The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule for PFAS compounds in drinking water sets requirements that all communities must meet for their public water systems.

On Feb. 7, Hanson lost one of its great leaders and mentors when Chairman Emeritus Eugene “Gene” Wilkinson passed at age 89.

What type of sandbag material will best stop a flood? Does banana water work well as a fertilizer? These and many other questions were posed and answered Feb. 9 during the judging of the annual science fair at Blessed Sacrament School (BSS) in Springfield, Illinois. Since 2014, engineers and scientists from Hanson’s Springfield office have visited Blessed Sacrament to serve as judges for the variety of science fair topics and exhibits researched and built by the school’s seventh graders.

A 410-page college textbook first published in January 1953 and re-released about 20 years later as an expanded second edition has left a notable footprint — not only in engineering classrooms, but on office desks and bookshelves. “Foundation Engineering,” by Ralph Peck, Hanson founder Walt Hanson and Thomas Thornburn, addresses topics including the properties of subsurface materials, foundation types and construction methods, foundation type selection and design basis, as well as the design of foundations and earth-retaining structures.

Life often takes people in different directions, but sometimes they end up back where they were before — especially if the place they started is the best fit in the long run. This statement has rung true for several Hanson employees who departed for different opportunities and later returned. Brian Maldonado, an electrical designer who works in Hanson’s Orlando, Florida, regional office, left Hanson for nine months to explore different market types and grow in experience at a different firm.

On a cool, overcast day in early October, several rakes, some tools and more than a dozen pairs of helping hands resulted in a to-do list completed at the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois’ Camp Widjiwagan near Springfield, Illinois. Along with six of my Hanson colleagues, I was blessed to spend a couple of hours on Oct. 6, 2023, with one of those rakes in hand, helping to clean up several areas of this Girl Scouts facility, which gives so many young girls the opportunity to experience independence and fun in a safe environment of learning and growth.

Sometimes, building up a community for the future requires tearing down the past. That’s the case in Corpus Christi, Texas, where a historic piece of infrastructure is making way for an expanded waterfront park that will serve residents and visitors for generations to come.

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to complete an internship with the corporate communications group at Hanson Professional Services Inc. in Springfield, Illinois. Hanson hosted 16 students in its Springfield headquarters and 21 in offices across the country in numerous disciplines, offering us the chance to gain hands-on experience and develop our skills.

Growing up, he enjoyed learning math and science. As a child, he built cities with roads and bridges in his sandbox. He can’t remember a time when he didn’t love all things railroad, especially model railroading. After taking an aptitude test in high school that suggested engineering, he focused on civil engineering because he “wanted to work on transportation projects that transformed the natural world.” His name is Mike Pochop, a vice president, senior project manager and railways operations lead at Hanson.

On April 1, the Grow Our Own program hosted its eighth trip to the Engineering Open House. Employees from Hanson and mentors from organizations, including the Springfield Urban League and the Springfield chapter of Frontiers International, accompanied 20 youth on the daylong excursion, which enabled the students to explore the diverse world of technology on display at the university’s annual two-day event. The group experienced hands-on exhibits that varied from virtual reality headsets to a robot with arms that mimic human movements.