The Trump Administration held a flurry of infrastructure related meetings last week. Lawmakers are still waiting for more details on the $1 trillion infrastructure plan that Trump touted during the campaign. There is uncertainty as to how much actual funding will be allocated to the infrastructure plan, and the President has questioned the role of... Continue Reading →
The devastation caused by hurricanes in 2017 to U.S. coastal cities and territories can only be described at this early stage of recovery as historic. The numbers and actual economic impacts in the coming months will no doubt illuminate more deeply the gravity of the situation, and will likely spark a renewed enthusiasm in the... Continue Reading →
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the Trump administration will unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan later this year. The announcement did not offer details of funding for projects, but according to Chao, investment will be valued at $1 trillion over 10 years. The proposal is expected to cover transportation, energy, water, and potentially... Continue Reading →
The dramatic images of water crashing down the Oroville Dam Spillway in California have shown us that we are dependent on infrastructure that is now well over 50 years old. Engineers know that the hydrologic models used to model weather events are based on data that was collected decades ago. As noted in an article... Continue Reading →
Big name companies such as Google, Uber, and major car companies are investing a lot of resources in autonomous vehicles. The focus right now is on these vehicles making driving decisions without driver input and vehicles possibly communicating with each other. Some technologists believe that it is essential that the vehicles also be able to... Continue Reading →
A week ago, the United States of America elected a new president. Now, President-Elect Trump's team must begin the process of setting-up a governance structure that will involve staffing the White House and the Executive Office, making more than 4,000 appointments, getting up-to-speed on the more than 100 federal agencies, building a policy platform consistent... Continue Reading →
Despite warming relations between the United States and Cuba, Congress has yet to change the embargo on most forms of trade (although restrictions on Cuban cigar and rum imports was recently eased, among some other changes). As a result, so many design projects related to tourist facilities, buildings, ports, and other infrastructure improvements have gone... Continue Reading →
The scale of the recent Louisiana floods have shown that one of the effects of global climate change is increased rain storms that lead to flooding. Experts say that recent floods in multiple states (from Maryland to South Carolina to Louisiana to Texas) that were identified in the media as a once-in-every 500 or 1,000-year... Continue Reading →
Yvonne Castillo, formerly the Public Policy Strategist at The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the new head of Schinnerer's risk management program, recently reported that the AIA, in conjunction with the National Council of Public Private Partnerships and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), has developed a significant briefing source for information about... Continue Reading →
For the last 20 years, engineers have pointed out that our national infrastructure is deteriorating and that infrastructure investment is not keeping up with what is needed. To date, the focus has been on the lack of public funding due to political pressure to restrain government funding. A recent article in the New York Times... Continue Reading →
