Future City is a national middle school STEM program that challenges students to design the cities of the future. Each year, students from participating schools form teams and work with a teacher and an engineer mentor to showcase solutions to a citywide sustainability issue.

The Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition was held on January 18th, 2025 at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor. The competition included 36 teams from Philadelphia and the surrounding counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware.

The 2025 Competition was entitled “Above the Current” and challenged students to design a floating city that can keep its citizens healthy and safe in the face of rising sea levels and threats from severe weather.

As in years past, APAPASE sponsored this event and awarded a special prize to a deserving team. This year, the recipient of the APAPASE Planning Excellence Award was St. Anastasia, a Catholic school located in Newtown Square, PA that enrolls 650 students from pre-school to eighth grade.

St. Anastasia’s entry was entitled Aquadon and envisions a floating city off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria. The conceptual city combines innovative techniques and technologies, such as floating gardens and energy generated by ocean waves, with traditional planning principles to create a dynamic and sustainable urban center.

Congratulations to the students at St. Anastasia and all of the participants. For more information about the competition and to learn more about all of the winning teams, please visit: www.futurecityphilly.org.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the unexpected passing of APAPASE’s Citizen Planner, Terry Robinson, on December 27, 2024.

Terry was an actuary by trade, but he was involved in planning and zoning through his local Registered Community Organization in Philadelphia. He was always willing and eager to join APAPASE activities to gain a new perspective on the Philadelphia region. He injected his humor into developing the script and route for the orientation walking tours at the 2023 National Planning Conference and the Mpact Conference in October 2024. He loved attending APAPASE social events and contributing his excellent amateur photography skills.

Terry’s sharp intelligence and quirky sense of humor will be missed by those who knew him.

WSP is looking for a Lead Transportation Planner! Click through for the full job announcement.

2026 ASCE Pennsylvania Infrastructure Report Card Effort to Begin

The four Sections of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in Pennsylvania will be undertaking their combined effort to create and produce the 2026 Report Card on the Commonwealth’s infrastructure in early 2025.  The Report Card is issued every four years by the ASCE Pennsylvania State Council to provide a snapshot of our built environment and 2026 will mark the sixth such time this document has been produced.  ASCE National also produces a Report Card on the nation’s infrastructure conditions and the next release for this document will be in 2025.

The PA Council’s Report Card Committee handles the research and document review necessary to document background information and conditions for development of the grades and backup/support materials.  For the 2022 Report Card, a team of over 75 engineers and representatives of related professions volunteered their time to collect and analyze data, prepare and present their findings for the Report Card.  Background information was gathered for each of the 15 categories evaluated, which included reports, studies, surveys, financial programs, budgets, and related research materials from professional societies, non-profit associations, and local, state and federal agencies.

The grades are developed in the simple A to F school report card format, assigning letter grades based on criteria that includes capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience and innovation.  The grades are based on current baseline conditions and represent an evaluation of the current state of the physical infrastructure itself.  The grades are not meant to be a reflection on the agencies responsible for the infrastructure being graded, which are often working with limited resources.

The Report Card has proven to be a successful method of getting the message across on infrastructure conditions and needs and has been effectively used in the press and by elected officials.

The categories that were evaluated in 2022 are Aviation, Bridges, Dams, Drinking Water, Energy, Hazardous Waste, Levees, Ports, Public Parks, Rail, Roads, Solid Waste, Stormwater, Transit and Wastewater.  We anticipate that at least one additional area, Inland Waterways, will be included in the 2026 effort.  More information on this can be found at Pennsylvania Infrastructure | ASCE’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card.

The ASCE PA Council will begin enlisting volunteers for assistance with the category evaluation effort in early 2025.  If you have an interest in being part of the Report Card effort, or you would like to obtain additional information/have questions on this, please contact PA Council Vice Chair Bob Wright (rwright@bowman.com).  You do not have to be an engineer or a member of ASCE to participate in this effort.

Use the Google Form below to express interest in carpooling to the 2024 APA State Conference in Erie!

We are looking for people who are interested in driving and riding within the Southeast and LV-Berks sections. We will work to put you in touch with someone who may be a good fit so you can work out any remaining details.

You may also complete the form at this link.

APAPASE is excited to announce that we will be helping to coordinate carpooling for those interested to the 2024 state conference in Erie this October.

Watch for a follow-up announcement closer to the conference!