Construction engineering is a field that deals with creation of infrastructure and facilities. It is an engineering subset encompassing the design, development, and management of a buildings, power supply, and roads in a certain region or city.
Construction engineering involves designing and developing infrastructures and facilities such as roads, ports, railroads, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges and many more. In a way, construction engineering is similar to civil engineering as they both look at the design and development of an infrastructure. It, however, focuses more on construction process management on the ground level. Some say that construction engineering is a combination of design aspect of civil engineering and construction management.
Construction engineers design and implements a construction project. They are often present at the project site to oversee the work, manage the project and maintenance. They work on roads and highways, bridges, airports, utilities, railroads, housing projects, public facilities, and many more.
There is a wide range of projects and construction engineers have to specialize in a certain field. These fields include, mechanical systems, electrical systems, heavy construction, highways, commercial buildings or business. Job responsibilities of a construction engineer vary depending on the project but they typically do the following:
- Managing funds to follow budget.
- Risk analysis.
- Cost calculation.
- Surveying and planning construction site.
- Choosing and employing equipment and materials.
- Hiring and supervising project workers.
- Ensuring that projects follow laws.
- Designing and supervising construction of temporary structures.
These are just some of the responsibilities of a construction engineer. Aspiring construction engineers should: develop applied science skills, get a bachelor’s degree, get an entry-level job, get a master’s degree, and get licensed.
Construction engineers work on site and in offices. The planning, design and budgeting stage is done from the office and upon project’s start, they go to the site to oversee the work. Work is typically 40 hours per week and might work overtime to complete projects.
