Engineering and Construction (Essay Sample)

University Name CIVIL ENGINEERING/TRANSPORT ENGINEERING Engineering and Construction Name Course Tutor Date Civil Engineering Civil Engineering is a field of science that deals with several aspects within the science field. The fields that degenerate civil engineering are design, construction, and maintenance. The three fields are combined in an effort to complete structures and maintain them. Such structures include buildings, dams, bridges, tunnels, and highways (Chen & Richard 8). For Civil Engineering to carry out these three functions it uses physical laws, mathematical equations and theories of mechanics. In its definition, ethical issues are considered vital such that environmental issues and physical hazards arising due to the projects are minimized. Civil Engineering has several broad categories and fields. These fields are geotechnical, structural, transportation, water resource, environmental, earthquake, and urban planning engineering (Chen & Richard 9). In a simpler definition, Civil Engineering is a professional engineering discipline that majors in design of construction plans, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment (Chen & Richard 10). Civil engineering takes place in broad categories of the public sector, municipal levels, and county levels to the national government levels. It also takes place broadly in the private sector such as from individual homeowners through to international companies (Chen & Richard 13). The people who major in these specialties are called civil engineers. A civil engineer carries out tasks of planning, designing, construction and maintenance of structures (Chen & Richard 14-15). Transportation engineering Transport engineering involves the application of technology and scientific principles in the field of planning, functional design, operational and management of facilities for any mode of transportation (Jonathan et al 38). The main aim of this field of engineering is to provide certain services and facilities to the public. These services and facilities must satisfy several conditions such as safety, efficiency, comfort, convenience, economical, and environmental friendly movement of people and goods. Transport engineering is derived from the vast or broad discipline of civil engineering joined with that of industrial engineering (Jonathan et al 39). It forms part of the major ingredients of civil engineering and mechanical engineering disciplines. Transport engineering is categorized into several major components. These components are Aerospace, air transport, highway, pipeline, waterways, ports, coastal and ocean, and urban transports (Jonathan et al 41). The planning aspect of transport involves to a great perspective forecasting decisions and political factors. Transport engineering is majored in generation and operation of transport facilities such as airports, railroads, highways among others (Victor 77). There are so many aspects observed during initial processes of transport engineering such as sizing, determining materials for use, and calculating the geometry among other aspects. The initial stages also will require the engineer to carry out the area inventory (Victor 78). Relevant information that make up a complete inventory include population information, land use, economic activities, transportation facilities and services available, travel patterns and volumes, laws and ordinances, regional financial resources, and community values and expectations. The above inventories will help the engineer to develop models that bear a complete and accurate forecast of future conditions of the system (Victor 79). Sydney Harbor Bridge The Sydney harbor bridge is completely made of steel. In categorization, all the works involved in construction, development of the bridge falls under the transport-engineering bracket of civil engineering (Smiles 52). The bridge was constructed to connect the Sydney CBD and the North Shore. The bridge was nicknamed ‘The Coathanger' to reflect its arch-based design. The public works engineers were attributed for initiating the program (Lalor 111). The British firm (Dorman Long and Co Ltd) designed and builds the bridge and completed it in 1932. The (Smiles 55) bridge design was influenced by the completion of a similar bridge in New York, the Hell Gate Bridge (Smiles 59). Civil engineers were appointed to oversee Bradfield's dream of building the arch bridge. The engineers wrote relevant reports, analysis, and documented evidences of the need to construct the structure. The proposal from the engineers was taken to parliament for approval (Smiles 61). Civil engineers at the ministry were assigned to develop a design for the bridge. The engineers suggested to the government use of a tendering process to procure builders (Smiles 61-62). The first thing the bridge builders did was to employ professional, skilled, and semiskilled labor. During the eight years of its construction, the company had employed an estimated total of between 2500 to 4000 employees (Lalor 111). The workers were employed in various levels of the construction strategy. The company had to contract builders who had specialized skills in order for the bridge to attain speculated quality. The company had to pay insurances for all the employees due to the nature of risk involved. They began by erecting two workshops in the north shore (Lalor 111-113). The workshops enabled the company to develop the construction approaches to constructing the bridge and the approach span (Lalor 113). They then constructed concrete piers to support the approach span on each side. At the initial stages, the developers build a giant crane creeper on each side to facilitate movement of materials. After laying the foundations on both sides, the erection of the arches was started in 1928 (Lalor 113-114). In 1930, complete installation of arches, cables and cords had come to a complete point. By 1932, all channels had been completed; the builders had completed developing railroads, paths, and roads (Smiles 80). The developers loaded up to 96 steam locomotives placed end to end to test the bridge. It took three weeks to conclude that the bridge was suitable for use (Smiles 81). Reference list Chen, W., and Richard, J. Y. (ed.). The Civil Engineering Handbook. CRC Press, (2002). Print. Jonathan T., Ricketts, M., Kent, L., Frederick, S., and Merritt, P. (ed.). Standard handbook for civil engineers (5 ed.). McGraw Hill, (2004). Print. Lalor, P. The bridge. Allen & Unwin, (2006). Print. Smiles, S. Going modern and being British: 1910–1960. Intellect Books, (1998). Victor, E. S. Literature notes in structural engineering. University of Colorado, (1999). Print. source..