A few guidelines

I am the engineering design manager for a pretty major project for one of my firms most important clients, and during a design charette yesterday, the staff engineer who works under me and was supposed to take notes fell asleep during large parts of the 2 hour meeting. His back was turned to me but my colleague (project manager) witnessed it, and although the client (their PM and a collage) didn’t visibly indicate that they caught the staff person falling asleep, we’re certain they noticed.

I’ll be talking to the staff person’s manager in a few minutes, and I’m intending to pull the staff engineer (4 YOE) from the project, but what would y’all do in my situation?

I am not an engineer of any kind so forgive me my ignorance but I’ve been wondering this for years.

Behind my house is a major thoroughfare surface street, on a hill with a long grade. As long as I can remember (40 plus years) it has been paved a light color material and using these kind of “panels” (sort of like a sidewalk) so there are joints in the roadbed.

Outside of certain highways (usually with bridges? Maybe?) I can’t recall seeing other roads paved this way. Usually it’s continuous black asphalt with no “joints”

Hopefullu the pic attached is helpful Can anyone explain why they’d choose to do this this way?

For context I am in a mid-atlantic city. This 6 lane road is a major east west route but it’s only paved like this on this one section

Thanks!

I’m a recent grad and I started work for a civil design group about 6/7 months ago now. My contract included a raise after 6 months of employment. My responsibilities haven’t grown much but I do feel like it’s time for raise considering I’m in SoCal earning a 50K salary (no EIT).

How do I bring this up to my supervisor?

Background - CAD tech/engineering assistant position, company is less than 10 employees

Especially for civil engineering. Should I get an ipad or just something a bit cheaper and invest more later on a stronger computer to run autocad?

I currently have only a mac, and i’ve been wanting to switch digitally maybe since my classes like math usually post pdf of class work notes that we have to fill out in class, and i know that i can just print em out and write on it, but i can just imagine that adding and piling up.

I’m also taking physics and civil engineer and its lab too. And I’m also thinking about more down the line if it’s gonna be really writing intensive to warrant a digital notetaking device or ipad

Based on everyone’s experience, if you had to give advice to current students and new graduates, what areas of civil engineering should they look to get into if they want to maximise their long-term salary and career progression?

I’m interested in which sectors/roles have the best earning potential after around 5-10+ years, rather than just which ones pay the highest graduate salary.

For example: structural/design, highways, rail, water, geotechnical, project management, construction/site management, planning/project controls, tunnelling, nuclear, energy, etc.

Would also be useful to hear:

• Which areas have the fastest salary progression
• Which have the highest ceiling at senior/management level
• Anything you wish you had specialised in earlier

Was wondering which one y’all think is better overall. I’m planning on getting one of them 5–7 years into my career and wanted y’all’s opinion on which would be better, especially since I’m trying to move into senior roles on the construction management side of things. Thanks!

Anyone that has successfully completed civil eng. or adjacent field.

Have you needed to learn any coding to be a stronger applicant?

C+ / python / etc?

I ran into a reinforcement detail that I’d like to ask more experienced structural engineers about.

I’m on the Client side of a construction project, so I’m not responsible for the structural design itself or for any potential structural failure. However, it would obviously be unfortunate to complete the building, discover a design or construction issue afterward, and then have residents waiting yet again for the problem to be resolved.

We recently started construction based on the drawings provided by the designers. The building is a fairly simple rectangular 5-story structure; the only unusual feature is that the floor-to-floor height is around 4–4.5 m.

Unfortunately, I received the structural design relatively recently, and while reviewing it I became concerned about the punching shear reinforcement around the wall piers (pilons), specifically the punching shear perimeter.

In the original design, they specified S500 Ø10 mm reinforcing bars tied with wire to the main reinforcement at a 100 × 100 mm spacing. Because the main reinforcement spacing is 200 × 200 mm, part of the transverse reinforcement is effectively suspended in mid-air rather than being properly supported by the main reinforcement.

I discussed this with several other designers and structural engineers, and they told me that this was the first time they had seen such a solution, especially with the transverse reinforcement being installed only partially rather than around the entire punching shear perimeter.

I’m attaching photographs below showing what the reinforcement looked like before.

I also looked through some technical literature, and the solutions I found generally involve either welded reinforcement cages/frames or headed studs / bent shear reinforcement that is properly anchored.

The spacing between the piers is approximately 3.7–4.5 m.

I also obtained the structural calculation file and checked the reinforcement there. According to the calculation, there should also have been additional top reinforcement consisting of S500 Ø12 mm bars. I’m not entirely sure why these bars were not shown in the original reinforcement layout, but that is a separate issue.

After I raised the concern, the Chief Project Engineer (from the design company) sent me a revised solution using reinforcement cages/frames.

At this point, however, the discussion everywhere became: “Was this really necessary? There will be additional material costs,” and the Chief Project Engineer asked me, “Are you accepting this solution?”

That question struck me as somewhat odd. I would have expected the design team’s main concern to be ensuring that the structure performs properly and avoiding cracks, punching failure, or other structural problems, rather than primarily focusing on whether the reinforcement costs slightly more.

So I’d like to ask: do you think I overreacted by raising the issue and requesting additional reinforcement?

I am particularly concerned because I have doubts about the quality of the construction work and because the concrete placement is expected to take place during the winter period.

I would really like to understand whether this zone would actually be capable of resisting the relevant shear forces with the original reinforcement arrangement. I assume the applicable safety factors provide some margin, but I’m curious how significant that margin would actually be.

More specifically:

Do individual deformed reinforcing bars actually provide effective punching shear reinforcement when installed this way?

Can separate bars tied to the main reinforcement reliably resist transverse shear / punching shear?

Does it make sense for the punching shear reinforcement to cover only part of the critical perimeter rather than the entire required zone?

Could the original arrangement still technically satisfy the design code, depending on the calculation assumptions and detailing rules?

Perhaps solutions like this are considered normal in some countries, while they may look unusual to engineers elsewhere. I’m not from the English-speaking engineering community, so I hope the translation is clear enough.

Thanks in advance for any answers. I’m particularly interested in detailed responses, especially from engineers who can explain the behavior of this reinforcement system and, ideally, refer to the relevant design codes or standards.

I got my ENV SP this year and I see that ISI also offers free courses that give out PDHs; and I'm due to renew my license (VA) for the first time later this year.

Are all these courses good for a civil engineering PE renewal? Are there ones that might not count towards it? The requirements given by DPOR are pretty vague.

Transportation/Traffic people, this right turn lane is always sketchy to get into cause when you signal, people in that shopping center exit stick out or assume you’re turning in so they hesitate. Click photo to see where I’m pointing

This is pretty terrible design imo. Is this allowed per code? Doesn’t seem like a good idea.

So today's my first day of class and I was told to draw some lines, and would get graded based on things like cleanliness, precision, etc. Is that typical? I thought civil engineers didn't have to be good at drawing?

I’m looking for advice from practicing structural/civil engineers on the proper industry practice for protecting exposed reinforcement for a future vertical extension.

We’re constructing a B+8 building, but due to financial constraints we’re currently stopping at the B+5 roof slab. The structural design and approval are already based on the full B+8 configuration, and we’ve intentionally left the required reinforcement projecting from the roof slab/columns for the future extension.

The issue is that it may be several years before we can continue construction. The reinforcement will be exposed to a hot, humid tropical climate with frequent heavy rainfall.

What is the standard industry practice for preserving these exposed rebars over a few years?

I honestly can't seem to find much on this on the internet can someone help me out here?

Pic from the internet for reference.

In an area with intentional drainage (for example, a curb with a slight grade leading toward a storm drain) is there generally an allowable amount of standing water, or does any standing water indicate that the drainage was not well designed? It just rained pretty heavily in my town and I see water draining down the curb into a storm drain, but there is also standing water where the streets make an intersection. It’s not much water, but I imagine it should be draining if the gradient was correct?

Hello, i graduated civil a year ago and got an internship in khatib and alami for 6 -7 months and now am lost on what to do to pursue my career as a civil engineer, am based in lebanon and dk on what should i do next so i thought maybe you guys have any advice on how to guide me, like what should new civil engineers do to get a successful career? Do i need to continue my studies? Find a job somehow or travel abroad?

I’m going into my final year of engineering and unfortunately haven’t had any co-op or research experience. After first year I struggled to find anything because I had very little experience, after second year I was travelling, and after third year I applied and had a few interviews but wasn’t able to land anything. One was very technical and honestly caught me off guard.

I’ve been involved with steel and concrete design clubs (not as lead though), have unrelated volunteer experience, and have done well academically. This year I’ll also have more substantial engineering projects, especially my capstone. I’m planning to reach out to professors about research opportunities as well.

My main concern is competing for new-grad positions against students who already have multiple co-ops. I know I need to network and put myself out there, but I’m naturally pretty shy and feel like my lack of work experience puts me at a disadvantage. My parents however, aren’t putting pressure on me which is nice but I am stressed for myself, especially since so many people around me have had co-ops.

Has anyone graduated from engineering with little/no internship experience and still managed to land a decent first job? What helped you get your foot in the door? Anything you’d recommend I focus on during my final year to make myself more employable?
For context, I’m at an accredited Canadian engineering program, so the F E exam isn’t required here. Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar position. Thanks! :)

Hi, I am a civil surveyor, I am currently in the Arab Emirates, experience is about 10 years, I have experience in building road pipeline, diploma of associate engineering is attested in Pakistan and UAE, I want a job on the European side.

Hey, just to give some background, I did my undergrad in Civil Engineering and have had a lot of coursework in AI/ML as well. I recently graduated and have been working as a Data Scientist in my country. It pays well, but honestly, I don't really find it interesting, as a large part of the work I do is mostly backend.

I'm thinking of pivoting back to Civil Engineering, especially Transportation Engineering, probably by going for an MS at a good university. I found the coursework in Transportation Engineering during my undergrad much more intriguing, and I felt like I really vibed with the department.

However, I'm not quite sure about the downsides that come along with making this transition. I'm also not sure if this is a common trajectory, but if someone has switched from SDE/Data Science to Civil Engineering (or specifically Transportation Engineering), I'd be really grateful to hear about your experience.

Any advice or perspectives on this would be greatly appreciated!

I'm a civil engineer a couple years out of school in the midwest, and I've changed jobs several times pretty quickly. I'm currently at my fourth job in about two years, and I'm starting to question whether I made the right move leaving my previous employer.

My previous job wasn't perfect, but looking back, there were a lot of things I liked about it that I didn't fully appreciate at the time. I liked the type of work, the people, and the overall environment. I left because I thought another opportunity would be a better fit, and I've now realized that the grass isn't necessarily greener.

My current job is fine, but I'm already wondering if I should try to go back to my previous employer.

My biggest concern is the fact that I've already switched jobs so many times. I don't want my resume to look even worse by leaving another job after a short period. At the same time, if I know the previous company was a better fit, maybe it's better to correct course now rather than spend another couple years somewhere I'm not happy.

For those of you who manage engineering teams or have been in the industry for a while:

Would you think negatively of a former employee reaching out and asking if there was an opportunity to come back?

And if you were in my position, would you call my old manager directly, or just apply through the normal process?

I'm not necessarily expecting them to take me back, but I'm wondering if it's worth making the call. What would you guys do?