What Does a Civil Engineer Do?
A civil engineer practices civil engineering, the branch of engineering which focuses on the design, construction, and maintenance of public works. These professionals may be employed by municipalities or by private firms which have landed contracts to build such public works. The qualifications to become a civil engineer vary by nation, but generally the position requires at least a four year degree, and in some cases formal certification will be needed as well before someone can advertise as a civil engineer. Civil engineering is one of the oldest and most extensive branches of engineering. It focuses on aspects of public works like transportation, water treatment, government buildings, public facilities such as airports and train stations, and other large scale projects which benefit the public. A civil engineer must be able to design safe structures which meet standard codes in the regions that they are being built in. These structures must be designed with maintenance, efficiency,
Civil engineers generally are involved in the design of public works. These include large buildings, roads, bridges, water distribution systems, dams, sewage treatment plants, and flood protection systems, such as levees and seawalls. Within the Civil Engineering field there are many specialties, such as structural engineers, geotechnical engineers, hydraulic engineers, and environmental engineers. What Civil engineers, and most other engineers do is develop drawings and plans for things. If you want to build a large office building you will need a number of engineers with different specialties. The structural engineer designs the structure, doing calculations to make sure it will stand up to the wind loads, live loads, and earthquake loads, and other loads. Then he selects the sizes and shapes for all the structural components, and makes drawings showing how everything is to be put together. The foundation engineer investigates the ground conditions, and designs the foundations for th
Civil Engineering offers a rewarding and responsible career in areas such as the planning, design, construction and maintenance of buildings, roads, bridges, railways, dams, port facilities, water supply and wastewater treatment systems. Civil engineers work to restrict the damaging effects on society of natural problems such as cyclones, earthquakes, floods and landslides. Government departments and local authorities employ Civil engineers for roads and traffic, water supply and infrastructure and private consultants for civil and structural design. Civil Engineering practice includes structural engineering, hydraulic (or water) engineering, geotechnical (or soil and rock) engineering, and transportation engineering together with training in engineering management and in the related discipline of environmental engineering. These are all included in the Civil Engineering course at James Cook University . JCU Civil Engineering graduates have been employed in a wide range of positions lo
