On my last day at SEPI Engineering and Construction, I met with Mike Harris, a construction project manager at SEPI. He is currently working on multiple road repair and widening projects around the state. We drove to some of the sites where the road was being widened and he explained to me what they were doing and the procedure used for widening a road. Afterwards, we went to Taco Bell for lunch and I got one of those Doritos tacos that they have. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself!
Today at SEPI, I met with a construction project manager, and we drove about 2 hours to a meeting with multiple contractors where they discussed the progress of a community center that was being built. The project was basically completed, but they were just talking about finishing touches on the building. We spent the rest of our day driving back. Fun times!
Today, I worked with the Department of Roadway Design and Construction. They deal with anything involving roads, from widening them and extending the shoulders, to making sure that any underground utilities under the roads were in the correct location. They also deal with many of the environmental aspects of roadway design, such as runoff water and the impacts of road and street material. Today, I worked with a member of the department who was working on fixing traffic buildup in certain areas. He was using a program that analyzed different aspects of traffic, such as car speed, road size, and other things.
Today at good ol’ SEPI, I worked with a contractor and an engineer from a group called “IDIAS.” I learned later on that this name came about by taking the maiden name, Saidi, of the company owner, Sepi, and spelling it backwards. Pretty cool. It also sounds like “ideas,” which is also pretty cool. Basically, one of their main jobs is to secure construction project permits that the government bids out to different civil engineering or construction firms, so that they can work on more projects and in turn make more money for the company. Because SEPI is a relatively small and new firm, competition is everywhere, so IDIAS is very important. I was given some blueprints to look at for a government warehouse used for military training exercises, and boy were they detailed! My head hurt from trying to read all of the tiny print and small symbols that filled every page. There were hundreds of pages detailing the tiniest aspects of the building, from top to bottom. My head still hurts from thinking about the tiny print, so I’ll end this one here.
Today, I met with the environmental team at SEPI. Their main responsibility is to predict and monitor the environmental impacts that different construction projects can have. This includes the impact on wetlands, endangered species, ecosystems, wildlife, etc. Their job also includes securing permits for construction projects that may impact the surrounding environment from the state. I was with a team today whose job is to go and scout out different potential project sites and the environment around them. They take notes of any wetlands or bodies of water nearby, types of plants, soil, and other environmental aspects, and then place flag markers on or near any notable areas. Their job site today was a mile-long stretch of road in Durham, but the area was pretty urban and didn’t have much vegetation or soil to observe, so we ended up just leaving and eating lunch at Smash Burger instead. A successful day in my book!
My third day at SEPI Engineering and Construction was spent with the Site/Civil Land Planning and Survey team. A surveyor is the first person on a construction site and the last person to leave one. Their job is to map out the land that is being scouted as a construction site and note very specific, detailed aspects of it. Examples include the dimensions of the site, the types of plants and animals in the area, the height/type of trees in the area, if there are any large objects or obstacles (such as large boulders, bodies of water, etc.), the type of soil in the area, and more. They also note and map any permanent structures on an in-progress construction site, such as sidewalks, storm drains, etc., and make sure that the construction is in line with city/town code. Today, we traveled to a middle school being constructed beside Apex Friendship Highschool. We set up a stationary tripod with a camera on top that shot a high-powered laser at a rod with a reflective mirror-prism. You stand at different locations around the construction site, carrying the prism rod mirror thing with you as you go. The laser from the camera reflects off of the prism and shoots back towards the camera, capturing a rough image of where you were standing with the rod. The camera has software which allows it to compile all of the pictures taken to form a digital map of the construction site. I also got to mess around with a $210,000 3d scanner that basically does the exact same thing that the laser-camera does, but in a much more efficient way. It has a laser pointer inside of it which spins at hundreds of rotations per minute, shooting lasers in every direction which bounce off of surfaces and come back to the camera. This process captures many pictures per second, and the scanner compiles the gigabytes of pictures into an almost exact 3d replica of the area around you. It basically does the same thing a 3d printer does, but in reverse. I got to mess around with several multi-thousand-dollar pieces of equipment today, and I didn’t break any of them, so that means that today was a success!
The 3d scanner
My second day at SEPI kicked off with meeting Wally Little, the Subservice Utility Engineering Manager. He explained to me that the responsibilities of his department consist of locating, mapping out, and planning the installation and management of any underground system or utility. This includes sewers, gas lines, water lines and pipes, electrical lines, phone lines, TV lines, and more. Do you ever see those spray-painted colored markings, lines, and words on streets, grass, and sidewalks and wonder what they’re for? Well I did too until today. The markings are used to show the location of the underground utilities listed above. Often times, the pipes and/or lines are at different levels of depth, but they are always (or at least they should be) directly underneath their designated marking. Blue spray paint represents a water line or system, green represents a waste/sewer system, red represents electric power lines, orange represents communication lines (cable, phone, TV lines, etc.), and yellow represents gas lines. We traveled to a project that Mr. Little was working on where he and his team were hired to locate and mark the underground utilities in a neighborhood. I received a detailed explanation about how they are able to exactly locate an underground system without being able to see it, or without the aid of previously drawn maps of the different utilities in an area. I’ll give you guys the short version. So basically, they hook up a complicated device similar to a metal detector that makes a loud noise whenever it is swung over any electrical or metal object. Based on the type of sound the device makes and some other information that appears on a screen on the device, you can tell what type of utility you’ve located. Once you’ve decided which type of line, pipe, or system you’ve located, you then use the appropriate spray paint color to paint a dot, line, or short description (usually abbreviations or initials – i.e. TV, Tele., etc.) of the system after every 15 or so steps of following the utility’s trail. I was allowed to spray-paint an entire quarter-mile long electric line! The reason for marking these utilities’ locations is usually to ensure the safety of those near them, and to show where and where not to dig into the ground so that you will not damage or strike one of these systems. For example, you wouldn’t want to stick a metal fence post into the ground and hit a 300,000-volt electric line, because you would instantaneously explode and die. We would like to avoid that if possible. It felt like I was potentially saving lives when they let me mark the electric lines, so that was quite a nice feeling to end my day with.
To start off my first day at SEPI Engineering and Construction, I met with Ms. Karen Crawford, my initial contact at the engineering firm. She took me on a tour of the two main buildings that the firm operates in and explained the responsibilities and purpose of each department in them. I then met with Mr. John Wolf, who is the CEI (Construction Engineering and Inspection) Construction Services Manager at SEPI. We initially planned to go walk around and review some construction projects that were underway in the field, but with the weather not cooperating and calling for rain all day, we sadly were unable to do so. Luckily, Mr. Wolf had an exciting meeting to go in Morrisville. We were meeting with the town manager of Morrisville and several other contractors and business partners of SEPI to discuss the progress of a project that they were working on. It was really interesting to experience the side of engineering that you might not think about too often, which is the business and political aspect, and how much money, risk, paperwork, planning, etc. is involved with construction projects. I was warned ahead of time that the meeting might get a little confrontational and aggressive, as its purpose was to meet with a representative from a construction company that was hired by the town to construct a railroad and to widen the roads in specific areas, and they weren’t doing a very good job. The construction crew was severely behind schedule, costing the town and business partners a lot of money in liquidated damages, and unreliable in terms of following plans and sticking to their word. The meeting did get a little intense at times, but that just reinforced the importance and gravity of the “construction” that takes place behind the scenes, not just out in the field. I’m excited to see what’s in store for me in the upcoming days at SEPI Engineering and Construction!
