A journalist's notebook: megaprojects, civil rights, college football, and the places where they meet.
West Editor, Engineering News-Record
C.J. Schexnayder has written for Engineering News-Record since 2004, covering the projects, the people, the money flows, and the workforce dynamics that shape what gets built. He has served as West Editor since 2022.
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Structural analysis of the NCTCOG vs. Regional Transportation Council court fight over Michael Morris's role. Argues the dispute exposes a flaw at the core of every Metropolitan Planning Organization that becomes consequential as size and stakes rise.
Read the full essay →Personal essay arguing AI may finally close construction's decades-long productivity gap, the industry's most persistent structural challenge, with examples of how planning, sequencing and field workflows are already shifting.
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance undergoes a $1.8-billion rebuild, the largest capital health-care improvement ever undertaken by Los Angeles County, serving 3 million residents and 90,000 annual emergency visits.
A sample from the full archive across construction, sports history, Alabama, Latin America, and civil rights.
The landmark school-desegregation case that reshaped Alabama public education, and what it cost the families who brought it to court.
Alejandro Toledo got 20 years for taking $35M in bribes to approve construction of the Interoceanic Highway, a road I had been photographing on the ground in 2008.
After two decades of canal coverage, a new chapter: a six-year, $1.6B Rio Indio reservoir project to keep the canal flowing in an era of climate-driven dry years.