“Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment” by Grady Hillhouse

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Rating: 4/5 Stars.

A fascinating book that looks at the engineering that goes into the infrastructure that you can see around you. It should give the reader an appreciation of the planning, design, construction and management that goes into making the infrastructure ‘just work’ and fade into the background of daily life: until a breakdown makes it clear how vital the infrastructure is.

The book starts with the electrical grid, covering how electricity is generated and distributed. Next, the book looks at communication systems, from landlines and mobile phones, to how messages are sent to distant countries.

Roads are covered in the next section, covering the various kinds of roads and road traffic, traffic signals, the design of roads, road shoulders and embankments. Highways and interchanges are also covered. Bridges and tunnels are then covered, showing how they are designed, constructed, and maintained. Trains and railways are then featured in the next section.

Dams, levees and coastal structures are then covered, showing how they contain or hold back bodies of water. Municipal water and wastewater systems are then featured, showing how water is cleaned and moved to users and how wastewater is treated so that is can be discharged safely back into the environment.

The final section covers construction, showing how a construction site that looks ‘chaotic’ to outsiders is well-orchestrated to ensure the construction is executed efficiently but with safety in mind.

Readers should get a better appreciation of how the infrastructure they see around them works, and what some structures that appear here and there in urban areas may be for. They would get an appreciation of just how much thought and engineering goes into some of the infrastructure to ensure they are safe for people to use in their daily lives.

Book read from 2026/03/06 to 2026/03/12.