GNSS Outages? Construction Engineering Has Answers
When you think of construction engineering, you picture blueprints, concrete, and machinery—not solar flares. Yet, during this week’s NOAA-issued G4 geomagnetic storm watch, surveyors and engineers across Grand Rapids learned how space weather can throw job sites into chaos. GPS rovers dropped signals. RTK fixes drifted. Machine control systems froze mid-grade. For a city growing […]
Dam Inspection Responsibility: A Wake-Up Call for Engineer
When people in West Michigan heard that several hydroelectric dams were sold to a new operator, it sounded like normal business news. But for licensed civil engineers, it was a big deal that raised new questions about safety, rules, and dam inspection. Dams like Hardy, Croton, and Rogers have helped shape Michigan’s waterways for decades. […]
How Data Centers Are Rewriting Stormwater Design
When Michigan’s Public Service Commission warned that the state’s electric grid might soon struggle to meet demand, many people thought it was just about power. But for engineers, it meant something more — a big change in stormwater design. Across West Michigan, new data centers are putting pressure not only on the power grid but […]