Infrastructure, often intimately connected with civil engineering, provides the backbone and structure that serves various spaces, such as cities or countries. It provides roads and sidewalks for transportation, a water supply for people to drink, sewers to deal with waste, and much more. In the past, infrastructure design and construction has been reactive. It was a response to an event, like a natural disaster, or a local issue such as flooding or fires. Now we are looking for infrastructure to be proactive and work to solve multiple problems with dynamic solutions, like Smart Cities.
Read more2023 In Review
Ancient Roads
Whether you think about the Roman Empire every day, or never at all, you’ve likely seen elements of it in our day-to-day lives. To add onto our “Brief History of Civil Engineering” article, we will dive deeper into some civil engineering aspects of ancient roads, mostly focusing on the famous Roman roads.
Read moreMitigating Heat Island Effect
Heat island effect is not cool. But luckily there are a variety of ways to mitigate it, that also provide other economic and ecosystem benefits. Learn about a few different mitigation strategies in this article.
Read moreHeat Island Effect
What makes cities so much hotter than the areas surrounding them, especially in the summer? Urban heat island effect is a common phenomenon in cities and urbanized area.
Read moreBuild Back Better – Part I: Electric Vehicle Incentives
As of November 2021, in the United States the average vehicle transaction price (AVTP), vehicle price before any manufacturer incentives, was $46,329. That was for both gas and electric vehicles (EVs). If one was only looking at EVs, the AVTP was $56,437, a delta of $10,108. However, this doesn’t tell the entire story.
Read moreThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Part 4
This article is the fourth we’ll be posting, exploring the various areas and sectors the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) bill aims to address through investment and funding. We discuss infrastructure related to electric vehicle charging stations, disaster resiliency and power infrastructure.
Read moreThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Part 3
This article is the third we’ll be posting, exploring the various areas and sectors the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) bill aims to address through investment and funding. We discuss infrastructure related to airports, waterways, ports, railroads and safe streets.
Read moreThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Part 2
This article is the second in a series we’ll be posting, exploring the various areas and sectors the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) bill aims to address through investment and funding. The topics addressed in this article focus on parts of the bill meant to help people reconnect with their communities or digitally connect through high-speed internet access. It also discusses some funding dedicated to improving the environment, and the public health benefits those changes could have.
Read moreThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Part 1
Politics and civil engineering aren’t usually brought up in the same sentence, but it’s happening more often with the new, roughly $1.2 trillion dollar bill that advanced in the US Senate last Wednesday, July 28th, 2021. The bi-partisan bill, formally known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), includes significant funding for various types of infrastructure nationwide. If it passes, it will be the largest addition of federal money into the public works system in over 10 years. This would impact cities and states across the country, as well as the people living in those communities, and a variety of businesses and industries, like civil engineering.
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