- Shadowing Journal -

Time: 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.

Date: Nov 7, 2017

Place: Clark Engineering

Total Hours Spent Shadowing: 1 hour

Observations
 Talked about the life of a project from start to finish in the civil engineering world
o Planning Design- Facility Plan Preliminary Engineering report
 Background
 Problem
 Need for Improvement
o Then goes to funding agencies for money to support build
 Surveying
o Topographic Survey
 Elevation for the start of the project
 Use information gathered for the design of build
o Technical Speculations
o Things needed before the start of the project
 Materials
 What is used for the build
 For Design
 Plans
 Speculations
 Inspection
 Project Management
o Project Manager- In charge of
design, getting build team together,
setting project out for a bid
 Communication between
these people is huge
 Construction
o Winter is used for the designing portion of build
o Summer is used for the construction portion of the build
 Types of Projects
o Municipal project
 City project- water sewer, storm sewer, curb, gutter, streets, water tower,
lift stations, etc.
o Bridges
  Works with the DOT (department of transportation)
 Designs bridge decks, piers, and approaches
 Bridge inspections
o Every two years, a bridge needs to be inspected making
sure the bridge is up to speculations
 After inspection, engineers determine the load that
particular bridge can handle to function properly
 Structural Engineers
o Design large buildings and the foundations they sit on
 Geotechnical Engineering
o They test soils and give recommendation for what is needed to make a sturdy
foundation
 They look for big rocks for foundation support
 Small rocks need fill because they do not give very good support
 Most firms don’t do their own geotechnical work
 Wastewater Treatment Engineer
o Big plants with multiple processes and lift stations
 Transportation Engineering
o More important in bigger cities
 They deal with the flow of traffic

Reflection
 I learned that there are many different fields within civil engineering that deal with the
structure of our everyday life. I also learned there are many different protocols that
followed when breaking ground on a project. I liked learning about what the day to day
life of a civil engineer looks like in the work place.