 Welcome to this edition of This Week in Civil Engineering, also known as TWICE, a weekly news show focused on providing civil engineering professionals with the most important and relevant industry updates. I'm your host for this episode, Jeff Smith. I'm a licensed professional engineer practicing structural engineering in New York City. I oversee a team of the most creative designers building, renovating, and sustaining the world's future landmarks. You can find all of the episodes of This Week in Civil Engineering at TWICE.News. That's TWICE, TWICE.News. References to all of this news stories covered will be in the episode show notes. And if you're watching on YouTube, be sure to subscribe to the TWICE playlist to receive weekly episodes. Now it's time for What's Happening This Week in Civil Engineering. Now it's time for This Week's News. You are about to hear excerpts from the stories referenced. Links to all the full articles can be found at TWICE.News. First, let's cover the biggest breaking news stories from the past week that might affect civil engineering companies and professionals. Up first, Port Kansas City wins Department of Transportation grant to develop old AK Steel site from Abbey Hoover at northeastnews.net. The Kansas City Port Authority, Port KC's Missouri River Terminal project was awarded $9.88 million Port Infrastructure Development grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday, October 9. The grant will be used to provide regional access to the Marine River Network Rail and Highway Transportation Network according to the Department of Transportation. This project includes advanced project planning and redevelopment activities of the Missouri River Terminal site such as preventative flooding maintenance, environmental remediation efforts, site design, land acquisition, and limited pavement and rail access development. The project was developed from a freight study commissioned in 2015 by Port Kansas City and the Economic Development Agency, which showed that the projected growth of the freight market in the Kansas City region would double by 2040. Port KC purchased the 415 acre former AK Steel Corporation site along the Missouri River east of I-435 in Jackson and Clay counties in 2018 for future development. U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and related agencies, applauded the Department of Transportation's announcement by saying the Missouri River Terminal project capitalizes on the city's position as a hub for the nation's railways, highways, and waterways to support continued growth in the region. This critical grant funding will also help leverage additional private sector investments that will fuel economic development and job creation. This is an interesting story in that it clearly displays how civil engineering can have an important impact on regional planning and economic development. One of the reasons civil engineering is such an exciting and stable profession. Next up, let's look at an interesting story from California. The Army Corps of Engineers seek to build Levy in Orange County to help protect against flooding from Joy Addison at kfdm.com. Orange County, the Army Corps of Engineers contractors, are going door-to-door in Orange County in order to possibly survey land that might help protect homes and businesses from flooding. kfdm slash foxes Joy Addison reports that it's part of the first phase of building in an Orange County Levy. Stories like this where regions are being more proactive and preventative flood measures are becoming more and more common. It appears that weather patterns in recent years have opened many government agencies, boards, and councils to flood hazards. If you are a civil engineering professional in the stormwater or flood mitigation field, it seems that you will be very busy for years to come. If you are thinking through which discipline you specialize in, you might want to consider this field or at least investigate it further. Next up, a story about more work in Florida. The boosted state federal funds push Florida Everglades restoration from Tom F. Armistad at enr.com. Restoration projects in the Florida Everglades will be on the up-swing in coming years with growing political interest in the effort and recent boosts in state and federal spending. In September, the South Florida Water Management District approved a $1.2 billion dollar budget, up $236 million dollars from the previous year and largest since 2011, says Beth Alvie, Audubon Florida Policy Director noting that Governor Ron DeSantis in his 2020 budget allocated more than $625 million dollars for restoration with a pledge for similar spending over the next three years. The Trump administration in Congress also hikes spending on Everglades restoration to $200 million dollars for the fiscal year 2020 from $67.5 million dollars in 2019. The administration requested a further $50 million dollars for 2021, which began on October 1st, but all federal programs are operating on 2020 levels through December 11th under a continuing resolution. A September working draft of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers integrated delivery schedule estimates the total federal and non-federal cost of the South Florida ecosystem restoration at $7.4 billion dollars from 2020 to 2030 if the state and Congress authorized proposed work with the designing construction set to rise from $710 million dollars in 2022 to $1.193 billion dollars in 2024 and $1.059 billion dollars in 2025. It seems like there is a lot of work to be done in South Florida in the near future. Now north to the Motor City, Detroit aims to end basement flooding and cut water pollution with sponge-like medians from Bill Laitner at FREEP.com. Detroit is poised to become a national leader in fighting water pollution with sophisticated landscape tied to new sewage projects. Problem of heavy rains overwhelming sewage systems will just get worse across the Midwest if climate change, as expected, keeps bringing more intense storms to the region. When sewers take on too much rain at once, it mixes with the sanitary sewage from homes and businesses, then overwhelms the treatment systems, forcing them to let millions of gallons of partially treated sewage overflow into Detroit River and Great Lakes. On Oakland Boulevard, there's a better way. After a two-month delay for the pandemic, crews are hustling to finish by this year's end, this masterpiece in GSI, or green stormwater infrastructure, said to be a model for the nation. Despite southeast Michigan's dramatic increase in water bills in the recent years, mostly caused by escalating costs of drainage and sewage treatments, the use of GSI is far cheaper than the alternatives such as a billion-dollar project of tearing up Detroit's streets to separate storm and sanitary sewers will cut ongoing energy use and other costs, and it's better for the environment because the treatment plan can raise its standards of purification as it treats less rainwater. Brian Peckinpaw spoke to him for the Detroit Water and Sewage Department, said Monday, as a reporter toward the construction site. The project serves not only the homes of Oakland Boulevard, a street once notorious for basement backups, but also the adjoining streets because engineers ran new sewer mains down side streets. The Boulevard's projects, when complete, drained 64 acres of Detroit. Project manager Barry Brown said, it runs from Joy Road to Tireman at the city's border with Dearborn. Interesting stuff here, and again, flood protection measures in action. Let's take a quick break from the news for this week's civil engineering career inspiration. Twice co-host Luis talked about making mistakes, and it's very important that you learn from your mistakes, but to be able to learn from them, you need to have the solid team of people around you to foster your growth and help you along the way. No one can do it alone, especially at the start of your career. Follow your team, be a part of it, grow with it, and ultimately, lead it from within. And now, back to the news. Now let's move on to some international news and civil engineering from this past week. First up, we're headed to the United Kingdom. Infrastructure investment to boost Southampton freight capacity from Claire Smith at newcivilengineer.com. Track and signaling infrastructure investments to the tune of 17 million pounds is planned in the Southampton region to increase freight capacity through the use of longer trains. The Department of Transportation has announced that length and freight trains will increase from 520 to 775 meters, which will significantly increase capacity. Not only will this lead to a greener and more cost efficient way to transport freight from Southampton, but the economic benefits will also be substantial. This investment will ensure continued support to our economic recovery. The work will be delivered by February 2021 and involve a series of improvements in the railway and the Milbrook Redbridge and Southampton Central areas. According to Network Rail, the work is essential with the Freightliner Marine Terminal in Redbridge being the second busiest container port in the country, with 800 containers passing through the site every day. It will also help cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, as each container has about the same carrying capacity as a single heavy goods vehicle. It is nice to see organizations getting creative in the ways they can help the world become greener and also a more cost effective place at the same time. Next up, let's head to Canada, the future of water, adding capacity and resilience to Canadian dam from Rob Horgan at NewCivilEngineer.com. As the upgrade of the Glenmore Dam draws to a close, NCE explores how the Canadian structure has evolved to help reduce flood risk while increasing its water supply capacity. Canada's Glenmore Reservoir has become an important landmark in the city of Calgary, providing clean water, flood mitigation, and a recreational setting for locals. The 3.8 square kilometer reservoir is formed by a concrete dam which has been the focus of an 81 million dollar Canadian dollar improvement project. Approximately 320 meters long, Glenmore Dam is located on the Elbow River in southwest Calgary. The structure was originally built in 1933 to supply drinking water and enable the city to cater for future population growth. More than 85 years after the dam's construction, the city's population has increased by approximately 1,500 percent to over 1.2 million, significantly increasing water demand. As well as the need to future-proof the water supply, Calgary has had a series of significant floods in 1996, 2005, and 2013. These have brought flood mitigation sharply into focus and led to the recent upgrade project which has the joint aim of increasing water storage capacity and improving flood mitigation capability. The full article located at newscivilengineer.com does an interesting deep dive on how this project strives to achieve both of these important objectives. On that note, let's cover a few infrastructure-related stories, starting with news from Paris. X-Tree E to 3D Print Footbridge in Paris for 2024 Olympic Games from David Schur at 3dprintingmedia.network. In anticipation for the 2024 Olympic Games, Plain Commune Grand Paris has awarded the Fresenet, Levingue, and Charon Architects Quadric X-Tree E Le Farge Hulkem Consortium the design build of a 40 meter pedestrian footbridge in Paris whose deck will be entirely made of 3D printed structural concrete. For the first project of this magnitude, at least as far as footbridges are concerned, leveraging 3D structural concrete printing, construction enters into the era of industrialization 4.0. It has a target of a 60% reduction in concrete consumption compared to conventional structures and will have greater freedom of form for the architects. Founded in the 2010s, X-Tree E, the firm's R&D and prototype center is located in Rungus, a cluster in Grand Paris. Two other 3D printed units will be launched at the end of 2020 in Japan and the United States. Another example of how 3D printing is becoming an important part of engineering design and apparently construction as well. And last but not least, the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Solutions. Wisconsin communities receive over $129 million dollars to support transportation projects from Juliana Tornebin at MBC15.com. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said Tuesday that this funding is the last of quarterly payments for 2020. Local governments have received over $505 million dollars this year in general transportation financial assistance, which is a 10% increase from the 2019 allocations. In addition to this increase, there was also a $320 million dollars included in new funding for the State Highway Patrol Rehabilitation Program and $90 million dollars was given to the Local Rose Improvement Program Supplement. The assistance to local authorities is part of a $465 million dollars in new funding for projects in the 2019-2020 budget and is the largest dedication of new, ongoing revenue to the Transportation Fund in a generation. It is great to see dollars being invested in local infrastructure even during these difficult times. To wrap up, here's an inspiring quote to motivate you for the rest of your day. There are a lot of challenges out there in construction and the operation of civil infrastructure, so don't live at your stealth and just working in an office. Get out there and get some field experience as this is where the design hits the dirt. From Bob Mankowski, PE, Senior Vice President at Bentley Systems, guest on episode 120 of the Civil Engineering Podcast. When was the last time you were out in the field? Have you been out there lately? There you have it. That's what's happening this week in Civil Engineering. You can find references to all of the stories mentioned at twice.news and all episodes are also published in video on EMI's YouTube channel at youtube.com slash engineering careers. Remember to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And of course, YouTube for the video version. This is Jeff Smith, signing off. We'll see you next week. In the meantime, be the best civil engineering professional you can be.