Allen Soast, 78, whose coverage of building and infrastructure construction took him to many global locations in a 35-year editorial career, died on March 18 of cancer in Hillsborough, N.J., says his family. He wrote about such megaprojects as the Trans-Alaska pipeline, Itaipu Dam in South America, the Huites Dam in Mexico and China’s giant Three Gorges Dam.

An extensive Middle East reporting trip in 1983 took him to Lebanon to cover its war-related reconstruction, to Egypt on a major power project in Cairo and to Saudi Arabia for its industrial construction boom.

“He was a first-class reporter,” says Howard B. Stussman, ENR editor emeritus. "He was spot-on accurate, studiously fair and a fine writer." Stussman termed Soast the magazine's "go-to guy" for editing complex business and technical stories.

Soast also coordinated ENR’s weekly editorial page for 11 years; he retired in 1997.