What is Civil Engineering ?

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Engineering is developing our world. Many people know that engineering deals with a lot of math, however, they don’t know what engineers do. In general, engineers, of any kind, deal with design, maintenance, management, and solving problems. Also, all types of engineers are needed as it is a field in which they rely on one another.

Civil engineering is one of the engineering branches and considered as the oldest engineering as well as the mother of all engineering. The world would be sloppy and unorganized with no civil engineers because they work to make our roads, homes and water safe by designing and choosing the safest materials. Civil engineering deals with design, construction, planning, maintenance, soils, and environmental problems and civil engineers must be ethical and honest because one small mistake can put people’s lives at risk.

There are many areas within civil engineering. These areas are structural engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, and construction engineering and management. Some people consider water resources engineering as another area of civil engineering, but in my personal opinion, it is closely related to environmental engineering; therefore, I consider it to be another component of the environmental engineering area. Civil engineers work both in the office, and in the field. They work regardless of how harsh weather conditions may be.

Structural engineering is one of the civil engineering branches. Structural engineers design and analyze structures such as building, bridges, tunnels, dams, etc. They design steel, concrete and they design structural dynamics to ensure that the building will be strong enough to withstand earthquakes when they occur. They also ensure the structures they design are simply strong enough that they will not collapse or fall down from other pressures. There are many examples of great structural designs in the world such as the Cologne Cathedral, The Dancing House in Prague, the Eiffel tower, and Ithaa.

Transportation engineers deal with design, analysis, planning, maintenance, and management of all transportation modes. There are various modes of transportation they have to design for and deal with such as air, water, road, rail, highways and so on. Transportation engineers design and orchestrate maintenance on all types of roads. They also do pavement design, solve any pavement problems, and make all roads safe and drivable. In addition, they work to solve many traffic issues like congestion by adding one or more new lanes. They also design traffic signals, and pavement markings so that people arrive to their attractions as comfortably as possible and in a safe manner. They also study speed limits to reduce the rates of car crashes and accidents.

Environmental engineering is one of the important branches of civil engineering. It is necessary for all humans to live in a safe environment. In general, Environmental engineers work to improve and solve any environmental problems so that make people live in a safer world. They try to improve waste disposal, air pollution control, water and recycling to protect people from adverse effects that environmental damages may cause when handled improperly. Moreover, they design the waste water treatment plants, and water supply. For the water resources engineering, which I consider to be one of the environmental engineering areas, they must deal with design systems that help to manage water resources for human use as well as managing waterways. They are also the ones who ensure that the water provided to the people is clean to use and drink.

Geotechnical engineers deal with all type of soils. They investigate soils and test soil stability before anyone starts to build any structures on the soils, without this work people’s lives would be in danger. They determine any soils issues such as slope stability, and soil erosion. They design the foundations as well as earthworks, and solve any soils issues to prevent any future collapses that could occur from the changing of the soil or sinkholes. In addition, geotechnical engineers will work with or directly face hazards from a project site such as landslides, earthquakes, soil erosion, sinkholes, and other natural hazards.

Construction engineering managers are responsible for monitoring projects from their beginning until the completion. They monitor many different kinds of civil engineering projects even huge infrastructure projects, like the construction of a building, highway, railroads, and the design of drainage systems. They manage workers’ schedules for on-site work, make timetables for all projects, and ensure that the projects will be completed on time to avoid any issues with the owners. Also, they are in charge of negotiations and determining the costs of labor and materials. They are responsible for hiring the labor on a project, subcontractors and others that might be needed. Construction engineering managers make the decisions, and must lead their teams properly in order to complete the projects perfectly.

In conclusion, civil engineers are always needed in our ever developing world. Civil engineering is one of the important majors in our world and many people only seem to know that it is a profession involving math. According to the United States Department of Labor, civil engineering is projected to grow 11 percent faster than all other occupations, and in 2016 they held roughly around 303,500 jobs in United States. Also, according to salary.com, the average salary of a civil engineering in 2018 is between $62,202 and $76,702, which is high in comparison to other job fields.

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References:

“Traffic Engineering (Transportation).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_engineering_(transportation).

Lucas, Jim. “What Is Environmental Engineering?” LiveScience, Purch, 22 Oct. 2014, http://www.livescience.com/48390-environmental-engineering.html.

“What Is a Water Resource Engineer?” EnvironmentalScience.org, http://www.environmentalscience.org/career/water-resource-engineer.

“Geotechnical Engineering.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotechnical_engineering.

Burger, Rachel. “What Is Construction Engineering Management or CEM?” The Balance Small Business, The Balance Small Business, 18 Oct. 2018, http://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-construction-engineering-management-845371.

“Construction Manager Job Description | Snagajob.” Snag, http://www.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/construction-manager/.

Salary.com. “Salary for Civil Engineer I.” Hyperbaric Technician Salaries by Education, Experience, Location and More – Salary.com, www1.salary.com/Civil-Engineer-I-Salary.html.

“Summary.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13 Apr. 2018, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/civil-engineers.htm#tab-5.

Transportation Engineering

Transportation engineering is a branch of civil engineering. It deals with design, planning, analysis, maintenance and management of all transportation modes. There are various modes of transportation they have to design for and deal with such as air, water, road, rail, highways and so on. Transportation engineers design and orchestrate maintenance on all types of roads. They also do pavement design, solve any pavement problems, and make all roads safe and drivable. In addition, they work to solve many traffic issues like congestion by adding one or more new lanes. They also design traffic signals, and pavement markings so that people arrive to their attractions as comfortably as possible and in a safe manner. They also study speed limits to reduce the rates of car crashes and accidents.

Transportation engineers design a new system to make a traffic flow in a safe manner, and design or upgrade highway. They design the horizontal alignment as well as vertical alignment, both of them include curves design. Moreover, they also do the earthworks of the roads, railway, causeways and more to reconstruct the site’s topography or to make to make slopes stable.

The scope of transportation reaches into civil and industrial engineering. Its relevance in civil engineering can be judged by branches that include aerospace, air, highway, waterway, pipeline, port and coastal transportation. Engineers are tasked with designing and upgrading urban highways and roads, railroads and water transport systems.

The planning aspect of transportation engineering makes engineers significant in the development and planning of new urban centers. In the planning process, they are involved in technical forecasting which implies to the trip generation, mode choice, distribution and route assignment of the passenger. Planning is usually done through collection and analysis of data that is useful in technical forecasting. Data collection ranges from trip generation, distribution, the purpose of trips, destination choice, trip distribution etc. More sophisticated forecasting will venture into auto ownership, trip chaining, and land-use forecasting. Passenger trips offer a sample of demand on the transport system. Automobile transportation in terms of infrastructure development is divided into the aspect of high way design and planning. That pose lots of challenges to the engineers especially due to the aspect of the traffic control systems that they have to develop. They, therefore, face the difficulty in terms of ensuring the infrastructure meets both the expectation and also leads to the safety of the road users.

The fact that transportation has played a significant role in the development of many economies and societies makes transportation engineering a critical factor in every government. The management of the public transport system has led to lots of environment concerns however most people have not realized it is the duty of the transportation engineers. The development of airports is majorly a work of the transportation engineers however many people tend to think that they are only involved in the construction of railroads and railways. In the airports, they must take into account the various demands of an aircraft including safety.

An article about Boston Big Dig

References

“Traffic Engineering (Transportation).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_engineering_(transportation).

“Transportation Planning.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_planning.

“What Is Transportation Engineering?: Definition and Career Outlook.” NJIT Online RSS, graduatedegrees.online.njit.edu/resources/msce/msce-articles/what-is-transportation-engineering-definition-and-career-outlook/.

“What Is Transportation Engineering?” University of Hartford, http://www.hartford.edu/ceta/about-us/facultystaff/ceb/fang/research/transportation-eng.aspx.

King Abdullah Economic City

The video above gives great information about King Abdullah Economic City. King Abdullah Economic City is a new city in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia still under construction since 2005 at a cost around $100 billion that considered one of the most construction expensive projects in the world. It is located in the west of Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coast with total area around 173 km² (66.8 sq. mi). The vision of the city is to establish a great socio-economic development.

References

“Moving Forward.” King Abdullah Economic City, 5 Dec. 2017, http://www.kaec.net/careers/.

Thorold, Crispin. “New Cities Rise from Saudi Desert.” BBC News, BBC, 11 June 2008, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7446923.stm.

Civil Engineering Career and Examination

Civil Engineers deals with design, construction, planning, maintenance, soils, and environmental problems and civil engineers must be ethical and honest because one small mistake can put people’s lives at risk.

According to the United States Department of Labor, civil engineering is projected to grow 11 percent faster than all other occupations, and in 2016 they held roughly around 303,500 jobs in United States. Also, according to salary.com, the average salary of a civil engineering in 2018 is between $62,202 and $76,702, which is high in comparison to other job fields. According to CollegeGrad LLC, Civil engineers hold many jobs in united states and 48% of them do engineering services, 12% of them work for state government, 10% work for local government, 6% do nonresidential building construction, and 3% work for federal government. They work in different locations as well as different conditions. If they design engineering things, they will spend most of the time in the office. On the other hand, some of their duties will require them to spend a lot of time on the field site such as construction engineers need to be on the site to monitor projects and solve problem onsite. They might need to travel to different countries to do large projects, and even projects in sea.

Civil engineers work full time. According to, they work more than 40 hours per week, and construction engineers might work more than 40 hours per week since they monitor projects so that they can ensure the projects meet the design requirements, and will be done on time.

Civil engineers need to pass exams to get licenses. The first exam required is (FE) The Fundamentals of Engineering exam. FE exam can be taken in senior year at collage or after graduation. Engineers who pass this exam can be called engineers in training (EITs). The second exam is (PE) The Principles and Practice of Engineering exam. The requirements to take this exam are to pass the FE exam, and to gain 4 years experiences as an engineer. Engineers who pass PE exam will be called a Professional Engineer and will be licensed. Also, passing PE exam will help engineers in their career potions, and they can take a senior engineer or project manager potions. All states issue their own licenses.

The disadvantages of civil engineering career are working in hazard locations such as construction site, and traveling to different cities and country to do projects. Sometimes failures happen, and that would be the most dangerous things for civil engineers because they will work in construction site; Therefore, if any failure happened, they would die or get serious Injuries.

Below are two videos showing Structural failures

Big Blue crane collapse at Miller Park

Bridge collapses in Colombia killing at least 10

Civil engineers also can start or make their own companies such as Engineering consulting firms, and designing companies. There are a widely areas in civil engineering that they can focus on. The more projects they get the more money they make. It also depends about the project type; if they get a large project, they will make a lot of money.

References

“CollegeGrad.” Jobs, Career, Salary and Education Information – CollegeGrad.com, collegegrad.com/careers/civil-engineers.

“What Is a PE?” Code of Ethics | National Society of Professional Engineers, http://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe.

Salary.com. “Salary for Civil Engineer I.” Hyperbaric Technician Salaries by Education, Experience, Location and More – Salary.com, www1.salary.com/Civil-Engineer-I-Salary.html.

“Summary.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13 Apr. 2018, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/civil-engineers.htm#tab-5.