Construction at Hudson Yards in New York City began in 2013, and last year four towers started to rise from the half-completed platform over transit tracks. The massive project must coordinate the logistical activity of at least two construction companies, 10 primary architects and five structural and civil engineering firms, along with the structural engineering challenges of building the platform to house the new city within a city.

A concrete laboratory will be developed at California State University at Sacramento, thanks to a $200,000 donation by Clark Pacific. The lab will allow research with fiber-reinforced and high-strength concrete as well as pre-tensioned structural elements, according to civil engineering professor Ben Fell.

The requirements to become an engineer have not changed in decades, and while civil engineering programs are rigorous, additional requirements are needed to prepare students for their professional engineering exams and the complexities of the real world, Jonathan Patterson argues. The American Society of Civil Engineers' "Raise the Bar" initiative calls for additional education requirements, and a report notes that the "exploding body of science and engineering knowledge cannot be accommodated within the context of the traditional four-year baccalaureate degree."

California saw many massive civil engineering projects that held back and transported water to needed areas of the state in the 20th century. But one project proposed then to divert some water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta remains undone, and the Los Angeles Times believes the state still must build those tunnels.