Aging Infrastructure Assesement

[trey25624]

I had started another thread about doing assessments on aging pavement but began to think a bit broader about infrastructure in general. As we all know a great deal of existing infrastructure such as roads, sewer, watermain, etc. will need replacing in the next few years. Does anyone have any experience doing assessments on existing infrastructure and see any viable business opportunities in it?

I see this need growing and a situation a lot of us entreprenurial civil engineers may be able to take advantage of. I only have a B.S. in civil and PE, but with more education i could see going into this area further and starting my own business. Anoyone know of good Civil Master's programs that focus on aging infrastructure and rehabilitation?

 

[Ron]

Trey....you're picking all the ones that the bigger boys go after! This is a marketable service; however, your client base is mostly municipalities and they are usually going to do this on an annual contract. It's tough to get those annual contracts as a sole practitioner.

You might want to start as a small general civil (site layout, design, stormwater management, etc.), assuming you have background in that. Your client base would be other small practitioners (architects, engineers) and you could do overflow or small work for other, larger civils to build your client base.....then step off into pavements, infrastructure, etc.

Just a few thoughts....I've been there....both sole practitioner and principal in very large international firm, plus a couple of spots in between.