Innovative Materials in Water Resources Infrastructure: Opportunities for the Corps of Engineers 2025

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) administers the nation’s water resources infrastructure for navigation and flood risk management as part of its Civil Works program. Maintaining, repairing, and modernizing this infrastructure can be demanding and costly because the assets and their components are aging, built at different times, and subject to the stresses of water environments and damage from vessel traffic. Supported by its Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), USACE is addressing these challenges in part through the development, demonstration, and evaluation of innovative materials for use in water resources assets to shorten construction and repair periods, increase durability and maintenance intervals, and lower the life cycle costs. Success in exploiting the potential for innovative materials will not only require continued technological advances but also deliberate and coordinated efforts to promote and incentivize their use when benefits are identified.