Civil Engineer

Job overview
Civil engineering involves the creation and maintenance of facilities such as buildings, roads, bridges, airports and dams that are required for the effective functioning of a community.

What do people do in this job?
Civil engineers proceed from the initial study to determine whether the facility is needed and feasible, through conceptual planning and detailed design, then to supervision of the actual construction of the facility and finally to ensuring that it is operated correctly and maintained properly.

Civil engineers usually specialise in one of the following:
Geotechnical engineering? ?- designing and constructing foundations for structures and buildings, earth embankments, tunnels and earth dams.

Transportation engineering? ?- planning, designing and constructing airports, railway lines and roads.

Marine engineering - designing and constructing quays, jetties, breakwaters and dry docks.

Municipal engineering - providing and maintaining services? (water, drainage and sewage facilities as well as roads?) ?in towns and cities. ?Also designing and constructing sewage, waste water treatment and purification plants.

Construction engineering - planning, and carrying out construction projects i.e. ?specialisation in construction, the use of machinery, materials and human resources.

Project management? ?- responsibility for the management of a specific project.

Structural engineering? ?- designing and building structures such as bridges, towers, frames or skeletons of skyscrapers, factories and power plant buildings.

This involves using concrete, steel and other building materials to construct stable, safe structures and buildings.

Hydraulic engineering - dealing with flowing water, its storage, control and distribution, planning, designing and constructing dams, water supply systems, bridge openings, drainage canals and flood control structures.

The design and construction of harbours, deep-sea platforms, quays, jetties and dry docks are also the responsibility of the hydraulic engineer.

What kinds of people are suitable for this career?
There is room in civil engineering for many different types of people: the scientific, research-minded person?; ?the outgoing leader of construction teams and the creator of complex organisations and systems.

In addition to having the necessary academic qualifications and practical experience civil engineers must, not only spend time spent in front of computers and in the drawing office, but be prepared to visit construction sites regularly to supervise proceedings and deal with any problems.

What qualifications are needed?
A degree in civil engineering is essential and to obtain this a person must have had very good school A-level results or equivalent in mathematics, physics and chemistry.