Civil Engineering
Civil engineering, the oldest of the engineering specialties, is the planning, design, construction, and management of the built environment. This environment includes all structures built according to scientific principles, from irrigation and drainage systems to rocket-launching facilities. Civil engineers build roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, harbors, power plants, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools, mass transit, and other public facilities essential to modern society and large population concentrations. They also build privately owned facilities such as airports, railroads, pipelines, skyscrapers, and other large structures designed for industrial, commercial, or residential use. In addition, civil engineers plan, design, and build complete cities and towns, and more recently have been planning and designing space platforms to house self-contained communities.
The word civil derives from the Latin for citizen. In 1782, Englishman John Smeaton used the term to differentiate his nonmilitary engineering work from that of the military engineers who predominated at the time. Since then, the term civil engineering has often been used to refer to engineers who build public facilities, although the field is much broader .
Scope.
Because it is so broad, civil engineering is subdivided into a number of technical specialties. Depending on the type of project, the skills of many kinds of civil engineer specialists may be needed. When a project begins, the site is surveyed and mapped by civil engineers who locate utility placement—water, sewer, and power lines. Geotechnical specialists perform soil experiments to determine if the earth can bear the weight of the project. Environmental specialists study the project’s impact on the local area: the potential for air and groundwater pollution, the project’s impact on local animal and plant life, and how the project can be designed to meet government requirements aimed at protecting the environment. Transportation specialists determine what kind of facilities are needed to ease the burden on local roads and other transportation networks that will result from the completed project. Meanwhile, structural specialists use preliminary data to make detailed designs, plans, and specifications for the project. Supervising and coordinating the work of these civil engineer specialists, from beginning to end of the project, are the construction management specialists. Based on information supplies by the other specialists, construction management civil engineers estimate quantities and costs of materials and labor, schedule all wo
rk, order materials and equipment for the job, hire contractors and subcontractors, and perform other supervisory work to ensure the project is completed on time and as specified.
Throughout any given project, civil engineers make extensive useof people and goods. They specialize in designing and maintaining all types of transportation facilities, highways and streets, mass transit systems, railroads and airfields, ports and harbors. Transportation engineers apply technological knowledge as well as consideration of the economic, political, and social factors in designing each project. They work closely with urban planners, since the quality of the community is directly related to the quality of the transportation system. Pipeline engineering.
In this branch of civil engineering, engineers build pipelines and related facilities which transport liquids, gases, or solids ranging from coal slurries (mixed coal and water) and semiliquid wastes, to water, oil, and various types of highly combustible and noncombustible gases. The engineers determine pipeline design, the economic and environmental impact of a project on regions it must traverse, the type of materials to be used-steel, concrete, plastic, or combinations of various materials-installation techniq
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