In this issue, we examine the relationship between technology and winter maintenance with two features.
The stories approach this topic from unique angles, but each revolves around the data technology delivers. Similarly, Roads & Bridges relies on data, but not always from technology. We often rely on our readers.
We have sent out a state of the industry survey, which helps us understand what you think, as well as what we should cover and how.
Please fill that out. The answers our vital to us, and we pass the results to you in January.
We also rely on the opinions of contractors for our Contractor Choice Awards. If you are a contractor, please vote. The winners will be announced in our annual awards issue, along with our Top 10 Roads and Top 10 Bridges awards.
Which reminds me: Submissions are open for the Top 10 awards. So please submit (What do past winners all have in common? They wrote detailed submissions and sent us many high-resolution photographs).
Our awards issue will be published in December, but that’s not where my mind is on this humid August afternoon. I’m focused on 2024 and how Roads & Bridges is going to cover infrastructure for our readers.
Last year, I used this space to ask for cooperation generating stories. Well, I’m running that back here.
I’m a big fan of throwing ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks. And two of our ideas from last year seem to have stuck: DOT Corner and Team Leaders.
One highlights the achievements and innovation of state DOTs, while the other is a Q&A with an industry thought leader, someone who might not typically get attention.
We’re bringing DOT Corner and Team Leaders back in 2024, and we’re throwing some new ideas against the wall.
First up: Better Know a Contractor. In this new section, we will profile contractors from across the country and tell stories that highlight their history, projects they’ve worked on, and their achievements.
Next up: Local Government Spotlight. I’m talking about counties, cities, municipalities—they each have a relationship with infrastructure, and we want to deliver those stories in the same way we have for state DOTs.
And finally, All-Star Operators: For this, we want video. Send us a video of an equipment operator who is an all-star — someone who crushes it on roads and bridges construction jobsites or who wows coworkers at the testing facility —and we will post it on our social media channels. We also will interview the operator and publish a short profile.
Please email me: if you know a contractor who should be profiled or if you are a contractor who wants profiled, if you work for a local government or if you collaborate with local governments on infrastructure projects, if you are an all-star operator or if you work with one.
Seriously, I want to hear from you. We cover the roads and bridges construction industry, but we want that coverage to be a two-way conversation.
You may have noticed that I’m interested in the human side of our industry. We are an application-based magazine. But, regardless of the topic (technology, design, road rehabilitation), people drive this industry. We want to give you engaging and relatable industry coverage, and the way to do that is with people.
This year is far from over, but it’s never too early to start planning.
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Head of Content
Head of Content
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.