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.

Strategy Change

The Civil Engineering profession is ever changing, and to keep up with the industry and the competition we've got to be flexible. As the demand for residential site development has (for lack of a better word) slowed, the commercial market has steadily picked up and filled that part of my work week that was condos and town homes. That's not to say that all residential development has ceased, but you get my point. From hotels to restaurants to business centers and retail stores, commercial sites are showing up all over and it's caused the adaptation of the business, engineering, and sales strategies to keep up.

I welcome the change. It keeps me from getting too comfortable with one practice or design standard. It's forced me to learn new design tactics as well as become familiar with other parts of the state and local codes. Change keeps things interesting.

Most importantly, the added experience and exposure can only help down the road. The more I learn now the more valuable I am to my employer. Keep that in mind while your choosing classes, too. I know there are templates and course selection guidelines, but it's not all set in stone. Take a class that YOU think will help YOU in the future. Today's decisions are tomorrow's results, right?

Go Hokies.

The Intern Experience

Welcome back students. With August comes the end of the Summer and the beginning of a new school year (and FOOTBALL SEASON). Hopefully your time away from the classroom - if, in fact, you were away from the classroom - was time well spent. For me, time well spent during the Summer means staying productive, despite all the obvious distractions.

Each of the past 3 Summers we've had the help of a few interns who have exceeded expectations (not surprisingly, each of the interns has been a VT student, which means expectations are already high before they're even put to work) and have been a great asset to the work environment. Interns that I've worked with have done everything from Q/C plan review to lot grading to storm and sanitary sewer design. They've attended meetings with me (and in some cases, FOR me), and I've been able to introduce them to some aspects of land development that maybe he or she was unfamiliar with.

This kind of positive experience benefits everyone involved. As an intern you've got the opportunity to test the waters a little, maybe find out if this is the direction you want to go with your education and your eventual career. You get to test your skills as an engineer, and apply what you've learned in the classroom to real-world situations. You get to test and hone your communication skills. And, if you're lucky, you've found permanent employment once you've got that diploma in hand.

From an employer standpoint, I can say that a productive intern makes it easier to distribute work, which makes it easier to get more done in less time, which makes clients happy, which means we make money! Having responsible, knowledgeable help for the Summer is great for business, and it doesn't hurt to add someone else to my own contact list knowing that he or she could be a great addition to my office when the next Summer comes along or, even better, when they're ready to join the full-time work force.

I hope some of you had the opportunity to work this Summer. Any positive (or negative) experiences to share? Maybe some things you learned that you'll take back to the classroom this semester? Or tips for fellow classmates seeking out internships? Questions or comments, voice 'em.

Good luck with the first round of classes.