Is life really just small beams, resting on bigger beams, resting on columns? Is that all there is every time?
Comment on Structural Engineers
AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Most structural engineers are a lot less uplifting than this.
Source: I’m a structural engineer.
Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Often we achieve very uplifting things with a huge amount of diligent hard work and planning.
It’s rarely uplifting in the arty/poetic/slightly “wishy washy” sense of the OP though.
If you want a specific example, my last project was a big concrete box bridge (6000t), it was built off to the side of the railway and pushed into position using enormous strand jacks. This allowed the railway to remain open apart from ~10 days over Christmas. It took 3 years to do all the design and construction including the temporary works design (construction methodology); all the planning paid off because it was installed successfully, within tolerance and on programme.
The bridge will last at least 120 years and will allow more rail freight instead of road transportation, which has environmental and social benefits.
We designed the bridge so that you could install overhead electrification in future if the rest of the network was upgraded (so you could use electric rather than diesel powered vehicles).
Basically, you achieve impressive things by doing a lot of hard technical work. It’s a bit of a different mindset to writing poems about beams sharing loads.
5715@feddit.org 2 months ago
Are you saying structural engineers struggle to uphold mental structural integrity?
AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No, but a lot of us are more prone to just doing everything ourselves rather than communicating and working together in a big team.
High yield stress!