My daughter is only two years old, but she sits in her car seat like a queen. She sits semi-reclined with her head cradled by the plushy interior of the car seat, and she has two cup holders because one just won’t do! Life is good in this car seat. What she doesn’t know is…
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Municipalities contract with engineering consultants to provide on-call geographic information systems (GIS) services for various reasons. Some of these reasons include the need for specialized expertise that may not be available in-house, the desire to supplement existing staff during peak workloads, and the need for flexibility in staffing levels. Additionally, working with consultants can sometimes…
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Recently, we found a 1995 Engineering Times article in our archive with a note from Sain’s founder to distribute the article amongst the staff. The article, “No Easy Answers for Sealing Partial Plans” by Molly Galvin, provided timely insight into using an engineer’s seal during the rising usage of digital CADD files. The article urged…
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Formula and grant funding play a crucial role in the civil engineering industry, allowing for the development of innovative projects that improve infrastructure and support sustainable growth. Without these public funding sources, many engineering projects would not be possible. While infrastructure funding has typically been legislated on a formula basis, in recent years, we have…
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Did you know that the International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA) is one of the oldest associations for public safety systems? A group of municipal signal employees formed IMSA in 1896 as the “International Association of Fire and Police Telegraph Superintendents.” The initial goal of IMSA has stayed the same over the years: to help its members…
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I recently had the opportunity to talk about my job as an Infrastructure Designer with a young member of my church. They had a lot of questions about the roadway design process, such as “do you guys just put dirt down and call it a day?” The simple answer is this: roadway design is a…
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Microtransit is a flexible transit service that bridges the gap between individual private transportation and public mass transit. It is a demand-response service that uses existing buses, paratransit vehicles, passenger vans, and cutaways enabled by various mobile technologies. Rides are scheduled through a smartphone app, traditional phone, or website. The goal of microtransit is to…
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As cities grow and land development expands, properly diverting water becomes crucial. Cities typically require the developer not to increase the amount of water discharging from the site after construction is complete. To control excess water after a storm, detention or retention ponds are used to prevent flooding, erosion, and runoff. As civil engineers and…
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Most historians agree that the first unit of measurement was the cubit. Developed by the ancient Egyptians, the cubit was the arm length between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger. In fact, most earlier units of measure were based on the human body. An inch was based on the width of a…
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One of the best ways to describe surveyors is to say that we are the eyes and ears of property owners. Many property owners, public or private, are not always familiar with the land they are trying to develop or improve. By doing a survey, we can show and note on a survey any easement,…
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