As of late August, early third-quarter economic data and consumer confidence indexes were heading in the right direction as the architecture, engineering, and construction market segment began to pull out of a relatively short but substantial recession, according to AEC industry economists. After COVID-19 shutdowns and stay-at-home orders in many areas of the country in the second quarter of 2020, the deep trough in...
Augustine J. “Jay” Fredrich, a highly accomplished hydraulics engineer, professor, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers computer modeler, has died. He was 81.
Fredrich, P.E., D.WRE(Ret.), F.ASCE, was first employed by the Little Rock (Arkansas) District of the Corps of Engineers as a hydraulic engineer. When a computer program he wrote came to the attention of the Corps’ Hydrologic Engineering Center in Sacramento, California, the...
Jeffrey B. Bradley, a hydraulic engineer whose career began with work following the eruption of Mount St. Helens, has died. A past president of ASCE's Environmental and Water Resources Institute and founding president of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, Bradley was 57.
Bradley, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, followed in his father’s footsteps into a long and illustrious career in hydraulic engineering. Coupling his...
Every day in April, ASCE Plot Points is calling a different civil engineer from around the world to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their life, their community, their work and the civil engineering profession.
Thirty days. Thirty phone calls.
Community Call 22 goes to David Totman, past-president of ASCE’s Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute. He's the vice president of asset management for Innovyze,...
FACED WITH THE PROSPECT that regulated entities might have trouble complying with certain regulatory requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released temporary guidance in late March stating how it intended to handle noncompliance during this time, noting that, among other things, it would not seek civil penalties for most routine violations.
Environmental groups immediately criticized the move, contending that it...
LOOKING TO BOOST the sagging fortunes of three U.S. infrastructure sectors hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress and the Trump administration provided billions in new federal funding for transit, passenger rail, and airports as part of legislation finalized in late March to offer economic relief in the wake of the pandemic. Signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, the $2-trillion...
ASCE has honored Vijay P. Singh, D.Sc., P.E., D.WRE, F.EWRI, Dist.M.ASCE, with the 2020 Royce J. Tipton Award for his seminal contributions to the advancement of surface irrigation.
Singh works as Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor and Caroline and William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering at Texas A&M University. His contributions are particularly in five areas: (1) theory of surface irrigation, (2) systems modeling...
“So, Dad, where do the poops go?” We sometimes ignore the wisdom of our children. As long as “it” leaves the toilet bowl when we flush and never comes back, we are content that human and environmental health are being adequately addressed by someone else.
It’s when we’re faced with a pandemic such as we’re confronting with the coronavirus that we seem to wake up...
