In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) established a new Advisory Board to create a strategic framework for modernizing and improving our nation’s transportation infrastructure. Two months later, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy led…
Getting Geotechnical: Lightening the Environmental Load of Aggregate Use
Globally, approximately 75 percent of aggregates are used for cement, roads and railway ballast, while about 25 percent supports drainage, void fills,…
Executive Corner: A Tale of Two ESOP Companies
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) continue to be a popular ownership strategy for firms in the architecture, engineering and environmental consulting…
Thoughts From Engineers: Hidden, But Not Harmless: The Unsettling Impacts of Land Subsidence on Urban Centers
The core assumptions that have shaped for decades how we plan, build, develop our cities and even live from day-to-day are losing ground. For example, most engineers and scientists would agree we’re now in an era of climate non-stationarity even though…
Transportation Troubleshooting: Gaining Traction: National Tolling Interoperability Advances
This fall, motorists travelling on Puget Sound’s recently completed State Route 509 Expressway will gain another opportunity to seamlessly pay tolls using the Good to Go! Pass—Washington state’s electronic toll collection system implemented in 2008.…
From the Editor: Readying for the Road; Observations to Come
I’m preparing to leave for a three-week visit to the Iberian Peninsula. While it’s exciting to plan and pack, it takes a huge effort—at least it does for me. Where exactly to go? What sites to see? How long at each place? How much do I take along?…
Engineering The Future: Does Civil Engineering Have the Courage to Change (Redux)?
We’re being bombarded daily with AI bots and news. Everyone in the profession sees it as a blessing and a curse. I see it as similar to the revolution we saw in the 1980s and 1990s when an engineering office went from large drafting rooms to computer-aided…
From the Editor: Hoping Engineers Can Help Right the Ship
The (now 5th) annual Informed Infrastructure Sustainable Engineering Issue includes various articles and columns that highlight sustainable engineering through projects and commentary. As engineers, we continue to explore, conceptualize, develop…
Transportation Troubleshooting: Optimizing Infrastructure Value Using Modern Asset-Management Tools
During my tenure as Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary, we lacked advanced tools to maintain a precise inventory of our vast and diverse assets. It was a labor-intensive struggle to accurately account for assets we owned and…
Thoughts From Engineers: Global Work Group Takes Aim at Flood Science
The disastrous flood events in several world regions within the last several weeks, from the Hill Country of Texas to northern China, underline the particularly damaging and deadly flood events we now encounter routinely. Communities worldwide are working…
