September 9, 2015

Bechtel Provides Engineering Insights into the Future of Cities

Bechtel, one of the world’s leading engineering, procurement and construction companies, announced today that four of its leading authorities on smart and resilient city infrastructure will share their views at Smart Cities Week, North America’s first major smart city conference and exhibition.  The event, taking place in Washington, D.C., September 15-17, has been organized by the Smart Cities Council, of which Bechtel is a lead partner.  

Bechtel’s featured speakers at Smart Cities Week are:

• Walker Kimball, general managerAmericas for Bechtel’s infrastructure business. Kimball will take part in the plenary executive roundtable. He will discuss why smart cities need to prioritize future infrastructure investments using Big Data and how cities can make their infrastructure resilient.  
• James Denton-Brown, Bechtel’s lead for Smart City and urban development projects, will moderate a session about the latest technologies and how these can be incorporated into smart cities, including the latest thinking in city design, transportation, power and communications.
• Sandy Lawson, senior water resources engineer at Bechtel, will consider the effective use of water and waste water resources and the challenges this presents for smart cities. His presentation will include an exploration of possible solutions to mitigate the impact of the drought in California.   
• Henrik Johansen, Assistant Chief Engineer for Bechtel’s infrastructure business,  will share insights on micro grids, smart grids and energy resilience. His presentation will look at how the use of smart technology can provide financial incentives for both electricity producers and consumers and how micro grids can provide higher efficiencies and improve system resiliency.  

In support of Smart Cities Week, Bechtel has launched an online guide, aimed at U.S. federal and city officials and planners, which features an infographic on how to create smart and resilient urban infrastructure. The interactive guide is based on content from A Roadmap for Resilience report produced as part of the Re: Invest initiative, in which Bechtel took part. The initiative helped to develop resilient urban infrastructure for eight partner cities in the U.S., including San Francisco, Miami Beach and New Orleans. Bechtel also provided input into the Smart Cities Council’s recent Smart Cities Readiness Guide.  

Bechtel has worked on more than 30 smart city projects, as well as some of the most significant urban infrastructure undertakings around the world, including Hong Kong International Airport, Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project in Washington D.C. and currently Crossrail in London. In order to deliver projects of such magnitude successfully, Bechtel combines smart planning, technical know-how and an integrated approach to make visions become reality.

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.  

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Manufacturing & Technology; Mining & Metals; and Nuclear, Security & Environmental markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com