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There is no iterating in civil engineering, it is built right the first time. They made a plan to build a replacement railway bridge over a highway and install
by snowwindwaves 10y ago
There is no iterating in civil engineering, it is built right the first time. They made a plan to build a replacement railway bridge over a highway and install it with a short interruption in rail and highway use and executed that plan. I think that is an impressive feat of engineering as well as management.
- spacemanmatt 10y agoThere's no iterating a bridge already built but the maintenance, inspection, and thinking around making difficult repair-or-replace decisions continues to evolve in feedback with analytical and management software.
- slavik81 10y ago"Built right the first time" does not match the stories I hear from my civil engineering friends. There's a reason that as-built design docs are provided. They're frequently different than the originals.
- jacquesm 10y agoThat doesn't mean they build it twice, it reflects updated information based on materials availability or changing requirements or conditions being different from initial assumptions. Exactly the kind of problems that software people tend to claim as their own personal and unique kind of challenge. But all engineering efforts are subject to those kind of challenges.
- slavik81 10y agoOr simply incorrect design. Like putting electrical panels so close to the wall that the cables can't physically bend to reach the inlet. Or incorrect construction, like driving a pile in the wrong place and just adding the extra to the design. I definitely agree. Things don't always work out as planned in any discipline of engineering. My personal experience was mechanical and electrical manufacturing, and it held true there too.