Recent published work. For older pieces and the full body of writing, see the Archive.
The Panama Canal Authority opens the first formal procurement on its $1.6-billion Río Indio reservoir, seeking a program management, engineering and construction consultant for the water-supply project at the center of the canal's long-term drought planning.
Reframing this summer's transit and draft restrictions as pre-emptive water management rather than crisis response, built on the Panama Canal Authority's own lake-level series and the October Gatún projection.
Republished by Roll 'Bama Roll, this 2015 feature ties Oklahoma's mid-1950s integration under Bud Wilkinson and the 1965 Selma marches to the pressures that eventually pushed Paul Bryant to integrate Alabama football.
With its next multibillion-dollar capital program, the Panama Canal Authority is getting into the port business itself. A close read of the procurement documents shows the ACP building leeway to keep political pressure over Chinese influence at arm's length.
Incoming ACP administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta inherits an $8.5-billion-plus capital plan: a new LPG pipeline, two container terminals, the $1.6-billion Río Indio reservoir and an expanded interoceanic land corridor.
Ilya Espino de Marotta reflects on her 40-year rise from shipyard engineer to first woman set to lead the Panama Canal Authority, from the Third Set of Locks years through the pink-hard-hat campaign.
The Panama Canal Authority's water-discipline playbook faces a Hormuz-driven LPG/LNG demand surge and the prospect of a record-setting El Niño, with preventive draft cuts in place and auction bids nearly tripled.
Republished by Roll 'Bama Roll to mark the site's 20th anniversary, this Football Study Hall feature recounts the segregationist pressures around Alabama's 1953 Orange Bowl bid and the long road to integrating the program.
Republished by Roll 'Bama Roll alongside the 1953 Orange Bowl piece, this Nunes Magician feature profiles Avatus Stone, the Syracuse quarterback whose chance to break the Orange Bowl color barrier in the early 1950s went unrealized.
Structural analysis of the NCTCOG vs. Regional Transportation Council court fight over Michael Morris's role. Argues the dispute exposes a flaw at the core of every Metropolitan Planning Organization that becomes consequential as size and stakes rise.
Personal essay arguing AI may finally close construction's decades-long productivity gap, the industry's most persistent structural challenge, with examples of how planning, sequencing and field workflows are already shifting.
Profile of Michael Morris, NCTCOG transportation director since 1990 and 2026 Legacy Award honoree for shepherding billions in North Texas transportation investment and shaping the region's growth corridors.