Infrastructure is the foundation of society. It keeps communities connected and enables them to thrive. Our roads, water systems and energy grid are critical structures that protect the public’s health and safety, especially during this coronavirus pandemic.
ASCE advocates for proposing practical solutions to maintain and modernize America’s deteriorating infrastructure. Although, the global health crisis has intensified this already challenging task.
Now, ASCE is urging Congress...
The scenes this spring along highways cutting through Seattle were something out of a “Twilight Zone” episode.
Morning commute, midday, 5 p.m. rush hour – it didn’t matter. There were barely any cars on the roads.
“Eerie,” is how one King County Department of Transportation engineer described it at the time.
The COVID-19 pandemic kept people at home and cars off the road not just in Seattle...
ASCE members participated in a third survey this spring to assess pandemic-related effects on the civil engineering industry.
The COVID-19 Impact and Implementation Survey, compiled by Industry Insights for ASCE, collected feedback from 836 Society members between May 26 and 28.
The results paint an interesting picture – one where the initial shock of the pandemic has faded into a realization that the effects on the...
As civil engineers, many times we find ourselves leading talented multidisciplined teams. This was certainly my experience when I worked on billion-dollar freeway programs that included all the engineering disciplines – along with historians, community engagement specialists, threatened and endangered species experts, and more. I love leading experts who are passionate about their area of expertise.
But nothing has challenged me like the current project...
Uncertainty is the dominant theme right now in the construction industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic this spring has fundamentally changed the way the business works – from supply chains to project schedules.
“Construction’s always interesting. There’s always a problem to solve,” said Joseph Hellenbrand, P.E., M.ASCE, engineer at Capital Project Management Inc., based near Philadelphia.
“This is like a next-level problem to solve, dealing with all these different...
It usually starts with a daydream.
“What if instead of working for my boss, I was the boss? What if I was the one making all the decisions? Maybe I could start my own company.”
For 99 percent of civil engineers, the daydream remains just that – the stuff of imagination.
Mike Howell, on the other hand, turned that dream into reality. After nearly 15 years of...
April 2020 is not a month anyone will forget anytime soon, as the coronavirus pandemic emptied city streets and shuttered many businesses.
The ASCE Plot Points podcast’s COVID-19 Community Calls series featured 33 phone calls in 33 days – April 1 through May 3 – talking to 33 different civil engineers about how the pandemic changed their jobs, their communities and their lives.
Taken as a...
AMID THE continuing COVID-19 crisis, small U.S. civil engineering firms have had to manage a shifting landscape in the quest to remain open for business. At the same time, they also have had to attempt to foresee how the pandemic might affect them in the long run. Civil Engineering interviewed leaders at three small engineering firms to learn how their companies have fared in...
Joe DiPompeo starts work these days with a new morning routine.
“I walk into the office every single morning with a disinfectant wipe in my hand,” said DiPompeo, P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, president-elect of ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute, and founder and president of Structural Workshop LLC, a structural engineering and building firm in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.
“I wipe the doorknob and then work my way through...
