Career Choices in Civil Engineering
Our students, while drawn from diverse backgrounds, are all extremely able and committed to learning. We can thus offer an exceptional educational experience to our students, and encourage collaboration and teamwork throughout our curriculum. Brown Civil Engineering graduates enter positions at leading construction firms; financial and management consultancies; as well as top graduate schools.
What Does a Civil Engineer Do?
As one of the oldest engineering disciplines, the Civil Engineering program offers graduates a wide range of possibilities for work after Brown. Bridge and road construction are probably two of the first things that come to mind, but in truth these are only a part of the picture. This section provides a modern and historical perspective of some of the projects that civil engineers have been involved in over the years.
Airports present a number of engineering problems. A fully loaded 747 weighs about 850,000 pounds, and slams down on the runway at very high speeds. In addition to the incredible force that this generates, civil engineers must take into account the number of wheels that a plane has, as well as their location and size to properly understand the stress that a runway experiences. The scale is equally impressive, as a typical runway is about 2 miles long, hundreds of feet wide and three feet thick.
A good example of the size of civil engineering projects is the recently completed Denver International Airport, shown above. When it was finished, engineers had used 2.5-million cubic yards of concrete to build five 12,000 foot runways, aprons and taxi ways - this was placed atop six feet of compacted soil, a foot-deep soil spread, and eight inches of cement-treated base.
Bridges are some of the most beautiful and varied structures in the world. They have evolved over thousands of years from simple foot bridges to giant spans that cover thousands of feet. Construction techniques vary , from the classical cable-suspension bridge to the new stayed-cable design.
The Akashi bridge, shown at left, is the longest suspension bridge in the world. At 12,828 feet long, it is an engineering marvel. Japanese civil engineers not only had to tackle the problem of spanning such a long distance, but also build a structure strong enough to withstand hurricanes, tsunamis, and upwards of 57 inches of rain per year.
The Charles River Bridge in Boston is an example of stayed-cable design. Although not as grand in size as the Akashi bridge, it is no less of an achievement. Its designers had to route ten lanes of traffic through one of the busiest areas of Boston without interrupting the flow of existing roadways and T-lines. The structure is designed asymmetrically and supported by two inverted Y-shaped towers. These towers straddle the tracks of a railway at a 55-degree angle, providing more then enough room for passing trains.
Tunnels: Digging a tunnel big enough for even two lanes of traffic is a complex process. It is impossible to know the exact geologic characteristics of the excavation site prior to construction. As a result, engineers must create a plan that is flexible enough to work over a wide range of possibilities. Tunnels require enormous boring machines and other equipment, but are often needed in the most inaccessible of mountain passes. The supply of equipment is therefore an important issue, as are the environmental effects that the displacement of such a large amount of earth will cause.
Imagine then the difficulty in constructing three tunnels under a total of 31 miles of land and ocean, between two different countries. This is exactly the task that Britain and France successfully completed in May 1994. As the culmination of a 200 year old dream, it was the biggest civil engineering project of the 20th century. In all, 13,000 engineers, technicians and workers were involved in the project, which made use of gigantic drills capable of boring through 15 feet of earth an hour. The amount of rubble removed increased the size of the United Kingdom by 90 acres.
Roads: A common career for a civil engineer is the construction and maintenance of the worlds roadways. These can range from the smallest city street to the enormous system of highways, on-ramps and off-ramps that allow us to get around each day. Engineers need to consider many issues when constructing roads, including vehicle safety, slope stability, and pavement durability.
Transportation System Design: Another important field in the area of roadways is transportation system design. The flow of traffic is a complicated mathematical problem that anyone who's ever been stuck on a highway in rush hour can relate to. A transportation engineer is responsible for planning the layout of roads to maximize the flow of cars. They must work within the confines of extremely congested cities to create a solution that will keep people moving day after day.
Dams: A side effect of the great size of civil engineering projects is the huge number of jobs that they create. A perfect example is the Hoover Dam, built on the border of Arizona and Nevada during the height of the Great Depression. For five years, it employed more than 8,000 workers, engineers and technicians. To tame the Colorado river, these workers blasted giant tunnels through the sides of Black Canyon, which allowed them to work safely. At the time of its construction, it was the largest dam in the world. It is still the second-tallest in the United States.
Civil engineers must always consider the environmental impact of their project. It is always nice to think bigger and better, but every achievement comes at a price. A good example can be found in modern-day China, where engineers are busy building the Three Gorges Dam, (site shown at right.) Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful areas in the world, the Three Gorges are home to a number of rare species, ancient temples and burial grounds, as well as millions of people. When the project is completed in 2009, it will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, spanning more than a mile across the Yangtze river, and generating 1/9th of the country’s electric power. However, it will effectively eradicate the Three Gorges forever, and trap millions of tons of raw pollutants in the resulting reservoir.
Buildings: A successful building project achieves a number of goals. It must be structurally sound, not just today but fifty years down the road. It must achieve a complex integration of plumbing, electrical, and ventilation systems. It must interact positively with people on the inside and outside. Often, if must be built under tight financial budgets, and on a limited time frame. All of these challenges provide civil engineers with a number of exciting possibilities.
An interesting frontier in the area of skyscraper design is the the ecotower. Using modern energy-saving technologies, these towers would consume much less power and generate fewer pollutants than the buildings of today. An example is a proposed 49-story building in London called Vauxhall Tower. If built, it will incorporate a 10-meter high wind turbine on top of the building generating electricity, a heating system drawing water from the London Aquifer for power, triple glazing to reduce heat loss. It would use two-thirds of the gas and electricity of a conventional building.
Water Treatment/Irrigation Systems: The problems involved in getting water to all of the people, farms and businesses that need it every day are numerous. Often, as in the southwestern United States, the supply of water is hundreds of miles away. Engineers must find ways to treat it and distribute it safely and quickly. In areas of extreme poverty, they must find a way to take existing water distribution systems, and make them safe using the technology and financial resources of the area.
Slope Stability, Mining, and Excavation: Slope stability is an important part of road and rail design, as well as large mining and building projects. Engineers must design slopes that will retain their size and shape under various loading and weather conditions.
