Construction engineers oversee large building projects, analyze project drawings and designs, manage project plans and resources, and execute cost calculations. As construction engineers, their areas of specialisation may be assigned to a mixture of construction projects, comprising commercial buildings, airports, bridges, tunnels, or water dams.
Construction engineers are pivotal members of construction projects, who must have powerful analytical skills and be adequate at working with a large group. If you would like to become a construction engineer, you will be required to attain a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.
What Does A Construction Engineer Do?
•Most construction engineers specialise in certain projects such as commercial buildings, heavy highways, mechanical systems, or electrical.
•Construction engineers are regulated as part engineering specialists, part project managers, and part business managers. They creatively assist as a leader and mediator in industrial construction projects to ensure everything about the project is safe, flawless, and structurally reliable.
•Construction engineers generally work full time and may work longer twelve-hour shifts 7 days per week if they travel to an isolated location to look after project progress.
•A construction engineer is a civil engineer who supervises the design and implementation of large construction projects. They also serve in maintaining infrastructure networks, such as highways, dams, water treatment plants, and buildings.
•They work with a group of fellow engineers and construction crews to organise and finish projects.
•Developing construction project funds
•collecting resources, including employees, equipment, machines, and physical materials
•Operating machinery and using tools
Using computer software in order to plan and design projects
•Overseeing progress and safety on construction sites
• Organize and assure all materials are in obedience with necessary quality for all projects and ready reports for all final projects, turn over and sustain records of all construction methods and make progress reports.
• Formulate and sustain all construction technical catalogues and formulate supplier information and analyze all contract plans and specifications and coordinate with all contractors to settle issues in processes.
•Developing project plans
•Monitoring construction progress
•Construction engineers also use computers when developing and analyzing their designs for a project. Their job needs to be able to put together a good team to complete a project. Construction engineers are required to acquire the proper knowledge of calculating, planning and governing the costs associated with construction projects.
They may have an engineering degree and some commercial construction work knowledge, or they may attain a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering.
•Reporting progress to stakeholders
•Collecting resources, including construction materials and labour
•Tracking weekly reports.
•Construction engineers do their job from offices. They also work on location at job sites to visually examine the work being executed. They usually work forty-hour per week; still, some jobs need more time based on deadlines or design issues.
•Maintain knowledge on all contract terms and valid regulations for all civil construction projects to prevent any delay in projects and provide support to all workgroups and anticipate various activities.
Career Outlook For Construction Engineers
The job sector of civil engineering as an all, which involved construction engineers, was determined to see a growth of two % from 2019-to 2029 (www.bls.gov). Engineering continues to be one of the highest-paying businesses for college graduates. As of May 2020, civil engineers profited from average earnings of $95,440/year.
Construction engineers can operate in a variety of spaces within the construction trade, constituting contracting and design. Administration training can steer to positions as a cost engineer, a project manager, an operations manager or a protection and design engineer.
Construction Engineer Requirements
•Minimum two years of experience as a construction engineer in the relevant field of specialization.
•Advance knowledge in new construction management software, such as Smartsheet.
•In-depth knowledge of construction industry requirements.
•Exceptional leadership, project management, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
•Great mathematical, organizational, and time-management skills.
•Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
•Ability to collaborate with a variety of stakeholders.
•Availability to travel to the project site outside of business hours, when relevant.
Essential Information
A construction engineer is a civil engineer who constructs, manages and supervises projects within the construction industry. These projects may comprise refurbishing roadways and constructing buildings. Their job outlook has been optimistic but can vary based on economic conditions.
According to the Bureau Of Labour Statistics,
•Required Education-Bachelor’s degree
•Common Project Specialties-Building, electrical, mechanical, highway or heavy
•Projected Job Growth (2019-2029)-2%
•Average Salary (2020)- $95,440 annually
Conclusion
In summary, construction engineers are a kind of civil engineers who construct and provide construction services to implement construction projects. A bachelor’s degree is the regular minimum requirement, and experience working on project sites is beneficial. Job expansion for all civil engineers is foreseen to be slower than the average for all occupations.
The construction industry is leveraging construction technology to create construction management and project site operations more productive and sustainable. The COVID-19 pandemic generated the need for modern ways of construction technology that fix workers’ safety and regulations. Thus, startups and scaleups increasingly formulate innovations around prefabrication, worker protection, and construction robotics.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a digital layer of information that improves a view of the real world. By using a mobile phone with AR capabilities, construction specialists can look at a job site with extra information laid directly on top of the picture.
For example, a construction labourer in a construction business could point a tablet at a wall, and the tablet could show the building plans for that wall as if they’re part of the physical environment. AR has huge implications for construction because it delivers additional information exactly where it is needed.
Here are a few other uses for augmented reality:
Automate Measurements:
By measuring a real space in real-time, Augmented Reality technology can help construction workers accurately follow building strategies.
Visualize Modifications:
By layering potential project improvements directly onto the worksite, contractors can visualise potential changes before dedicating them.
Provide Safety Information:
By acknowledging dangers in the environment, AR devices can show real-time safety information to workers.
While AR can be used on a phone or other portable computer, the future of AR will likely depend on AR glasses, which would enable hands-free access to significant information at all times. These AR glasses are one of several construction wearables that are liable to gain traction over the next year
Construction Wearables
Construction wearables offer various advantages for productivity, but they may succeed in immediate adoption, particularly because of their safety advantages.
Construction is one of the most hazardous industries to work in, with disasters like falls and collisions with appliances accounting for hundreds of worker expirations each year.
Wearable technology offers the probability of added protection and safety for workers, potentially preventing suffering and deaths across the industry.
Here are a few construction wearables that are already accessible today:
Smart Boots:
Powered by walking, smart boots can inspect workers at risk of a crash with nearby construction vehicles fitted with sensors.
Smart Hard Hat:
By detecting brainwaves, smart hard hats can observe “microsleeps,” which put workers in danger of injury.
Power Gloves:
When worn on a worker’s hands, smart gloves increase dexterity and endurance, helping reduce overuse injuries.
Other wearables, like smartwatches, monitors and spectacle, enhance lone worker safety, inspection for fatigue and enable contact tracing. We are at the beginning of a revolt in construction that’ll help enhance the efficiency and safety of each worker.
That said, the technological advantages for workers do not stop with small wearables, but also comprise larger personal devices like construction exoskeletons.
Construction Exoskeletons
Construction exosuits are wearable machines with motorised joints that deliver extra support and power during repetitive movements like bending, lifting and holding which are common in industrial construction.
While exoskeletons are derived in rehabilitation programs, they are catching attention as a tool to decrease injuries and improve efficiency for construction workers. Some exoskeletons are powered by electricity and others simply redistribute burden throughout the body, but all of them have benefits for workers accomplishing tough jobs.
Here are a few exoskeletons that are being used on construction sites:
Back Support Exosuits:
This suit fits around the shoulders, back and abdomen and reduces strain during lifting.
Crouch Supports Exosuits:
Affixed to the legs, a crouching support exoskeleton behaves as a “chair” even when no chair is present, making it susceptible to crouching for lengthy periods.
Shoulder Support Exosuits:
By redistributing weight from the shoulders, exoskeletons can impede fatigue when conducting overhead lifting.
There are also full-body building exoskeletons, which boost strength and decrease fatigue for difficult lifting jobs.
Though exoskeletons are making difficult jobs easier for construction workers, the trade is also looking forward to construction robots to reduce the pressure even more by offloading particular risky and impossible tasks to machines.
Construction Robots
Construction robots are however a ways off from entirely taking over the advanced construction industry, but various designs and proposals are on the table as the industry assumes ways to deal with labour scarcity and the need for social distancing.
3 main types of robots seem established to help reshape labour in the construction industry:-
Factory Robots:
Factory robots can perfectly and frequently perform a single job, like simple manufacturing tasks.
Collaborative Robots:
Collaborative robots can be used on a working site during elite construction to ease the pressure on a human companion by holding tools or equipment, for example.
Fully Autonomous Robots:
Similar to the robots of science fantasy, fully autonomous robots can examine the environment and conduct complex tasks with tools independently.
While robots like this haven’t yet been widely accepted in construction, other recently futuristic technologies are already widespread. For example, drones are now a common sight on construction jobs, accomplishing work that would have been costly just a few years ago.
