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The Reason We Write

A bit of a stream-of-consciousness post this morning. My strength & life coach is Zach Even-Esh. If you’ve never met or heard or seen him, go find him. It’s said that we are the people […]

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Texting, Driving & Work Zones

First and foremost, it appears that the woman was physically OK. That’s what matters most. Vehicles are machines, complicated assemblies of metal, plastic, rubber & glass. They can be fixed. They can be discarded. Unfortunately […]

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JJC Surveying – Fall 2025 Check-In

The Joliet Junior College AEC 125 construction layout crews have been making the best of the fall weather by getting their hands-on training done in the parking lots. The crews spent the first half of […]

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Windshield Debrief – Consistency

With this episode, I’m rolling something out that’s a bit different. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe not. Like most of you, I do a lot of training, job and daily work activity preparation while holding […]

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Performance Enhancement

Occasionally, a video crosses my feed that is worth bookmarking. Trying a new tactic here-This one is so good and so timely, I want to memorialize it here in the website. Takeaways:

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The Value of Training

We had a great night of training last night. Our Plainfield Emergency Management Search and Rescue Team participated in a night training exercise with several other surrounding SAR teams. Hat tip to Liz Brady and […]

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Civil Engineers & Public Policy

If you know me, you know where I stand on a lot of things. Having a website affords me the opportunity to express thoughts on what is of interest to me in my own space, […]

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Mid-Year Book Stack Check-In

It’s June, 2025. Halfway through the year. It’s as good a time as any to do a “What Are You Reading” pit stop and post an update on what I’ve been soaking in for the […]

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Training. Purpose.

Good Morning. Wednesday, June 18th, 2025. Firefighter Success Podcast #006 with John Spera. Hit a nail on my head today. Training. Purpose and why. People set a fitness goal, health goal, something goal, January 1st […]

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Fit for Duty

In this episode, I revisit (somewhat…) some concepts from Episode 20 – Preparing for the Operation. but with several new twists & angles. Question: How prepared are you for the workday. In this episode: –I dissect […]

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Discord for Construction Engineers

We are all inundated with information coming at us. Threads. Emails. Teams. Notifications. Critical overload. We are also getting a lot smarter. Understanding that our time is a commodity that we don’t give away like […]

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Spring 2025 Class Secured

Joliet Junior College Spring 2025 Construction Layout class is secured! While it’s a great feeling to finish grading exams & assignments, shelve the handouts and field training exercises and see the class get over the […]

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2025 National Surveyors Week

It’s 2025 National Surveyors Week! The Joliet Junior College AEC 125 construction layout crews have been making the best of the winter weather by getting their hands-on training done indoors. The crews spent the first […]

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What I Read in 2024

I’ll start of with a question: What did you read this year? Be honest. Reading LinkedIn posts does not count. Sorry. That’s not real reading. What books did you read in 2024? Which ones resonated […]

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Hands-On

Thanks to the great fall weather this year, the Joliet Junior College AEC 125 construction layout crews were able to get plenty of hands-on work done around campus. We put the #Leica levels & total […]

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Underground Stormwater Fire

The headline was certainly an eye-catcher… I’m not familiar with this type of system – I’m sure there will be an AAR once more details are gathered https://www.firerescue1.com/its-a-new-one-for-us-underground-fire-causes-collapse-of-parking-lot-at-va-shopping-outlet

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Niji 350 Pencils are “Vintage…?”

I find it interesting, as I see more and more of my “everyday carry” items being referred to as “retro,” “vintage” or “classic.” Am I really getting that old…? I started using the Niji 350 […]

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Cornfield SAR Training

In the Midwest, corn & soybeans are our predominant crops. It’s not uncommon for people to enter cornfields and become disorientated and lost. The Will County Emergency Management Agency organized a training session today on […]

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Measure It

The Joliet Junior College AEC Construction Survey team has been getting some hands-on work using different measuring devices. Sounds like a pretty boring assignment, right? Really, who doesn’t know how to measure something…? Using a […]

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Digital Hygiene

I’m grabbing this Short from Ryder because it’s worth exploring-The concept of data hoarding. What am I doing with all of the source data I’ve collected? How many PDFs do I really need? A library […]

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A Cool Podcast Shout-Out

It’s always neat to see how people with common interests find collection points through the Internet. I received an email from Dany over at LED Lighting Supply letting me know that they curated a list […]

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Small Engine Repairs Are Fun!!

Fixing things yourself is becoming lost craft. It seems like, more and more, society is becoming apt to dispose and replace, as opposed to repair and maintain. I, for one, will ALWAYS try to tackle […]

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On Being an Instructor

Note: I originally wrote this on June 5, 2022 – It’s worth sharing now…. Having just hit “Submit” on the semester final grades, I thought it would be a good time to open the laptop […]

Honoring Firefighters

FROM THE ARCHIVES

  • ARCHIVES

    Asking the Simple Question – The Solution

    In my previous article (CLICK HERE to read it), I described the maturation of a piling bearing capacity issue that we had on a recent railroad bridge project. Let’s dive into getting the issues resolved. [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    Asking the Simple Questions – The Problem

    “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    When Slopes Fail – Part 2

    In this, Part 2 of my series on slope stability & erosion control failures, I want to dissect another jobsite failure that one of our projects suffered through a couple of years ago. The conditions, [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    When Slopes Fail – Part 1

    There are some people I know, when talking about their “college days,” who can recite chapters & verses of classes they took. They can remember class numbers, people in the class, problems they solved, the [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    It’s More than a Line

    I wanted to write a post discussing a design issue that we encountered out here on our site. MicroStation, AutoCADD and the like are the daily tools of choice for almost all designers, and no [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    The Risk of Traffic – Final Chapter

    So as I’ve developed in the last 2 posts, traffic control on a construction project exposes just about everyone involved in the process to RISK. A motorcycle accident in 2008 sent me through the legal [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    The Risk of Traffic – Part 2

    As I developed in my last post, engineers in construction are often-times thrust into situations of RISK that, in many instances, are completely beyond their direct control. I’m going to take you on a tour [...]

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