Towns and cities across the world account for a high proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions while facing increasing risks such as flooding and overheating. Much of the focus to date has been on improving the sustainability performance of individual assets. While high-performing buildings and structures are vital, it is evident that this approach alone is insufficient to meet sustainability goals. Urban infrastructure functions as an integrated system. Energy, water, transport, digital connectivity and public realm networks interact in complex ways, with each other and with the communities they support. Understanding and managing these interdependencies is essential to improving overall system performance. Achieving sustainable urban places therefore requires a parallel evolution in the role of the infrastructure engineer. Increasingly, engineers are moving beyond asset-level optimisation to become systems integrators, strategic advisors and stewards of long-term value creation and place-making, playing a critical role in enabling sustainable, resilient communities.
Tuojiang Bridge in Sichuan, China, is a landmark infrastructure project representing a new generation of spatially asymmetric cable-stayed bridges with a twisted inclined steel tower and a twisted cable plane. The bridge is characterised by its long span, ultra-wide deck, spatially twisted and inclined tower, and asymmetric twisted cable plane. To address the technical challenges associated with these characteristics, a series of innovative design and construction technologies were developed. A hybrid restraint system, combining laterally restrained load-measuring bearings and cable-adjustment devices, was implemented to control global in-plane torsional deformation under asymmetric loading. The steel main girder was erected using an automated walking-type incremental launching method, while the steel tower was assembled in segments using large crawler cranes supported by a combined bracing system of permanent cables and active temporary cross-braces. Key techniques included spatial attitude control for heavy tower segment hoisting, full-process geometric monitoring and control for tower construction, and a refined calculation method for the sequential tensioning forces of parallel-strand stay cables. These innovations enabled high-precision construction and intelligent control of the tower–girder–cable system, providing practical reference for the delivery of spatially complex cable-stayed bridges.
Engineering and geoscience professions in Canada are regulated provincially through provincial acts and regulations with provincial regulatory bodies to enforce the regulations, in contrast to jurisdictions with a single national regulator. This article examines the structure, governance and licensing processes of Canadian regulatory bodies, highlighting the role of provincial authorities, national coordination through Engineers Canada and the involvement of professional volunteers in regulatory functions. It outlines the pathway to professional licensure (P.Eng. and P.Geo.), including academic requirements, work experience and professional practice examinations, and reviews the mechanisms supporting interprovincial mobility. The paper discusses key challenges related to fragmentation, consistency and administrative burden, while recognising the strengths of a system designed to prioritise public protection through professional self-regulation.
Developing countries have been observed to be struggling with the adoption and implementation of Building Information Modelling (). Studies have shown that the construction industry in developing countries has not achieved the same implementation level as developed nations. A common input critical to the achievement of this feat by developed countries is a roadmap. Consequently, to aid implementation in developing countries, this study developed a roadmap using the South African construction industry as a case study. Six critical areas for achieving implementation were identified: creating adequate and intentional awareness, creation of a contextual adoption structure, education, deployment, evaluation and maintenance. Achieving awareness is a prerequisite to the achievement of the other aspects. This study is novel as it closes a hitherto gap in providing a roadmap for developing countries.
Over the past two decades, the construction of long-span extradosed cable-stayed bridges (CSBs) has experienced rapid growth, with numerous innovative designs and construction methods emerging in recent years. This study presents a comprehensive synthesis of innovative designs and accelerated construction methods for long-span extradosed CSBs. A database of 162 bridges worldwide, including 118 in China, was compiled and analysed in terms of nine key design parameters. Innovative designs for extradosed CSBs addressing extended-span configurations, wide-deck geometries and mountainous regions are presented. These encompass hybrid girder systems and multi-tower configurations suitable for extended spans, corrugated steel-concrete hybrid web structures for wide-deck applications, as well as horizontally curved alignments and ultra-tall pier configurations suitable for challenging mountainous conditions. The effectiveness of two representative accelerated construction methods, namely swivel construction and integral jack-up construction, is verified through reported engineering practice. The former is assessed mainly by swivel tonnage and angular velocity, whereas the latter is evaluated by lifting tonnage, lifting speed, girder stress increment and stay-cable force variation. This paper reveals differences in key design parameters between Chinese and international long-span extradosed CSBs and summarises key control factors for swivel and integral jack-up construction, thereby providing guidance for design and construction.
