Industry Leaders Discuss Continuing Challenges and Rewards of Building Transportation Infrastructure

What happened: On the opening day of ARTBA’s National Convention in Amelia Island, Fla., industry leaders Sept. 23 recounted the operating challenges and growth prospects inherent in fulfilling the promise of 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Among the topics discussed:

• In a tight labor market, it benefits to add women to the transportation construction workforce. Allan Myers Executive Vice President Aaron Myers recounted the progress his firm has made in hiring women construction workers. On a project site tour with his 12-year-old daughter, he was gratified at the number of female workers. “I got out of the truck, and the project team was there. It was seven people, and six of them were women. I want my daughters to feel like they can do anything including being in the construction business and be a leader.”
• HDR CEO John Henderson says recruiting and retaining millennial workers is a particular challenge, noting they typically stay in one job for no longer than four to six years before moving on. “They want a diversity of experience,” he said. “We hope they boomerang and come back someday.”
• AECOM’s CEO of Global Transportation Mark Southwell says the firm’s future growth prospects are in two distinct products for clients who face ever more complicated transportation planning – complex project integration guidance and advisory services. “Clients are looking to tackle problems at every stage of a project,” he said.
• The one thing they would like to change in the current transportation construction environment? CRH Americas Materials President Scott Parson echoed every panel member sentiments. “The length of time it takes to start a project,” he answered the question posed by panel moderator David Zachry, Zachry Corp. president & CEO. “It just takes longer and longer, and it leads to taxpayer discontent.”