4 Career Paths For Civil Engineers In The UK.

Have you just finished University and you don’t know what to do next? I have been there. This post might help you to decide (and this one to succeed at your interview).

Civil Engineers have very good analytical skills and a strong technical knowledge in Maths so the sectors where we can add value are almost endless. I have friends working in business consulting, banking, academia and law firms. However, on this post I am going to focus on the “typical” route for a civil engineer who wants to stay within the industry.

On every civil engineering project in the UK, there are 4 main stakeholders:

• Consultancy: responsible for developing the calculations that support the design.
• Contractor: responsible for delivering the project according to the design.
• Client: responsible for defining the requirements, paying the contractor and the designer for their services and owner of the final product.
• Regulator: responsible for defining the industry safety and quality standards and defending the interests of the general public.

Routes for a Civil Engineer in the UK. (Source: prepared by the author)

For instance, imagine EDF (the Client) wants to build a new nuclear power plant. They, as the Client, would define the requirements for the plant (lifetime, materials, location, cost…).

EDF would pay AECOM (the Designer) to provide a design according to these requirements.

EDF then would pay Laing O’Rourke (the Contractor) to actually build the power plant according to AECOM design.

Design and construction stages would be supervised by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) which acts as the Regulator on behalf of the UK Government.

Let’s explore what could be your role on each of them:

 

Consultancy

They are the designers. They always think they are the most intelligent people in the room. And they probably are. They live to keep the Client happy.

You should consider working for them if you like a theoretical approach to engineering, finding new solutions and working in an office environment.

Work can be monotonous at the office sometimes but the experience you will gain using Eurocodes and finding technical solutions will be invaluable in the future if you change role.

World Trade Centre – Oculus, New York. 2018.

 

Contractor

They are the pragmatists. Hands-on people trying to find practical solutions to last minute changes.

You should work for one of these companies if you like working on site, sorting out logistics efficiently and adapt quickly to dynamic environments.

Working on site can be a synonym to long hours and high time pressure but this experience will be useful for you to understand constructability issues and detect improvements to the design. This is why, Civils with site experience are key on the pre-construction stages of a project.

 

Client

They are the owners of the final product. They pay and they define the requirements. Sometimes they can be too vague and the designer would struggle to meet their needs. They would typically say the designer is not asking the right questions.

You should work for a Client if you are assertive, enjoy supervising work done by others, and you are comfortable making decisions with limited information. Civil Engineers usually manage interfaces between contractors or define technical requirements.

You might not get involved in the technical detail as much as a designer or a contractor but you have the responsibility of managing their performance and the power to make decisions.

 

Regulator

They are “the Police”. They set the rules of the game and challenge the other 3 stakeholders on behalf of the general public. Especially the Client. They essentially are the Government.

You should work for one of them if you like laws, policy and regulatory environments.

It can be bureaucratic at times, but you will gain a holistic view of the industry and there is meaning in defending the interest of the public.

United States Capitol. April 2018.

My recommendation

Work at least a year for each of them. Which one first? My preferred order would be Designer – Contractor – Client – Regulator.

Why? Because if you start with a Consultancy straight after University, all your theoretical knowledge will be very useful and relevant for your daily technical tasks.

After this you could apply your design skills on a construction site learning about constructability.

With these 2 previous experiences you would be highly desirable for a Client because you would be able to set clear expectations for Designer and Contractor. You know how they think because you have been on their shoes.

Finally, if you fancy a change you could work for the Regulator because your vast experience and good connections in the industry would allow you to set the rules and enforce them.

And you, where did you start your career? 

 

 

 

7 Ideas To Excel At Your Next Interview

Unemployment in the UK is hitting historical lows and the job market presents great opportunities especially for engineers. However, there is uncertainty regarding the consequences of Brexit and this positive trend could change.

I am writing this post because I want to share with you my lessons learned and hopefully help you smash your next interview.

 

1. Take notes.

This might sound silly but it is useful for both parties. By writing down the main points mentioned by the interviewer you will be able to remember what happened during the interview and analyse it retrospectively once it ended. You cannot learn from your mistakes if you keep track of them.

You cannot imagine how good impression you would cause by just simply taking notes. This will show the interviewer your keenness to get that job and that he has your full attention. And as Oren Klaff says in his book Pitch Anything, genuine attention is one of the most difficult things to get from your interlocutor. Furthermore, getting the attention of another human being make us feel important and significant. And this feeling is extremely powerful as Dale Carnegie explains in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People

 

2. Focus on what YOU did.

“Give me an example when you worked on a team to achieve a goal” – the interviewer asks you. Try to avoid giving vague generic examples. Instead, tell a story about a specific situation where YOU contributed to a common goal.

Even though this question is about teamwork skills, the interviewer is more interested on YOUR contribution and the value YOU added than the actual outcome of the process. This kind of competency-based questions are also a great opportunity to show your storytelling techniques. A good starting point is to use the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) approach to structure your answer.

 

3. Ask questions at the end (and at the start?).

Most of the interviews end with the interviewer asking you if you have any questions. If you are really excited to get that job you should have loads so try to have 2 or 3 questions ready. You can also write them down beforehand on your notebook. This will show that you have done your research.

Q1: What is the strategy of the company regarding…[insert recent event or news that can impact the business]. This question show that you are up to date and informed about the sector where your company operates.

Q2: What is expected from me?/ How do you define success on the context of this role? This is a very useful question both for you and the interviewer because it will give you an idea of what are the main challenges of the job and it will show the interviewer that you are keen to deliver results and adapt quickly.

Q3: What is the best and the worst thing about this role? Classic. You will get very good insights from the answer to this question.

Robert Cialdini on his book Pre-suasion develops the idea that we make decisions based on what happens immediately before the alternatives are presented to us.

How can we use this idea to our advantage? By asking the interviewer one simple question at the start of the interview: What strengths, skills or traits have you found on your CV that stood out to you and led you to call me for an interview?. He will then have to give you an answer by listing out loud your strengths. This will make him to subconsciously focus on your traits the rest of the interview.

First impressions are very important and by asking this question at the start, the interviewer will keep the reasons why you are a good candidate on the back of his mind the whole interview.

New York. 2019.

4. Don’t be afraid of failure.

One of the most scary questions on a job interview is: Which is your biggest weakness? There are only 2 types of answers and only one will strengthen your position.

1. Avoiding the question: I can’t think of any right now or I am too perfectionist. Everybody has weaknesses and trying to hide them from the interviewer is not going to help you. This shows a lack of self-awareness.
2. Truly self-reflective response: I have been told that I can improve my [insert any of your areas for improvement such as speaking skills, assertiveness, punctuality, attention to detail…] so I have decided to [insert your current strategy to improve on that area such as reading books, listening to podcasts, attending workshops, new routines…]. You could also structure this answer by using STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) technique and giving examples.

We tend to avoid answering these kind of questions because we think that it will reduce our chances of getting the job. However, these questions are a good opportunity for you to show your self-awareness, how you are able to learn from your mistakes and that you are keen to receive feedback to work on your areas for improvement.

In short, don’t be afraid of sharing your areas for improvement as long as you have developed a strategy to improve.

 

5. Call the interviewer by their name.

Did you notice that beautiful feeling when someone you’ve just met remembers your name? You instantly like that person. It’s all about making the other person feel important. By subtly incorporate the name of the interviewer in your answers you will make the interview look more like a conversation rather than a interrogatory.

Sartre once said that there are 2 main forces that move the world: one is sexual attraction and the other one is the human desire of significance.

 

6. It’s OK to stop.

Sometimes when I feel on the spot after a difficult question I tend to rush my answers. Don’t. This can lead you to be vague and not being able to properly answer the question. Instead, say: Excuse me, I’m going to take 30 seconds to structure my thoughts. This is great because it shows that you are not afraid of stopping and thinking when encountered with complex problems. If after 30 seconds you are still not able to provide a solid answer you can always say: Please do you mind if I come back later to this question?

If you genuinely don’t know the answer to a question instead of coming up with a weak answer, I always recommend to tell the truth and say I don’t know the answer right now but I know where to find it. You are not expected to know everything but to be able to provide solutions when encountered with problems.

 

7. Send a relevant follow-up email.

Again, try to be specific and avoid sending generic emails such as: Thanks for your time and hope to hear from you soon. Instead, adapt your message to your audience by mentioning some anecdote, interesting fact or story which came up during the interview.

All these concepts can be summed up in one sentence: Put yourself into the shoes of the interviewer and the company. In other words, ask yourself: what the company needs and how can I help them achieve it?

 

 

Should You Change The Way You Use Email?

This is one of the most useful productivity hacks I’ve ever seen. And what strikes me the most is that it has been around since 2007! Many great things have been around longer than we think as the famous bridge below.

How many minutes do you spend every day just reading, classifying and sending emails? Probably a lot. Having a clear strategy to deal with emails is critical as you move up the corporate ladder. Efficiency is a very useful skill to have as an engineer too.

Iron Bridge in Coalbrookdale, England. 2019.

Before

I used to classify emails by subject or project. So as months went by, I started needing more and more folders, subfloders and sub-subfolders.

Since some emails required an immediate response and others don’t, I also had to flag some of them. I had to create a double classification: one based on subject and another based on urgency.

If I received an urgent email which requires a response by the end of the week, I had to flag it and store it into the relevant folder. But borders between folders were not always clear. They tend to be blurry.

As a civil engineer, you might have a folder called ICE to save your Chartership-related emails. You might also have a Volunteering folder to save emails about events you attend as a volunteer. What if you get an email about a volunteering event organised by the ICE? Should you save it in both folders? Should you create a subfolder in you ICE folder called Volunteering? You see the issue.

 

Now

I got to a point were this approach was unmanageable. A friend told me about another system called Inbox Zero. It basically had one goal: keep your inbox empty at all times.

That concept sounded great but, how I do that? After reading about this system I’ve outlined some principles for you to follow. If you prefer, you can see the full version on Youtube.

1. You should classify all your emails by urgency and not by subject. This means you don’t need subfolders but only folders to differentiate what needs a response today, this week or this month.
2. Anything that is not actionable by you should go to Archive. If it requires an action from your side, then you should save it on a folder called Today, This week or This month according to its urgency.
3. If you can reply to an email in less than 2 minutes you should do it. If not, you should decide where to save it: today, this week, this month or archive.
4. Every email you can delete, you should delete it. It’s unbelievable the amount of irrelevant emails you get per week. Don’t archive them if you can delete them.
5. Your subject line is everything. The more descriptive and specific your subject line is, the easier it will be to find emails later.

 

This is how your inbox should look like.

 

Critics could say: “OK, but what if you want to find an old email related to a specific project? You have to go to Archive and dive into thousands of emails.” True. But this is why the subject line on your emails should be the most important thing. Because this will be what you’ll use as search terms in the future. Plus, unless you have less than 10 emails per folder, you’ll have to use the search function anyway. As long as your subject line is descriptive enough, there’s no difference between searching amongst 1000 or 10000 emails.

Inbox zero might not be perfect but it’s definitely the best email management strategy I’ve found. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

Which Are The Most Useful Skills For A Civil Engineer?

Is it being able to solve triple integrals? Is it solving designing steel structures in less than 30 minutes? Is it remembering formulas from the Eurocodes? Definitely not.

A strong focus on analytical thinking for years can prevent civil engineers from developing other abilities. This can be a weakness for us in comparison with people from other backgrounds. Emotional intelligence could be one of our areas for improvement.

How To Win Friends And Influence People is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read and provides good insights on this. The amount of value and useful concepts per page is insane. And what amazes me the most is that it was written in 1936!

Some concepts might seem obvious to you but I have always wondered why some of these ideas are not taught at public schools. Same happens with economic concepts such as debt, credit and investments which are not taught at schools even though they will be far more useful in your life than remembering book titles written by a famous author.

This book allows you to better understand human nature and people’s behaviours which is useful for your personal and professional relationships.

I’m going to focus what I think is the main idea of the book:

Everybody wants to feel a sense of importance.

Believe it or not, this is the main force that moves the world. Dale Carnegie found out that people who truly understand this concept have a huge influencing power.

 

Treat everybody by their name.

Carnegie says that:

A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

It is unbelievable how many positive reactions you get when you treat people by their name. Charismatic people are able to remember hundreds of names and include them in their conversations. This make us to immediately like them.

We get a sense of significance when people we have just met are able to remember our name. It’s silly but true.

 

Encourage others to talk about themselves.

People don’t care about your problems, they only care about their problems. Rough but true.

People don’t want to listen to your stories, they want you to listen to theirs. And not only to listen but also engage, ask follow-up questions and show interest.

How many times you had a conversation where you are just waiting for the other person to stop talking for you to say whatever you want to say? It’s unbelievable. If you truly analyse all the conversations you have during the day, you’ll be surprised by the conclusions. So many conversations where there is zero active listening. Just 2 people saying stuff to each other without considering what the other person said previously.

For instance, you’re having lunch with your colleague and she’s talking about her last trip to Australia. How likely are you to mention that you or your friend have been in Australia too a few years ago? Instead, you could make the other person feel important by asking her about her trip: Which areas did you visit? What were your favourite spots?

It’s crazy the amount of conversations we turn into talking about ourselves instead of becoming interested in other people’s lives. Why? Because we all want to have that feeling of significance. And obviously you too.

 

Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

You only learn new things while you’re listening. Not while you’re talking. This is also related to one of the 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.

It’s about having enough humility and self-confidence to accept your own limited knowledge and the value of the other person’s ideas.

In mathematical terms, technical knowledge may be a necessary but not sufficient condition to succeed in the civil engineering industry.

5 Steps To Buy A Car In The UK.

Are you planning to buy a car in the UK? This post is all you need to know.

I’ve bought one recently so here you’ll find what I learned and what I’d do differently next time.

Let’s brake down the process into 5 steps:

1. Ask yourself why you need a car
2. Research the market
3. Arrange a test drive
4. Make a decision
5. Legal boring stuff

 

1. Ask yourself why you need a car

This might sound obvious but it is actually very important to define your reasons to buy one because this will determine which type of car or insurance coverage will be better for you.

You could find that you’d be better off without a car if you in a large city such as London where parking is expensive. Furthermore, insurance costs differ a lot depending on your postcode.

 

2. Research the market

There are many websites and car dealers online. However, my preferred site is Autotrader. Here you can find loads of cars on sale in your area by simply inputting your postcode.

There are 2 main different types of sellers: dealers and private sellers. Dealers are more reliable and usually offer a guarantee so they are my preferred option. However, private sellers can offer you better prices especially if you are a good negotiator.

3 main variables I would focus on are price, number of miles and year of the car. Apart from them, it is important to take into account its MOT history (see next section).

 

3. Arrange a test drive

This is critical because it will allow you to detect any issues with the car: worn breaking pads, steering wheel, engine noises… Try to ask as many questions as possible: Why are you selling this car? How long has it been on sale? How many owners? When is MOT due? Can I see the service book?

MOT stands for Ministry of Transport and makes reference to a test of vehicle safety compulsory in the UK. Fortunately, the UK Gov has a website to check the MOT status of a vehicle and another one to check the MOT history. This is very useful to find any major issues with the car before even arranging the test drive.

 

4. Make a decision

Try to avoid making a decision on the spot due to a pushy seller. It is better not to close the deal on the same day of the test drive. Go home and write down the advantages and disadvantages of that car and compare them with the scenario of not buying the car.

Grand Hotel Hairpin, Monaco. 2019.

5. Legal boring stuff

Boring but important so don’t forget to read through this. If you decided to buy from a car dealer company, they’ll probably inform you about how to set up a Direct Debit to pay road tax and what are the best insurance companies. If not, I’d use a this website to compare different alternatives and get a quote before making a final decision.

Road tax and insurance are the main fixed costs. However, sooner or later you’ll have to pay a fee to book your MOT test. It lasts for 1 year when buying second hand..

 

That’s all. If you have any questions about this process or anything related to car ownership feel free to comment below and I’ll try to help.

Drive safely!

Is Revolut The Best Digital Bank?

Sooner or later we all need to send money to a different country or pay in a different currency. Especially when there are different currencies involved in the transaction, we can be charged a significant fee. Nobody likes fees, so I’m going to propose some ideas based on my experience while living in the UK.

Revolut has more than 6 million customers worldwide and is growing every year. I installed the app in 2017 and many things have changed since.

 

Managing your money

You can create an account in less than 15 minutes and from your smartphone. You just need to provide your personal information and a proof of identity such as your ID. Once you’re up and running, you can start to top up money from your traditional bank into your Revolut bank account.

Another feature I like is that everything is instantaneous. When you use your Revolut Card to pay online or in store you get a notification on your phone. You can also track your monthly expenses as if you had the best fintech app in the market.

 

Your money abroad

Probably my favourite feature of all. Revolut allows you to exchange between more than 20 different currencies around the world such as USD, EUR and GBP. You only pay a 0.5% fee if you spend or send more than £5000 per month which works quite well for your daily expenditure and trips.

For those places where you cannot pay by card, Revolut allows you also to withdraw up to £200 from any ATM for free. Ideal to buy food at that random street market in Thailand.

 

Exchange rates in real time.

When exchanging currencies you look for the best exchange rate or even set an auto-exchange order or price alert to get the best value for your money.

The previous picture shows that Brexit is making the UK a cheap destination for European tourists. Will we go down to £1 = 1€ ?

However, there are alternatives regarding sending money to a different country such as Monese, Transferwise or Monzo. Even though Transferwise is probably better established and has more customers than the other two I personally find Monzo more versatile and easy to use.

 

Sharing expenses

You can request or send money to your friends within seconds. As long as you have their phone number you can see if they have installed Revolut. If they don’ have the app yet, you can send them a link to allow them to join. You’ll get rewards for this such as a free debit card.

It is quite convenient to be able to screenshot to share information from the app. However, this is something I cannot do from the app of my traditional bank which can be seen as a lack of security in Revolut.

This can be an issue when trying to bring in more traditional customers who prefer to have a physical branch close to their home. Revolut doesn’t have physical offices so if you have any issue you should contact customer service directly on the app chat. From my experience, responses are very quick but it’s true that I’ve never encountered serious problems such as a stolen card or hacked account.

 

Cards

You can easily manage your debit cards freeze them instantaneously or changing your monthly spending limit. Unfortunately, if you need a credit card you should go to your normal bank. I think Revolut could increase its customer base by offering a cashback credit card as Tandem is doing.

There is a premium and metal accounts with extra opportunities such as earning cashback on your purchases. However, they aren’t free and, in my view, they are not worth it because the free version of Revolut offers you more than enough services.

City of London from the river Thames, London. 2019.

Cryptocurrencies

You can directly exchange any fiat currency to Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash or XRP and view the trend of the exchanging rate. You can also set automatic buy or sell orders to be executed when your coin hits a certain price.

Remember that in the UK, cryptocurrencies are not a currency (oh, what an irony) but assets. Therefore, if you exchange your euros, pounds or dollars into Bitcoin for instance, and later on the year you decide to exchange them back into euros you should pay capital gain taxes on the profit you made.

If you live in the UK you may need to do a self assessment. However, there is a trading allowance of £1000 since 2016 so technically you only need to do it when you reach that figure on the financial year which starts in April. And here is where I say: The content of this post is not financial advice, please talk to your personal accountant to know more.

 

Perks

At the moment, this option is still in Beta version and only for accounts based in the UK. If you are lucky enough to get selected to try this product you’ll enjoy cashback after your 10th purchase on your preferred stores. The more you spend, the more perks you get. Easy.

I have friends who have been selected for this beta version and I have seen cashback rates be up to 10%. Hopefully this is available for everybody soon.

 

Done. This is my review of Revolut. Probably one of the best fintech apps at the moment. Do you agree? Do you think there are better choices out there? Please let me know on the comments below.

 

Is Bitcoin A Good Investment?

You are probably asking yourself: Why are you writing about this now? The reason is the fact that Bitcoin price is about to hit 11000 USD (United States Dollars) surging from 3000 USD last December. That’s a 266 % increase in 6 months… Not bad.

Do your research

As Warren Buffet said: “You should only invest in what you understand“. Therefore, before investing I would recommend looking for as much information as possible. These 3  sources of information helped me a lot so hopefully they are useful for you too:

1. Cryptoassets. This book will provide you with the basic knowledge about blockchain and cryptocurrencies you need.
2. Crypto Daily. This Youtube channel is not only informative but also fun to watch. Ironically I think his best videos were during the bear market in 2018.
3. Reddit. This website gathers loads of comments and knowledge about crypto. It can be a bit overwhelming but there is valuable information between all those memes.

Bonus: Another book I would like to recommend is The Intelligent Investor from Benjamin Graham. Even though this is not a book specific about crypto, it is probably the best book you can read about investing.

 

Perform your analysis

One of the main arguments in favour of buying bitcoins now is the golden cross. This takes place when a short term moving average crosses a long term moving average staying above after the crossing point. It will be easier to understand graphically:

Bitcoin price and moving averages.

The green line is the daily price of bitcoin while the red line is the 50-day moving average (price average of the last 50 days) and the blue line is the 200-day moving average (price average of the last 200 days).

Why 50 and 200 days? Well, it is true that you could use different time periods but those are typically used by professional traders. Many people argue that this golden cross is a sign of the start of another bull market as the one which took place in 2017.

Rumours in Wall Street of another crisis similar to 2008 might also be a reason for a transfer of funds into bitcoin.

Ideally you should buy at the dips and sell at the peaks. Easy to say but almost impossible to achieve. As humans, we are very emotional which sometimes can lead to wrong decisions.

For instance, we tend to buy when the price is going up and sell when the price goes down. However, and as long as you are investing long term, you should do the opposite. Remember that many times the longer you hold an investment, the safer it becomes.

If you are interested in knowing more, there are many good websites to perform a proper technical analysis such as Trading View. However, I would recommend to invest thinking in the long term not in short term gains.

If you decide to invest, you should be aware that many countries are regulating this digital asset. For instance, the United Kingdom considers BTC as an asset and not as a currency.

Why should you care about this? Because this means you should pay Capital Gains Tax on the profit.

Imagine this scenario: you buy let’s say 0.1 bitcoins (around 1000 USD). One year later the price skyrockets to 0.1 bitcoins = 3000USD and you decide to sell them. You should pay Capital Gains Tax (around 20%) over the 2000 USD profit which would be 0.2*2000=400 USD. Thus, your actual profit would be 2000-400 = 1600USD.

 

Make a decision

I’ve recently read some decent books about decision-making but let’s leave this for another post and let’s list some advantages and disadvantages of bitcoin:

Pros:

• Potential for big gains.
• Easy to invest small or big amounts using apps such as Revolut.
• More and more companies allow to pay using bitcoin.

Cons:

• High risk investment.
• Difficult to understand how the market works.
• Your account could be hacked and no guarantee to get your money back.

Remember none of this is financial advice but I hope you’ve found it interesting.

In short: Invest no more than what you can afford to lose.

Please let me know if you liked this content and I will expand on this on future posts.

Stay safe!

 

Innovation in construction

Schumpeter defined innovation like a process of creative destruction where new ideas or product substitute the previous one because they are more efficient, sustainable or increase customer added value. There are many theories about it but many authors agree on that innovations are not result of heroic actors (Steve Jobs, Edison…) but the outcome of a network of people, ideas and objects which progressively make successful improvements (incremental) or breakthrough discoveries (radical). We must always remember that behind Jobs there were the other Steve (Woz).

But innovation in construction is different to any other field. A Mckinsey report showed that it is one of the least innovative industries and that most of the projects are not delivered on time or have overcosts. Other problems currently relevant are the low productivity, low profitability and sustainability challenge. This is probably related to some of the particularities of the industry:

• the existence of long supply chains (difficulty to integrate Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers)
• large scale of the project (complex products)
• the role of the infrastructure owner which should act not only as a client but as an operator, innovator and investor
• long life cycle and duration of megainfrastructure projects (for example when Crossrail started the iPhone did not exist)

Some people tried to face this challenges and propose a solution. Sir John Egan was the author of Rethinking Construction were these issues are presented and also 5 key drivers for change are explained:

• committed leadership
• focus on the costumer
• integrated processes
• quality-driven agenda
• commitment to people

On the document Construction 2025 the collaboration between the UK Government and the industry is identified as a critical aspect to increase productivity, profitability and sustainability as well as foster innovation.

Main sources of innovation exist but R&D, small adaptations on site and improvements from outside the industry are the most relevant in construction. Some recent projects in London like Crossrail are being really successful on capturing this added value from innovation with the well-known Innovation 18 Programme. This settled the foundations for the new forum i3P were firms such as ARUP, CH2M and Ferrovial among others share ideas to improve the key performance indicators of the industry. New megainfrastructure projects like Thames Tideway Tunnel are using similar approaches in this case with the called The Great Think.

Tourism and civil engineering (?)

Today we are going to talk about these two words that probably do not come up together very often. Nevertheless, it seems to be a great opportunity of increasing the value and social awareness towards many civil infrastructures like dams, ports and bridges.

One of the best examples could be Hoover Dam. This incredible hydraulic infrastructure erected in 1931 and situated on the border between Nevada and Arizona (United States of America) can be visited from $30.

Let´s depict some of its main figures. It was constructed in 1931 by a total amount of $50 million which is equivalent to $700 million of today. The type of dam is concrete gravity-arch, it is 220 metres tall and 380 metres long with a dam volume of 2.5 million m³ and a spillway capacity of 11000 m³/s. These are unbelievable figures for a dam with more than 80 years old and explain why it is one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world.

Since the 1930s, U.S. Route 93 ran right along the top of the dam; however, the two-lane highway was hazardous and had grown increasingly congested over the years. In an effort to remedy these problems, construction began on a dam bypass bridge in 2005. Completed five years later, the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge measures 580 metres long and soars nearly 270 metres above the Colorado River, making it the longest single-span concrete arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere as well as the second-highest bridge of any type in America. The structure, which cost $114 million is proportionally almost 7 times cheaper than Hoover Dam.

More than one million people visit the Hoover Dam each year. However, it is fair to say that  if you’re thinking about taking a Grand Canyon Tour your tour will pass by the Hoover Dam along the way and it is only a short 30 minute drive from Vegas, which makes it the perfect half-day getaway from the bustle of the Strip.

If you check your pictures of your last holidays it is quite probable that you find some well-known civil infrastructure on them because for instance, if you visit San Francisco is almost compulsory to view the Golden Gate or if you went to London you have probably a photo of the Tower Bridge.

It is key to note that many infrastructures in the US are over 50 years old or coming up on it and that is about its lifespan.  Therefore there will be a need in the near future to update a lot of the infrastructure in this country. This could be a great opportunity to renew and improve their social appeal too.

On the other hand, it is becoming more and more common that projects of many civil infrastructures include a visitor´s centre where people can get an insight of the project or even visit the place.

In conclusion, there are many people potentially interested in visiting some of the most relevant infrastructures of our cities. Being able to discover this business opportunities and making the most of it could be critical in order to help citizens to understand how their taxes are being invested, increase the social awareness and ensure the economic future of this projects.

Hurricane Harvey

Hurricanes are essentially large weather engines fueled by the warm waters of the ocean below. But this one is something else. Many experts say that many factors are involved and could go down as the worst flood disaster in U.S. history.

The Washington Post has published a great article on its website explaining what would mean a 500-year flooding in several US cities. This is closely related to one of my last posts about extreme floodings now and in 2050.

Last week some planes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were able to record some videos of the eye of the hurricane. It looked huge but was after moving inland when it became an undeniable disaster.

 

Causes

Scientists are increasingly able to link some extreme weather events to climate change, but when it comes to hurricanes, many say there remain a number of unknowns. On the other hand, it is clear that rising global temperatures warm the oceans, which causes more water to evaporate into the atmosphere. Even without climate change as a factor, some experts say, oceans are normally warm this time of year. But they also add that Gulf of Mexico has been warmer than average lately which could increase the destructive power of the storm.

The Katy Prairie in western Harris County, which once helped to absorb floodwaters in the region, has been reduced in size by 75% in the last several decades thanks to suburban development, and one analysis discovered that more than 7,000 housing units have been built within the 100-year floodplain in Harris County since 2010.

 

Consequences

Given that the rains have not yet ended, these first estimates should be accepted cautiously. Obviusly the most worrying effect of a major disaster like this one are people lives (21 deaths confirmed up to now).

As far as economy is concerned, the hurricane has caused problems on oil market due to the fact that the Texan Gulf Coast comprises nearly 27% of total US refining capacity. Moreover, preliminary estimates suggest property damages in the range of $30 billion, which would make Harvey the 9th largest since World War II in terms of domestic property damage.

Harvey is now hitting southwestern Louisiana, too, where storm surge warnings and watches are in effect. The New York Times has develop some interactive maps in order to track the hurricane path through Texas and Louisiana. Let’s hope that the death toll do not increase and that the US government takes measures in order to prevent and minimise the effects of extreme floodings. Climate change denial is definitely the wrong way.