The largest chunk of construction in the $14.6-billion ring of storm-surge defenses built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around post-Katrina New Orleans is a $1-billion concrete wall across a marshy bay on the eastern flank of the city.

Mitchell Collins, chief surveyor with Alberici Constructors, St. Louis, helped take laser scanning and precision fabrication and concrete placement to new heights in 2012 on the Seabrook Floodgate Complex for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. C

The daughter of a bridge engineer in Iowa, Avery Bang spent a lot of her childhood accompanying her father on bridge inspections—"even on holidays," she recalls. Now, Bang builds bridges in developing countries around the world.Bang's globe-trotting tendencies started in college, where she earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Iowa. 

In a corner of Appalachia used to visits from bureaucrats and other would-be do-gooders, it's not hard to understand why, a decade ago, the people of Tennessee's Coal Creek region were suspicious of geotechnical engineer Barry Thacker's offer to clean up their mine waste-tainted waterways.

 Dean C. Allen, CEO of Seattle-based mechanical contractor McKinstry, doesn't want to hear that job candidates don't need to be good at math or that science isn't for everyone.

John Armitt had run major contractors, pioneered the U.K.'s first high-speed-rail system and steered the national railroad infrastructure company out of bankruptcy when a headhunter tempted him to be chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, charged with building all infrastructure and facilities for London's 2012 Olympic

Charlie Bacon knows about workplace hazards. His grandfather lost eight fingers to metal shears on his first day on a new job.

Last year, when driving his motor coach about 20,000 miles to most of engineer Professional Service Industries' roughly 100 offices, the big danger Randy Larson faced wasn't the driving conditions.

EGlen Frank's inaugural run as a project manager couldn't have had a tougher challenge: to bore a light-rail tunnel just 13.5 ft under Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle with a 200-ft vertical drop, a right-hand turn and S-turns through one mile.

Contractors recall how Don Hillis, assistant chief engineer for the Missouri Dept. of Transportation, often would point to a big sign he had installed in a meeting room.

One doesn't usually associate traffic engineers with having groupies, but Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation's Neil Boudreau gained rock-star status by keeping traffic smartly flowing as crews demolished and rebuilt 14 bridges along Interstate 93 in just 10 weekends. ement project was

Seismic engineering innovators often hit resistance to change, but Steven Tipping knows this. For years, he has been seeking ways to build better mousetraps—in earthquake zones.

Anyone who questions the value of art should take a look at the Charles Pankow Foundation. Under the stewardship of Richard M. Kunnath, the nation's only privately funded group devoted to building innovation has sponsored $8 million worth of applied research since 2006.

Days before the storm, the assistant commissioner for New York City's Dept. of Buildings made sure the agency issued wind advisories, even going so far as to require crane users to inspect their machines to ensure they were shut down properly for high winds.Still, on Oct. 29 as Sandy blew in, the unthinkable happened.

The Three Musketeers of data-center transformation—Skanska's Jakob Carnemark and Inertech's Earl Keisling and Gerald McDonnell—put their reputations on the line when selling telecommunications company TELUS the first installation of Skanska's smart, ultra-green modular data center.

Design-build firms that work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies got a much-needed boost in 2012. Lisa Washington, executive director of the Design-Build Institute of America, led the formation of a coalition of industry groups that succeeded in getting the Corps to issue a new procurement directive.

SHoP Construction Services Barclays Center Facade Construction Video Barclays Center Arena Time-Lapse Video SHoP Architects' Jonathan L. Mallie is described as one of a crop of new-age design professionals facilitating a transition to technology

Thanks to his movable feat on high, Uni-Systems' Mark Silvera is a behind-the-scenes linchpin of City Creek, Salt Lake City's 23-acre urban redevelopment. SILVERAMost eye-catching in the mini-village is a 470-ft-long bi-parting skylight that, from below, "disappears" from sight.

Had one asked Franz-Josef Ulm 10 years ago if a concrete bridge could be designed from atomic models, he might have said, "Come on, get real." Today, scientists working under Ulm's direction at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are busy cracking concrete's molecular code.

Life as a Boy Scout, lashing ropes and tying knots, may have inspired Mike Parnell to enter the dangerous world of lifting and rigging.

When the Brazilian government decided to build a pair of large, run-of-river hydro powerplants in remote Rondônia state, a shortage of skilled workers put not only the project at risk but also the government's Amazon Basin dam-based energy strategy and the profit margin of Odebrecht Energia, a leading contractor in the project consortium.It took a finance guy to solve the people problem. 

Brian D. Winter never thought one project would set the tone for his entire career. Winter is the National Park Service's lead on the largest-ever dam-removal and river-restoration project in the U.S.

One recent Sunday afternoon while he was biking in New York City's Central Park, Theodore Zoli's cell phone rang.