Civil Engineer BLOG

Urban planning is a mixture of science and art. It encompasses many different disciplines and brings them all under a single umbrella. The simplest definition of urban planning is that it is the organization of all elements of a town or other urban environment. However, when one thinks about all the elements that make up a town, urban planning suddenly seems complicated - and it is.

Real urban planning is a relatively new concept. It gained popularity beginning in the mid-to-late 19th century, when it became obvious that there should be some kind of plan or larger goals for the growth of big cities like New York and Philadelphia. Before this time, cities very often grew as they had need, and the surrounding land was just swallowed up. London, Paris, Tokyo - none of these world cities had much urban planning, and even now, the addresses and streets in their older sections can be confusing even to natives. Read the rest of this entry »

Project Management is the business process of creating a unique product, service or result. A project is a finite endeavor having specific start and completion dates undertaken to create a quantifiable deliverable. Projects undergo progressive elaboration by developing in steps and predictable increments that are tied to benchmarks, milestones and completion dates. Read the rest of this entry »

As a structural material, most people are familiar with concrete. However, not everyone is familiar with the form of concrete known as shotcrete. Here is some background on shotcrete, including how it is used in building projects today.

Essentially, shotcrete is projected concrete. Originally devised in the early 20th century, shotcrete was created as a means of using concrete to fill out molds. The concrete itself was a dry mix that was blown directly into the mold using compressed air. Read the rest of this entry »

Resources

• Whose input do we need?
• Whose input could we use?
• Has anything like this been done before?
• What mistakes can we learn from?
• What successes can we learn from?
• What resources do we have?
• What resources might we need? Read the rest of this entry »