Progress is the willingness to try a new approach — to think "outside the box" — and to offer a fresh solution. Progress is discovering how to marry history with this moment. Progress is ignited when challenges are met with open minds, critical thinking, adaptability, and dedicated participants.

This issue of Rebuilding America's Infrastructure provides various examples of how bridge and road professionals are progressive individuals, involved in an ever-progressing industry. To accomplish the far-reaching needs of updating our transportation infrastructure, we'll undoubtedly have to be efficient and smart, but we'll also have to evolve our practices, our businesses, our methods, and more.

The RAI Exclusive this month, "Methods to the madness: The business of finding funding for projects, and the strategies for winning them," by Associate Editor Solomon Lieberman, shows how engineering firms are adapting to the realities of the times. Firms should be engaged in the preliminary project planning, especially when decisions are being made about financing and project delivery.

Certainly, without funds for projects, little progress can be made. Get an update on surface transportation funding reauthorization in this month's Funding & Policy column. (You'll want to check out the hand-written notes by Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; page 14.)

Another example of advancement includes Utah's speedy, economical, and safe approach to bridge demolition and replacement using the same equipment NASA employs to move the space shuttles (page 16). Two project stories in this issue show how ingenuity yields safe and beautiful solutions that please communities and owners: "Replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct: Tunneling advances provide an answer for Seattle's waterfront highway dilemma" (page 28 and shown on the cover), and "Revitalizing a Florida favorite: Bridge of Lions to meet current standards and maintain historical significance" (page 32).

You can expect more thought-leading coverage of the bridge and road market in future issues of Rebuilding America's Infrastructure, on our website, www.RebuildingAmericasInfrastructure, and in the weekly RAI e-Newsletter. (If you don't receive the newsletter, sign up online. It's free!)

In fact, our next issue will present the results of an exciting initiative. We'll be compiling a list of influential research about methods and products that will impact the future of bridge and road design, analysis, construction, maintenance, and operations. Please let us know about research you're involved with or have heard about. Go to www.RebuildingAmericasInfrastructure.com/research to tell us about ongoing activities that you'd like to share with your peers. This is an excellent opportunity for researchers and futurists to communicate, and for all of us to celebrate the progress we're making.

Shanon Fauerbach, P.E., sfauerbach@stagnitomedia.com