May’s mid-month episode of The Engineers Collective features New Civil Engineer’s features editor Nadine Buddoo, and reporter Catherine Kennedy.

The pair go international and chat to two special guests in The Port of San Diego in the United States of America. Joining them to talk about the blue economy model and its connection to innovative infrastructure solutions is Tim Barrett, senior environmental specialist for the Port of San Diego’s environmental conservation department, and Andrew Rella, global director of engineering for eco-engineering company ECOncrete. 

The beginning of this episode addresses the ‘blue economy incubator’, a programme for entrepreneurs to encourage new blue economy businesses. One of these ‘pilot projects’ involves a partnership with ECOncrete to demonstrate a brand new design of the Coastalock Tide Pool Armor on Harbour Island. The pair talk about what this project is and how the three-year pilot is due to progress, as well as the potential impacts of its success.

As with every broad topic in 2021, climate change and sustainability are two big questions put to Andrew and Tim, who explain the impact of ECOncrete and the mitigation in place to protect the existing coastline and coastal ecosystems.

With digital technology changing infrastructure, Bentley’s infrastructure digital twins enable users to combine engineering, reality, and IoT data of assets above and below ground – to visualise, track change, and perform analysis to optimise asset performance. It’s likely you are already ‘going digital’, but if you need help to embrace change and realise the benefits of digital innovation within your business, speak to Bentley – we can help accelerate your digital advancement, help you make better decisions, gain insights, and achieve better business outcomes.

Find out more at www.bentley.com