Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, tunnel, pipelines, bridges, canals, dams, buildings and even some civil engineers will work on aircraft or spacecraft structures and more but depending on what projects you want to work on and what aspect of those projects you want to work on.
A lot people think its architecture, well kind of, but really they work together,the architects work on the artistic and creative feel of the design and the Civil Engineer work on bringing this to life.
So let's get into it, there are three main roles as a Civil Engineer.
The designer,
The contractor,
and the client representative.
Okay, so the designer, it’s in the name really.
With calculations, standards and design software such as AutoCAD.
Designers can visualize the end structure whilst also pushing boundaries with new and exciting innovations.
But it’s not all about building mind blowing sky scrapers like The Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world by the way.
Sometimes designer’s work in areas you least expect them to.
How about designing a water slide in an theme park. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Let's consider the problems that need to be resolved.
They need to ensure the water slide can withstand the weight of the riders, the force of the wind blowing on it and of course the rushing water, because without no water there is no ride, and what would be the fun in that!
Next is the Contractor, they turn the plans of a designer into reality.
They are responsible for attaining materials, equipment, and labour all required to carry of projects in accordance with budgets, time schedules and safety regulations.Do these names mean anything to you?
Pacific Bridge Company, Barrett & Hilp, McClintic-Marshall Corporation
These are just some of the contractors who united together to build the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
A massive 1.7 mile long suspension bridge, that weighs over 800,000 tonnes, whilst also being able to withstand 90mph winds and magnitude 8 earthquakes.
Last but by no means the least, the Client representative, what do they do? Let's think of it this way, if the designers are composers who write music and the contractors are musicians then the client’s representatives are conductors of the orchestra.They ensure the project does not deviate from the client’s vision by solving any issues on site, between, the designer, the contractor and anyone else for that matter.
Modern Civil Engineering is a broad field that comprises of various types of engineers each specializing in different types of construction
Branches of civil engineering
Civil engineering possess huge scope and contains wide spectrum of sub disciplines there are various fields within this engineering branch which you may choose to pursue your career
1.Construction engineering this branch of civil engineering deals with planning, construction and maintenance of structures
2.Structural engineering, deals with structural analysis and design of structures such as Dams, Bridge, Flyover, Culverts etc
3.Geotechnical engineering, deals with the study of soil mechanics ,foundations engineering , bearing capacity to ensure that the structure is built on strong stable ground.
4.Transportation engineering, deals with planning construction and management of transportation facilities to ensure efficient movement of people and goods.
5.Engineering survey this branch of civil engineering deals with surveying and leveling of lands using various instruments mapping and contouring of terrains etc to get the data that may be used for different civil engineering projects.
6.Water Resources engineering this civil engineering branch deals with design and construction of hydraulic structures like dams canals water distribution system etc
7.Environmental engineering, environmental engineering deals with the study of environment friendly designs sewage management pollution and their treatment.
8.Material engineering, deals with the study of material strength properties of materials used in construction.
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