Thursday, October 28, 2010

Green Roof System on Chicago City Hall

From Singapore to Chicago or Berlin to Santiago, city planners, architects and civil engineers over the world are turning to green roof systems to curb air pollution, decrease energy expense and reduce storm runoff.
High above Chicago’s busy finance district, a rooftop island of greenery stands out among its neighbor buildings. Covered with grasses and plants, the Chicago City Hall is a heaven, especially on a hot day when the temperatures on the black asphalt of neighbors roofs soar.

“You can feel the difference in summer” said Kevin Laberge of the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment. “One roof is big, empty and unused while the other is providing a habitat for wildlife, reducing temperatures and retaining storm water”. Chicago’s City Hall has a green roof, a planted rooftop with system of waterproofing, insulation, and a layer of grow medium used to conserve energy and to contribute to a more healthy environment.

More city planners, architects and civil engineers around the world are turning to green roof technology because it makes environmental and economic sense. Most notably, in Chicago, it saves the city almost $10,000 annually in energy costs. During summer and winter months, the roof exhibits superior insulation properties, requiring as much as 30% less from City Hall’s heating and air-conditioning systems over the last four years.

Additionally, the green roof reduce storm water runoff by absorbing as much as 75% of the rainwater that fall on it, lightening the load of Chicago’s sewer system. Improved air quality and a reduction in noise pollution by as much as 40 decibels as compared to a traditional flat roof are also typical to green roofs like the City Hall’s.

Finally, planted roofs extend their own life by moderation temperture swings that can lead to additional wear and tear on an exposed roof in climate like Chicago’s. Where the average life expectancy of an exposed roof may be 20 years, green roofs can be expected to las considerably longer.

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Concrete Repair

Indeed in order to specify the proper repair solution we must know if we are in front of mechanical, chemical, physical damage or even carbonation damage. Proper assessment survey and diagnosis of damage must be extended before concrete repairing.
Basically, in this field Sika is proposing either additive promoter for mortar, like the well know Sika Latex, or ready to use pre-dosed mortar. Mortar could be cementitious or epoxy based.
For instance for mechanical damage the Sika MonoTop range – one component polymer modified cementitious mortar offers all variety of products covering from bonding agent to thick repair mortar.

•Chemical damage (like Alkali aggregate reaction) could be fixed with the Sikadur epoxy range mortar.
•Structural repair (crack) will be injected with Sikadur 752 – 2 component epoxy resin low viscosity.
•SikaGrout range – cementitious pumpable grout could be used for surface repair (honeycomb) for instance.

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Risk management

Risk Management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events.

Risks can come from uncertainty in financial markets, project failures, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters as well as deliberate attacks from an adversary. Several risk management standards have been developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Science and Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards.[2][3] Methods, definitions and goals vary widely according to whether the risk management method is in the context of project management, security, engineering, industrial processes, financial portfolios, actuarial assessments, or public health and safety.

For the most part, these methodologies consist of the following elements, performed, more or less, in the following order.

1.identify, characterize, and assess threats
2.assess the vulnerability of critical assets to specific threats
3.determine the risk (i.e. the expected consequences of specific types of attacks on specific assets)
4.identify ways to reduce those risks
5.prioritize risk reduction measures based on a strategy
The strategies to manage risk include transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk.

Certain aspects of many of the risk management standards have come under criticism for having no measurable improvement on risk even though the confidence in estimates and decisions increase.

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Online Degrees for Construction Management Jobs

If you are interested in applying for construction management jobs, there are many different online degrees that can help you achieve your goals and fast track your career. The best part is that you can earn these degrees from the comfort of your own home and create a schedule that works for you and your current work and time commitments.
To be considered a strong candidate for most construction management jobs, it is recommended that you earn an online construction management degree or an online construction engineering degree, in addition to gaining hands-on experience through an apprenticeship or on-site training. Regardless of the degree you select, it is very important to make sure the online university you choose is accredited. This is the only way to ensure your degree will be recognized by future employers and other higher learning institutions, which is important if you ever need to transfer your credits.

The construction management courses that you will be required to take while achieving your degree will give you all of the necessary skills that job site experience cannot provide on its own. Plus, many degrees required for construction management jobs allow you to select different areas of focus you can specialize in. The different types of course work you can focus on include business and financial management, contract administration, cost estimating, building codes and standards, information technology, inspection procedures, site planning, engineering and architectural sciences, construction project management training. Another key focus of your degree can be technical training on how to use the most advanced industry software in the construction management field.

Once you graduate from your online degree program, you can decide which types of construction management jobs are right for you and the skill-set you have worked hard to build. Some construction management jobs will require you to be involved in each project from its inception until construction is finished. This means that you would oversee not only the workforce, but also all of the construction materials, tools, equipment and safety measures that are required for each phase of the project. Other construction management jobs may allow you to focus on the degree specializations you have chosen. For example, if you have completed course work and apprenticeships related to architecture and engineering, you should consider looking for construction management jobs where you would manage or directly interface with the architects and engineers on the project.

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New Songdo City

These days, plans for creating entire cities from the ground up do not surprise us, but South Korea’s New Songdo City (NSC) does. It has a clear purpose to attract foreign investment; it has an ideal geographic location near Seoul’s Incheon International Airport; and its design champions innovation and sustainability in accordance with LEED standards. The first foreign real estate acquisition in Korea, this massive project is a joint venture between POSCO E & C, the South Korean steel giant’s construction division, and the U.S. developer Gale International, which appointed the New York firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) to spearhead the design. With KPF’s master plan and many of its landmark components already in place, the project is off to a strong start. But the question remains how it will finish.
Approached from the 7 1⁄2-mile-long suspension bridge connecting to the airport, NSC emerges from the coastal fog like a mirage. The most striking feature is KPF’s 68-story Northeast Asia Trade Tower, South Korea’s tallest building to date. Multiblock housing by HOK and the tree-studded Central Park gradually come into focus as the air clears. But they vie for attention with vast stretches of still-empty land and the broad boulevards binding everything together. Already well trafficked, the roads are the most visibly populated part of town. Though NSC has yet to acquire the vibe of a bustling urban center, it is also hard to imagine that only a few years ago, the 1,500-acre reclaimed site did not exist.



While South Korea has been engaged in large-scale landfill construction since the 1970s, necessitated by a shortage of buildable area near the nation’s capital, the impetus for building NSC came after the South Korean economy hit the skids in 1997. At the urging of the International Monetary Fund, the South Korean government designated the site as a free economic zone with a full-fledged city to attract foreign investment. To jump-start the influx of money from abroad, the government made an unprecedented move by selling the land to this private, international joint venture and putting the new owners in charge of the city’s development. “Basically, it is a free-market experiment,” says KPF principal James von Klemperer, FAIA.

Given its lack of overseas experience, Gale was an unlikely partner for POSCO. But the challenge and opportunity to build a whole city from scratch — schools, museums, shopping, and entertainment, as well as housing and offices — was too good for the American developer to pass up.

The firm’s approach entailed synthesizing a number of complex conditions, such as building codes and infrastructure elements prescribed by local authorities; programmatic requirements stipulated by the client with guidance from the South Korean government; and common market practices, including the South Korean penchant for multilane roads and megablocks many times the size of their Manhattan counterparts. Not to mention an ambitious conceptual agenda that championed architectural innovation and sustainability. “Because NSC is a kind of entrance to South Korea and meant to showcase the free economic zone, we had high standards for building quality,” explains S.J. Lee, professor of architecture and engineering at Yonsei University and a former government design review board member.

KPF’s design process began with the development of a hypothetical master plan authored by a small team of architects, engineers, and client representatives. Ten new teams then produced 18-blocks worth of building prototypes to probe the scheme’s strengths and weaknesses. “We needed to test densities, scale, and the feeling of material,” explains von Klemperer. Based on the findings, KPF adjusted its model, discarded the temporary architecture, and, in 2004, got approval from South Korean authorities to proceed.

Inspired by precedents from around the globe, KPF’s cityscape brings to mind London’s garden squares, Paris’s tree-lined boulevards, and the canals that once riddled Seoul. As in New York, the heart of the city is Central Park. Adapting traditional South Korean landscaping, KPF’s 100-acre green space incorporates indigenous geographic features in miniature — craggy granite mounds, topiaries shaped like tea bushes, and a saltwater canal symbolizing the country’s extensive waterfront.

The city’s tent-shaped density distribution peaks near the park, which is ringed with NSC’s tallest buildings. “In every major city, the most expensive real estate surrounds a park,” comments Charles Reid, executive vice president of design and construction at Gale International. Here, too, high-end office and residential towers face its greenery but will taper off as the city propagates outward, ending in a golf course at one end and a hospital at the other.

While this formation will yield a coherent, Manhattan-style skyline, KPF’s “planned heterogeneity” forms the guiding principle at ground level. It consists of a patchwork of distinct neighborhoods, each one traversable on foot in under 15 minutes and linked by public transportation. Within each sector, KPF specified volume and mass restrictions plus street-wall requirements, but left architectural decisions largely up to the local and foreign firms in charge of individual buildings.

“For us, a pedestrian city is the first measure of sustainability,” says von Klemperer. Because green thinking is fairly new to South Korea, the team adopted the American LEED system as its ecological design standard. In addition to designating 40 percent of the land area as open green space, the central, saltwater canal neither utilizes potable water nor freezes in winter, enabling it to host water taxis year-round. And the reuse of gray water plus a citywide, pneumatic garbage collection system are just two ways that NSC will handle waste efficiently. “Sustainability is no longer a footnote,” says Daniel Libeskind, the architect of Riverstone, a 1 1⁄2-million-square-foot shopping center slated to begin soon.

But high-quality, environmentally sensitive architecture and urban planning alone do not a city make. A lot of square footage was built here in a short time, yet NSC still needs a viable downtown where people do business. Despite brisk sales of housing units, the townscape seems underinhabited. Although the international school is poised to open, the city is short on cultural, entertainment, and shopping facilities. And unless the tax code changes, NSC is not likely to become the next Singapore anytime soon. Unquestionably, the economic downturn has not helped the cause. Yet construction has slowed, not stopped. “Based on satellite cities around Seoul, I think it is almost inevitable that people will move here,” says Lee. That may be. But whether NSC will reach its ambitious goals remains to be seen.

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Transportation Projects Roadmap

Stressed public budgets and delayed passage of long-term federal funding have taken a toll on many transportation infrastructure projects in the United States during the last year. Nevertheless, many significant projects are moving ahead. The inaugural CE News Transportation Projects Roadmap lists 50 notable transportation infrastructure projects in the United States — ranked by estimated cost — that are currently in some stage of planning, design, or early construction. The list includes 21 road/highway/bridge projects, 17 rail/transit projects, seven port/waterway projects, and five airport projects.
While some of these projects have existed in some form of discussion or planning for almost a decade — see the Alaskan Way Viaduct — most are in initial phases of design or construction, with estimated completion dates as far off as 2024. Of course, given uncertain funding, prolonged right-of-way acquisition battles, and public or interest-group opposition, completion dates are likely to slip for some projects. Some projects may remain in initial planning stages for another decade or longer; some may never be built.

But other projects may end up on a fast track, influenced by outside factors. For example, widening of the Panama Canal, currently in progress, will allow larger container ships to pass through and reach East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. However, many of those ports cannot currently handle the larger ships, so not only do the ports need upgrading, but also the rail lines and roads serving those ports.

High-speed rail appears to be on a fast track in California and Florida. San Francisco broke ground in August on the nation’s first high-speed rail station (see page 8), even though construction on the California High-Speed Rail project is at least two years away. Public and private interest in high-speed rail is at an all-time high in the United States, but will that interest sustain and translate into adequate funding?

Fortunately, public coffers will not be the sole source of support. A significant number of the projects listed on the following pages are relying on some form of public-private partnership (P3) to move ahead.

Because of the number of uncertainties inherent in large construction projects, the CE NewsTransportation Projects Roadmap is a dynamic resource. Some projects will drop from the list as they are completed or become casualties of insufficient funding or public opposition; many more (hopefully) will be added. Please help us improve the accuracy and value of this list by submitting information, photos, and website links of large projects — estimated costs of $100 million or more — to bdrake@stagnitomedia.com.

North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum

CG/LA Infrastructure, LLC will hold its second annual North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The conference offers brief presentations of the top transportation, water, wastewater, and energy infrastructure projects in North America, as well as workshops, roundtables, and networking opportunities. Conference and registration information is available at www.cg-la.com/nalf2 Also check out CG/LA’s Top 100 Infrastructure Projects in North America.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge also popularly known as the Pearl Bridge, has the longest central span of any suspension bridge. The central span is staggering 1,991 metres (6,532 ft) making it a truly marvelous civil engineer wonder. Located in Japan, Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was completed in 1998 with the purpose of linking the city of Kobe on the mainland of Honsho to Iwaya on Awaji Island by crossing the busy Akashi Strait.

Construction Details
Central span – 1,991 metres (6,532 ft)
Steel – 181,000 tonnes ( It is said that total stell cable used in this bridge could encircle the entire world 7 times.)
Workers – 2 Million
Time- 10 years
Concrete – 1.4 million cubic metres

The bridge is constructed by using two main cables which strech between two towers. The road is supported by other cables which are eventually tied up with main cables. Two large anchor blocks on either end support this gigantic structure.

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Global collaboration on the Panama Canal expansion project

The new set of locks, at the heart of the $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, will allow the waterway to double its shipping capacity by 2025. The project involves the construction of two new lock complexes – one on the Pacific and one on the Atlantic side of the Canal – that will be 40 percent longer and 60 percent wider than the originals. Each lock will have three chambers and each chamber will have three water recycling basins. The expansion program is scheduled for completion in 2014, 100 years after the canal first opened.


Aconex CEO, Leigh Jasper, said, “The Panama Canal Expansion is one of the world’s great engineering projects and so we are proud to be supporting its delivery. Over the past ten years, Aconex has built an unparalleled ability to service complex, multi-billion dollar projects such as this one. The challenges that these projects face – such as linking global business partners, managing risk and ensuring compliance with stakeholder requirements – make it essential to have an effective, neutral and professionally-managed collaboration platform to control the flow of information.”


The Expansion project team comprises leading international contractors and consultants. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which operates the Canal, appointed CH2M Hill of the United States as Program Manager. Grupo Unidos por el Canal (“Grupo”) – a joint venture consortium of Impregilo of Italy, Sacyr Vallehermoso of Spain, Jan de Nul Group of Belgium and Constructora Urbana of Panama – was awarded the design and build contract. The design consortium, CICP, is led by MWH Global and includes participants from the U.S., Argentina, Italy and the Netherlands.


Jasper said, “The project team will be made up of hundreds of participants based across the Americas and Europe, that will need to exchange tens of thousands of documents and correspondence items each month. As a result, efficient collaboration between parties will be integral to the project’s success.


“Aconex will provide a secure, common platform for project communication that will link all the entities. All project members will be able to access, distribute and track their documents and correspondence in real time, regardless of their location.


“This will save time by enabling fast access to information, reduce printing and distribution costs, and reduce exposure to risks such as disputes and delays. Most importantly, throughout the program’s lifecycle, all parties will have the confidence that their project information is accessible, accurate and secure.”


Jasper added, “Our philosophy has always been that providing the technology is only part of the solution. On every project, we aim to drive high rates of adoption and usage. Users can access the system in Spanish, English or one of the other available languages. In addition, through our global network of offices, we provide full training and unlimited support to all project participants, ensuring that every organization on the project derives maximum value from using Aconex.”


From its 37 offices worldwide, Aconex services US$220 billion worth of projects in 65 countries. Its clients include AECOM, Parsons Brinckerhoff, IKEA, Las Vegas Sands and McDonald's Restaurants.

Read more...

Transportation Projects Roadmap

Stressed public budgets and delayed passage of long-term federal funding have taken a toll on many transportation infrastructure projects in the United States during the last year. Nevertheless, many significant projects are moving ahead. The inaugural CE News Transportation Projects Roadmap lists 50 notable transportation infrastructure projects in the United States — ranked by estimated cost — that are currently in some stage of planning, design, or early construction. The list includes 21 road/highway/bridge projects, 17 rail/transit projects, seven port/waterway projects, and five airport projects.
While some of these projects have existed in some form of discussion or planning for almost a decade — see the Alaskan Way Viaduct — most are in initial phases of design or construction, with estimated completion dates as far off as 2024. Of course, given uncertain funding, prolonged right-of-way acquisition battles, and public or interest-group opposition, completion dates are likely to slip for some projects. Some projects may remain in initial planning stages for another decade or longer; some may never be built.

But other projects may end up on a fast track, influenced by outside factors. For example, widening of the Panama Canal, currently in progress, will allow larger container ships to pass through and reach East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. However, many of those ports cannot currently handle the larger ships, so not only do the ports need upgrading, but also the rail lines and roads serving those ports.

High-speed rail appears to be on a fast track in California and Florida. San Francisco broke ground in August on the nation’s first high-speed rail station (see page 8), even though construction on the California High-Speed Rail project is at least two years away. Public and private interest in high-speed rail is at an all-time high in the United States, but will that interest sustain and translate into adequate funding?

Fortunately, public coffers will not be the sole source of support. A significant number of the projects listed on the following pages are relying on some form of public-private partnership (P3) to move ahead.

Because of the number of uncertainties inherent in large construction projects, the CE NewsTransportation Projects Roadmap is a dynamic resource. Some projects will drop from the list as they are completed or become casualties of insufficient funding or public opposition; many more (hopefully) will be added. Please help us improve the accuracy and value of this list by submitting information, photos, and website links of large projects — estimated costs of $100 million or more — to bdrake@stagnitomedia.com.

North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum

CG/LA Infrastructure, LLC will hold its second annual North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The conference offers brief presentations of the top transportation, water, wastewater, and energy infrastructure projects in North America, as well as workshops, roundtables, and networking opportunities. Conference and registration information is available at www.cg-la.com/nalf2 Also check out CG/LA’s Top 100 Infrastructure Projects in North America.

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How to make solar panels for home energy

Plenty of people have been looking into installing solar panels in an effort to combat rising energy costs. When most of these people see the prices of the professionally installed panels they realize it may not be a luxury they can afford. There is an easier, more cost efficient way to harness power from the sun and that is to learn how to make solar panels for your self.
Any motivated do-it-yourselfer can learn how to make solar panels for their home, workshop or business. When compared to the cost of purchasing and installing a pre-made solar energy system, learning how to make solar panels for your energy needs and the materials you need to execute the project are far less. By learning how to make solar panels for yourself, you have greater control over the size and design of your system as well.

Once you have a quality manual and you have learned how to make solar panels, the supplies are fairly simple to find. Most can be found at your local hardware store like, plywood, sheets of glass, and a roll of copper wire. It is also easy to locate inexpensive solar or photovoltaic cells to use in your project. Many are available over the Internet or you may have a retailer available locally. One you’ve learned how to make solar panels and you have your supplies, it usually takes about a day to assemble a 100-watt panel. This is the perfect amount of electricity to operate small appliances or a small workshop.

The most important step is finding a quality manual with detailed instructions for learning how to make solar panels. In many cases you get what you pay for, so don’t be afraid to spend a few extra dollars on a well-reviewed instruction manual. Overall, the cost of the making your own panels is so low, the price of the how to guide is minimal-you will still be paying way less learning how to make solar panels on your own than purchasing a professionally installed system.

With a little bit effort, you can be on your way to learning how to make solar panels to meet your energy needs. Then sit back and bask in the pride the next time the power goes out on your block. Your lights will still be on because you learned how to make solar panels and your energy supply is still in your battery bank.

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Bachelors in Civil Engineering

Job Description for Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering
Civil engineering is one of the broadest of the engineering disciplines, extending across many technical specialties. Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of facilities essential to modern life. These facilities vary widely in nature, size, and scope and include space satellites and launching facilities, offshore structures, bridges, buildings, tunnels, highways, transit systems, dams, airports, harbors, water supply and wastewater treatment plants. Civil engineers work in diversified areas such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources and environmental engineering, transportation engineering, ocean and coastal engineering, and construction engineering.

Skills for Success
•Able to identify, analyze and solve problems
•Good oral and written communication skills
•Aptitude for computing and design
•Practical and creative
•Able to work without supervision
•Able to work as part of a team
•Able to accept responsibility
•Willing to contribute and adhere to the safety requirements of the operation
Employment Opportunities for Civil Engineering Majors
•Airport Engineer
•Bldg. Construction Inspector
•Cartographer
•Cooperative Extension Agent
•Design Engineer
•Director, Traffic and Planning
•Drafter, Civil
•Drafter, Structural
•Drainage Design Coordinator
•Environmental Engineer
•Forest Engineer
•Geological Engineer
•Geologist
•Hazardous Waste Specialist
•Hydraulic Engineer
•Hydro Geologist
•Industrial Traffic Manager
•Irrigation Engineer
•Landscape Architect
•Meteorologist
•Mining Engineer
•Natural Resources Manager
•Oceanographer
•Production Engineer
•Public Utilities Manager
•Railroad Engineer
•Sanitary Engineer
•Structural Engineer
•Transportation Engineer
•Urban/Regional Planner
•Waste Management Engineer,
Radioactive Materials
•Water Pollution Control
•Water/Wastewater Plant Supervisor
•Waterworks Engineer

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Civil Engineering Career

What Is Civil Engineering ?

Civil engineering deals with a variety of construction and maintenance tasks, like building and maintaining roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, airports, dams, water works, sewage systems and ports. A civil engineer not only requires a high standard of engineering knowledge, but also supervisory and administrative skills. The work involves planning, constructing and maintaining.
The planning and designing part demands site investigation, resource feasibility study and on-the-spot decision making. An engineer has to be quick to make a decision because emergencies do come up and need to be dealt with then and there. Other important duties of an engineer involve taking care of work within the local government guidelines and getting permission for plans, creating a cost estimate and construction schedules and post-completion maintenance of the project.

There are many specialized branches of civil engineering such as dealing with structures, water resources, environment, construction, transportation and geo- technical engineering. For most projects, civil engineers work in teams or sometimes even in coordination with other engineers.

Civil engineering is ideal for those who love to create and the job is monetarily rewarding and involves a lot of responsibility. An engineer is directly responsible for public safety and welfare. Safety should be the first priority of any engineer. If they are involved in constructing residences, they have to follow the safety precautions involved too. In the case of a highway, they are expected to follow traffic safety rules.

Engineers have to look out for potential hazards, including environmental impacts and estimated life expectancy of the project. Natural disasters make it important for engineers to be extra cautious about environmental pressures.

Building Your Career In Civil Engineering

To begin a career in civil engineering, you need to complete a formal school education, including core courses in English, Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Math, Physics and a foundation in History and Social Studies. In college, a student needs to earn a Bachelor’s degree. Pursuing a Master’s degree is necessary. According to a recent survey, more than 35% students who have acquired a Bachelor’s degree go on to enroll for a Master’s, even as they continue to work. Many students prefer to work and earn at the same time because that can earn them a tuition reimbursement.

Acquiring a Master’s degree or a PhD helps a student to specialize in the field. The road to complete a civil engineering course is endless and that is why many professionals choose to keep on learning the latest trends in the construction business via special programs developed by universities and professional societies like the American Society of Civil Engineers. The annual earning of a civil engineer is anywhere between $43,000 to $90,000, depending on specialization and experience.

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Production of Shotcrete

Either the wet-mix process or the dry-mix process may be used to produce shotcrete.
Dry mix process
Batching and Mixing
Aggregate and cementitious materials shall be batched by mass. Equipment for batching by mass shall be capable of the accuracy specified in ASTM C94. The mixing equipment shall be capable of thoroughly mixing materials in sufficient quantity to maintain placing continuity and be capable of discharging all mixed material without any carryover from one batch to the next.

Delivery Equipment
The equipment shall be capable of discharge the aggregate-cement mixture into the delivery hose and delivering a continuous smooth stream of uniformly mixed material to the discharge nozzle. The discharge nozzle shall be equipped with a manually operated water injection system (water ring) for directing an even distribution of water through the aggregate-cement mixture. The water valve shall be capable of ready adjustment to vary the quantity of water and shall be convenient to the nozzleman. The water pressure at the discharge nozzle shall be sufficiently greater than the operation air pressure to ensure that the water is completely mixed with the other materials. If the line water is inadequate, a water pump shall be introduced into the line. The water pressure shall be steady (non-pulsating). The delivery equipment shall be thoroughly cleaned at the end of each shift. Equipment parts, especially the nozzle liner and water ring shall be regularly inspected and replaced as required.

Wet mix process
Batching and mixing
Batching and mixing shall be accomplished in accordance with the applicable provisions of ASTM C94. The mixing equipment shall be capable of thoroughly mixing the specified materials in sufficient quantity to maintain continouous placing. Ready-mix shotcrete complying with ASTM C94 may be used.

Delivery Equipment
The equipment shall be capable of delivering the premixed materials accurately, uniformly and continuously through the delivery hose. Recommendations of the equipment manufacturer shall be followed on the type and size of nozzle to be used and on cleaning, inspection, and maintenance of the equipment.

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The demand for Civil Engineering

Unlike many engineering branches, the demand for Civil Engineering has a direct relation with population growth. In fact, this is why Civil Engineering continues to be the largest engineering branch in terms of employment, compared with equally conventional branches like Mechanical Engineering or modern branches like Computer Science, which is mainly due to this direct relation with population growth. More people mean more apartments, and more people also eventually lead to a larger employee pool – thereby increasing both residential and commercial construction.

The demand for Civil Engineering also has a direct correlation with economic growth. This is because, periods of economic slowdown will leave no funds for infrastructure development, while periods of economic growth will provide surplus funds that will be gobbled up in no time by the pending infrastructure needs. In the coming years and decades, economic slowdowns will be better predicted, if not avoided, thanks to the better interventional strategies by institutions like the Federal Reserve. This will leave funds ever available for infrastructure development, and will generate steady demand for Civil Engineers in the coming years.

Most Civil Engineering projects like roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, railway lines, airports, seaports, water supplies, sewage systems, buildings, etc. are also heavy on maintenance and repair, and such regular work contributes to the great demand for Civil Engineers. The need for high-speed, highly-safe mass transportation systems like underground or undersea railways is another major driver for the advancement of Civil Engineering.

Civil Engineering of today is also a professionally satisfying career, with good salaries and technologically updated work. Though average salaries of Civil Engineers are not very high, many of them draw as much as US $95,000 and none of them draw below US $43,500. They also get to work in high-tech areas like earthquake-resistant designs, and make heavy use of tools like Computer Aided Design / Engineering (CAD/CAE).

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Construction Work and Material Specifications

General specifications of work quality are available in numerous fields and are issued in publications of organizations such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), or the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). Distinct specifications are formalized for particular types of construction activities, such as welding standards issued by the American Welding Society, or for particular facility types, such as the Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges issued by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). These general specifications must be modified to reflect local conditions, policies, available materials, local regulations and other special circumstances.

Construction specifications normally consist of a series of instructions or prohibitions for specific operations. For example, the following passage illustrates a typical specification, in this case for excavation for structures:

Conform to elevations and dimensions shown on plan within a tolerance of plus or minus 0.10 foot, and extending a sufficient distance from footings and foundations to permit placing and removal of concrete formwork, installation of services, other construction, and for inspection. In excavating for footings and foundations, take care not to disturb bottom of excavation. Excavate by hand to final grade just before concrete reinforcement is placed. Trim bottoms to required lines and grades to leave solid base to receive concrete.

This set of specifications requires judgment in application since some items are not precisely specified. For example, excavation must extend a “sufficient” distance to permit inspection and other activities. Obviously, the term “sufficient” in this case may be subject to varying interpretations. In contrast, a specification that tolerances are within plus or minus a tenth of a foot is subject to direct measurement. However, specific requirements of the facility or characteristics of the site may make the standard tolerance of a tenth of a foot inappropriate. Writing specifications typically requires a trade-off between assuming reasonable behavior on the part of all the parties concerned in interpreting words such as “sufficient” versus the effort and possible inaccuracy in pre-specifying all operations.

In recent years, performance specifications have been developed for many construction operations. Rather than specifying the required construction process, these specifications refer to the required performance or quality of the finished facility. The exact method by which this performance is obtained is left to the construction contractor. For example, traditional specifications for asphalt pavement specified the composition of the asphalt material, the asphalt temperature during paving, and compacting procedures. In contrast, a performance specification for asphalt would detail the desired performance of the pavement with respect to impermeability, strength, etc. How the desired performance level was attained would be up to the paving contractor. In some cases, the payment for asphalt paving might increase with better quality of asphalt beyond some minimum level of performance.

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The Master of Construction Management

Are you civil engineering graduates wanting to get best jobs in the construction industry? Master of construction management is a professional degree you need to obtain. The following is a typical program for the master course.
Duration
2 years full time

Course Overview

The unique mix of breadth and depth in the field of construction management studies provides a distinctive foundation for professional leadership for graduates facing the social, financial and environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Students can enhance their program by taking cross-disciplinary studies in urban design, urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture. This creates opportunities to locate construction specific knowledge in a broader context and therefore develop programs of study suited to the needs of the individual student.

There is also the opportunity to take research subjects which may enable progression to further studies as a PhD candidate. Professional experience can be integrated as part of the program which contributes to professional accreditation requirements.

The Program
The Master of Construction Management:

* allows students to develop and build on expertise in quantity surveying, construction law, project management and facility management.
* covers studies across the full breadth of the building cycle; and
* provides the opportunity to specialise in the management of the construction process (costing, planning, budgeting and resource allocation).

Admission Requirements – 2 Year program
Master of Construction Management – 200 points

1. The Selection Committee will evaluate the applicant’s ability to pursue successfully the course using the following criteria completion of the Bachelor of Planning and Design (Property and Construction) at the University of Melbourne between 2005 and 2010; and completion of at least 16 weeks of documented relevant full-time professional work experience;

or

a three-year undergraduate degree in a cognate area with a weighted average of at least 65% in the final two years, or equivalent, together with a personal statement of up to 1000 words outlining relevant prior study and work experience, and motivation to undertake the course.

2. The Selection Committee may conduct interviews or tests and may call for referee reports and employer references to elucidate any of the matters referred to above.

Note: Students who have completed relevant prior study and/or at least one year of documented relevant full-time professional work experience, or equivalent, may be eligible for advanced standing.

Students who have completed at least twelve months documented relevant work experience may be eligible to receive 50 points of credit for completion of a reflective journal, including a critical review of an industry project (not more than 5,000 words), during their professional experience.

Career Outcomes
Graduates in construction management typically work for construction companies both on and off construction sites. Their roles include planning and scheduling, project management, contract administration, or estimating and tendering.

Graduates pursuing a career in construction economics work as construction cost consultants and quantity surveyors with financiers, property developers, and project managers.

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Low Carbon Hemp House Put to the Test

A consortium, led by the BRE (Building Research Establishment) Centre for Innovative Construction Materials based at the University, has constructed a small building on the Claverton campus out of hemp-lime to test its properties as a building material.

Called the "HemPod," this one-storey building has highly insulating walls made from the chopped woody core, or shiv, of the industrial hemp plant mixed with a specially developed lime-based binder.

The hemp shiv traps air in the walls, and the hemp itself is porous, making the walls incredibly well insulated. The lime-based binder sticks together and protects the hemp and makes the building material highly fire resistant.

The industrial hemp plant takes in carbon dioxide as it grows, and the lime render absorbs even more of the climate change gas, effectively giving the building an extremely low carbon footprint.

Dr Mike Lawrence, Research Officer from the University's Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, explained: "Whilst there are already some houses in the UK built using hemp and lime, the HemPod will be the first hemp-lime building to be constructed purely for scientific testing.

"We will be closely monitoring the house for 18 months using temperature and humidity sensors buried in the walls, measuring how quickly heat and water vapour travels through them.

"The walls are breathable and act as a sort of passive air-conditioning system, meaning that the internal humidity is kept constant and the quality of the air within the house is very good. The walls also have a 'virtual thermal mass' because of the remarkable pore structure of hemp shiv combined with the properties of the lime binder, which means the building is much more thermally efficient and the temperature inside the house stays fairly constant."

Professor Pete Walker, Director of the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, added: "The aim of the project is to provide some robust data to persuade the mainstream building industry to use this building material more widely.

"Hemp grows really quickly; it only takes the area the size of a rugby pitch to grow enough hemp in three months to build a typical three-bedroom house.

"Using renewable crops to build houses can also provide economic benefits to rural areas by opening up new agricultural markets. Farmers can grow hemp during the summer as a break crop between their main food crops, it doesn't need much water and can be grown organically.

"Every part of the plant can be used, so there's no waste -- the shiv is used for building, the fibres can make car panels, clothing or paper, and the seeds can be used for food or oil. So it's a very efficient, renewable material.

"Lime has been used in construction for millennia, and combining it with industrial hemp is a significant development in the effort to make construction more sustainable."

Environmentally-friendly building materials are often more expensive than traditional materials, but the Renewable House project (www.renewable-house.co.uk) funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC) demonstrated a cost of around £75,000 (excluding foundations) to build a three-bedroom Code 4 house from hemp-lime making it competitive with conventional bricks and mortar.

The project is sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) under the Renewable Materials LINK Programme, and brings together a team of nine partners comprising: University of Bath, BRE Ltd, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Hanson UK, Hemp Technology, Lhoist Group, Lime Technology, the NNFCC and Wates Living Space.

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Pulse of the civil engineering industry

Shortly after President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in February 2009, CE News surveyed its readers to gauge their attitudes on prospects for the AEC industry in general and for their firms in particular. At that time, more than half (54 percent) of the civil engineers taking the survey expressed dissatisfaction with the way things were going at their companies or organizations. Now, one year later — and billions of dollars of recovery spending later — a similar proportion (56 percent) of respondents to another brief CE News online survey say they are dissatisfied.

Has the ARRA made any difference for civil engineers? In a recent report, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) touted a list of projects that were completed during the last year because of ARRA (stimulus) funding. However, since many, if not most, of these projects were “shovel ready” — already designed — civil engineering firms have not likely been impacted as positively as contractors, although some firms received construction management contracts resulting from initial ARRA funding. Nevertheless, funding for public and infrastructure projects and for private projects remain the two most important issues to the civil engineering industry, according to survey respondents (see

“The impact of the stimulus is clearly being overshadowed by the sweeping downturn in overall construction demand,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, commenting on recent construction spending statistics.

Simonson noted U.S. Census Bureau figures showing that private non-residential spending dropped 18 percent in December 2009 compared with December 2008. He added that only power construction increased from year-ago levels, by 14 percent.

In contrast, publicly funded construction increased by 1.0 percent between December 2008 and December 2009, Simonson said. He added that stimulus spending helped boost highway and street construction by 3.7 percent, making it the largest public category.

According to IHS Global Insight, an economic and financial information research firm, total construction spending will continue its decline, decreasing 5.6 percent in 2010 before growing 7.6 percent in 2011 and achieving double-digit growth in 2012.

Civil engineers responding to the CE News survey also anticipate continued declines this year. In 2009, 66 percent of respondents expected the AEC industry to shrink or remain the same during the year. This year, 84 percent of respondents anticipate that the AEC industry will not grow during the next year (see Figure 1).


Figure 1: Do you anticipate that the AEC industry will grow, shrink, or remain the same in the next year? Figure 2: How do you anticipate your firm’s total revenue for engineering services in the next year will compare with the prior year?

Nevertheless, 23 percent of survey respondents optimistically forecast that their firms’ total revenue for engineering services will increase in the next year compared with last year (see Figure 2). A year ago, only 8 percent of respondents anticipated increased revenue. Significantly fewer respondents expect decreased revenue this year.

Promising markets If civil engineering firms are able to increase revenue in 2010, it will likely be on the back of traditional infrastructure markets — transportation and water — with help from the quickly emerging alternative energy sector, survey respondents forecast (At press time, Congress was working on a second stimulus-type spending bill — the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010 — that could provide as much as $37 billion for transportation projects, including $27.5 billion for highway infrastructure projects and $8.4 billion for public transportation, according to the AASHTO. However, Senate passage of the bill was in doubt.

According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), record federal investment in surface transportation, increased spending through the ARRA, and continued easing in material prices will increase the highway construction market by 8 percent in 2010. However, uncertainty over the reauthorization of a multi-year federal surface transportation bill and future growth of the overall U.S. economy, along with the end of stimulus funds, will determine if there is a “soft landing” in 2011 or a more significant downturn, said ARTBA Vice President of Policy and Economist Alison Premo Black.

The $41.2 billion in 2009 federal highway obligations, as well as the additional $26.7 billion available through the ARRA, will provide the foundations for growth in 2010, the association predicted.

Another indicator of work to come, she said, is the high level of obligations for ARRA funding — more than 77 percent of stimulus funds have been obligated, but only $4 billion, or 16 percent of the total funding available, has been paid to contractors. “When you add it all up, there is a lot of work to be completed in the coming year,” Black said.

ARTBA also forecast that the ARRA will help increase the value of airport runway work in 2010 by 3.4 percent compared with 2009. And, the value of rail and transit construction work should increase 3.1 percent this year, compared with last year.

Potentially adding to work for civil engineers in the rail sector is the recent distribution of $8 billion in ARRA funds to begin development of 13 new, large-scale high-speed rail corridors across the country. The major corridors are part of a total of 31 states receiving investments, including smaller projects and planning work that is expected to help lay the groundwork for future high-speed intercity rail service.

In addition, on Feb. 1, President Obama proposed $1.82 billion in funding in his fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget for 27 major transit construction projects. The budget recommends investing $834.6 million in 19 new transit construction projects — 10 of which are new funding recommendations in FY 2011, and nine of which have been recommended for funding in previous years. The plan also provides $924.6 million for the continued funding of eight projects already under construction in New York, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Northern Virginia.

More than half of survey respondents said that alternative energy markets, including wind and geothermal, have great growth potential for civil engineering services. In 2009, with assistance from the ARRA, the U.S. wind industry installed a record 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). With these new projects, wind power now ties natural gas as the leading source of new electricity generation in the United States, AWEA said.

But executives in the renewable energy sector warn that such gains may be short lived without a national renewable energy standard (RES). “The RES is the best way to provide the certainty that companies need to expand wind manufacturing nationwide,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode.

Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association, added, “This year Congress enacted stimulus legislation with a historic group of incentives supporting geothermal and other renewable technologies. … The keys to sustain this growth will be adopting longer-term measures to support an increase in both new projects and the manufacturing and supply infrastructure.”

Challenging times But the promise of emerging markets only offers hope to those civil engineering professionals who can endure the current challenges. By a wide margin, respondents to CE News’ survey ranked maintaining a backlog as the greatest challenge facing their firms this year (see Figure 3). In fact, more respondents this year than in 2009 ranked maintaining a backlog and maintaining clients as the greatest challenges. This is made more difficult when 86 percent of respondents’ firms have experienced projects going “on hold” during the last six months (see Figure 4). This is only a slightly lower percentage than in 2009 (90 percent).

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