Engineering Counseling

The April issue of Civil Engineering (published by the American Society of Civil Engineers) has an important article Financing Out Future by Carlos Olea, CPA.  The article addresses our infrastructure crisis in the context of our financing constraints and opportunities.

The closing of the article lays out a path for consideration:

"In short, by making use of all of the tools in our toolbox, we can transform the nation's infrastructure.  By means of tax revenue, private equity, alternative taxes, public involvement, and government leadership, we can amass the financial resources needed to satisfy the nation's infrastructure needs with just a few years."

Everything you read on our need for additional infrastructure investment fundamentally goes back to the same issue - - our infrastructure needs bold leadership and a compelling vision at the national level.  We also need leadership at the local level - - far more engineering counseling than engineering consulting.  The idea of counseling versus consulting is the importance of a Socratic dialogue with key stakeholders - - Engineers at the local and regional levels helping people see that the world is going to be different and it's time for them to adapt to it.