ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Zach Cormican is making Fargo, North Dakota, a better place. He works in the area as a professional engineer for Moore Engineering in the water resources department. He volunteers as the ASCE North Dakota Section president-elect. And recently he discovered a passion for civil engineering advocacy as a new way to help his community. In episode 193 of ASCE Plot Points, Cormican talk about his hometown and how the ASCE Legislative Fly-In changed his perspective. Deadline to apply for the 2027 ASCE Legislative Fly-In is Nov. 20. Apply today. ASCE has a new resource help you maximize your advocacy experience. Download "From Expertise to Impact: ASCE's Guide to Effective Advocacy" for free.

Amid all the America’s 250th anniversary celebrations this summer, the Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Bridge marks its centennial. Thomas Murphy, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., a senior vice president and chief technical officer at Modjeski and Masters, is the perfect person to talk about the bridge’s legacy. His company’s namesake Ralph Modjeski was the chief engineer for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge back in the 1920s. So, today, in episode 192 of ASCE Plot Points, Murphy speaks with Brian Brenner – professor, consultant, and bridge expert in his own right – about the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and its place in the lineage of American infrastructure.

Infrastructure resilience is in a very enticing spot here in 2026. It’s arguably never been more important to ensure that your community’s infrastructure remains resilient. But the good news, meanwhile, is that you could make the case that it’s never been easier to make your infrastructure resilient. Technology is developing at such a rapid pace, and those new developments have made resilience far more accessible and affordable than ever. A new white paper – written by ASCE in partnership with Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, Bentley Systems, AECOM, and Microsoft – maps a path for smaller and mid-size municipalities to build more resilient infrastructure systems. “Built to Endure: A Smart Guide for U.S. Cities to Build Resilient Infrastructure that Lasts” is available now as a free download. And in episode 191 of ASCE Plot Points, two of the papers authors – Bentley’s Rory Linehan and Duke’s Elizabeth Losos – talk about the new technology making resilient infrastructure more accessible than ever and cite some of the paper’s case studies where these new ideas and innovations are already being put into practice.

Earth Day 2026 finds the ASCE Plot Points podcast celebrating with a conversation between Xavi Fonoll Almansa, an assistant professor of environmental Engineering at the University of Texas, at Austin, and guest host Kuang Zhu of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee. In episode 190 of ASCE Plot Points, they discuss resource recovery, future technologies and processes, and Fonoll Almansa’s cutting edge research right now into hydrothermal liquefaction, converting organic waste into biocrude.

Kristin Schultheis is a senior project planner at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. And that likely conjures images of urban areas, working across the biggest city in Wisconsin. And that would be accurate. But Schultheis' work encompasses a much larger area than the city proper with challenges and opportunities that extend into the surrounding rural areas and even active farmland. In episode 189 of ASCE Plot Points, Schultheis talks with guest hosts Brianne Duncan and Wendy Cohen of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee.

This week, in recognition of Earth Day, the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute's Environmental Health and Water Quality Committee is bringing three conversations to the ASCE Plot Points podcast. The first, in episode 188 of ASCE Plot Points, is with William Gonwa, Ph.D., program director for civil Engineering, civil and architectural engineering, and construction management at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  With special co-hosts Brianne Duncan and Lauren Redfern, Gonwa discusses his more than four decades in the profession and how building your own statistical models can help solve your project's problems.

Something is happening this week at the American Society of Civil Engineers that hasn’t happened in nearly 12 years. ASCE has a new leader at the Headquarters building in Reston, Virginia. Peter O’Neil officially started as ASCE’s new chief executive officer March 30. This is big news for not only the organization but for the entire civil engineering profession. O’Neil brings a wealth of executive leadership experience, in episode 187 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, O’Neil talks about why he’s excited to join ASCE, what members can expect, and the essence of culture building.

Civil engineering risk management is not only an important topic, it can be a nebulous one. Gray areas, assumptions, communication breakdowns, in other words: a real mess. So ASCE has launched a new Risk Management Community of Practice – a space for engineers to share and learn and compare notes in hopes of removing some of the confusion around risk. Bill McAnally and Mitch Winkler are members of the ASCE Committee on Infrastructure Risk Management and together they have been the driving force to establish the new CoP. They’ve even developed a Risk Management Primer, to help simplify risk management for civil engineers. McAnally is a water resources engineer in Columbus, Mississippi. Winkler is a structural engineer by training with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry in Houston. In episode 186 of ASCE Plot Points, McAnally and Winkler talk about risk management. Listen to the episode above, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. SUBSCRIBE IN APPLE PODCASTS SUBSCRIBE IN SPOTIFY And join the ASCE Community of Practice on Risk Management today and start sharing.

It’s snow season in a lot of places right now – which means salt season. And salt season isn’t great for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is contaminated water. So, Connie Fortin and Tim Olson have a new idea. They call it low salt design – a way of reducing the need for salt from the very start of the project. Fortin is a low salt strategist and Olson a water resources engineer, both for Bolton and Menk in Minnesota. In episode 185 of ASCE Plot Points, Fortin and Oloen discuss low salt design and why the solutions might be even simpler than you ever imagined. Learn more about low salt design, including a free download with suggested solutions. And dive deeper into the concepts in an article Fortin and Olson wrote for the ASCE Journal of Cold Regions Engineering.

After more than a decade of experience building teams that build airplanes, Lisa Schleuter has added a new job title to her resume: children’s book author. Schleuter has published a new book called Ollie the Civil Engineer aimed at entertaining and inspiring young children. In episode 184 of ASCE Plot Points, Schleuter talks about Ollie, her career in civil engineering, and how she came to find herself as a newly minted author.