Brent D’Angelo, Transportation Branch Chief, Denver Service Center (DSC)

Brent D'Angelo

NPS

Can you briefly describe your background and how you became interested in engineering, particularly within the National Park Service (NPS)?

My father and brother were both involved in the construction trades which exposed me to building and construction at an early age. By high school, I knew that a career path in construction or engineering fields laid ahead. Throughout college, I gained a deeper appreciation of environmental and resource protection, leading me to study both environmental and civil engineering. After graduating college, I settled into the civil engineering practice and have had a very fulfilling career working within a large breadth of project work types ranging from roads, bridges, buildings, military, residential, to environmental and historic structure restoration.

Like most civil engineers, I greatly enjoy solving novel problems that can positively impact people, public works, and society as a whole. Working at the NPS allows me to align my innate interests as an engineer, while allowing me to contribute to the resiliency, sustainability, and enjoyment of some of this country’s most amazing historic, cultural, and natural treasures.

What projects or initiatives have you been involved in that align with this year's Engineers Week theme of "Welcome to the Future"?

To me, the theme “Welcome to the Future” is analogous with the idea of “Building with Resiliency.” For the last decade, “resiliency” has been a common theme in most of the projects that I have been involved with. Engineers typically incorporate project design features that increase resiliency to accommodate anticipated conditions. Examples include:

• Restoring both building and road infrastructure after wildfire with more fire protective materials and construction methods,

• Using landslide mitigation measures using more durable geo-stabilization slope repair and protection methods,

• Protecting against damages from future flood events using more rigorous flood/storm drainage designs and hydrologic/hydraulic modeling,

• Protecting against structural failure due to increased snow loads,

• Constructing marine waterfront infrastructure to accommodate anticipated increased storm intensities, and sea level rise.

How do you believe engineering is shaping the future of conservation efforts and heritage preservation within the NPS?

NPS engineers use a multidisciplinary approach to collaborate with a multitude of subject matter experts including but not limited to environmental, historic, and cultural resource specialists to implement innovative solutions that promote the preservation and conservation of NPS heritage assets. We can achieve long-lasting positive impacts by integrating the principles of conservation with cutting edge engineering techniques. As an example, historical monuments often suffer from structural instability due to the passage of time and environmental factors. When approached with this issue, NPS engineers employ various sophisticated tools and techniques to assess the integrity of these structures to help implement appropriate restoration measures. Focusing on both form and function, NPS engineers leverage advancements in material and construction science to develop tailored solutions to reinforce foundations, repair structural damages, and prevent further deterioration.

What advice would you give to students or professionals interested in pursuing a career in engineering, especially within the context of national parks and conservation?

The diversity and combination of asset types managed by the NPS is truly immense. The engineering solutions developed to conserve these national treasures are almost always novel in order to be context sensitive and enduring. Because of this, multidisciplinary collaboration on this front is almost always critical for success.

For students and professionals alike, I would strongly recommend focusing on obtaining real world experience on a variety of diverse project types. It is also very beneficial for this experience to comprise all facets of a project or asset’s life cycle. Individuals interested in working with the NPS should focus special attention toward refining their ability to coordinate, cooperate, and communicate with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders.