The Transportation and Development Group is the Pittsburgh Section’s newest initiative. The group kicked of this year with the purpose of creating a forum in Pittsburgh for civil engineers and others to discuss issues relevant to our profession with the ultimate goal of putting the civil engineer back into the decision making process.

For too long, the engineer has been absent from the process. The lack of interaction between the professionals and the policy makers is the critical missing link in the looming infrastructure crisis. The T&DG meetings are intended to be less technical and will instead focus on policy issues that affect our profession. We intend to do this through constructive discussions with public officials and lawmakers. The primary goal of our meetings is “face time” with the decision makers.

The T&DG discussions will revolve around the 2006 ASCE Report Card for Pennsylvania’s Infrastructure ( www.pareportcard.org). The PA Sections of ASCE gave PA an overall grade of D, rating 9 specific areas. The Report Card received a lot of media attention and has been a great catalyst for discussion. Each meeting will feature a speaker addressing one of those 9 areas.

Our efforts will include advocating for the adequate funding and prioritization of infrastructure investment. We must understand what obstacles hinder the process and work to remove them. As the experts, we must be accessible to policy makers and provide them the information they need to make sound decisions. We need to educate the public and other stakeholders. And, most importantly, we must educate ourselves. The message must be clear, consistent and continuous to be successful.

We will engage our sister organizations in this effort. We must stop dividing ourselves into small groups broken down by technical discipline. As the ASCE, America’s oldest civil engineering society, we must be the voice of the civil engineering profession.

We invite you to join us. For more information or to get on the T&DG email list, contact T&DG Chairman, Joe Fecek, E.I.T. at gfecek@hotmail.com.