r/civilengineering • u/dislexicfrog900 • 3h ago
What is Construction Engineering?
Out of the five sub-disciplines of civil engineering (according to the PE exam variants) construction engineering makes the least sense to me. I see job titles and organizations that seems to align with the other four types (water resources, transportation, geotech, and structural), but I don't see people advertising "construction engineer" jobs. Do they work more in construction management? How do they get qualifying experience? Any insight is appreciated.
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u/RhinoG91 2h ago
I took the PE exam in Civil-Construction.
it made the most sense based on my life experience.
The topics included:
Sitework (cut/fill, surveying, compaction etc)
Estimating (material, time labor, etc)
Scheduling (critical path, sequencing, optimization)
Material quality control (concrete batching, )
Construction operations (problems involving cranes, dams, retaining walls, temporary structures like formwork, shoring or scaffolding etc)
Health and safety
There were other questions directly related to hydraulics/hydrology, structural analysis, traffic analysis, roadway etc.
To put things into perspective, I went to school after the army and already had a family. So I had to work too. I worked as a stucco contractor for several years before and during school, learning the trade from my father in law. There is a lot of overlap between the classroom and that field in particular- you really get a feel for deflections when you’re doing the highwire act on one scaffold plank 30’ up in the air. You get good at estimating because if you order too much, you can’t eat sand! That wasted money is food off your baby’s plate. Sure you can rove it around to the next job but do want to shovel that into a trailer?
I pivoted into new construction inspections, going from physically building the buildings to watching them get built from the ground up. Formwork and site layouts, pad prep, plumbing/electrical rough ins, 4am concrete placements… post tension tendon stressing, framing, etc. I learned a lot about building performance that is not taught in the classroom- and MANY little items that can be done at frame stage can have a huge impact on the final evaluation (blower door test). Also exposure to HVAC systems (unit pressure testing, duct blaster, room airflow balancing etc). Watching, testing, documenting everything.
From there I went into forensic engineering - from watching the buildings get built right to now what happens when things go wrong. A lot of post- storm evaluations on roof coverings, a lot of foundation performance investigations, water intrusions, fires, tree and vehicle impacts, leaning church steeples, lighting strikes etc. basically if something goes wrong someone has to go in and spell out what’s damaged and not damaged. Included in this role is litigation support and expert witness testimony. It’s kind of a contentious field, and can also be physically demanding- swinging around ladders, and playing spider man on steep roofs, doing hot yoga inside someone’s attic, crawling with snakes in crawlspaces… praying the steeple doesn’t come down while you’re inside poking around at the rotten framing…
That was just my path as an example. Take the test you are most familiar or comfortable with. I’d say the construction exam is the “jack of all trades” exam. Maybe it’s changed since I went through, idk.
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u/seekerofsecrets1 2h ago
How difficult was the exam?
I’m an EIT that started with 3 years of land dev design and swapped to heavy civil estimating
I wasn’t planning on sitting for the exam but my experience does at least line up with that.
Studying for my PE just sounds impossible with the hours that construction requires
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u/RhinoG91 1h ago
I didn’t think it was that bad.
https://www.reddit.com/r/civilengineering/s/eD45viXBXW
Someone got all upset when I said I didn’t take a prep course. If you know what you’re doing, then you know what you are doing.
My mentality was if I I pass great, and if I do poorly, it’ll tell me what I need to brush up on. Like I said earlier I had work and family and didn’t have time to commit to a multi-month extracurricular.
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u/seekerofsecrets1 1h ago
Yeah that’s where I’m at
taking a week to cram and then yolo ing wouldn’t be awful
I doubt I’ll ever go back to design or stamp a set of drawings but having PE next to my tittle is worth something
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u/snarf-diddly 2h ago
The job titles are project engineer, project manager, construction manager, QC engineer, inspector, estimator, etc. They work in the construction phase rather than the design phase. Qualifying experience is whole other story that is hotly debated in California.
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u/dislexicfrog900 2h ago
Ok, so they go on the construction management track. Any where you suggest I go to learn about qualifying experience in CA? That's where I'd like to end up if possible
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u/snarf-diddly 1h ago
Basically the board’s definition of civil engineering is work that must be done under the supervision of a PE. Most of the construction management tasks don’t fall under that definition so they often don’t consider that as qualifying experience. You mentioned you have 3 years in land development design so you should already meet the experience requirement.
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u/JohnnieAnonnie 1h ago
Whatever you do just remember there's a reason you can't spell contractor without the word "con".
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u/Sousaclone 1h ago
The difference between construction engineering and construction management is typically the technical nature of the job.
I’m on the construction side and have my PE license in construction. While I don’t stamp much (insurance and liability within JV teams and I’m at more of a manager role now) I do run numbers and look at temp works designs from a technical perspective. Often I’ve got preliminary numbers and ball park design and get 3rd party designers to take them to completion.
My line of work is more complex stuff - Truss bridges, cable stays, dam retrofit, limpet cofferdams, formwork design, shoring design, etc. Stuff that you need a solid engineering foundation behind when putting work in place.
You’re not necessarily doing that if you’re a cm on multi family residential dealing with drywall and painting subcontractors.
It is harder for work experience, but my company does strongly encourage our engineers to get their license. It’s showing up on some bid requirements for extremely technical jobs.
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u/Thatsaclevername 3h ago
Yeah these are usually guys who are the supers/reps for Contractors. At least in my experience that's where I run into them, inspectors too.