Infrastructure engineering at WSU is an area of specialization in the civil engineering major. The field of infrastructure engineering combines transportation, geotechnical, and materials engineering. It deals with understanding and improving the capacity of soil to support the weight of our nation's infrastructure and the various human and material design aspects of transportation facilities including traffic, geometrics, planning, pavements, and materials. Other examples of infrastructure engineering include preventing excessive settlement of new buildings or roadways, ensuring that tunnels retain their integrity, and maintaining the stability of earthen dams and embankments.