Expert: Bryan P. Lindsey, P.E. - 9/24/2009

Question
Hi, I am fourteen and i have an assignment in school for the Future City competition. We have to write an essay for the project and my part of the essay is to identify a discipline of engineering. I have looked up Civil Engineering and decided that it is most relevant to the Future City project. What I looked up said that civil engineers are divided into specific groups called consultants. They then must supervise the labor to make sure its completed fully and carefully and they set up maintenance schedules to periodically check the structure for a length of time. My question for you is what must you specifically check for? I understand that there are many different areas and that for different areas different things must be checked and maintained, but for what you are a consultant in what are you supposed to check? What exactly are you in charge of?

Answer
Typically as the consultant we are contracted by a city to preform a certain task. Such as the design for an intersection improvement or a road widening. In either case, we are typically doing the design plans and/or construction administration for the city to bid to a contractor for the actual construction of the project. I am this clears thing up if not please feel free to ask another question.