At ENR’s annual Award of Excellence, Top 25 Newsmakers and Best of the Best Projects ceremonies held in New York City April 13 and 14, two vital aspects of the construction industry were center stage: workforce safety and the need for public transportation infrastructure.

The 20 projects recognized here are the result of a nearly yearlong effort by ENR editors and roughly 100 construction industry members who judged contest entries at various stages.

In the cartography of human accomplishment, you’ll find ENR’s Top 25 Newsmakers in past years all over the map. I mean that literally and figuratively.

As varied as their backstories and accomplishments are, these 25 Newsmakers are united in their efforts to make the industry—and their communities—better places to live and work. Read their stories here and meet them in person at ENR’s Award of Excellence gala on April 13 at Pier 60 in New York City.

The sudden collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge early on Jan. 28, 2022, gained national attention, occurring the same day as a pre-planned visit to the city by President Joe Biden and just weeks after Congress passed the $1.2-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, in part to restore the safety and integrity of aging U.S. transportation systems.

Team player Kevin Antonelli went from bidder on Google’s Bay View Campus in Mountain View, Calif., in its first iteration a decade ago to later becoming the revamped project’s biggest cheerleader from the owner’s side, helping to successfully and safely complete its ultra-sustainable, complex structures.

Wil V. Srubar III is the common denominator for cotton, cattle, the Houston Astros, the Dept. of Defense, micro algae and Prometheus Materials.

Codes and standards committee work might be viewed as a thankless job. It is unpaid. It takes years to develop new codes and improve old ones.

Mario Rodriguez likes to talk about the word “sawubona”—the Zulu greeting that translates to “I see you.” Engineers, he asserts, just want to be seen for the good work they do.