Many of our customers have heard of the job title civil engineer. They may even have friends and family members who are civil engineers, but they still don’t know what exactly the staff members at a civil engineering company do.
In a broad sense, civil engineers are responsible for designing and overseeing the construction of public works projects, like roads, bridges, buildings, water and sewage systems and more. Bridges, roads and buildings often come to mind first when civil engineering gets brought up—but without civil engineers, we wouldn’t have fresh water coming out of our faucets.
There are dozens of subcategories within the civil engineering industry. Here are a few of the most common ones:
- Architectural engineering: Architectural engineering combines building design and aesthetics with a focus on functionality. Architectural engineers have the structural knowledge to create the building and an eye for design to make the building beautiful.
- Construction engineering: This engineering field involves working with architects, architectural engineers and engineering technicians on building design and on-site troubleshooting. A lot goes into the job, but those in the construction engineering field are often tasked with creating budgets for construction projects.
- Earthquake engineering: Engineers in this unique niche are responsible for identifying an area’s risk of an earthquake and coming up with solutions to strengthen buildings to protect against earthquakes.
- Ecological engineering: Anyone who loves nature and wants to save it would be happy as an ecological engineer. Engineers in this field can choose to maintain our natural ecosystem or work on the construction of artificial ones.
- Environmental engineering: This branch of civil engineering maintains the quality of air, water and land. These engineers create detailed plans to help keep our natural environment as pure as possible, which is becoming increasingly hard these days.
- Fire-protection engineering: As the name suggests, this branch is responsible for all things related to human safety in a fire. These engineers often work with architectural and construction engineers to ensure a building is as safe as possible in terms of fire outbreaks.
- Geotechnical engineering: Engineers in this field investigate land quality and how structures must be built upon it. Thanks to tons of schooling in geology, geotechnical engineers can help design buildings that are structurally sound based upon their location. Depending on their location, these engineers may work closely with earthquake engineers.
- Highway engineering: If you’re sick of waiting in traffic on a particular road or if you notice a stretch of road that has a lot of accidents, you need a highway engineer. These folks are responsible for designing roads with an emphasis on safety and optimizing traffic flow.
Find out more by working with Mason & Associates
If you’d like to learn more about the ins and outs of a civil engineering company, contact our team at Mason & Associates. With over three decades of civil engineering experience, we’re a reputable team to work with, and we’ll have all the answers to your questions.