Four years ago you never would have guessed that you would find yourself surveying a temporary pedestrian bridge rental, but it turns out that you love the challenge of solving the complexities of installing excavation shoring methods. And while you originally thought that your engineering degree might lead you in another direction, the first summer internship you had introduced you to a career that you find both interesting and complicated. From overseeing the installation of trench box shields to understanding the purpose and the intent of road composite mats, this career with a local engineering firm is the perfect fit. It has predictable hours, offers a great wage, and allows you to travel as often as you to both international trade shows as a guest of the shoring equipment wholesalers and cross country demonstrations of the latest excavation shoring methods.
Although you are not certain that you will stay in this part of the country for long, the fact that so many of the nation’s bridges and roads need attention means that you will be able to find work anywhere that you want to go.
Today’s Engineering Students Find Jobs Solving the Country’s Aging Infrastructure Issues
With 600,000 bridges in America, it should come as no surprise that a portion of them are in disrepair. What might be surprising, however, is the fact that it is not a small portion of these bridges that need work. In fact, some of the recent research indicates that 200 million trips are taken daily across deficient bridges in the nation?s 102 largest metropolitan regions. When you realize that one in nine of the nation?s bridges are rated as structurally deficient, you begin to understand the magnitude of the problem. And given that the average age of the nation?s 607,380 bridges is currently 42 years, it becomes a problem of knowing which bridges must be addressed first.
Unfortunately, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that to eliminate the nation?s bridge deficient backlog by the year 2028, the nation would need to invest $20.5 billion a year. Even more unfortunate is the fact that currently only $12.8 billion is being spent every year, this means that as a nation America is falling more and more behind every year.
If the nation is ever going to get itself caught up on these needed bridge repairs, we will rely on engineering majors who can efficiently and accurately understand the necessary excavation shoring methods.
