Changing technologies
OPPORTUNITIES IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Civil engineers enjoy exciting work

The techies in this article are acing a range of city, county and regional projects

"It's fun to be in an interactive problem-solving mode, and I like seeing the projects I work on completed."
- Mary Beth Gilbrough, King County Wastewater Treatment Division

By Heidi Russell Rafferty
Senior Contributing Editor

DMJM Harris VP Rachel Vandenberg visits one of her light rail projects in LA.

Last year, private firms and public organizations in the U.S. spent a billion dollars on infrastructure, from roads, bridges and rails to schools, manufacturing plants and high-rise buildings. No wonder there's a tremendous need for civil engineers in this country, as Jeffrey S. Russell notes.

Dr Russell is a spokesperson for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE, Reston, VA) and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "CE is a hot job market," he says. "Recruiting companies ask me, 'Where are the students? We need more students!'" Russell notes that from the 1970s to 1990s there was a heavy demand for environmental engineers, who are to some extent an offshoot of the civil engineering discipline. Although EnvE demand is still strong, there's an equal call today for engineers in the construction field. CEs are also becoming more involved in homeland security issues, as safety considerations have taken top priority in the design of facilities like airports.

Seeking diversity
There are not enough diverse civil engineers, especially women CEs, Russell says. "We don't have gender equity yet, and we need to work out strategies to attract women to civil engineering."

CE Pamela Mann of HSMM (Roanoke, VA) agrees. "It's not unusual to be in a room filled with eighty to a hundred CEs and you're one of just three women," she says.

And Mary Beth Gilbrough, a CE with King County Wastewater Treatment Division (Seattle, WA), switched over from private consulting because she felt the public agency would be more family-friendly for a women with young children. She has two little boys and works three days a week. "The county is very supportive. They let me take six months off with the birth of each of my kids. I appreciate that and I'm very focused when I'm here," she says.

Russell notes that in the long term, a diverse technical workforce that supports women is necessary for the U.S. to remain competitive in the global marketplace. "We've made progress, but it's not yet time to raise the flag and say we've had success," he says. "I think gender equity continues to be an issue, and it should be the objective for all of us in civil engineering."

While gender equity is undoubtedly still an issue in the field as a whole, the five very successful CEs interviewed for this article demonstrate that progress is indeed being made. Every one of them is a woman.

HNTB Companies: growing and hiring

Yvonne Lopez Diaz.

HNTB Companies (Orlando, FL), the CE consulting giant, is growing and hiring "a lot of great people," says Yvonne Lopez-Diaz of the HR department. The signing of the new Federal Transportation Bill in 2006 has brought many transportation projects off the shelf, she notes. Plus, population growth in some areas of the country means building more transportation infrastructure or expanding existing systems.

"With this infrastructure growth comes the need for more civil engineers," she says. "Our goal at HNTB is to grow our business beyond even our own expectations, and we'll be looking to hire many new people in 2007 and beyond. It's an exciting time to be here."

The HNTB Companies provide professional services in three primary markets: transportation, architecture and the federal arena. Within these areas the multidisciplinary firm gets into specialties like architecture, aviation, bridges, construction, environmental engineering, urban design and planning, and water. The techies it's seeking have a strong background in CE, experience in the latest technology and "a passion for engineering that fuels the spark of imagination and energy we add to every project," Lopez-Diaz says.

She notes that the civil engineering landscape has changed. "Many people of diverse backgrounds are finding that a professional career in civil engineering gives them the chance to make a difference in society by designing the infrastructures of tomorrow."

The company participates in conferences sponsored by diversity-focused professional societies like NSBE and SHPE, and some company execs hold leadership and board positions with these groups' advisory councils.

Cristina Torres-Reyes is a project engineer with HNTB

Cristina Torres.

Stationed in Orlando, FL, Cristina Torres-Reyes is a project engineer in HNTB's planning and traffic group. Right now she's specializing in traffic studies, signal ops and analysis, working on traffic simulation models. She's figuring the impact of a variety of proposed projects on traffic patterns in central Florida, which is experiencing a surge of tourists and new residents alike.

Torres-Reyes, who joined HNTB last summer, notes that software has improved since she completed her 2000 BSCE and 2002 MS in CE and transportation at the University of Puerto Rico-MayagŸez. When she started out, the software could only analyze traffic patterns. Today she has tools to simulate specific problems and offer a variety of solutions.

Torres-Reyes grew up in Puerto Rico. She got the urge to go for CE from her father, a skilled construction drafter. As kids, Torres-Reyes and her sisters sometimes went with him to visit construction sites. Her older sister also grew up to be a CE and her younger sister went into EE.

While working for her MS, Torres-Reyes was part of a professional development program involved with planning and design of the first heavy-rail transportation system in Puerto Rico. She worked on that project for two years, and traveled to Boston, MA, Caracas, Venezuela and other cities to look into similar systems.

After graduation she worked for the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority as a traffic engineer in signal ops and traffic studies. She also taught highway and transportation engineering at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. "I worked at the authority all day and at the university all evening," she recalls.

In her current job she's doing the same sort of work she did for the authority in Puerto Rico, but on a much larger scale. "I feel that I'm making a contribution to the team, and the company provides the tools I need to stay competitive and develop in the field," she says.

HSMM: twenty-plus offices and hiring
Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern Inc (HSMM/AECOM, Roanoke, VA) is an architectural and engineering consulting firm working primarily in the Southeast. Cindy Wilson of the HR department notes that the company recently reviewed its policies and job postings to be sure they encouraged and supported diversity. Right now HSMM has a hundred open positions, thirty of them for CEs.

The company offers a broad spectrum of services in CE and site development to public- and private-sector clients. Company engineers work out infrastructure solutions for new building sites, site upgrades and community development.

HSMM is interested in entry-level applicants with EIT certification for engineer 1 jobs. Its next-level engineer 2 hires need a PE and at least five years in architecture and engineering. "We have offices across the country so there should be a place for everyone," Wilson notes.

"Candidates can drop me an e-mail at cwilson@hsmm.com. If they would like to come and visit our company we can arrange that as well."

Pamela Mann does bridge work at HSMM

Pamela Mann.

Pamela Mann has been in the HSMM bridge department since 2004. Last fall she became assistant department head, supervising four PEs, three EITs and three technicians. "I have to make sure everyone stays busy and our projects are on track, on time and on budget," she says.

One of her department's main clients is the Virginia Department of Transportation, but the staff also assists with bridge work in the Carolinas and a number of cities in the region. A current project involves taking down a historic bridge over the railroad tracks in Roanoke, VA and bringing it back as a pedestrian structure.

Mann joined HSMM in 2001 and spent three years in the building division. She worked on projects for the Army Corps of Engineers that involved a barracks, dining facilities, a new medical clinic and a weapons storage building at Fort Bragg, NC. Her main job was to interface with the architects in the design phase of each building.

Mann got her 1991 BSCE from the West Virginia Institute of Technology (Montgomery, WV). Her 1993 MSCE is from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC).

At WV Tech she spent two semesters as a co-op with a small architectural, structural and mechanical firm in Cocoa, FL, and one summer as an intern at the West Virginia DOT. At NCSU, she did summer internships with NC DOT and a private engineering firm. She left college intending to look for work in architecture and building design, but her husband convinced her to apply for a job in bridge design and now she loves it.

Her first job was with Parson Transportation Group (Cary, NC). After six years she and her husband moved to Anderson and Associates (Blacksburg, VA), which specialized in CE projects for municipalities. Mann did structural design for wastewater treatment projects. She joined HSMM in 2001.

Mann notes that CEs need good communication skills, especially if they want to work with government or municipalities. "You not only have to know the technical side of things, but you have to be able to get technical information across to audiences with various levels of expertise," she explains.

King County Wastewater Treatment serves 1.8 million residents
The King County Wastewater Treatment Division (Seattle, WA) needs team-oriented CEs who have experience with project management, says Steve Namkung, senior HR analyst. Encompassing Puget Sound and environs, King County is nearly twice as large as the average U.S. county and one of the most heavily populated in the nation. Its wastewater treatment division serves 1.8 million residents.

"A lot of our work involves project teams, and is strengthened by their diversity of experience and ideas," Namkung says. "We have checkpoints in our recruiting to help ensure that we're reaching a diverse candidate pool. There's an adequate pool in some areas, but we'd like to increase the number of Hispanic candidates and people with disabilities."

Turnover is currently low, but the utility anticipates hiring CEs, MEs and EEs later this year.

Job seekers should feel free to chat with a currently-employed engineer to learn about the agency, Namkung adds. "Most of our engineers would be more than willing to talk about their jobs and how a candidate's skill sets could align with our work. Candidates can e-mail us at wtdhr@metrokc.gov if they'd like to get in touch with someone."

Mary Beth Gilbrough: asset management at King County

Mary Beth Gilbrough.

Mary Beth Gilbrough is an engineer 4 in the engineering group of the asset management section of the King County Wastewater Treatment Division. She's a project engineer, handling several jobs involved with wastewater treatment plant and collection system design.

Gilbrough begins by preparing a pre-design report, working closely with ops and maintenance folks, inspectors and other engineers. On large projects she leads a team of structural engineers, EEs, MEs, instrumentation and control engineers and designers. The team prepares contract documents for competitive bidding.

Gilbrough is a Seattle native. She attended Western Washington University and transferred to Washington State University for her 1991 BSCE. "I wanted to help save the environment; that's what drew me to this field," she says.

After graduating she worked for a local consulting firm as a staff engineer involved with hazardous waste engineering and cleanups. In 1995 she moved to the Federal Way, WA office of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants (San Francisco, CA). She started as a staff engineer, handling municipal wastewater conveyance projects in the public works group. "I had great mentors there and learned a lot," she says.

In 2002 she joined King County, where "I have a lot of different bosses. I have to please my supervisor, higher management, project managers and the public as well. A lot of people have to approve my work.

"But I'm working with really smart people solving problems. It's fun to be in an interactive problem-solving mode, and I like seeing the projects I work on completed."

Leanne Weber is a BellSouth planner

Leanne Weber.

BellSouth was acquired by the new AT&T on December 29, 2006. AT&T chair and CEO Edward E. Whitacre, Jr went on the AT&T website to declare that diversity and inclusion will continue to be essential components of both corporations' business strategies.

"We have a rich heritage of diversity that has given our company a competitive edge," he notes. "By respecting and including different viewpoints, we are better able to serve our customers, employees, business partners and communities."

Leanne Weber, a CE at BellSouth, says she's had exciting career opportunities, especially as communications technology has evolved. Weber is a specialist feeder administration planner, figuring how the network can best accommodate service needs.

"I'm at the helm in terms of giving plans to our engineers. They have the hands-on role of working with the construction forces," Weber explains.

Her routine varies. On a typical day she may evaluate whether construction for a new facility is within budget, give plans to order enhanced equipment to provide bandwidth at a cell site, and start plans for DSL service equipment.

Weber trained for her job for three years. In 2001 she started to learn the operation of the entire network, and she took over her current job in 2004.

Weber worked on her BSCE and MSCE together, getting them both in 1998 from the University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) while caring for her small child. After college she went to work at Parsons Telecom, an engineering company contracted to help BellSouth in Louisville. She moved to BellSouth in 2000, designing circuits for data lines.

"I would evaluate field conditions and apply engineering principles to put up cable or put equipment in place to meet the guidelines of the science and technology staff," she says.

Today she's enjoying "keeping up with the latest and greatest technology. You have to make sure you understand what you're placing out there and keep in mind the things that have been done in the past. It keeps you hopping all day, and I love it," Weber says.

At DMJM Harris, VP Rachel Vandenberg oversees LA's light rail

Rachel Vandenberg.

The $640 million Exposition Light Rail project will run abut ten miles from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, CA, paralleling heavily congested I-10. When it's completed, probably in the summer of 2010, it will take people back and forth in thirty minutes.

This is Rachel Vandenberg's project. Vandenberg is a VP at DMJM Harris, the flagship transportation/ architecture/engineering company of AECOM Technology Corp (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA). DMJM Harris, with 2,200 employees, has many specialties: transit and rail, highways and bridges, marine, aviation, planning, energy and power, program and construction management and design and construct services. Its clients are in both the government and private industry.

Vandenberg's lean staff of twelve is currently working on design reviews and the ongoing final design of the light rail. She supported the completion of the environmental document for Federal Transit Admin approval, then prepared bid documents prior to the construction phase that began last fall.

A Los Angeles native, Vandenberg has been involved in public transportation issues ever since she got her 1986 BSCE from the University of California-Berkley. Her first job was with the California Department of Transportation. She started in a two-year training rotation, working on projects in four- to eight-month increments. She was based in San Francisco and found she "really enjoyed being in program management."

In 1989 she went to UCLA's Anderson School for her MBA with an emphasis in real estate and finance. The Los Angeles Metrolink commuter rail system, which links downtown LA with surrounding counties, was just being developed, and the lead consultant was Frederic R. Harris, a company that later merged to become DMJM Harris. The company needed someone to help manage the project budget, and liked the "numbers experience" Vandenberg got with her MBA. "That's how I found a great opportunity," she says.

She worked in budget management for the Metrolink system project from 1992 to 1995, then took over project management for the expansion of the project. From 1997 to 1999 she was director of admin for the $1 billion Alameda Corridor Program, a twenty-mile rail system from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. Between 2000 and 2003 she supported another Metrolink expansion.

Today, her responsibilities include both business development and project management. She became associate VP in 2001 and VP in 2003.

Vandenberg believes that the problem-solving skills she built up as a civil engineer were her key to success in management.

"I have to direct and manage a broad array of technical staff, so I have to understand the objectives and details of what the technical people are doing, even though I've really done very little hands-on design since my early days," she says.

As VP, she's focused on mentoring staff, managing client relationships and delivering projects. In early 2004 she supported final development design for a service loop of the Sprinter rail line, which will run twenty-two miles parallel to California's Highway 78 corridor. It's expected to be in service this December.

Vandenberg took over the Exposition Light Rail project in early 2005. She enjoys providing overall guidance to a staff that provides mechanical, structural and civil engineering services.

"I brought one of my two teen-age sons to work with me one day. When the morning was over and we were going out to lunch he said to me, 'Is this what you do? People come in and ask you to make a decision and you make it and then they leave?' "I said, 'Yes, I guess that's what I do,'" Vandenberg reports with a laugh.

D/C

Heidi R. Rafferty is a freelance writer headquartered in Wilmore, KY.

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