Preparations underway will make Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota the first main operating base and training center for the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation long-range bomber.
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TechBrief
Going Below Zero on the Path to a Lower-Carbon World
Feature
Unmanned Aerial Systems: Capturing Critical Data With Flying Technology
Video
Elevating Expectations
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Aviation of the Future: Reinventing the Ever-Evolving Passenger Experience
Amid global lockdowns due to the pandemic, airlines reduced staff and grounded or retired aircraft to decrease the size of their fleets. As air travel today gradually returns to pre-pandemic levels, t...
Feature
Going Above and Beyond to Bring Essential Resources Into Space
If humanity’s future lies among the stars, we’re going to need to bring resources with us.
Feature
Mainstream Space Travel Is Looking Up
As commercial spaceflight becomes more prevalent and less expensive, significant strides are being made regarding social, business and environmental impacts. That being said, there’s quite a bit on th...
Feature
Balancing People and Project Impacts Through Environmental Justice
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Executive Order 14008 have elevated environmental justice concerns in government and public consciousness. Integrating this approach into infrastructure ...
Improve Site Certainty With Tailored Solutions to Emerging Contaminants
The Road to Recovery: Vital Impacts of the Infrastructure Package
BenchMark
Sustaining and boosting growth in the U.S. means implementing clean, smart, efficient infrastructure that keeps people and industry moving. That's just what this new infrastructure law will do, and transportation is at the heart of such significant investment and change.
Video
Investing in an Energized Future
BenchMark
The electrical transmission and distribution industry is experiencing massive change. The need to improve our current power system is a critical component driving that evolution — and it’s requiring electric utilities to act.
Article
The Clean Path Forward: What It Will Take to Achieve 100% Renewable Energy
Burns & McDonnell
As the overall demand for energy increases around the globe, so does the need to generate energy from renewable sources. Solar, wind and hydropower — combined with nuclear and other low-carbon sources of power generation — will continue to evolve, stabilizing energy costs, creating job opportunities, improving air quality and helping to meet decarbonization goals.
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Preparing an active base to house a first-of-its-kind aircraft can be akin to performing heart surgery on a patient who is still walking around.
Balancing People and Project Impacts Through Environmental Justice
BenchMark
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Executive Order 14008 have elevated environmental justice concerns in government and public consciousness. Integrating this approach into infrastructure projects can be confusing due to a lack of clear regulatory guidelines. By developing plans that adhere to EPA’s standard of “fair treatment and meaningful involvement,” project administrators can satisfy regulators while addressing the concerns of residents.
Video
Investing in an Energized Future
BenchMark
The electrical transmission and distribution industry is experiencing massive change. The need to improve our current power system is a critical component driving that evolution — and it’s requiring electric utilities to act.
Feature
Supporting Emerging Clean Energy Technologies Through Thoughtful Partnerships
BenchMark
A more sustainable energy future is achievable, but the path to get there requires investment in and promotion of emerging technologies that will help transform the global economy.
Video
Charging Forward With Clean Energy
BenchMark
Achieving clean energy goals is rapidly becoming a cost of doing business. Learn how industrial facilities can respond to these mounting pressures and develop a road map to implement sustainable solutions.
Feature
The Grant Proposal: A Story Worth Millions of Dollars
BenchMark
Securing grant funding can be a laborious task, but applicants can use this opportunity to collaborate with local leaders, build relationships with funding agencies and envision their ideal project.
Trending Topic
Refining Your Renewable Fuels Approach for Success
BenchMark
Producing renewable fuels is a potentially rewarding opportunity for refiners to enhance their services for profitable and lasting portfolios. From feedstock and technology selection to project delivery methods and complementary projects, several considerations can affect the feasibility of such projects.
Feature
Tech Talk: Embracing New Realities
BenchMark
AEC firms want to make client projects successful as they design, engineer, build and maintain the planet’s critical infrastructure. Doing so efficiently requires determining just what roles technology can play as we stand on the threshold of a worldwide digital transformation.
TechBrief
Dividing Wall Columns Push the Boundaries for Midstream Efficiency
BenchMark
Sometimes innovative ideas take extraordinary amounts of time to germinate. Such is the case with dividing wall columns — an innovation that is introducing unprecedented cost efficiency, energy savings and emissions reductions to the natural gas liquids processing industry.
Feature
What’s New in Nuclear? Advancing Safety and Affordability
BenchMark
There is a broad menu of options available to begin bringing down carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a global scale. While many agree nuclear energy will (or should) be part of the solution, just how it is developed and deployed elicits a wide range of opinions. From cost and safety considerations to waste disposal, the issues that have dogged the nuclear industry for decades are still very much in play.
Spotlight
We Like IKE: Modernizing Kansas Transportation
BenchMark
From big cities to small farm towns, everyone needs and deserves safe transportation infrastructure. The IKE Transportation Partners joint venture is advancing the delivery of various projects in support of KDOT’s 10-year modernization program.
Video
The Road to Recovery: Vital Impacts of the Infrastructure Package
BenchMark
Sustaining and boosting growth in the U.S. means implementing clean, smart, efficient infrastructure that keeps people and industry moving. That's just what this new infrastructure law will do, and transportation is at the heart of such significant investment and change.
Article
Accelerating on the Road to Electrification
Burns & McDonnell
The movement to reduce carbon emissions is giving a speed boost to efforts to electrify transportation. Building the appropriate electrical infrastructure to support this dramatic transition will depend on understanding the reality of new operational models.
Article
Make It Happen: How to Secure Federal Funding
Burns & McDonnell
For decades, business leaders, engineers, economists and community leaders have advocated for more infrastructure spending. Deteriorating infrastructure is deleterious to public health and economic prosperity. In fact, the American Society for Civil Engineers gave the U.S. a “C-” in its 2021 report card for America’s infrastructure. While that score is an improvement from grades spanning the past two decades, it also highlights the need to reinvest in our physical assets.
Article
Limiting PFAS: Pursuing Clean Drinking Water for Safer Communities
Burns & McDonnell
At the heart of the drinking water industry is the need to deliver safe, clean and reliable drinking water to communities. Consumers should not have to think twice about what’s coming out of their tap. For some, however, the reality is unsettling.
Article
Scoping Out Solutions for Supply Chain and Labor Challenges
Burns & McDonnell
Sometimes challenges contain the seeds of their own solutions. Bogged-down supply chains and persistent shortages of skilled labor are familiar complications throughout many industries, but efforts to address them are also driving more efficiencies in project planning and execution.
Article
Highlighting Hydrogen for the Future of Decarbonization
Burns & McDonnell
Taking steps toward reducing carbon footprints and increasing sustainability requires careful planning, integration and innovative solutions using state-of-the-art technologies. As organizations look to diversify their energy portfolios, a clear objective endures: delivering reliable, affordable energy.
Article
Solid as a Rock: Streamlined Permitting Efforts Are Crucial for Carbon Storage Success
Burns & McDonnell
Carbon capture, utilization and storage show strong potential to help reduce carbon emissions globally. Successful deployment of one of the newest tools in the net zero emissions toolbox — carbon capture and storage — will depend on understanding a complex permitting process and aligning efforts to speed approvals.
Article
The Clean Path Forward: What It Will Take to Achieve 100% Renewable Energy
Burns & McDonnell
As the overall demand for energy increases around the globe, so does the need to generate energy from renewable sources. Solar, wind and hydropower — combined with nuclear and other low-carbon sources of power generation — will continue to evolve, stabilizing energy costs, creating job opportunities, improving air quality and helping to meet decarbonization goals.
Article
Renewables’ Ripple Effect on the Grid
Burns & McDonnell
Managing a massive influx of widely distributed decarbonized energy sources, large and small, will involve rethinking — and reworking — much of our electrical infrastructure.
Feature
Bringing Sustainability On-Site
Burns & McDonnell
The quest for sustainable solutions is changing design and construction norms emerging throughout the EPC process. But how sustainable engineer-procure-construct (EPC) manifests itself on any given project can vary widely, depending on the owner’s interests, budget and goals.
Article
An Electric Journey: The Transmission and Distribution of Renewable Energy
Burns & McDonnell
Renewable power is transforming the energy landscape, but the journey from energy generation to consumption doesn’t stop once solar panels and wind turbines are installed. These renewable energy technologies must be connected to transmission and distribution systems, and utilities need backup storage to provide reliable and consistent power.
Article
Raising a Field of Solar Panels
Burns & McDonnell
Utilities can leverage a fully integrated EPC approach and community engagement efforts to foster a safe and reliable transition toward renewable energy.
Article
Boldly Pursuing Energy Opportunities With Offshore Wind
Burns & McDonnell
Flying out over the ocean, you might catch a glimpse of a renewable energy solution that is poised to turn the power industry on its head, create thousands of jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Offshore wind farms — turbines generating energy taken from the force of the wind out at sea — can be found along coasts around the world.
Article
Cyber Resilience Spurs Reassurance for Renewables
1898 & Co.
The fast transition to renewables is leaving energy providers vulnerable to cyberattacks. Learn how the industry is responding and doing what it can to shore up grid reliability.
Article
Strong Currents: Lithium-Ion Dominance Is Making Life Difficult for Other Energy Storage Technologies
Burns & McDonnell
Until recently, utilities may have had difficulty imagining a day when massive installations of batteries would be the main energy storage resource needed for grid stability. It’s not so difficult anymore.
TECHBRIEF
Greener Skies Could Be on the Horizon
Burns & McDonnell
As airlines explore approaches to decarbonize the aviation industry, sustainable aviation fuel has emerged as a leading sky-friendly solution.
Q&A
Dominating Digital Disruptions
BenchMark
Chris Underwood shares how 1898 & Co. leverages Burns & McDonnell experience and knowledge to build strategic, data-driven insights to help clients succeed.
Video
Asset Management: A Framework for Maximized Value
BenchMark
A proactive, structured asset management program helps companies align operations with strategic goals, moving toward prescriptive asset health management.
TechBrief
Finding the Right Fit
BenchMark
Innovations in bottom ash conversion provide coal-fired power plants with options to achieve compliance with Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
Spotlight
Automated for Efficiency
BenchMark
Two reciprocating engine plants in Michigan are among the most automated in the industry. They're adding needed grid stability for the owner/operator.
TechBrief
Say Goodbye to Lost and Found
BenchMark
Baggage handling is an inconvenience to passengers and costly to airlines. RFID technology might be the solution to help prevent mishandled bags.
Feature
Upgrading to a First-Class Airport Experience
BenchMark
Passenger wants and needs at airports are increasing, especially with today’s technology advances.
Feature
Islands in a Storm
BenchMark
When disasters create electrical service disruptions, islanding and black start capabilities are important ways to maintain or restore power quickly.
TechBrief
Making Waves With Smart Data
BenchMark
Lake Erie is poised to become the world’s first smart lake, with smart technology and infrastructure utilized to actively monitor water data in real time.
Feature
Building for Biomeds
BenchMark
Genomic-based drugs have implications for pharmaceutical manufacturing. When drug costs are a daily discussion, how should the built environment respond?
Spotlight
Welcome Home: The Community of the Future
BenchMark
The master-planned community of Sterling Ranch in Colorado is a benchmark for what future communities can look like in terms of smart living experiences.
Feature
Breaking Through: Finding Answers to Labor Shortage
BenchMark
The construction industry doesn’t lack projects or face a struggling economy. Firms are looking to clear a persistent hurdle: craft labor shortage.
Feature
Navigating a New Route
BenchMark
Cost and schedule matter, but so do speed to market and team integration. Some try a new approach to project delivery; others find options within a model.
Feature
Smooth Operators
BenchMark
When a project moves to construction, field operations take the lead. Site managers face challenges, stemming from interesting situations on the job site.
Feature
Safety: An All-Encompassing Force
BenchMark
Safety involves more than just the work on-site. Every decision in the project spectrum — from concept to completion — is founded in safety.
Concept to Completion
Packaging Wrapped in Tech
BenchMark
Collaborative teams and integrated systems allow Advanced Work Packaging to improve project safety, quality and efficiencies, making it a hot topic.
Spotlight
Surging Ahead With Fluid Delivery
BenchMark
A program management approach is helping FirstEnergy enhance service reliability, operating flexibility and security of its large-scale transmission system.
TechBrief
Avoiding Oil Spills
BenchMark
Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure plans are required during construction. An effective plan helps prevent spills and keep projects on schedule.
Trending Topic
Tomorrow's Tech and Trends for Construction
BenchMark
Trends, technologies and tools help transform construction in the face of labor shortages, safety, efficiency, productivity and profitability challenges.
Feature
Controlling the Stormwater
BenchMark
Deferred maintenance, rudimentary standards and an increase in significant rain events are overwhelming traditional stormwater systems. Before putting bigger pipes in the ground, consider cost-effective, longer-lasting options: smart retrofits, new technology and green stormwater infrastructure.
Q&A
Making the Scene Clean
BenchMark
Maintaining and improving the environment is an ever-evolving science. Steve Nalefski, vice president and general manager of the Environmental Services Group at Burns & McDonnell, sees both the forest and the trees.
Feature
Going to Bat for Conservation
BenchMark
The Chariton Hills Conservation Bank is the first of its kind in the nation to protect the Indiana and northern long-eared bats. In addition, developers can use credits from the bank to compensate for adverse impacts to similar ecosystems nearby.
TechBrief
Plan Ahead to Protect
BenchMark
Higher-order controls make it possible for companies to eliminate arc flash hazards upfront. But to be most effective, arc flash prevention must be considered early, for example, during the design of every terminal and pipeline project.
TechBrief
Turning Waste Into Worth
BenchMark
Adding alternative feedstock sources — such as fats, oils and grease — can allow wastewater facilities to capitalize on the growing opportunity for biogas, but facilities must also consider the risks.
Trending Topic
Mastering Master Planning
BenchMark
The master-planned communities of tomorrow will require reimagining how cities function, how residents interact with the buildings and technology within them, and how they can remain flexible enough to handle emerging challenges.
Feature
Electricity’s New Reality: The Balancing Act
BenchMark
An ongoing revolution in renewable energy sources and distributed generation options is changing the structure of the power delivery system. Grid modernization is a collection of projects and approaches helping that system adapt to new realities.
Spotlight
Constructing a Cleaner Energy Future
BenchMark
Southwest Saskatchewan, Canada, is home to a new 350-megawatt natural gas-fired power facility. Slated for completion in late 2019, the combined-cycle facility will provide more power to a growing demand — as well as cleaner energy for the area.
Spotlight
The Key to Decommissioning Is to Plan
BenchMark
Utilities are weighing if, how and when to retire or demolish the least-efficient coal-fired plants in their fleet. Follow these critical steps when decommissioning an electrical power plant.
Trending Topic
Power Industry: Meet Your Digital Twin
BenchMark
Digital solutions and smart technologies are beginning to disrupt the power industry. More specifically, the digital twin, a near-real-time digital image of an object or process, is helping to optimize business performance.
Concept to Completion
Delivery on Demand: Provided by ASRS
BenchMark
Consumers expect on-demand delivery, and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) make it possible. But successfully implementing a custom ASRS is complex. For distribution centers, manufacturing facilities and e-commerce businesses, working with a full-service provider makes the difference.
Trending Topic
How Blockchain Can Reset Expectations
BenchMark
Decades old but still finding new applications, blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt and transform a wide range of commercial and industrial fields, extending far beyond banking and cryptocurrency.
Spotlight
Raising the Elevation of a Substation
BenchMark
Eversource Energy wanted to set up new electrical substations in a booming area of South Boston but wondered how it could expand in a crowded urban space. Being near the harbor also posed potential problems for maintaining power during a storm or flood. The solution? It went up.
TechBrief
Delivering Safe Drinking Water
BenchMark
Safe drinking water is vital to public health, but many water treatment plants struggle to consistently deliver reliable, high-quality water that meets finished water goals. When it comes to providing safe drinking water, it’s not as simple as using the same cookie-cutter approach.
Feature
Nailing Seamless Program Management
BenchMark
Program management relieves stress and saves time and money while reducing risk when using integrated technology and an industry-specific program manager.
Feature
Sparking Connections
BenchMark
AZCO enhances the construction options for complex heavy industrial facilities and projects. Teams can gain more control of the variables that affect a project.
Feature
Play It Safe On-Site
BenchMark
Tackling safety challenges on-site requires the right people and the right plan. It starts with making construction safety the top priority from the outset.
Article
Groundwater Remedies
For remediation of groundwater, the subsurface produces uncertainty. Environmental sequence stratigraphy (ESS) provides efficient and cost-effective insight.
Article
Avoiding the Dreaded Shutdown
Safety instrumented systems (SIS) balance safety, reliability and cost. Integrating SIS in the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) process improves success.
Spotlight
Creating Waves in Smart Seaport Operations
BenchMark
The Port of Los Angeles now has a renewable-powered, disaster-proof seaport microgrid. The energy-efficient marine terminal also reduces greenhouse gases.
Spotlight
Compounding Compounds: Complying With New PFAS Regulations
BenchMark
Rising concern over emerging contaminants in drinking water across the country has brought more attention to a collection of compounds known as PFAS.
Spotlight
Testing and Monitoring: Optimal Green Infrastructure
BenchMark
To best sustain green infrastructure — and avoid costly maintenance, weed infiltration and poor performance — thorough testing and monitoring are critical.
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