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As one of the oldest engineer disciplines, the civil engineering program offers
graduates a wide range of possibilities for work after brown. Bridge and road
construction are probably two of the first things that come to mind, but in truth
these are only a part of the picture. This section provides a modem and
historical perspective of some of the projects that civil engineers have been
involved in over the years.
Airports present a number of engineering problems. A fully loaded 747 weighs
about 850,000 pounds, and slams down on the runway at very high speeds. in
addition to the incredible force that this generates , civil engineers must take
into account the number of wheels that plane has, as well as their location and
size to properly understand the stress that a runway experiences. The scale is
equally impressive, as a typical runway is about 2 miles long, hundreds of feet
wide and three feet thick.
A good example of the size of civil engineering projects is the recently
completed Denver international airport, shown above. When it was finished
engineers had used 2.5-million cubic yards of concrete to build five 12.000 foot
runways, aprons and taxi ways this was placed atop six feet of compacted
soil, a food-deep soil spread and eight inches of cement-treated base.
Bridges are some of the most beautiful and varied structures in the world. They
have evolved over thousands of years from simple food bridges to giant spans
that cover thousands of feet. Construction techniques vary, from the classical
cable-suspension bridge to the new stayed-cable design.
The Akashi Bridge, shown at left, is the longest suspension bridge in the world.
At 12,828 feet long, it is an engineering marvel. Japanese not only had to
tackle the problem of spanning such a long distance, but also build a structure
strong enough to withstand hurricanes, tsunamis, and upwards of 57 inches of
rain per year.
The Charles River Bridge in Boston is an example of stayed-cable design.
Although not as grand in size as the Akashi Bridge, it is no less of an
achievement. Its designers had to route ten lanes of traffic through one of the
busiest areas of Boston without interrupting the flow of existing roadways and
T-lines. The structure is designed asymmetrically and supported by two
inverted Y-shaped towers. These towers straddle the tracks of a railway at 55degree angle, providing more then enough room for passing trains.
de un logro. Sus diseadores tuvieron que ruta diez carriles de trfico a travs
de una de las zonas ms concurridas de Boston sin interrumpir el flujo de las
carreteras existentes y las camisetas de las lneas. La estructura est diseada
asimtricamente y soportado por dos torres en forma de Y invertida. Estas
torres se sitan en las vas de un tren en un ngulo de 55 Pgrados, que
proporciona ms que suficiente espacio para el paso de los trenes.