Skip to content
MarketScale
‹ Back to IndustriesEngineering & Construction

Is More Smart Tech the Answer to Public Transportation’s Growing Pains?

On this special episode of MarketScale TV from the MarketScale Tradeshow Booth, Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin talked with Paul Doherty, President & CEO, The Digit Group, a smart city solution provider, giving solutions on everything from master planning and architectural design services to real-world implementations of blockchain and IoT solutions. Litwin and Doherty…

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Engineering & Construction teams put it to work with Partner & Channel Enablement.

Share
Is More Smart Tech the Answer to Public Transportation’s Growing Pains?

Get featured

Want to get featured in MarketScale Engineering & Construction?

Create a free MarketScale workspace and get your company's expertise featured across our Engineering & Construction coverage. No credit card, no demo required.

Start free

On this special episode of MarketScale TV from the MarketScale Tradeshow Booth, Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin talked with Paul Doherty, President & CEO, The Digit Group, a smart city solution provider, giving solutions on everything from master planning and architectural design services to real-world implementations of blockchain and IoT solutions.

Litwin and Doherty did a mid-year smart city check-in to see how the pandemic and the last six months have introduced some new opportunities, as well as some challenges for the broader push toward smart cities. In this robust analysis, the duo dug into the Biden Administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan to boost America’s lagging grid. This money would go toward bridges and roads, expanding broadband access, and public transit over the course of eight years.

But, it’s still hard to see if the package will invest money in smart cities or that is another group of investments.

“When we get into the geopolitics of how this is positioned for messaging, we have to appeal to a huge component of this which is the localized generation of jobs. And, here’s the problem: as a global industry, we do not have enough workers.” – Paul Doherty

Doherty likened the issue to electric vehicles, saying that if most people shifted to electric vehicles, the U.S. power grid could not handle it. It is the same thing with this bill. If a lot of investment goes into building new infrastructure, we would have to rely on robotics.

He also noted that some of the infrastructure investment would have to focus on smart buildings that diffuse air, which will help during the next pandemic. Listen to hear more about Doherty’s thoughts on the potential infrastructure package and the mid-year smart city update.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale

Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Engineering & Construction starts with a company putting its project engineers, superintendents, and estimators on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Owners shortlist firms they already trust, and your field leaders become the reason your name is on that list.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.
B2B Weekly

The week in Engineering & Construction, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Engineering & Construction: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Engineering & Construction buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Engineering & Construction expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your project engineers, superintendents, and estimators into the articles, video, and social content Engineering & Construction buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0, no credit card, nothing that expires

More Engineering & Construction Insights

Packaging robots can beat labor long term on cost, PMMI argues

Packaging robots can beat labor long term on cost, PMMI argues

PMMI's Tom Egan wrote in Processing Magazine that adding packaging automation and robotics can now be justified as more cost-effective over the long term than the high cost of labor in food, beverage and CPG plants. Separately, Packaging World describes AI-enabled AMRs from ABB and Agilox that automate material movement between packaging stations. The remaining gap is adoption among smaller manufacturers.

  • 01Two reference points for infrastructure-light material movement: ABB's Flexley Mover P603 carries 1,500 kg with sub-centimeter positioning and no floor markers, and Agilox's OFL lifts 800 kg pallets on peer-to-peer fleet software with no central traffic controller, per Packaging World.
  • 02The open ground is small and mid-sized manufacturers: MTC's Mike Wilson counts tens of thousands of UK SMEs with no robotic automation at all and expects cobots to take most of that growth.
  • 03A robotics business case should include procurement, not only line labor: a June 2026 China Journal of Accounting Research study found heavy robot adopters spread buying across more suppliers, gaining resilience but losing inventory efficiency and adding transaction costs.

Sep 18, 2026

Xtellio brings telematics to jobsite tools and heaters

Xtellio brings telematics to jobsite tools and heaters

Xtellio launched a two-tier telematics platform in March 2026: 32 battery-powered Xense sensors for small tools and wired Pro-Xentral devices for excavators, light towers and heaters. The company claims a 10-year battery life. Data is delivered through open APIs, which Xtellio frames as customer ownership of the data, aimed at rental and construction fleets where small assets have gone largely untracked.

  • 01Xtellio’s stated 10-year battery life for its Bluetooth Xense sensors is the key spec to test in the field; if it holds up, tagging hundreds of tools can look like a one-time install rather than a recurring battery-maintenance program.
  • 02For rental houses and contractors running mixed fleets, the sharper question is no longer which machines have telematics but whether the heaters, light towers and hand tools do, and whether that data lands in the same system.
  • 03Open APIs and “data liberation” are part of Xtellio’s pitch, and the coverage frames that as a prompt for RFP questions: what the APIs expose, where data can be sent, and whether customers can take historical data if they switch providers.

Sep 18, 2026

Senate bill would double smart water grants to $50 million a year

Senate bill would double smart water grants to $50 million a year

S. 2388, the Water Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2025, would double an EPA water tech pilot to $50 million a year through 2028. Grants would cover design, construction, training and operations for leak detection, advanced metering and AI analytics, WaterWorld reported. Planning and maintenance stay on the utility's tab.

  • 01Under S. 2388 as WaterWorld describes it, feasibility studies are not grant-eligible, so a utility would have to pay to build the case for a smart water project before applying for help building the project itself.
  • 02The bill's eligible list puts advanced digital design and construction management tools in the same bucket as meters and sensors, which would give a utility's capital delivery team a claim on the same grant as its field operations group.
  • 03The existing pilot program's authorization runs through 2026, per WaterWorld; the bill would extend it to 2028, and its last reported status was 'introduced' as of Aug. 12, 2025.

Sep 17, 2026

Explore More Engineering & Construction Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Engineering & Construction.

Browse Engineering & Construction Hub

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Engineering & Construction and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512