Learning about the blue economy with San Diego’s Tim Barrett and ECOncrete’s Andrew Rella

May’s mid-month episode of The Engineers Collective features New Civil Engineer’s features editor Nadine Buddoo, and reporter Catherine Kennedy.

The pair go international and chat to two special guests in The Port of San Diego in the United States of America. Joining them to talk about the blue economy model and its connection to innovative infrastructure solutions is Tim Barrett, senior environmental specialist for the Port of San Diego’s environmental conservation department, and Andrew Rella, global director of engineering for eco-engineering company ECOncrete. 

The beginning of this episode addresses the ‘blue economy incubator’, a programme for entrepreneurs to encourage new blue economy businesses. One of these ‘pilot projects’ involves a partnership with ECOncrete to demonstrate a brand new design of the Coastalock Tide Pool Armor on Harbour Island. The pair talk about what this project is and how the three-year pilot is due to progress, as well as the potential impacts of its success.

As with every broad topic in 2021, climate change and sustainability are two big questions put to Andrew and Tim, who explain the impact of ECOncrete and the mitigation in place to protect the existing coastline and coastal ecosystems.

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