What Do Civil Engineers Do?

(upbeat music)

(Announcer) Civil engineering
is everywhere.

It's in every road you drive.
It's in the clean water you drink.

It's where you live, work, and play.
it really is all around you.

Civil engineers help improve the lives
of millions of people every day.

We're gonna meet three civil engineers
and look at some of the real ways

that they're helping
communities right now.

America's water waste system
is home to an entire ecosystem.

The animals that live in the water,

depend on us to keep their
communities clean.

This is James Wanaburg.

James is working to
create a healthy habitat

and ecosystem in Washington
D.C's Potomac River.

He's a resident engineer for The
Blue Plains Tunnel,

part of the DC's Clean Rivers Project.

This tunnel project is
using a massive drill

that's almost 30 feet high
and over 400 feet long.

(James) This is my office.

(upbeat music)

We're here for D.C Water working
on the Clean Rivers Project.

This project is intended to
eliminate sewer overflows.

into the D.C. waterways,

which ultimately go down
to the Chesapeake Bay.

So, we're cleaning up the rivers.
Right now, we're working on a deep tunnel.

It's called the Blue Plains Tunnel,

and this is going to capture
storm water underground,

and allow that to be treated
later after a big rain event.

The tunnel boring machine
we're using here is

an amazing piece of equipment.
It's fantastic.

It's 26 foot diameter,
and it bores horizontally underground,

like a drill, and it holds back
all the earth pressures

and the hydro static forces
that are below ground at that depth.

It also allows us to install the pre-cast rings,

they're made out of
concrete, pre-cast segments,

and that ring forms the
pipe that will be there

permanently after we're
finished digging the tunnel.

Civil engineering is a,
it's a fantastic profession.

it really deals with engineering
all of the world around us.

There's infrastructure on the surface,
things that people see and use every day,

like roadways, bridges,
things of that nature.

Then there's also a tremendous
amount of civil engineering

below the surface that no one ever sees.

That's what we're dealing with here.

In my view, that's one of the best parts
of civil engineering

is working on the underground side.
It's so much fun.

I never imagined I'd be able
to work on something this cool,

but I always had an
interest in big projects.

I love being part of it.
It's a great mission.

I come to work everyday excited to do this

and we can't wait to see the end result
of all the hard work.

My name's James and I'm a civil engineer.

(Upbeat Music)

(Narrator:) Hurricanes can
destroy entire communities

that then take years to rebuild,

Maggie Jakes is a Civil Engineer
who went to Haiti to help

restore clean drinking water
after the hurricane.

Maggie was forever changed
through her experiences

in Haiti, helping a desperate
community and touching lives.

(Maggie:) So, my junior year in college,

my professor did a presentation
on his trip to Haiti

and what he found when he was there.
Their biggest problem was drinking water.

They didn't have clean water to drink

and thousands of people are
dying each year because of this.

So, he was trying to get
civil engineering students

from Merrimack to travel there.
2011 we traveled to Haiti.

For the first time, we went
to a town called Manoir.

This is where severe cholera
outbreaks hit every year.

There's a big clinic there

and we saw all the
cholera tents still set up

from their recent outbreak.

The system was damaged
by the 2010 earthquake,

and it was broken in a few places,
but the water was relatively clean.

So, we made a few repairs to that.

They were just so grateful
that we were there.

Because we were there, we gave them hope.

In the United States, we're really lucky
to have access to clean water

and that's thanks to years
of hard working engineers.

My experiences in Haiti, and
my later years at college,

really opened my eyes to
how many possibilities

there really are for
civil engineers to help.

My name is Maggie Jakes
and I'm a civil engineer.

(wind blowing)

(crowd cheering)

(Narrator:) Ah, baseball,
the crack of the bat,

the roar of the crowd,
the amazing ball parks

that are home to our national pastime.

Meet Aaron White, the civil engineer

in charge of designing the
hurricane-proof retractable roof

at the Marlins Park in Florida.

(Aaron:) This is the first roof in the
world

that was designed for a
category five hurricane.

It weighs roughly 7,800 tons of steel
and it was actually designed to be

positioned in a slightly open position
for the hurricanes to let wind

into the space and then back out
to decrease the wind pressure on the roof.

Obviously, anytime there's the threat
of a rain storm during a game,

you have the problem of a rain delay.

If you know Miami,

it rains here pretty much
every day during the summer.

So, they have the ability to
close the roof very quickly

if there's an impending
thunder storm or rain storm.

So, there's a guarantee
that the game's gonna happen every night

and that's extremely important.
The mechanization is very efficient.

It's designed so it only
costs about 10 dollars

in electricity to move
the roof open and closed.

So, early on in the design,
we tried to establish what

the minimum height of the roof
over the playing field actually is.

So, we scoured the internet

and found some equations
that were put out by NASA,

I believe, for the
flight of a batted ball.

Through those equations, you can actually
calculate the flight of the batted ball

at all different angles of
the ball leaving the bat.

So, if it goes straight up in the air,
it goes straight horizontally, or a nice

trajectory of a line drive.

So, we actually crated
those shapes early on

and put them over the playing field
to make sure that the shape of the roof

that was above the playing field
would never come in contact

with a batted ball.

We really interact with a lot of people.

So, there's a common conception
that engineers just kind

of go in their office
and work by themselves doing calculations,

but that couldn't be
further from the truth.

I'm Aaron White and I'm a civil engineer.

(upbeat music)

(Narrator) Civil
engineers have cool jobs.

They're creative and innovative people.

They make an impact and change lives,
making our world a better place.

The bottom line, if you
want an amazing career

that makes a difference,
then do something real.

Be a civil engineer.

(upbeat music)