Civil Engineers & Constructors, LLC

10/16/2026

What looks good on a drawing also needs to make sense in the field—and in the client’s budget.

AGC’s September report shows nonresidential construction input prices increased 11.9% over the past year. With costs moving that much, engineering decisions can make a real difference in what a project ultimately costs to build.

At CEC, working alongside our construction teammates at RP Constructors lets us look at those decisions together. Can we simplify the installation? Is another material a better fit? Will a change save labor without sacrificing performance?

The least expensive material isn’t always the least expensive installed option. Having engineers and builders work through those questions early helps us give our clients practical designs and better information before they commit to construction.

https://agc.informz.net/agc/pages/Data_DIGest_20261016?_zs=xwRPo1&_zmi=FU661

10/05/2026

China just switched on an underwater data center off Shanghai, powered by offshore wind and cooled by the ocean. Zero fresh water.

Cool engineering. But Microsoft tested the same idea for years with Project Natick, proved servers fail at 1/8th the land rate, then shelved it. You can't swap a GPU on the seafloor, and subsea tops out at tens of MW while AI campuses are pushing 1 GW.

The takeaway for the rest of us: the ocean doesn't scale, so water on land still has to be solved. Closed-loop cooling, reuse water, and wastewater infrastructure for data center campuses is what our teams design and build every day.

10/01/2026

Our principal engineer, Ryan Callaghan, PE, came across a Facebook post of a golf neighborhood in Madinaty, Egypt, and asked a simple question: how would this design pencil in the Midwest?

About 30 minutes with AI later, he had an answer.

🔹 Counted the homes from a satellite screenshot
🔹 Redrew the site as a classic U.S. grid and as a code-compliant cul-de-sac layout
🔹 Ran a rough development proforma on all three

The results:

The U.S. grid fit the most lots and made the least money. Streets are expensive.
The Egyptian design made the most money, but its cul-de-sacs are too small to pass U.S. fire code.
The code-compliant version gave up 16 lots and about $400k, at the same margin.

It's rough, but directionally correct, and that's the point.

AI is most powerful in the hands of someone who already understands the problem. It doesn't replace experience, it multiplies it. The AI did the counting and the spreadsheets. Ryan's 30 years as an engineer, contractor and developer told it what to check: fire code turnaround sizes, what pipe actually costs per foot, and why a good-looking layout can still lose money.

That's what the RP/CEC team brings to every project. We have the experience to ask the right questions and the tools to answer them fast.

08/07/2026

A year ago, this was a cornfield. Before long, it will be a neighborhood filled with families calling Union Crossing home.

We’re proud that Civil Engineers & Constructors served as the Engineer of Record for this development and had the opportunity to work alongside the North Sioux City Economic Development Corporation, City Of North Sioux City, State of South Dakota Housing Development Authority South Dakota, PBR Capital Group, and many other partners to help bring this vision to life. Union Crossing is a great example of what can be accomplished through a strong public-private partnership, and we’re honored to have played a role in creating much-needed housing and investing in the future of our region.

RP Constructors, LLC

08/06/2026

South Dakota just got ranked #2 best state in the country by U.S. News. Up from #8 last year. Opportunity came in at #5.

Good company to be in.

We're proud CEC calls this state home base. It's not an accident that a state with strong opportunity rankings also happens to be full of the kind of work ethic that makes engineering and construction actually get done right - on time, on budget, no drama.

That momentum is part of why we're expanding north. We just opened a Sioux Falls office and we're staffing up.

If you want to build a career somewhere that's actually going in the right direction, come find us there.

If this is your kind of work, we should talk.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-dakota?fbclid=IwY2xjawTgkXVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFYaDk1aHF4cHhFNGpZcjZuc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuMGnOZH909LfoixXGNW2L5KKw3casqIey0VGckLcMT7fq1nU1p6oD9M_SC7_aem_l_2QoRJcqoMF9FTg-LYCOg

U.S. News & World Report ranks all 50 states.

06/10/2026

South of Phoenix. Desert floor. 105°. Full send.

The CEC crew is out here doing topo survey work for a wastewater design project in the desert Southwest — GPS rovers, ground control points, drones in the air. The whole setup.

Yes, we work in Arizona. Yes, it’s hot. No, we would not have chosen June for this. (January is right there on the calendar. Just saying.)

This is for a long-time client we’ve been building with for years — the kind of relationship where you don’t have to explain the scope twice and everyone shows up knowing what needs to get done. That’s the work worth doing.

If you’re in the Phoenix area, live for this kind of field work, and want to be the guy setting ground control in the desert instead of sitting in a cubicle — we should talk.

06/05/2026

An excellent and exciting project we are proud to be the engineer of record on!

06/05/2026

We are happy to serve as the engineer of record on this important project for Siouxland!

06/05/2026

Even the bacteria in this SBR designed by CEC and built by RP Constructors, LLC and Wa Klinger Inc are happy it’s the weekend!

05/11/2026