Contract Specifications

Specifications:

Hey guys, it’s been a while.  Let me fill you in on what I’ve been working on recently.  I’ve been writing a report (as it turns out, they’re just like the ones you write in college) and I’ve been dealing with specs.  If you are like I was in college, you’ve heard of specs but you most likely have no idea exactly what they are.  Let me fill you in.  Specs are the controlling documents for a job.  The specs include the general contract documents that are the same for every job, scope of work, any additional clauses to the contract documents that are specific to the job, and the specifications on what products can be used and should be used.  The specs are where the contractor can refer to if he/she has any questions about how something should be constructed.   Until next time, enjoy your spring break.

Ryan

 

Pictures!

Hey guys,

Here’s an update on what I’ve been doing lately: taking pictures.  Now, I know you may be asking yourself, “What’s a civil engineer doing taking pictures?”  You’re not alone.  I had no idea why I was taking pictures either when I was first given the task.  It’s only now, that I’m done, that I realize that pictures are an invaluable resource when it comes to analyzing a site.  The pictures I was taking were of existing conditions, so that we know what’s on our site and what might be standing in our way.  As it turns out, it’s not easy to put a sanitary sewer line in someone’s backyard if a building is there. That’s where the pictures came into play.  They gave me the most update information about the site and all I had to do was take short notes about what I saw and match them with the picture.  This helps you remember information about the site later on when you come back to work on the project.  My suggestion to you is take as many pictures as possible and take good notes.  I took aerial photographs from a local GIS website and wrote down my location and the direction I was looking when I took the picture.  Now, go take pictures.

 

Ryan

 

Site Impact

How ‘bout them Hokies?  Heart attack kids huh? I think the football team enjoys making everyone squirm nervously in their seats near the end of our games.  We got the “W” and that’s all that matters right?  Wrong. 

Land development, just as in football, has impacts and consequences on the entire site and surrounding sites as the project progresses.  These are impacts that you have to be aware of so that you may minimize them.  You must consider water runoff, pollutant runoff, site disturbance, etc.  Just as you have to minimize penalties and turnovers in a football game to win, you have to minimize the environmental impacts from your site design.  I challenge you to minimize impervious areas, steep slopes, and unnecessary development for your sites as you go through your LMs.    Consider using smaller road widths or excluding curb and gutters where applicable in your design.  Add green-space for a park or recreational area or even use a decorative pond/water garden as your water runoff storage. 

 

From Student to Engineer

Hey Guys,

First, I want to welcome you back to a new school year and wish you all the best of luck.  If you are reading this, I’d like to thank you for taking a look at the LDDI website and I hope that you’ll frequent the website often. 

I’d like to tell you a little about myself as we’ll be spending at least a year together here.  My name is Ryan Kincer and I graduated from the Via Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering this past spring.  I am now a project engineer at Mattern and Craig, Inc., which is based out of Roanoke, Virginia, in the civil engineering department.

As a student, I was always nervous about finding a job.  Once I was hired, I was nervous about the adjustments I would have to make from being a full-time student to a full-time employee in the “real world.” Luckily, everyone at Mattern and Craig made it very easy on me to adjust to everything.  One of the biggest adjustments that I had to make was the new schedule.  Instead of going to class every day, it’s going to work every day from 8-5; with that being said, there aren’t any tests or homework assignments which is awesome.  I still have deadlines when projects are due but the timeline is much greater than when I was in school.  Another major adjustment I had to make was the company drafting standards that were in place.  For example, at school when homework was due in Civil3D there wasn’t a structure for what items in the drawing needed to go on what layer; at work it’s completely opposite in that some organizations won’t even accept some plans if they don’t adhere to their guidelines. 

One of the challenges I faced as being a new employee was getting to know everyone and how they function. Everyone here is different; just as everyone at school came from a different background, so has everyone here AND there is a wider range of ages.  So getting to know everyone, while still performing on the job, has proven itself challenging yet fun and interesting.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that team work is essential.  We all have to rely on each other in order to be successful.  I discovered this at school through group assignments but it is heavily reinforced at my job.  Creating a cohesive team and knowing each personality lessens the challenges of the work day.

I hope that you all have an awesome semester and do well in your classes.  Don’t forget, I was in your seat only 6 months ago so if you have any questions or if there are any topics that you would like to dicsuss, please feel free to contact me at rpkincer@matternandcraig.com and I will put up a post.  

 

Communicate!

I'm fortunate enough right now to be working on a few jobs that involve more than one civil engineering firm. Most projects require coordination with the obvious parties - owner, developer, architect, etc. - but adding more than one engineer to the mix really emphasizes the importance of open communication. And, if everyone communicates, there really is a big upside to these large design teams.

The clear advantage to employing multiple engineers is timing. I think the old saying is, "Many hands makes light work," and the lighter the workload the faster it gets done. The faster it gets done, the more money everyone makes. Time is money, simple as that. But keeping it simple (and profitable) requires some level of precision and coordination between the teams. If we're working on a site plan, my design may be dependent on your design, my submittal dependent on your submittal, my plan approval dependent on your plan approval. If you make a change, or find you'll be delayed for any reason, you have to let me know. And you should expect the same from me. That communication is what keeps projects on schedule and budget. Good or bad news, everyone needs to stay informed.

My experience working with large design teams has been pretty positive, and I attribute that to the open lines of communication (and lots of meetings). Engineers are drilled on team work the minute they set foot on campus, and it's not without reason.

On a completely unrelated note, I have to say how impressed I was with Lane Stadium last Thursday night for the BC game. I watched from my couch, and that's the loudest I've ever heard that place on a TV broadcast, bad weather and all. Wish I could have been there, and I wish the outcome were different. Lets hope we turn things around this Thursday night.