A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 14

Day 14

This morning we started out handling a concern from a resident whose driveway was poured last week as part of the road project. The contractor was supposed to have taken off the barricades yesterday. But for some reason, they never got over there to open up the drive. So we had to call right away to remind them to remove the barricades. (The reason we must keep everyone off the concrete for so long is that it takes several days for concrete to gain strength. Even if the concrete is hard and looks like regular concrete, it really is not strong enough and can be damaged until the proper strength is reached. You can read more about how concrete cures and gains strength here: http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1101/notes/concrete/section_3_properties.html)

We ended up leaving the office fairly early because we were scheduled to tour the Advanced Drainage Systems manufacturing plant. This facility creates many different types of pipe and other drainage systems. I’ve used their materials for many years and have been happy with not only the price and installation, but also the performance. It was a great opportunity to be able to see how it is all produced and the testing behind it all. One of the best parts was watching how they created tees and other fittings in their fabrication shop. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t been through a tour of this type of facility to try to get one scheduled. After seeing it, I have not only a better appreciation for how the material is made, but as a designer, I can better imagine potential uses and designs.

I also learned that the plastic used to make this pipe is a byproduct of the natural gas industry. Right now, they said a lot of their product is being sold in the agricultural market for tiling. I included in this post a picture of some of their product in their yard and also have uploaded several pictures to this Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicworksgroup/

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