What civil engineers are reading this week

• Bridge inspection is paramount to their continued resilience

  The more than 623,000 highway bridges across the U.S. all rely on safety programs, inspection methods, and standards. Here's how they have improved since inspection standards became law in 1971.

• Waymo seeks to expand robotaxi service south of San Francisco

  Waymo is seeking California’s permission to expand its footprint in the South Bay, offering fared robotaxi rides throughout San Jose and along the peninsula.

• Gamma rays reveal universe’s largest known structure is closer to Earth than we knew

  New research suggests that the largest cosmic structure is even bigger and closer to Earth than we knew, a finding that goes against scientists’ models of cosmic evolution.

• Scientists manipulate the human eye into seeing a new color

  Using a technique they call Oz, researchers stimulate the retina in a way that people saw a brand-new color.

• Establishing a risk-mitigation program at your company just makes sense; here’s how to do it

  Evolving the existing risk culture into a formal program should improve client satisfaction, reduce claims, and improve the profits of the consulting firm. What are the three key steps?

• Autonomous vehicles on road to commercial reality

  Their mass rollout has been discussed for years, but challenges raised doubts over whether the potentially transformative AV technology would ever move from drawing board to empty driver's seat.