What civil engineers are reading this week

• If bridges could talk, this one would recount a legendary saxophonist’s reinvention

  Sonny Rollins could have gone anywhere to recharge his career. So why did he choose New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge? Read the latest from ASCE’s resident bridge expert/humorist Brian Brenner.

• Natural gas drilling could raise salt levels and boost radium levels in water

  Higher salt concentrations in samples taken near energy extraction sites indicate natural gas drilling might contribute to elevated salinity in the ground, in turn releasing heavy metals into drinking water.

• New bridge made fully of fiber-reinforced polymers paves way for future projects

  Two 50-year-old bridges that provided the only vehicle access and evacuation route for Harkers Island, North Carolina, were replaced with a modern, 3,200-foot-long fiber-reinforced bridge in 2023.

• Tesla sets a launch date for Cybercab

  The electric vehicle maker has sent out invitations to a Sept. 3 event in Austin, Texas.

• What is your ‘why’? The inner drive that pushes you to be a great civil engineer

  The people who leave lasting impacts on their professions usually have something deeper that drives them. New graduate student Ashley Forkey explores what will make her be her “best future self.”

• Amtrak reopens New York’s East River Tunnel Line 2

  Amtrak has reopened East River Tunnel Line 2, marking the end of the first phase of a $1.6 billion rehabilitation project to significantly reconstruct two of the four tubes of the 116-year-old tunnel.