“If we talk about it just as repair, it doesn’t quite always elevate the conversation to where it needs to be,” says Eric Haught, Executive Director of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). He describes ICRI’s mission as making the built world “safer and last longer,” with sustainability at its core. His favorite example is an ICRI Project of the Year winner in Minneapolis: Third Avenue Bridge, a historic bridge over the Mississippi River. It was in dire need of repair, and the state and local authorities chose to keep it in service instead of tearing it down.
For Eric, that decision makes the trade-off real: keeping the embodied carbon already built into the bridge, and keeping a structure that is both vital and historic.
Eric has the same conversation at home. His son is a civil engineer who wants his work to matter. Eric sees that across the younger generation: “People want more than just a paycheck. They want to understand that what they’re doing makes a difference.” He sees P+Ex helping to show the reasons people stay in this field: sustainability, longevity and historic preservation.
Wherever you work in this industry, this mission is yours too. Bring your experience, tell the story, and join us.
