Civil Engineer
What Is a Civil Engineer?
A civil engineer is someone who designs and oversees large construction projects, including roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and water supply and wastewater treatment systems.
What Does a Civil Engineer Do?
Civil engineers work at the highest level of design and plan large infrastructure projects, such as airports and roads, which requires solving complex problems.Â
Civil engineers must determine the feasibility of plans, especially with regard to financial costs and safety concerns. Urban and regional planners often turn to civil engineers for advice on these issues. Civil engineers are ultimately responsible for the design and implementation of the infrastructure project. Therefore, they must be able to lead surveyors, construction managers, civil engineering technicians, and others to implement the plan.
Civil engineers use the principles of trigonometry, calculus, and other advanced topics in mathematics for analysis, design, and problem solving in their work.Â
Only licensed civil engineers can sign off on plans for infrastructure projects. This makes it imperative that civil engineers be able to monitor and evaluate work at the job site as the project progresses. Civil engineers must be able to communicate with other professionals, such as architects and urban planners. This means that civil engineers must be able to write clear reports.
Many civil engineers hold supervisory or management positions, others work in design, construction, research, and teaching. They work with others on projects and may be assisted by civil engineering technicians and technologists. Various levels of government employ civil engineers to do many of the same things that are done in private industry, except that civil engineers employed by the government may also inspect projects to make sure they comply with regulations.
The tasks of a civil engineer typically are:
- Analyze survey reports, maps and other data to plan projects.
- Consider construction costs, government regulations, potential environmental risks and other factors in the planning stages.
- Test soils to determine the strength of foundations.
- Test construction materials, such as concrete, asphalt or steel, for use in particular projects.
- Provide cost estimates for materials, equipment or labor to determine the economic feasibility of a project.
- Use design software to plan and design transportation systems, hydraulic systems and structures in accordance with industry and government standards.
- Supervise or participate in surveys to establish benchmarks, grades and elevations to guide construction.
- Submit bid proposals, environmental impact statements or property descriptions.
What is the workplace of a Civil Engineer like?
They can work in the following fields: construction; communications engineering; environmental engineering; hydraulics and water resources; soil mechanics; construction technology; building administration; soil mechanics; construction technology; building administration; etc.
Civil engineers generally work indoors in offices. However, they sometimes spend time outdoors at construction sites so they can supervise operations or solve problems on site. Occasionally, civil engineers travel abroad to work on large engineering projects in other countries.
What hazards does a Civil Engineer face in this job?
- Falls from elevated surfaces or from ladders; falls in basements, wells, trenches or open pits; falls while working on a construction site: from cliffs, slopes, in wells, tunnels, etc.
- Injuries or death as a result of the collapse of an excavation, trench, floor or wall of a building or auxiliary structure that has collapsed or deformation of components in a structure under construction; sliding of piles of materials or
- of stored construction equipment; collapses; etc;
- Risk of being struck by heavy mechanical equipment and vehicles working on a construction site;
- Electrocution as a result of involuntary contact with "live" electrical cables in buildings, during inspection rounds and supervision rounds;
- Contact and exposure to extreme temperatures (during outdoor work, at extreme temperatures, etc.);
- Possible exposure to harmful dust while on the construction site;
- Eye injuries, caused by flying stone and metal chips/particles, or created throughout demolition and construction operations in the area;
- Injuries as a result of fire and/or explosion of flammable materials on the construction site (bitumen, tar, solvents);
- Increased risk of traffic accidents, when working simultaneously on numerous construction sites, which requires a lot of additional driving;
- Exposure to loud and continuous noise in work areas (from compressors, pneumatic hammers, vibrators and similar sources);
- Dermatitis from contact with irritating and allergenic materials;
- Musculoskeletal system injuries, especially those resulting from working postures and prolonged driving, etc.
What is the difference between a civil engineer and an architect?
Both civil engineers and architects are involved in the planning and design of structures. However, a civil engineer will focus on making sure the structure will be safe and able to withstand everyday and extreme conditions, while the architect will focus on the aesthetics of the structural work, as well as the appearance, feel and functionality.
The civil engineer will analyze and evaluate the structural integrity of the design that the architect has created and will find ways to make the constructive design possible by suggesting alterations or modifications to turn the architect's vision into reality.
Civil engineers and architects often work with each other, as their work sometimes overlaps. A good working relationship between the two careers will make construction work more effective and successful.
