Building the Grid the Country Runs On: Electric Transmission Infrastructure

Electric generation and transmission requires tremendous amounts of infrastructure. Renewing and growing the nation’s electrical grid requires many engineering disciplines, including civil engineers. Renewable generation, data centers, and electrification are pushing demand far beyond what today's transmission network can carry, while much of that network is already decades past its design life.

Meeting this moment is a multidisciplinary challenge with civil engineering playing a critical role. Every transmission line depends on foundation design, structural analysis, siting, permitting, and constructability decisions long before a single conductor is energized.

This talk walks through how civil engineers work with other disciplines to shape transmission projects from the ground up. Drawing on real project examples from the transmission industry, students will leave with a clear picture of where civil engineering fits into one of the country's most active and consequential infrastructure sectors — and the career paths available across the engineering disciplines that help build it.