It's a wonderful feeling. You drive along the road towards a new subdivision.
Your entire family is in the car so that you can all be together when you
cross into the new housing unit.
What is special about this experience -- aside from the fact that town
residents will have a much-needed new place to live -- is that you were on
the design team that created the development.
"What was once a raw piece of land or a field becomes a new development,"
says Max LeSueur. He is a civil engineering technician. "You drive by and
see the new roads getting put in, and you can see what is being built. You
can really take pride in the work being done.
"You can say to others: 'I worked on this, and it looks pretty good,'"
he adds with a chuckle. "And hopefully it does."
Civil engineering technicians get the benefit of seeing the results of
their work. "It's very enjoyable to be involved in the design of something
like this, where there is a real, concrete finished product," says Paul Delorma.
He is the academic coordinator of a civil engineering technology program
that trains both technologists and technicians.
"In a lot of fields, you don't get to see the end result in the same way.
With something like this, it is very easy to see the rewards of your job."
LeSueur is a technician in an engineering consulting company that works
on roadways and sanitation and water sewers in new housing developments. They
also work on public roads and on private roads for townhouses and shopping
centers. In addition, they create parking lots.
"For example, an architect will do the general layout of a parking lot,
and then we will make sure that it works," says LeSueur.
If you've ever been in a poorly designed parking lot in a rainstorm and
have had to navigate through lakes of water, you might understand some of
the problems civil engineering technicians try to correct.
"You have to think about sufficient slopes so you don't get any puddles
and you have to make sure the storm sewers are sized properly," says LeSueur.
In addition, technicians need to think about environmental issues. "Because
water isn't absorbed into the ground, and the water systems are overtaxed,
we have to come up with designs called storm detention," he says.
"What this means is coming up with a system that will release water slowly
over time so a creek or waterway isn't overloaded."
A neatly designed parking lot may not be an exciting issue for some people.
"It's not a glamorous job," admits LeSueur.
"But it's always interesting. It's challenging to be faced with new problems.
If you think about it long enough, there isn't a problem that can't be solved."
A civil engineering team is made up of engineers, technologists and technicians.
Although the technicians have the least amount of training, they can still
get involved in the design at some level. "They get experience in AutoCAD,
which is a design program," says Delorma.
Every part of a civil engineering team is essential. "I like to use a medical
analogy," says Tim Collins. He is the dean of the school of technology at
Michigan Technical University. "The engineers are like the doctors who head
up the team. They are then supported by a bunch of different nurses."
Just as nurses have different levels of training and expertise, so does
the backup team for the engineer. "Different nurses have different sets of
skills to support the patient. It is the same for engineering technicians
and technologists."
Most often, a technician does much more of the practical work in an engineering
environment than the more theoretical and design-based engineer.
"The technician does more hands-on work," explains Wendy Meininger-Dyk.
She is the academic coordinator for applied technology at a college. "That
means more testing, data gathering and more fieldwork."
Meininger-Dyk adds that many people take pleasure in being on site doing
a technician's work. "It's a really enjoyable area to get into," she says.
"It's a great combination of hands-on work and theory."
For those people who don't want to sit at a desk all day, being a technician
may be perfect.
"A lot of people don't like working just in an office. This is an excellent
way to get the best of both worlds," she says.
While the technician may be in the office helping design any of these projects,
they could just as easily be out on site. "Technicians can be called on to
supervise construction sites of buildings," says Delorma. "This can take quite
a bit of work, making sure a building is coming together according to specs
and is on time."
Collins agrees that there is much to be looked after at a building site.
"Estimating is a large part of this," he says. "You estimate the cost of the
brick, the block, the wiring and much more."
What materials are needed for the building of a roadway? Or for the construction
of a highrise building? An estimator takes the listed materials and calculates
how much of each material will be needed and the price of those materials.
"It's a quantitative job," says Delorma.
Civil engineering technicians are also involved in materials testing. "This
can mean testing of materials in a building or even of the soil," says Delorma.
"If you're building a bridge, you need to be sure that it's on solid ground.
Technicians help with this soil testing."
Concrete also needs to be tested. Many different concretes have different
qualities and uses. By testing, technicians can make sure that the right type
of concrete is being used for the right type of project.
"You'd certainly want to make sure, for example, that you were using the
right kind of concrete for something like road pavement," says Delorma.
It's obvious that civil engineering technicians can work in a broad number
of fields. They can also work in many different locations. "Civil engineering
is transportable anywhere," says Collins. "You can work in the city or in
rural areas."
Meininger-Dyk adds that the ability to find work in many different areas
is a plus for many graduates. "They can choose the type of location and the
amount of office or fieldwork that they want."
Wherever you end up working as a civil engineering technician, you will
most likely get the satisfaction of crossing a bridge, taxiing down a runway
or driving into a new housing development that you helped design.
"In that sense, it can be a very rewarding career," says LeSueur.