PREPARING CONSTRUCTION STUDENTS FOR FIELD ENGINEERING

INTRODUCTION

Construction surveying, also known as field engineering, is an area that many contractors use as an entry level position for students from construction management programs. Contractors want their new field engineer to be ready the first day on the job with good field engineering skills and to be committed to a career in construction. To achieve this, construction programs must prepare students to perform the duties and accept the responsibilities of field engineering.

Field engineers must be very adept at plan reading, interpretating specifications, communicating, scheduling, production reporting, and surveying measurement. In addition to these technical skills, the field engineer also must possess certain personal characteristics such as being: willing to work; an initiator; a "do-er"; able to assume responsibility; and able to learn quickly. To be successful, the field engineer must be able to apply these skills and characteristics to everyday activities on the jobsite.

Looking at each of these technical skills or characteristics is beyond the scope of this paper. This paper will look specifically at the surveying activities that a field engineer performs on a daily basis and will provide some ideas to simulate these activities in the classroom. Construction education programs need surveying instruction that will prepare their students for summer jobs as well as prepare them to be able to perform layouts when they become field engineers. But what is important for surveying instruction in construction management education?

First, lets discuss the status of surveying instruction in construction education programs. Then lets look at the surveying skills required on the jobsite to get a good indication of what skills are needed. We must assess the needs of the contractor and determine what they feel are the important aspects of understanding construction layout. We will conclude with a discussion of proposed instructional activities to make a surveying course for construction students more relevant to their future career as field engineers.

THE STATUS OF SURVEYING INSTRUCTION IN CONSTRUCTION EDUCATION

Although a few construction management programs across the country teach surveying in-house, the majority of construction students are taught surveying as a service of the civil engineering or professional surveying programs. Unfortunately for the construction students and ultimately their employers, students from several disciplines are taught the same generic surveying course--not a course that meets the goals of the construction program.

This problem is not a fault of the instructors teaching the field engineering course to the construction students. They are doing what they think is important end ere usually doing e good job. Typically, the problem is one of communication--where the construction management program end the surveying support program have not discussed the exact field engineering skills needed by the construction graduates. It is often just assumed that everyone knows whet is important. That simply is not the case as indicated by conversations with employers who hire construction students and find that there is no consistency in the field engineering skills taught. They find that some students have very good field engineering skills end ere able to meet any layout problem encountered, while other students have difficulty with basic measurements end cannot apply their surveying skills to job layout activities.

"Surveying is surveying" is e broad state­ment that argues that any type of surveying instruction will do. Just cover the basic concepts, end the students have the minimum skills needed to perform. In a sense, that may be true as long as the instructor consciously relates reel world situations to the students to show how the basic concepts ere used in the field. Hopefully for the construction student, these will be situations which show the relevancy of surveying as part of the duties end responsibilities of the field engineer.

Any improvements that can be made to better prepare construction management students for construction layout activities must be considered. Although surveying is but one of the many activities that must be performed in the process of constructing e project, it is one that has tremendous impact on the completion date as well as the quality of the work. Mistakes in layout ere costly as evidenced by contractors who have related horror stories of millions of dollars of additional costs because of e simple layout error. Perhaps e look et the surveying skills required of e field engineer will indicate how important good surveying instruction is to the construction student.

SURVEYING SKILLS ON THE CONSTRUCTION SITE

To determine the surveying skills e field engineer needs, typical layout end related activities can be listed end skills required to perform them identified. A typical day for e field engineer might include:

This list is just e sample of the types of surveying activities that e field engineer may be performing. In addition to these activities, the field engineer will be:

interpreting plans, determining quantities, supervising work crews, etc.,

The surveying skills necessary for a field engineer to successfully perform these act­ivities are really quite simple. Even though the construction tasks may be comp­lex, a close look will reveal that standard surveying techniques are used for the lay­outs. Horizontal distance measurement, basic differential leveling procedures, and measuring angles are used for the majority of the activities. These are skills that are part of any surveying course. But how are they taught? Do students taking a sur­veying course realize that the leveling they are doing can be used to set cant strips on the side of a concrete form? Do they know that the distances they measure could be used to set anchor bolts? Are the course activities relevant to typical construction layout?

CONTRACTOR'S NEEDS

Visiting a typical construction site and talking with the project manager will help the visitor quickly determine what is important related to layout. Accurate "Line and Grade" are the terms used to indicate the layout needs of the carpenters, foremen and the superintendent. Everyone on the construction management team is concerned about "locating the concrete forms correctly so that the anchor bolts will be positioned properly and that the steel which will arrive months later will fit." A thorough understanding of fundamental surveying concepts is necessary to avoid costly layout problems that will generally cost thousands of dollars to correct or replace. There simply isn't a cheap mistake.

It has been said that mistakes are unavoidable--that is true. However, strict adherence to accepted standard surveying practices will expose mistakes that do occur. Contractors want field engineers to be familiar with fundamental error detection procedures such as:

The contractor needs a field engineer who is competent in each of these areas to avoid costly mistakes.

In addition to the error detection proced­ures listed, discussions with contractors about surveying needs indicate a field eng­ineer should be able to meet the following objectives:

If these objectives are thoroughly covered in a basic surveying course--and each stud­ent is proficient in them--the minimum skills that a field engineer needs will have been developed. Students should be able to utilize these skills when told to layout a footing and be confident it is correctly located and ready for concrete.

In addition to the development of these skills in a basic surveying course, cont­ractors need persons who can plan ahead for the surveying activities that will be needed. Planning comes first in the const­ruction of any successful project. A field engineer should start a job with careful planning of the type of equipment to use, where to locate the primary control on a jobsite, planned locations of secondary control, monumentation techniques, daily scheduling of layout activities, etc. Therefore, a course in surveying should cover not only basic surveying principles, but planning skills as well.

PROPOSED INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

In order to make learning the basic skills listed more pertinent, it is necessary in any technical course to relate the material to activities that will be encountered in the real world. On a small project, the field engineer will layout control to locate the corners or centerlines and may not have to be concerned about layout after foundation work has been completed. On other jobs such as high-rise construction, the field engineer will take an active role in keeping the building plumb and square as the construction proceeds from floor to floor. Or, on bridge construction, the field engineer will plan and utilize a coordinate system from the location of the first pier to the determination of the location of the final railings.

It is impossible for the instructor of a surveying course to have the students exactly perform all of the layout activities that will be encountered by the field engineer on the construction site. However, many of the activities can be simulated without actually having the structure built. Some possible objectives and activities that could be added to make the development of basic skills more relevant might include:

The key to being able to incorporate some of these activities into a surveying class is having some plans for construction projects and being able to simulate their layout. A few phone calls will usually result in the donation of construction plans. Access to the type of equipment used on a construction site is also important for some of the listed activities. Although many programs may not have all of the equipment referred to, a call to a local dealer will usually result in a "loaner" for the week or as long as needed.

A laboratory activity that is very similar to what is done daily in construction might include having students determine elevations of beam seats within a parking garage. They would start with a benchmark

away from the garage; close a loop, setting a temporary benchmark at the base of the garage; drop a tape from the side of the garage to set a temporary benchmark on the floor level that the beam seat is located; and setup the level to determine the elevation of the beam seat using an inverted rod.

Building layouts allow the student to utilize many of the basic surveying skills taught. In addition to laying out a building by the usual method of 90⁰ angles, distances, and diagonals, layout of the same structure by coordinates and radial surveying would present an alternate, yet relevant approach.

Another activity if a laser is available, is to have students use the horizontal and vertical planes that the laser creates to develop an "as-built" drawing of a structure. The laser can be set-up and the stud­ents could measure offsets from the plane to the ceiling grid. Or, the laser could be set to create a vertical plane that could be used to check the plumbness of a wall.

These are but a few examples of activities that could be performed by students in surveying courses taught for construction programs. If this were done, understanding the need for surveying to be a required skill would be evident. Students would recognize the need for a rigorous course that required their best efforts to succeed.

CONCLUSION

The construction industry is a major user of fundamental surveying principles. Although some layout is done by professional surveying firms, a large amount is the responsibility of the field engineer--often a graduate of a construction management prog­ram. To produce graduates who are better prepared for construction layout as their first activity on a jobsite, surveying instruction should strive to develop class activities that simulate the layout activ­ities that will be encountered.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Mr. Robert Tointon, President of Phelps' Inc., of Greeley, CO, for the opportunity to spend a yearlong sabbatical working with the field engineers of Clearwater Constructors and Hensel Phelps Construction Company.

REFERENCES