Highlights from Texas CECON 2025— A Conference to Break Barriers of Our Industry

December 2025

By Carlos Balderrama PE (LJA), CECON 2025 Senior Planning Committee Co-Chair

This September in San Marcos, almost 700 members of the civil engineering community gathered to celebrate the future of civil engineering at the Texas Civil Engineering Conference (CECON). The 3-day event, organized by dedicated volunteers and ASCE Texas staff members, allows engineers to develop professionally, build business relationships, and engage in peer-to-peer technical exchange.

Roughly 12 years ago, several Texas Section Leaders had a vision when starting this engineering conference. That vision was to provide a conference that covered the breadth and depth of civil engineering. After years of dedication and collaboration, that goal has been achieved through partnerships with four ASCE Texas Institutes Chapters: the Geotechnical Institute (GI), the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI), the Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI), and the Construction Institute (CI). Through these partnerships, CECON has been able to structure a comprehensive program with professional development tracks tailored to its members and specialties.

Hosted at the Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Hotel Conference Center, CECON 2025 provided a way for design consultants, contractors, manufacturers, agencies, students, and other professionals to relax, reconnect with peers and colleagues, strengthen their technical knowledge, and gain insights that help raise awareness of the profession and inspire future engineers to choose civil engineering. This year also marked our final year in San Marcos, making the gathering especially meaningful as attendees celebrated the close of an era and looked ahead to the next chapter of CECON.

Attendees expressed their delight with this year’s event, highlighting how it exceeded all expectations in every aspect. From the thoughtfully curated programming content to the impressive lineup of exhibitors and engaging speakers, the conference showcased an exceptional level of quality and professionalism. On behalf of the Planning Committee, Thank You all for attending and for helping to push our industry forward into the future.

On behalf of the ASCE Texas CECON Planning Committee, we would like to thank all our event supporters, sponsors, industry partners, and exhibitors. Your support of our community and profession is appreciated and invaluable to our success.

Breaking Barriers

This year, the theme was Breaking Barriers. Engineers are entrusted with protecting the health, safety, property, and welfare of the public, and fulfilling that responsibility requires overcoming technological, social, procedural, and physical barriers. CECON 2025 showcased the pioneers leading the way in that progress. Presentations focused on meaningful advancements in leadership, succession planning, design innovation, safety, operations, technology, process improvement, communication, collaboration, and construction methods and materials. The program celebrated both success stories and lessons learned, providing an honest and valuable exchange of knowledge so our profession can continue to grow, adapt, and enhance Texas infrastructure.

The CECON 2025 opening ceremony began with the opening keynote speaker, Kenneth Mika PE, BC.GE, F.ASCE, and Carol Haddock PE, MPA, F.ASCE. Carol is the incoming President Elect for ASCE and professor-in-the-practice at Rice University. It was only fitting that we started this conference by having Carol and Ken give a presentation on the future of ASCE.

UNIQUE CONFERENCE OFFERINGS

The second keynote of the conference was a unique presentation with the Texas Water Development Board. This presentation was provided by Reem Zoun PE, Assistant Deputy Executive Administrator, offering attendees a glimpse into the ongoing efforts to invest in water-related planning. The new state flood plan outlines the Texas Water Development Board’s major initiatives, legislative funding actions, and long-term priorities for strengthening Texas water and flood infrastructure, including new revenue dedicated to the Texas Water Fund and expanded program eligibility under recent legislation. It concludes with an overview of funding programs such as the Flood Infrastructure Fund, recent appropriations, and the role of continued planning and investment in reducing future flood impacts.

Following the TWDB keynote was a TxDOT TP&D Panel Discussion. Panelists included Roberto Rodriguez PE (Director of TP&D – Laredo), Heather Ashley-Nguyen (Director of TP&D – Austin), and Richard De La Cruz PE (Director of TP&D – San Antonio). Melissa Montemayor served as moderator for this informative discussion about the insights into the Transportation Planning & Development department, in the different TxDOT Districts in Texas. The rest of the afternoon held breakout sessions, which included the specialty tracks curated by the members of the partner ASCE Texas Institute Chapters.

Wednesday evening, attendees were treated to a fun Tailgate evening social at the hotel. Attendees and families joined in the activities, including cornhole, axe throwing, and more. We even received a surprise visit from the Texas State University Mascot, Boko the Bobcat, and members of the cheer squad. This evening was a highlight for many conferencegoers and their families.

As with the previous day, Thursday morning began with coffee with Daphne Kent (North Central Texas InterLink) to discuss the Texas Labor Market and Economic Development, providing an excellent opportunity for attendees to discover employment and economic trends in Texas. With Texas’s economic success, the state offers a highly favorable business climate, attracting companies from across the globe. The future outlook for the Texas economy will lead to investment in infrastructure and entrepreneurship innovation.   

After a short break, the conference resumed with the much-anticipated Design Build Panel, marking the inaugural discussion of its kind at the event. Moderated by Patrick Tarlton, the panel featured an impressive lineup of leaders from various technology sectors: Shri Eathalapake PE, PMP, CMQ/OE (LJA), Clint Harris PE (Corsair Consulting, LLC), Steve Hrncir PE (HNTB), Eduardo Suescun PE, PhD (Ferrovial Construction), and Derrick Horvath PE (Cobb Fendley). The panel delved into a range of pressing topics related to the evolution of Design Build in Texas. Each panelist brought a unique perspective based on their respective projects and backgrounds, sparking an engaging discussion on lessons learned, best practices for team alignment, and how Design Build continues to transform project delivery across Texas.

After the panel and sessions, CECON hosted the highly anticipated Technology & Innovation Build Panel, which included Steve Archer PE as the moderator and panelists Erika Kemp PMP (TxDOT), Luke Urie PMP (AECOM), Jeremiah Kuntz (Aurora), Karlis Ozolins (SPH Engineering), and Christine Breakfield MPA, CBO (DigEPlan). The panelists engaged in a robust discussion about the evolving needs of the engineering community as emerging technologies move from small-scale pilots to mainstream adoption, highlighting the opportunities and challenges that come with integrating new tools, data systems, and innovations into everyday practice.

The afternoon was packed with breakout sessions covering a vast array of topics, including 100 Years of Roadway Foundation by Donavan Spotsville (Solmax), Bringing Automation into Structural Health Monitoring and Assessment of Bridges presented by Zhibin Lin PE (UTA), and Developing an AI-driven ConcreteVision Framework presented by Derek White PE, PhD (Civiltronics).

Following these highly informative sessions, attendees had the opportunity to earn additional continuing education credits through technical presentations before transitioning to a more relaxed atmosphere. Our Happy Hour gave attendees a chance to network and mingle with colleagues and industry supporters in a relaxed setting before taking their seats again to listen to a fun, inspirational Keynote message from Michael Hingson, motivational speaker and author.

HONORING OUTSTANDING CIVIL ENGINEERING PROJECTS & LEADERS

Thursday concluded with the eagerly anticipated ASCE Texas Section Annual Awards Ceremony and Casino Night Gala: Night at the Haunted High Rise. A packed room of attendees supported and celebrated the 2025 ASCE Texas Section annual award recipients for their outstanding achievements and excellence in the field. Planned by the ASCE Texas Section Younger Member Committee, this year’s gala had everyone feeling like winners with several casino table games to choose from and a variety of prizes as payouts!

ASCE Texas Section 2025 President Mark Boyd PE, PhD and Honors Committee Chair Michael Gurka PE emceed the Awards Ceremony, honoring the following award recipients:

• Government Civil Engineer Award: Genest Landry PE, PMP
• Professional Service to Students Award: Eva Reynal PE
• History & Heritage Award: Edward Penton PE
• Professional Service Award: Julia Clarke PE, F.ASCE
• Service to People Award: Ron Reichert
• John A. Focht Jr. Citizen Engineer Award: Glenn Goldstein PE, PMP, PMI-RMP
• Award of Honor: Sean Merrell PE, PTOE
• Young Civil Engineer Award: Gilbert Portillo PE
• Outstanding Civil Engineer Student Award: Nisha Sthapit MS, EIT
• Texas OCEA Award: Project 11: Houston Ship Channel Expansion, Segments 1-2 (Port of Houston and AECOM, and GBA (joint venture))
• Texas OCEA Award of Merit: Northaven Trail Bridge (HNTB and TxDOT-Dallas District)

SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION

The third and final day of CECON 2025 kicked off on a high note with a morning packed full of a last-minute additional keynote, The Story of the July 4th Guadalupe River Flood Event by Charlie Hastings PE, CFM, and Matthew Pantell PE, CFM. It went into an in-depth, exclusive look at the events of the 4^th of July Floods. Afterwards, a well-attended Ethics keynote by Aaron Mann and breakout sessions, continuing to include specialty tracks by our partnering Institutes. Friday’s sessions included the best technical and industry practice topics like Full Depth Reclamation – The Benefits & Innovations presented by Richard B Rogers PE(Richard B Rogers, P.E., LLC), Navigating the New Wave of PFAS Regulations presented Swaroop Puchalapalli (STV), and Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE): How to Use it Effectively & Efficiently presented by Jim Herbert PE (Cobb Fendley)

The combined ASCE Texas Section Business Meeting and Luncheon on the “State of Our Community” was presented by ASCE & Texas Section Leaders including Jenni Peters CAE (ASCE Texas Section Executive Director), Mark Boyd PE, PhD (ASCE Texas Section President 2025), and Russell Carter PE (ASCE Incoming Texas Section President 2026).

What better way to bring home our theme, “Breaking Barriers”, than by having our final Keynote of the conference, Robert Schraeder PE, President of Schraeder Solutions, the second speaker in the Texas Civil Engineering Foundation (TCEF) Leadership Series, with an inspiring presentation that embodied the essence of visionary leadership. This presentation is an inspiring exploration of how civil engineers can break barriers and elevate their roles from managing to truly leading, drawing on Robert Schraeder’s real-world experiences and timeless principles for building strong teams and thriving in complex project environments.

A guided tour of the Steven M. Clouse Water Recycling Center by the San Antonio Water Systems concluded the conference. This behind-the-scenes experience offered attendees a firsthand look at one of the region’s most innovative water infrastructure projects. Participants were introduced to the facility’s advanced systems and processes, designed to maximize the reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and industrial use.

LOOKING FORWARD

ASCE Texas Section’s CECON Planning Committee strives to make each year better than the last, incorporating lessons learned and best practices discovered the year before. The Committee has already begun planning for CECON 2026: “Revitalizing Resiliency”. We look forward to seeing you in Corpus Christi, Texas, September 16-18, 2026!