ABSTRACT
Civil engineering is as old as civilization. In fact, project management may be at the root of civilization. Some anthropologists argue that managing large-scale irrigation works gave rise to state institutions. Retaining a sense of social responsibility in a climate that valued rapid, commercially profitable development as the ultimate good was difficult. There is no one environment for project management. It is a changing environment. It has never been simple and, as with any evolutionary process, it gets more complex. The passage of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the late 1960s did not transform project management; it formalized approaches to concerns that had always been part of managing large civil engineering projects. Environmental review is not something extra any more; it is certainly not something to be avoided. If begun early enough and performed competently, environmental review becomes just one more of the many components of a project to coordinate.
