Day 26 Coding payouts I started the day going through some emails. Then the other engineers and I went over some recent pay requests and the budget line items to make sure we were coding everything correctly. We wanted to do this because our finance department has gone though and organized our funds into a…
Set Up Your Own Blog With Our Blog Route Plans!
Over the last year, there's been a significant increase in the use of social media by those of us working in public works. Some of us are using it for work to enhance communications with citizens or other professionals. Others have started using it only to interact with personal friends and relatives. But even though…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 25
Day 25 Water Main Extension Most of the first half of my morning was spent working on a cost estimate for the water main extension I have designed. I also filled out all the IEPA permits for the project and had our water superintendent sign them. Then I filled out the EcoCat to determine…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 24
Day 24 Safety Meeting Today was the first Thursday of the month and that means safety meeting day! The whole public works staff attends the monthly safety meeting, and the topic today was backhoe safety. If I get a chance I'll put up a post on it later this week because it was interesting and…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 23
Day 23 This morning we had our regular engineering staff meeting. It was a pretty typical meeting with GIS sharing what they were doing and then our engineers and technical staff letting us know the status of all the projects. After our meeting, we started driving the roads to determine their condition. We also spent…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 22
Day 22 Parking Lot Planning This morning a couple of us discussed the parking lot we are planning to build in our downtown. The project engineer for the job submitted the necessary documents to our planning department for the planning commission hearing we will have Sept. 8th. I also talked to a landscaper who will…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 21
Day 21 This morning, I started out the day going through emails – after getting them down to a more managable level, I want to try to keep it that way. I did summarize some of the information regarding the SSA we are looking into and sent it out to other staff members. And then…
Got Sewer Gas Smell?
One of the most common complaints we received at the city where I used to work was sewer odors in homes or businesses. The callers always assumed it had to be caused by the city sewers, and therefore, they always requested that we flush our lines to solve the problem. So the city had adopted…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 20
Day 20 Today was our public works staff meeting. Only the superintendents of each division were at this meeting. Our supervisor usually begins each meeting by going over items and issues that relate to the entire department as a whole. Then each of us gives a division report – most of the time the majority…
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer
Day 19 Another GIS day Today was another day primarily spent on tasks related to GIS. Several of us discussed the structure and vision of GIS for the city. This has been important not only because our city is working on a succession plan, but also because GIS is changing so much as it evolves…