After EDA approves an infrastructure grant—a road, sewer, bridge or building—the tough work of getting infrastructure projects built begins.
Enter Shamik Amin. As one of EDA’s five civil engineers and construction project managers in the Chicago Regional Office, Amin works with grantees to ensure that projects run smoothly. He also ensures that the project meets various federal requirements, related to fair wages, the bid process, environmental impact, and other issues, as well as approves all disbursements.
Amin started at EDA in August 2020 after working for 10 years in private sector construction. He has yet to visit any EDA construction sites—a common practice among EDA civil engineers and construction project managers prior to COVID-19—but looks forward to one day seeing some finished projects.
“Just knowing that this funding is going to communities that need it the most is a good feeling,” Amin said. “And one day I will get to see the progress and how the project is helping create jobs or restore normalcy to a city or town.”
Amin started his civil engineering career like most kids—playing with Legos. The Naperville, Illinois, native attended Purdue University and majored in civil engineering, gravitating toward the construction aspect of the field.
“Construction is a field where one can very easily see the work one puts in manifest itself in real life before your very eyes,” Amin said. “You always get to see tangible results. You get the satisfaction of saying, ‘I helped build that’ or ‘I know the people who built that.”
His first civil engineering job was in South Florida at Prince Contracting in Tampa, where he was a project engineer who worked on the $95 million Interstate 595 Express Corridor Improvement Project.
In 2014, Amin returned to the Chicago area and took a job at Judlau Contracting, where he worked until coming to EDA.
In his free time, Amin listens to music, plays golf, and works out. This summer, he visited Yellowstone National Park.