Engineering Influence from ACEC

Matt Reiffer joined the program to update us on the current status of negotiations on an infrastructure package.

Infrastructure funding is the central issue on Capitol Hill right now, with the President and Congress negotiating to determine federal investment levels for the next several years.

In the transportation sector, however, states and local governments actually invest more in infrastructure annually than does the federal government—about $170 billion to $146 billion, according to the latest figures.

In recent years, many states have responded to the need for repair and expand their transportation infrastructure by raising user fees, usually the state gas tax. Since 2010, 37 states have raised their gas tax, with the latest coming last week, when Missouri passed legislation to raise its 17-cent-per-gallon gas tax by 12.5 cents over the next five years.

Morgan Mundell, executive director of ACEC Missouri, came onto the program to talk about the campaign to win the gas tax increase.

ACEC welcomes Erin McLaughlin for a Private Markets Update for May, 2021.

On today's update, we welcome Dan Hilton from the advocacy team onto the program to talk about ACEC's international work with FIDIC and the new Memorandum of Understanding signed between ACEC, ACEC Canada and CNEC in Mexico.  More information about the MOU can be found here. 

Today on the Engineering Influence podcast, we’re going to talk about Duty to Defend. That might seem like a dry topic, but it can have a catastrophic impact on a firm if it isn’t handled properly.

In the driest of terms, Duty to Defend is A contractual obligation whereby one party, in this instance, the design professional, agrees to defend another party, generally an owner or developer against a covered third-party claim, thus incurring attorney's fees and costs.

To bring this issue to life and dive deep into the implications for engineering firms, Brett Stewart, who is the Risk Manager for the Design Professional unit of AXA XL, has joined us on the show.

Click here to download AXA XL's chapter on indemnity, which provides additional information on this issue.

On the Engineering Influence podcast, sponsored by the ACEC Life/Health Trust, ACEC Illinois Executive Director Kevin Artl discusses how his Member Organization worked to defeat a proposed bill that would have weakened the state's Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) law. 

QBS is a central pillar of ACEC’s advocacy program. QBS is a competitive process in which public agencies evaluate and select consulting engineers based on their qualifications, and then the parties negotiate the project scope of work, schedule, budget, and fee.

QBS was originally passed on the federal level in 1972 and over the years its use has expanded to many states, which recognize that public safety requires contracting with the most qualified design firms.

Over the years there have been many challenges to QBS on both the federal and state levels and ACEC and its Member Organizations have been diligent in defeating them. 

The podcast welcomed Beth Bauer, the Executive Director of ACEC Indiana and the newly appointed president of NAECE, which represents our state Executive Directors.  Beth talks to us about her new role, what she hopes to accomplish in her term, and what's happening among the states.

Steve Hall joins us to wrap up the recent virtual ACEC Annual Convention and Legislative Summit and discusses the outlook on infrastructure in Congress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of strain on firms and their employees. With everyone working remotely, the ties that bind the firm together can start to fray. Firms have found many ways to deal with this challenge, and Florence Sterlin, president of D.B. Sterlin Consultants in Chicago has come on the podcast to talk about the changes her firm undertook, how they worked, and what's she's learned looking to the future.

In today’s digital world, data is everywhere. Many engineering firms utilize data in their business planning, but knowing what data is available, what is useful, and where to find it can be a challenge.

To help firms figure this out, we’re talking today with Dan McCarthy, CEO of Dodge Data & Analytics, the largest provider of commercial construction data and information in the United States.

Click here for more information about Dodge Data & Analytics.