A construction engineer is responsible for making sure that all of the world’s infrastructures (e.g. the roads you drive on, the buildings that you go to school in, the systems that supply the water you drink) are built safely and correctly.
The number one job of any engineer is to be a problem solver. Good critical thinking is the most important trait of a construction engineer. You need to think on your feet in response to the differences between what the plans say and what fits on the ground.
How can we build a better road crossing to limit impacts to wildlife? The natural world sometimes conflicts with the human-made world. We need to be flexible enough to make changes to the plans so they match up with what is on the ground.
Plans and specifications are the most important things I have on a job. Plans are the pictures that I use to build a project. Specifications tell me what the materials and requirements are to construct the project.
One of my favorite projects was replacing an undersized culvert with an aquatic species culvert. Culverts are pipes that help something, such as a stream, pass under a road. We went back to check the project after it was finished, and we saw salmon swimming up the stream!
I have always liked building and creating things. My grandpa gave me a hammer, nails, and scraps of wood to build with when I was just a little girl. It is fun to make something useful out of a big pile of random stuff. Construction engineering seemed like the perfect fit for me.
