The Mississippi section of the National ASCE held their annual meeting in Vicksburg, MS on October 5th-7th. Infrastructure seemed to be the topic “du jour” and took center stage throughout many presentations. PCI Gulf gave a presentation on the use and technology of Precast/Prestressed Concrete Pavement with a spotlight on the recent project in Mobile, AL. One speaker to note was Mississippi State’s Isaac Howard who spoke about ways to improve pavement infrastructure in Mississippi. Also, there was an overview by Jacob Forrester of the 2018 ASCE Report Card for Mississippi which will be released later this year.

The keynote speaker, 2017 ASCE President Dr. Norma Jean Mattei PH.D, P.E., gave an overview of the 2017 National ASCE Report card and the overall implications to the nation’s infrastructure and on-going lobbying efforts by organizations such as the ASCE. Dr. Mattei was selected as one of three civilian members of the Mississippi River Commission and has been appointed to the LA State Licensing Board for professional engineers. Of particular interest, Dr. Mattei received both her bachelor and doctorate degrees from Tulane University.

As always, it was encouraging to see a number of students participating in the event.