In a nutshell, a Civil Engineering Company does the BIG things that make our lives run well. Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple. Civil engineers are the men and women who construct major commercial projects from their drawing boards to hands-on operations.
Civil engineers create the things around us — from office towers to shopping centers to sports stadiums. They participate in the planning and delivery of school, university, and worship center campuses as well as hospitals and retirement homes. They raise utility and communication towers, build dams and airports, and erect bridges and monuments. Their work involves ramp handling too. Civil engineers are responsible for water and waste management projects. And, they do so much more.
Civil engineering professionals represent extensive education, diverse skills, a great deal of imagination, and courage to innovate. They are expected to integrate multiple disciplines with ease and effectiveness. They use physics, metallurgy, advanced math, innovative technology, fluid mechanics, urban planning, ecosystems, and scores of other relevant knowledge bases.
Civil engineering projects often take a long time; many take years from idea to delivery. The engineers literally design the future. As Forbes noted, “Such civil engineers also work hard at maintaining existing systems to accommodate swelling population growth, climate change, and natural disasters. They know better than anyone when an aging system is no longer capable of adapting to future needs.”
But civil engineering also shapes lives lived currently, locally, and regionally. If you need a civil engineering firm or want to work for one, you should understand what it can do.
The complete online guide to civil engineering firms:
Overview: Civil engineering firms build the big things, but they also execute the ground preparation and excavation with the help of Vacuum Excavators, foundation and underpinnings, fluid and utility delivery, logistics and delivery, erection, and the implosion of these sizable projects.
Individual engineers actualize the plans of architects, city planners, landscape designers, sports complexes, roadway projects, and state and federal initiatives. In doing so, they must deliver on time within budget and consistent with the original planning.
Case Studies: Civil engineering companies do such varied work, exemplary projects should help complete your picture.
Ground Improvement:
The ground of any single construction site varies greatly from that of another. Civil engineers are tasked with rearranging and improving the ground to support and enable new work on the tallest and heaviest as well as earthquake, wind, and flood-resistant buildings.
Soils may be sandy, rocky, or a combination of both. They may retain water or let it flow. The quality of the soil can vary from one part of the property to another, and the top soils will differ in composition from the soils beneath. Making this happen, civil engineers must plan on unplanned events. They must follow the plan designed for them, but they must be equipped to adapt to the unexpected, identify and communicate the surprise effectively, and collaborate on the solution.
Earth Shoring:
Almost every construction project starts with excavation, and that presents a new problem. As workers and machines dig, soils slip and slide to fill the spaces. Safety concerns require adequate earth shoring to protect the workers, machines, tools, and the work’s progress.
Trenches, pits, slopes — they all need stabilization. The secant walls and tangent piles used to control the soil movement, present big challenges for civil engineers. The projects are often huge and complicated, but they usually start with soil and water controls.
The work may involve drilling deep, moving and placing rebar or I-beams, and installing tie backs. The whole purpose is to create a system of soil and water retention solid enough to bear the crushing weight of new construction.
Aggregate Pilings:
Aggregate piers are dense columns built of compacted stone. Rammed aggregate piers begin as holes or shafts drilled up to 30-feet deep into which stone aggregate is loaded and rammed into the bottom. Then, a sequence of aggregate loads are dumped and rammed until the sheath is full. You’ll often see this work underway in highway construction, slope reinforcement, and bridge or overpass building.
Vibratory Stone Columns are a spin on the aggregate pier technology. Instead of using a drill, they use a Vibroflot machine to create the shaft. It is particularly effective in increasing the density surrounding the tube. The cavity produced by the vibration is then filled with aggregate as before.
These piers or pilings increase the weight-bearing capacity and minimize settlement on uneven, unstable, or layered ground. As the piers are driven, they disperse loose materials to create a firm foundation for construction.
Deep Foundations:
Weighty buildings sit on deep foundations. Those foundations accept, bear, and share the pressure of the building with the soil and rock below. Typically, strong pilings are placed into the earth in various modes.
Geotechnical experts work with structural engineers to determine the issues of displacement, lateral and axial loads, and cost to the environment. Micro- or mini-piles work like the anchors you use to hang weights on drywall. These helical piles screw into the ground to anchor structures on precarious soils.
Grouting:
In civil engineering, “grouting” refers to the materials they inject into or spray on soil or rock to change their physical characteristics. It secures anchors, dams, piles, underpinning, under-reaming, and more.
Depending on the location and purpose, engineers select different modes and materials for grouting. Cellular or foam grout mixes foaming agents with cement to form a lightweight material for filling voids, stabilizing slopes, and reducing liquefaction. Relatively lightweight, cellular grouting is economical and easy to make.
Chemical Grouting injects sodium-silicate and similar binders, to modify the soil and improve its cohesiveness, consolidation, and imperviousness especially in soft-ground, underground, and tunnel construction.
Pressure Grouting fills vertically-drilled shafts with pressurized grout mixtures. Similar cementitious grout is used in Flowable Fill, a self-leveling fluid to fill cavities in areas with difficult access.
Finally, you’ll often see Permeation Grouting underway in highway construction where it commonly remediates soil movement while doubling as an excavation support system. Relatively low-cost and portable, it remains the go-to option for many excavation and construction situations.
Calling Helitech, for instance, will also introduce you to additional civil engineering services:
- Shear Walls use wood frames and studs to restrain lateral force along the wall. Leaving impressions in poured concrete, shear walls even add to the aesthetics of the finished work.
- Carbon Fiber is woven into a lightweight and high strength fabric. Like all fabrics, it is flexible but so strong it outperforms rigid reinforcement materials.
- Ornamental Shotcrete power sprays the concrete onto surfaces at high velocity for retention purposes. But it can be used to shape designs and sculptured images where desired.
- Concrete Undersealing works like the underseal you might add as an option on your new car purchase. Workers apply polyurethane materials to close the gaps and smooth the underside of highway flyovers, overpasses, and bridges without adding the weight of concrete. The underseal protects the underbelly of the construction, but it also makes it look better.
- Concrete Leveling corrects uneven concrete slabs resulting from ground settlement common to certain regions. The engineers inject polyurethane or cement grouts into holes drilled through the surface.
- Underpinning or Piering is a noninvasive and fast solution for foundations damaged by settlement. Underpinning or Piering installs helical or resistance piers at critical points to correct leveling and forestall additional damage.
- Shotcrete Lagging is an innovative solution to ground and excavation issues. Soldier piers are H-shaped steel driven into the ground, and horizontal retaining panels are slid between the piers. Spraying the forms with shotcrete shifts the weight burden as excavation continues.
How a guide to Civil Engineering can help you:
Knowing more about Civil Engineering may help you understand your area’s public and private needs. The complexities and capabilities may help you understand the increasing costs. For instance, the Chicago Tribune warns that Illinois alone needs $40-billion over the next 10 years just to catch up with its Civil Engineering infrastructure weaknesses. That kind of information can help you when it is time to consider making decisions or approving initiatives.
Civil Engineering is one of the oldest disciplines in the world. It built passages, pyramids, and palaces. But it has evolved necessarily into complex applications and educational requirements with advanced degrees in specialized fields. And, the best of the professional engineers successfully pull from past and future visions to make big things happen now.
Contractors small and large appreciate the civil engineers’ skills and seek their advice on budget bidding, construction design, project planning, and final execution. They use input from general engineers, hydroelectric engineers, hydraulics engineers, geotechnical engineers, and many other branches of civil engineering to realize the needs of originators and end-users.
Civil engineers know the place and the designs and materials that fit the purpose, schedule, and budget. They offer solutions for utility needs, wastewater management, sewer and flood remediation projects, and ecosystem restoration and mitigation. And, they move earth and high water to create the turnpikes, airport runways, and shipping ports that move you.
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