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Nearly Three Decades of Keeping TxDOT Projects on Track Keeping a major transportation project on schedule and within budget requires more than monitoring costs; it requires knowing where risks will surface and acting before they disrupt construction. For nearly three decades, Ciro Baeza, PE, has helped keep transportation projects on schedule, within budget, and moving through unexpected challenges. That experience is now taking him to TxDOT’s annual Short Course, where he will serve on a panel discussing the PEPS Budget Dashboard, which provides a consolidated, statewide view of professional engineering service allocations, usage, and future projections. Drawing on 29 years in the transportation and construction industry, including 22 years with TxDOT, Ciro brings a practical perspective to a session focused on allocation planning, standardized district inputs, dashboard metrics, forecasting accuracy, transparency, and allocation stewardship. A Foundation Built Inside TxDOT Ciro’s path started at TxDOT’s Odessa District, where he moved through progressively larger roles: Engineer-in-Training, Interim Design Engineer, Pavement Design Engineer, Area Engineer, and Director of Construction. During that time, he developed plans for rural farm-to-market roads across West Texas, produced cost-efficient pavement designs, and directed construction practices across an entire district. He even conducted forensic pavement analysis with the Texas Transportation Institute to identify why certain designs failed and how future projects could avoid the same fate. That foundation gave Ciro a working knowledge of how TxDOT plans, allocates resources for and evaluates a project long before construction begins. It also taught him that effective budget management depends on more than tracking expenditures: it requires anticipating how design decisions, construction sequencing, field conditions, and timely coordination can affect cost. He carried that owner-side perspective into project and construction management on the consultant side, most recently with DCCM. A Career of Practical Problem-Solving Ciro’s project history demonstrates how practical field decisions can protect both schedules and budgets. On the IH 20 Widening project in Midland, he modified the traffic control plan so contractors could work in two areas simultaneously instead of one, helping finish the project 57 days ahead of schedule. On the SH 302 in the Odessa District, he recommended that TxDOT approve a revised construction sequence that enabled the contractor to reach substantial completion seven months early and generated more than $800,000 in road user savings. Together, these examples illustrate his ability to identify workable changes that deliver measurable value. Hands-On, Transparent, and Safety-First Those who have worked alongside Ciro describe him as hands-on and responsive. He visits active projects weekly, meets with contractors promptly when issues surface, and keeps TxDOT informed so decisions do not stall. That same instinct for clear communication carries into his work as a constructability reviewer, where he studies roadway, bridge, drainage, and utility design packages from the contractor’s point of view, catching phasing conflicts, staging risks, and material concerns before they reach a bid package. Safety runs through all of it. As part of a district traffic safety team, Ciro once reviewed roadway fatalities to identify patterns and mitigation strategies, and those lessons still shape how he approaches every project today, from the first pre-construction meeting to final closeout. Experience That Sets Him Apart Ciro’s value comes from more than the qualifications behind his name. It comes from nearly three decades of making practical decisions where design meets construction and where choices in the field can directly affect schedule, safety, cost, and project outcomes. Whether addressing an issue on a driveway in Culberson County, a ramp in Midland, or a bridge deck in Abilene, he brings the perspective of someone who understands both the immediate decision and its broader impact on the project. That experience strengthens DCCM’s ability to help clients anticipate risks, resolve challenges early, and keep transportation projects moving. That perspective is what Ciro brings to TxDOT’s panel on the PEPS Budget Dashboard. DCCM is proud to see his experience recognized and, more importantly, shared with others responsible for planning and delivering transportation projects. The session will explain the allocation planning process, the key metrics available, and how the dashboards support leadership and district-level decision-making statewide. His lessons are grounded not simply in managing costs, but in knowing where to look, what to anticipate, and when a practical decision can make a measurable difference, which is the same proactive, field-informed approach he brings to DCCM’s clients and project teams every day. Join Ciro at the TxDOT Transportation Short Course The 100th Annual TxDOT Transportation Short Course takes place October 12–14, 2026, at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.  Ciro will participate in the PEPS Budget Dashboard session on October 14, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., in MSC 2300 A&B, Bethancourt Ballroom, with Diana Romero, CTCM, CTCD, TxDOT, and Travis Campbell, PE, TxDOT. Join the presenters to learn how standardized district inputs feed decision-ready views and how the dashboards improve transparency, forecasting accuracy, and allocation stewardship. Planning to attend? Explore the Short Course event details and registration information and join Ciro for the discussion. Supporting Infrastructure Delivery Nationwide DCCM provides design, consulting, and program and construction management for public and private clients across the United States. Our construction management and inspection teams help clients manage costs and schedules, coordinate contractors and utilities, review constructability, and maintain quality oversight through project closeout. Learn more about DCCM’s construction management and inspection capabilities, or connect with our team to discuss support for your next transportation or infrastructure improvement.

A new roadway, neighborhood, public space, school, or utility improvement begins long before design. It begins with questions. How is a community changing? What do residents and businesses need? Where are people having difficulty traveling? Which infrastructure systems can support future growth? What should be addressed now, and what can be phased over time? Planning brings those questions into focus. By combining data, community knowledge, technical analysis, and a long-term view, planners help public agencies understand their options and make informed decisions before committing resources to design and construction. Each October, the American Planning Association recognizes National Community Planning Month and the role planning plays in creating safer, more resilient, more equitable, and more prosperous communities. For DCCM, the month is also an opportunity to highlight the important work that happens before many visible infrastructure improvements take shape. In This Article How planners turn existing conditions and future needs into practical choices Why public input and technical data are both essential to the process How alternatives analysis helps communities evaluate tradeoffs What allows a plan to move from a document to implementation Maps and displays help participants explore planning ideas and share local perspectives during a public input session. What Happens Before a Project Is Designed? Communities rarely begin with a single, clearly defined solution. They may be experiencing congestion along a growing corridor, repeated drainage concerns, pressure for new development, changing housing needs, or demand for safer walking and bicycling connections. The visible problem may be clear, but the best response often is not. Planning establishes the foundation for that decision. The process may include documenting existing conditions, identifying community priorities, forecasting future needs, evaluating constraints, and comparing possible improvements. It also considers how one decision could affect other systems, including transportation, utilities, land use, the environment, public services, and economic development. This early work helps agencies avoid designing a solution before they fully understand the problem. Key takeaway: Planning does not begin by asking, “What should we build?” It begins by asking, “What are we trying to improve?” How Does Data Reveal What a Community Needs? Good planning depends on more than observation. Planners use data to understand how a community functions today and how conditions may change over time. Depending on the assignment, that information may include: Population and development trends Traffic volumes, travel patterns, and crash history Walking, bicycling, and transit connections Existing land uses and development regulations Utility and infrastructure capacity Environmental conditions and flood risk Community facilities and public services Right-of-way, funding, and implementation constraints The goal is not simply to collect information. It is to identify relationships. A transportation concern may be connected to development patterns. A redevelopment opportunity may depend on utility capacity. A proposed safety improvement may affect nearby properties or access to local businesses. By examining these connections early, planners can help decision-makers understand both immediate needs and long-term consequences. GIS brings aerial imagery and location data together to help teams plan and manage infrastructure. Why Does Public Input Matter? Data can show where traffic slows, where crashes occur, or where development is expected. The people who use a street, neighborhood, park, or public facility every day provide another essential form of knowledge. Residents may identify a difficult crossing that is not apparent from a map. Business owners may explain how delivery access affects daily operations. School staff may describe arrival and dismissal patterns that occur during a narrow window. Property owners may raise concerns about access, drainage, or right-of-way. Public engagement gives planners the opportunity to test assumptions, identify concerns, and explain potential tradeoffs before recommendations are finalized. Open houses, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, surveys, workshops, and online tools can each serve a different purpose within that process. Effective engagement does not mean every participant will prefer the same solution. It means the planning process clearly documents what the community values, where concerns remain, and how public input informed the recommendations. Jack Schick and Elijah Wheeler share their local travel experiences at an H-GAC public meeting in Houston, bringing firsthand insight to regional transportation planning. How Do Communities Compare Different Options? Most planning decisions involve tradeoffs. An improvement that increases roadway capacity could affect pedestrian comfort or adjacent properties. A new connection could improve access while introducing environmental or construction challenges. A preferred concept must also be practical to fund, permit, design, and build. Alternatives analysis gives communities a consistent way to compare options. Evaluation criteria may include: Safety Mobility and accessibility Community support Property and right-of-way impacts Environmental considerations Cost and funding eligibility Constructability Long-term operations and maintenance The strongest recommendation is not necessarily the largest or most expensive option. It is the one that responds most effectively to the community’s priorities, constraints, and available resources. Planning in Practice: Cedar Bayou Crossing Corridor Study DCCM conducted a corridor study for a proposed Cedar Bayou crossing in the Harris County and Baytown area of Texas. The study explored potential alignments for a new east-to-west connection and assessed whether the crossing was feasible. To compare options, the team examined existing roadways, traffic patterns, crash data, transit operations, and the corridor’s hydrology and environmental conditions. Public meetings and other community outreach brought local perspectives into the process. The study concluded with recommended improvements, preliminary plans for several alternatives and their estimated costs, and a preferred alignment. It shows how planning can bring technical findings and community input together to guide a decision before detailed design begins. What Turns a Plan into Action? A plan creates value when its recommendations can be carried forward. That requires more than a compelling vision. Actionable plans identify priorities, responsible parties, potential funding sources, implementation phases, and ways to measure progress. They distinguish between improvements that can begin relatively quickly and those requiring additional study, coordination, design, or funding. Plans must also be adaptable. Communities change, funding opportunities emerge, development patterns shift, and new information becomes available. Establishing a process for monitoring conditions and revisiting priorities helps a plan remain useful after its initial adoption.

Every river is in motion, even when its surface looks calm. Water moves around bends, carries sediment, reshapes banks, and responds to floods and changes upstream. Those processes affect the places people live, the infrastructure they rely on, and the health of the river itself. For World Rivers Day, DCCM’s Coraggio Maglio, PE, VP, Water & Coastal Resources Business Line Leader, takes us behind the model to explore how engineers study these changing systems and use what they learn to make more informed decisions. https://vimeo.com/1230383156 What can river modeling tell us A river model brings together information about a waterway, its surrounding landscape, and the forces acting on it. Engineers can use it to examine how water may move during different conditions, where velocities may increase, and how a proposed change could affect the system. The model does not replace observation and field data; it helps teams test questions that are difficult to answer by looking at the river alone. Why sediment movement matters Rivers carry and deposit sediment as flows change. That movement can build new areas, erode banks, alter channels, and influence how a river behaves during a flood. Understanding those patterns helps engineers evaluate risks to nearby communities and infrastructure while considering the river’s natural processes. Planning for a changing river Past conditions provide a starting point, but rivers and the landscapes around them continue to change. Engineers examine a range of possible flows and future conditions to understand how a proposed solution may perform over time. That broader view supports decisions about flood mitigation, bank stabilization, navigation, and other river improvements. World Rivers Day is a chance to appreciate rivers as living, changing systems and to consider the work needed to understand them. Watch the video to hear Coraggio explain what river modeling can reveal and why the movement we cannot always see matters. Learn more about DCCM’s water resources and river engineering work.

Each September, National Preparedness Month encourages individuals, families, businesses, and communities to take practical steps before an emergency occurs. FEMA’s 2026 theme, Americans Stand Ready, recognizes the resourcefulness and shared responsibility that help communities respond to disruption and recover more effectively. Preparedness may begin at home, but it extends far beyond an emergency kit. Roads must remain accessible. Drainage systems must move stormwater safely. Water, wastewater, power, and communication networks must continue supporting essential needs. Public agencies need reliable information, coordinated plans, and the capacity to act quickly. Hazards vary across the nation, but the principle remains the same: preparation is most effective when it starts well before an emergency. Start with Five Practical Actions Preparedness does not have to happen all at once. Use National Preparedness Month to complete or update these five essentials: Know your local risks. Learn which hazards are most likely where you live, work, and travel. Review local evacuation zones, flood information, shelter locations, and emergency procedures. Make a communication plan. Decide how household members or coworkers will reconnect if phone service is limited. Choose an out-of-area contact and identify meeting locations. Include plans for children, older adults, people with disabilities, medical needs, and pets. Build and maintain emergency supplies. Keep water, nonperishable food, medications, flashlights, batteries, chargers, first-aid supplies, copies of important documents, and other essentials in an accessible location. Prepare smaller kits for vehicles and workplaces when appropriate. Receive alerts from more than one source. Enable Wireless Emergency Alerts on mobile devices and subscribe to state or local alert systems. A battery-powered or hand-crank weather radio can provide information when power or cellular service is interrupted. Practice the plan. A plan is more useful when everyone understands it. Walk through evacuation routes, shelter procedures, employee responsibilities, and backup communication methods. Update the plan after moves, staffing changes, new medical needs, or changes to local risk. FEMA provides free tools to help households make a plan and build an emergency kit. Organizations can also use the Ready Business resources to review continuity planning, employee communications, data protection, and operational recovery. Prepare for the Risks in Your Region With teams serving communities nationwide, DCCM understands that preparedness priorities are shaped by local conditions. The examples below highlight several regions within our national footprint and the hazards most relevant to those communities. Gulf Coast, Texas, and the Southeast Florida, Louisiana, coastal Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee can experience hurricanes, flooding, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, extreme heat, and extended power outages. Inland Texas communities may also face drought and wildfire. Know your evacuation zone, identify more than one route to safety, and learn which roads commonly flood. Choose a sturdy shelter location away from windows for tornadoes and severe winds. Plan for medications, mobility needs, pets, and prolonged heat or power loss. Follow local officials during an emergency, and never drive onto a flooded roadway. Indiana and the Midwest Indiana communities prepare for severe storms, tornadoes, river and flash flooding, winter weather, temperature extremes, and power outages. Know the safest location at home, work, and school. Keep emergency supplies in vehicles, especially during winter, and plan for interruptions to heating, cooling, travel, and communications. Businesses and public agencies should identify the staff, systems, suppliers, and backup resources required to maintain critical operations. California California communities may face wildfire, earthquake, flooding, landslide, extreme heat, drought, and power disruptions. In wildfire-prone areas, prepare a go-bag, maintain more than one evacuation route, and follow local guidance for defensible space. For earthquakes, practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On, secure heavy items, and keep supplies accessible. The U.S. Geological Survey’s ShakeAlert system can warn that strong shaking is expected imminently. Preparedness at the Community Scale Personal readiness is essential, but community resilience also depends on the systems people rely on every day. For public agencies, utilities, school systems, businesses, and property owners, preparedness means understanding vulnerabilities, prioritizing improvements, and having the right technical and operational support available before, during, and after an event. DCCM supports that work through a broad range of services, including: Hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, watershed studies, floodplain management, and drainage master planning Stormwater, detention, flood-control, river, coastal, and erosion-control improvements Water and wastewater planning, pump and lift stations, pipelines, and utility coordination Transportation planning and design that support reliable access, mobility, and recovery Surveying, subsurface utility engineering, GIS, and digital mapping that provide accurate information for planning and field response Building safety, code consultation, Wildland Urban Interface review, and inspection services Environmental planning, permitting, and restoration support Program and project management, construction management and inspection, municipal staff augmentation, emergency response, and disaster recovery support These services connect preparedness to the physical systems that support daily life. Risk studies and field data help communities see where vulnerabilities exist. Planning and design translate that information into practical improvements. Construction oversight helps ensure those improvements are delivered as intended. Program management and staff support help agencies coordinate funding, permitting, communication, and recovery across many projects and stakeholders. Resilience in Practice In Auburndale, Florida, the PK Avenue Stormwater & Roadway Improvements addressed chronic roadway flooding within a 261-acre urban drainage basin. DCCM helped develop a concept that combined transportation and stormwater improvements, including bioretention swales, pervious parking with subsurface storage, and a one-acre retention pond. The improvements demonstrate how communities can reduce flood risk while enhancing mobility, water quality, and public spaces. Along the Upper Mississippi River, DCCM completed a hydrodynamic and sediment-transport study to evaluate the risk of the river forming a cutoff across the Dogtooth Island Peninsula following a levee breach. A high-resolution, two-dimensional model helped assess floodplain conditions, flow patterns, and sediment movement while evaluating structural and nonstructural alternatives. The study provided USACE with critical information to support risk-informed river management decisions. On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, DCCM provided hydraulic modeling, analysis, and design support for improvements along Turpentine Run, where the surrounding community has experienced decades of flooding from hurricanes, tropical storms, and major rainfall events. The work evaluated existing and proposed conditions and informed improvements designed