By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • • 0 Comments

Read a New Book Month: A Time to Explore, Learn, and Connect

Read a New Book Month is celebrated each September with the goal of encouraging people to expand their knowledge through reading. This observance promotes the benefits of reading new material, especially from different genres and subjects, as a way to gain fresh insights and broaden personal perspectives.

Books offer a unique opportunity for authors to share stories, ideas, and experiences. Through this exchange, readers are able to connect with people, cultures, and viewpoints that may be very different from their own. Exploring new genres, whether fiction, history, science, or technical subjects, can deepen understanding and stimulate critical thinking.

Participating in Read a New Book Month can be simple and rewarding. Joining book clubs, becoming a member of a local library, or even starting a reading group with friends are great ways to celebrate and encourage reading within a community.

For those interested in expanding their knowledge in engineering, several noteworthy books provide a strong foundation in key areas:
• Steel Structures – Design and Behaviour by Charles G. Salmon and John E. Johnson
• Environmental Engineering by Howard S. Peavy, Donald R. Rowe, and George Tchobanoglous
• Building Construction by B.C. Punmia
• Construction Project Management by Frederick Gould and Nancy Joyce
• Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down by J.E. Gordon

Whether for professional development or personal interest, diving into a new book this September is a meaningful way to engage with the world of knowledge and ideas.

 

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

Happy National Professional Engineers Day

Did you know that the first person to ever earn a Professional Engineer (P.E.) license in the United States was Charles Bellamy on August 8, 1907? Now, more than a century later, we celebrate Professional Engineers Day around the world.

This year, on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, mark the tenth annual Professional Engineers Day. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness about what engineers do, what it takes to become a P.E., and how professional engineers stay current with rapidly evolving technologies.

Thanks to the visibility this celebration brings, the U.S. now has more than 900,000 licensed professional engineers, with over 25,000 engineers taking the P.E. exam each year, according to the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

A P.E. license is awarded to engineers who meet specific qualifications and pass examinations administered by NCEES. To obtain a P.E. license, candidates must first pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, followed by the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam. Because licenses are issued by individual states, engineers can hold multiple P.E. licenses across different jurisdictions.

The P.E. exams are discipline-specific, and passing rates vary by field. While some disciplines are more challenging than others, the overall pass rate across all disciplines is approximately 65%. The most commonly taken P.E. exam is in civil engineering, which has an estimated 49% pass rate for first-time test takers, according to NCEES.

 

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Infrastructure Week, Day 1: Bridges

How do we resolve a problem as widespread as deficient bridge infrastructure? Year after year, America’s infrastructure continues to be critically neglected that now, in 2021, we face a multi-billion-dollar backlog for the rehabilitation of bridges, a vital facet of the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

While the number of structurally deficient bridges in the United States is down significantly from years past according to an Infrastructure Report Card provided by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), around 188 million trips are taken every day across deficient bridges. Rehabilitation needs for bridges are backlogged as much as $123B, an investment of over half of the funding allocated. These high repair and rehabilitation costs pose a nationwide challenge to transportation agencies pursuing the construction of reliable infrastructure.

At KC Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. (KC), our structural engineering ingenuity enables us to provide safe and effective bridge infrastructure. KC provides survey services, design assessment, and structural analysis for the replacement and rehabilitation of damaged, deficient, and extremely vital bridge infrastructure in various counties across New York State.