A former Fluor Corp. senior vice president and Parsons Brinckerhoff chairman, Robert Prieto is CEO of Strategic Program Management LLC, a consultant. His most recent book is Theory of Management of Large Complex Projects, and he can be reached at rpstrategic@comcast.net.
Tonight, on October 1, 2038, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the millennial omnibus infrastructure bill that showed that all three major political parties could come together to address this nation's economic and security future.
The life-cycle costs of the facilities we design and build are under pressure as our clients face more global competition, key resources—such as skilled labor, water, energy and materials—grow scarce and government support dwindles. To address such challenges, engineering and construction participants must step outside our day-to-day frame ofreference and question whether our current paradigm allows us to develop needed solutions. Is our business model broken?Engineering and construction (E&C) is one of the world's largest industry sectors. It accounts for 9% of U.S. gross domestic product and more than 11% globally. Today's projects are larger and more complex than ever,
Leadership begins by taking the first step and not waiting for others to act. As a profession, we have bemoaned the failings of politicians and bureaucrats to make the investments we believe are required to have an efficient and effective national infrastructure system—and by extension an effective and efficient competitive national economy. We developed tools like the American Society of Civil Engineers’ report card to measure the inaction of others and have spent a considerable amount of time talking to ourselves about how bad things are and how they should be fixed. Now is the time for us to take
