung across the Colorado River Gorge to dangling in a lift basket high above a fabrication yard, these photographers show what it takes to get a great shot. This year, ENR is awarding cover photographer Thiel Harryman

This year’s panel of photo contest judges did more than choose finalists. They came to the conclusion that over-manipulation of photos should not be rewarded in a formal contest.Robert Nickelsberg—whose latest photo book, “Afghanistan: A Distant War,” was hailed by The New Yorker as “a stunning collection of photography”—was the judge who brought to the table the subject of gratuitous photo editing.“This year’s judges decided to turn away photos that they thought were obviously too Photoshopped or overedited,” says Luke Abaffy, ENR’s multimedia editor, who organized the contest this year for the first time.“We cannot make a practice of rewarding