Dr Amit Srivastava PhD, ME, IISC, BangaloreAssociate Professor & Head, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The NorthCap University
A Civil Engineer is a professional who deals with the analysis, design, construction and maintenance of the built environment, such as, roads, canals, bridges, dams, buildings etc. After possessing a Bachelor’s degree in Civil engineering from a recognized institution (UGC / AICTE approved) and after acquiring sufficient knowledge, through clearing various exams, and work experience, a candidate can enroll himself or herself to be designated as Professional Engineers (PE). In India, Engineering Council of India, an apex body of engineers, is responsible for provide PE certification. For details, visit http://www.ecindia.org/ .
Hence, acquiring technical skills, knowledge and understanding of the Civil Engineering profession is a must to be successful in various national level exams as well as working with top construction companies to acquire great work experience. In this article, I have highlighted few important technical skills a Civil Engineer must acquire during their four year graduation programme so as to excel in their professional career and for sustained growth.
Testing of Building and Construction Materials
A qualified Civil Engineer should be familiar with field and laboratory testing of various building and construction materials, such as, aggregate, concrete, cement, steel, bitumen, etc. In 4 years of graduation program, practical components are included in the regular courses taught. It is always advised that students should take these practical component parts very seriously. It is rightly mentioned ‘Experiment without Theory is blind & Theory without Experiment is lame’.
All the testing of building and construction materials is done as per Indian standard code of practices established by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), New Delhi. As per the ruling of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, these codes can now be downloaded free of cost from a website. For example, to download IS: 456-2000 that is Indian standard code of practice of concrete design, go to the link https://law.resource.org/pub/in/bis/S03/is.456.2000.pdf For any code, you need to just Google search and it will be available on your desktop.
Examination of soil
Every structure has to be founded on soil and it is soil only that takes all the load of the structure. Hence, it is important to analyze the suitability of the soil and to check its competency for bearing the load of the structure. In few cases, soil is also used as a construction material, such as, construction of an earthen dam, embankments, subgrade of roads, etc. Again, suitability check of the soil is important for construction purposes.
Application of surveying tools
Before commencement of any major engineering project, survey is carried out to determine the location of site and its surrounding. Surveying is used to understand the topography of the site and natural resource availability. Survey is carried out to prepare the cadastral map showing property boundaries. You cannot construct until you survey. Objective of surveying is to examine and record the area and features of a piece of land so as to construct a map, plan, or provide detailed description of it. Various tools like Theodolite, Total Station, DGPS, are used for land survey work.
Standard codes utilized in construction Every country has its own standard codes for performing construction activities and also handling safety issues during construction and in India the Civil Engineer is expected to follow the Indian standard codes of practices.
Bar Bending Schedule
Bar bending schedule (or schedule of bars) is a list of reinforcement bars, vis-à-vis, a given reinforced cement concrete work item, and is presented in a tabular form for easy visual reference. This table summarizes all the needed particulars of bars – diameter, shape of bending, length of each bent and straight portions, angles of bending, total length of each bar, and number of each type of bar. This information is a great help in preparing an estimate of quantities and is a crucial chart for a Civil Engineer for execution of work.
Drawing and Design
Understanding the details of drawing and design is critical for a Civil Engineer involved in construction projects. A structure to be constructed is drawn on a piece of paper in a two dimensional space. Hence, a civil engineer should have a strong imagination and interpretation capabilities.
Estimation and Billing
Nothing is free of cost and construction involves building materials that has to be purchased from other sources which involve construction equipments and labour cost. Estimation of total amount of expected expenditure as well as actual expenditure in a construction project is important for planning as well as execution of the work. One has to really measure the length, width and depth / height of construction to measure the volume or area of constructed item and then prepare detailed estimates of quantities of different materials utilized in a particular item of work as well as abstract of estimate for preparing Bill of Quantities (BOQ) for clearing the bills and dispatch of salaries to the workers, laborers and officials involved in the project. It is one of the most important aspects of Civil Engineering construction as it involves money.
Quality Control
Quality of construction depends on the quality of material, man power and construction equipments used in a project. Every structural element, made up of steel, concrete, timber or any other material is subjected to stresses and strain and these materials have a limited capacity to bear that. If the stresses exceed the strength of the materials, the material will fail which may finally lead to collapse of the structure. Quality control at each step is important in acquiring high quality concrete. Similarly, it applies for other materials where process and end products need to be controlled along with the workmanship. Quality control is a major issue in civil engineering construction and there is a specialized person designated as a ‘Quality Engineer’ to ensure the compliance of the suggested guidelines as per the contractual documents or Indian standard code of practice or any other code as specified by the GOI.
Project Management
As a Civil Engineer, you need to manage a project which involves various activities going parallel. It is out most important to finish a project well within time as delay may cause increased cost of the project. There may be some activities that may be critical which should be finished in time as delay in critical activities may cause delay in project completion. Project management is required at every stage of planning, design, manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, and re-purposing/ decommissioning. There are specialized courses that deal with various aspects of project management and are included in the course curriculum.
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