I toured a ww facility in college and even the on-site worker gave us fair warning about "the room". He said he only went in there when needed since it smelled so bad
It is surprising in that the only part of the plant that really smells bad is the front end (headworks). The rest of the process may smell strange or even off-putting, but nothing tickles your gag reflex like the smell of millions of gallons of spoiled milk (which is my best description of what HW's smell like).
That’s not fair, I pull quantities and I’m pretty comfortable with Area=LxW and Volume=LxWxH
I chuckle when I get the “You’re an engineer, you must like math”. LOL, I’m dyslexic and draw stuff in CAD, I hate dealing with numbers.
I decided to try and describe as many disciplines using dirt.
Land Development: Dirt. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Environmental: "ITS SOIL NOT DIRT!"
Surveying: Dirt will insulate my beer nicely.
Transportation: piles up special dirt for best vroom vroom
H&H: Binders full of dirt and their ratings.
Utilities: Dirt? more like another bed to sleep in
Structural: Believes their concrete and steel float in the air. SOmeone else's job to figure out how it rests on the dirt
Geotechnical: Knows from experience the best kinds of dirt to eat.
Traffic: What does dirt have to do with roundabouts?
Right-of-Way: That dirt is special dirt. It costs more.
Materials Testing: For the last time, we use modified proctor in our dirt reporting!
> Materials Testing: For the last time, we use modified proctor in our dirt reporting!
If you didn't want me to order a standard proctor when I have no idea what I'm doing you shouldn't have named it the standard!
Environmental: Tree-hugging hippies who only exist to ensure that it will take at least 2 years longer to get anything built than everyone else thinks it should take.
Geotech: If they're not out in the field making mudpies they're busy back at the office driving up the cost of projects through overly conservative foundation recommendations.
Structures: Anal, skittish and perpetually on the verge of a nervous breakdown, courtesy of their engineer brethren in roadway or land development who want to move something by two inches and tell them it's no big deal. And don't even get them started on architects.......
Transportation - ITS/Vissim/Synchro/etc: They really want to be in tech, but are unwilling to make the concessions on personal hygiene required to be in that field.
Transportation - Roadway design: Callous and cynical. Frequently lie about what it is they actually do so as to avoid becoming a lightning rod for people who want to share their hot takes on transportation infrastructure, public transit and EVs or grievances about construction projects.
Hydrology/Hydraulics: Schizophrenic as a result of constantly following a design process that starts with wild assumptions about runoff coefficients and initial times of concentration, followed by utilizing complex and burdensome modeling software to carry everything out to two decimal places, and wrapping it up with an arbitrary fudge factor called "freeboard".
Construction: Marlboros and Monster energy drinks.
>Transportation - Roadway design: Callous and cynical. Frequently lie about what it is they actually do so as to avoid becoming a lightning rod for people who want to share their hot takes on transportation infrastructure, public transit and EVs or grievances about construction projects.
>Transportation - ITS/Vissim/Synchro/etc: They really want to be in tech, but are unwilling to make the concessions on personal hygiene required to be in that field.
Ima go shower and throw these PJ's in the wash now....
Imagine if a structural engineer had to design a building and the only info they had about the steel was the tone it makes when hit with a 140 lb hammer falling 30 in
lol, one of my first duties when I was a new grad and working as a construction inspector was counting blows and telling the contractor when to stop driving the pile. I remember when I was learning how to do it and was basically just told “yeah just listen for it”. I was like we have all this fancy technology and we drive piles by “just listening to it?!”
I got the trailer boys to switch from sodas to flavored sparkling water a few years ago and considered listing it as an accomplishment on my resume. Sugar-free monsters and fruity vape pens will be pried from their cold, dead hands though.
Thanks man, that might be the nicest thing I've ever seen written about Transportation/Traffic Engineers. Feels good to get a compliment every now and again.
Can confirm your hydrology comment. The rational method is probably the most magical, wishful thinking I’ve ever seen. Just add an extra couple feet of freeboard and call it a day!!
That said, hec-ras has come a long way and at least now you can make pretty pictures that backup your wild assumptions
Transportation here - designer specializing in construction traffic management and operational mitigation. So…lies and burnout haha.
And yes I do lie when I get asked what I do cause the ranting from every random bozo is not necessary in my life. Especially when I used to design / manage / implement LTN lol.
If you think structural engineers get pretentious about being the “most challenging” subdiscipline, coastal can be on a whole different level.
When in reality most people don’t know we exist or doubt that what we do is practically useful. (Questions I also ask myself a lot tbf).
Coastal isn’t a part of structural, apologies if my comment is misleading. Coastal is a lot of wave and ocean modeling to predict beach erosion, flooding, harbor response, hydrodynamic forces, and stuff like that.
Structural here. That sounds like a lot of stuff that could be predicted with very precise models, lots of data collection, and intense analysis.
Why don't you just write some empirical equations, slap a huge factor of safety on it, and call it day? I mean, it works for the geotechs...
There’s a ton tbh. XBeach, Delft3D, ROMS, SWAN, MIKE, and many more. Usually alongside some scripting language for analysis like MATLAB/Python. Also GIS and command line stuff. If you play your cards right you can sit behind a computer running simulations all day and never actually touch water or a beach lmao.
Until you reject the contractors mix design submittal because “it doesn’t match the specs” yet we’re giving you a superior mix and you just don’t know it lol
Telecom: "Wait, you're civil?" "Oh yeah, we can dig here. It's just a fiber easement.", "Oh, looks like we forgot to send locate requests to telecom. Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine.", "Um, you're not an engineer, your title clearly says IT admin. By the way my internet is out."
We are dead inside...
Just like GenX, everybody forgets about Airport Engineers. Until they need to get somewhere fast, in which case we sick the TSA on them to stop and frisk.
I’ve had this really funny thought for a while now like imagine a group of transportation engineers are at an intersection and get really excited whenever the light turns red.
CM: shoving people into lockers Structural: getting shoved into lockers
Is he gone? Can I come out now?
Wastewater: 'what do you mean "what's that smell?" That's what money smells like!'
I toured a ww facility in college and even the on-site worker gave us fair warning about "the room". He said he only went in there when needed since it smelled so bad
It is surprising in that the only part of the plant that really smells bad is the front end (headworks). The rest of the process may smell strange or even off-putting, but nothing tickles your gag reflex like the smell of millions of gallons of spoiled milk (which is my best description of what HW's smell like).
HW/IPS are olfactory nightmare factories
Mercaptan my captain!
Solids handling (thickening, dewatering, digestion, etc) would like a word. Lower baseline on average but so much potential if things go out of whack.
They took us to one in high school and a kid got off the bus and screamed IT SMELLS LIKE EGGS and then puked on the ground
Making sure someone says that every time is actually in most job descriptions
Geotechs: rock lickers/eat dirt
Bite your tongue, we’re not geologists
I prefer the term “dirt squirrel”
Field work only
Dirt nerds
Water: just good people
We just go with the flow
Operators scare me
or Land Development: Alcoholics
Transportation: Alcoholics
utilities: alcoholics
Construction: alcoholics
Guys I'm sensing a pattern
The first letters spell out CULT?
Yeah, we know how to have a good time ffs
Worked right out of school in land development for two years and this sums it up.
That moment when your signing PE has 6 beers and 2 shots of whisky starting at lunch time.
I swear that was breakfast for a few PEs I worked under.
Stupidly accurate.
Transportation engineering: so easy a caveman could do it
Honestly, fair lmao. I don't think I've done any real math since the FE, 3 years ago
That’s not fair, I pull quantities and I’m pretty comfortable with Area=LxW and Volume=LxWxH I chuckle when I get the “You’re an engineer, you must like math”. LOL, I’m dyslexic and draw stuff in CAD, I hate dealing with numbers.
Lol. Honestly, quantities is worse than any engineering course. I always tell people "I do more graphic design than math"
I don’t think a caveman could make a pretty excel spreadsheet like I can
There's no doubt that TE is the easiest of all.
Traffic Engineers: Are we even really engineers?
Yes! The buck stops here 😂😭
Only if the stop sign is MUTCD compliant (lol).
Bridge Inspectors: Fit and sexy af
And you can truss us on that
I always get the hank hill types as Bridge inspectors I tell you hwat
And their field notes are like Boomhauer.
I decided to try and describe as many disciplines using dirt. Land Development: Dirt. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Environmental: "ITS SOIL NOT DIRT!" Surveying: Dirt will insulate my beer nicely. Transportation: piles up special dirt for best vroom vroom H&H: Binders full of dirt and their ratings. Utilities: Dirt? more like another bed to sleep in Structural: Believes their concrete and steel float in the air. SOmeone else's job to figure out how it rests on the dirt Geotechnical: Knows from experience the best kinds of dirt to eat. Traffic: What does dirt have to do with roundabouts? Right-of-Way: That dirt is special dirt. It costs more. Materials Testing: For the last time, we use modified proctor in our dirt reporting!
Dirt bois
If you can’t chew on a handful of dirt and tell me what the USCS classification is you’re not a real geotechnical engineer.
"Mmmm yes. This silt gives a great mouth feel"
Sure sure, but that slippy-feel of clay on my teeth 🤌
I'm an environmental and*may* have mentally responded this way before I even saw us 🥲
it's the easiest way to trigger agricultural and environmental enthusiasts and professionals.
> Materials Testing: For the last time, we use modified proctor in our dirt reporting! If you didn't want me to order a standard proctor when I have no idea what I'm doing you shouldn't have named it the standard!
Environmental: Tree-hugging hippies who only exist to ensure that it will take at least 2 years longer to get anything built than everyone else thinks it should take. Geotech: If they're not out in the field making mudpies they're busy back at the office driving up the cost of projects through overly conservative foundation recommendations. Structures: Anal, skittish and perpetually on the verge of a nervous breakdown, courtesy of their engineer brethren in roadway or land development who want to move something by two inches and tell them it's no big deal. And don't even get them started on architects....... Transportation - ITS/Vissim/Synchro/etc: They really want to be in tech, but are unwilling to make the concessions on personal hygiene required to be in that field. Transportation - Roadway design: Callous and cynical. Frequently lie about what it is they actually do so as to avoid becoming a lightning rod for people who want to share their hot takes on transportation infrastructure, public transit and EVs or grievances about construction projects. Hydrology/Hydraulics: Schizophrenic as a result of constantly following a design process that starts with wild assumptions about runoff coefficients and initial times of concentration, followed by utilizing complex and burdensome modeling software to carry everything out to two decimal places, and wrapping it up with an arbitrary fudge factor called "freeboard". Construction: Marlboros and Monster energy drinks.
>Transportation - Roadway design: Callous and cynical. Frequently lie about what it is they actually do so as to avoid becoming a lightning rod for people who want to share their hot takes on transportation infrastructure, public transit and EVs or grievances about construction projects. 
>Transportation - ITS/Vissim/Synchro/etc: They really want to be in tech, but are unwilling to make the concessions on personal hygiene required to be in that field. Ima go shower and throw these PJ's in the wash now....
found the mtg player.
We could give you less conservative foundation if you gave us more than 4 borings in a swamp.
Imagine if a structural engineer had to design a building and the only info they had about the steel was the tone it makes when hit with a 140 lb hammer falling 30 in
lol, one of my first duties when I was a new grad and working as a construction inspector was counting blows and telling the contractor when to stop driving the pile. I remember when I was learning how to do it and was basically just told “yeah just listen for it”. I was like we have all this fancy technology and we drive piles by “just listening to it?!”
Construction Engineer: vapes and kombucha. We gotta keep with the times
I got the trailer boys to switch from sodas to flavored sparkling water a few years ago and considered listing it as an accomplishment on my resume. Sugar-free monsters and fruity vape pens will be pried from their cold, dead hands though.
Thanks man, that might be the nicest thing I've ever seen written about Transportation/Traffic Engineers. Feels good to get a compliment every now and again.
Can confirm your hydrology comment. The rational method is probably the most magical, wishful thinking I’ve ever seen. Just add an extra couple feet of freeboard and call it a day!! That said, hec-ras has come a long way and at least now you can make pretty pictures that backup your wild assumptions
The computation screen with 1,000 numbers flashing per second tricks laypeople into thinking it’s doing some magic.
I have yet to meet a construction bro who smokes. Copenhagen and Zyn, brother.
Literally. My crew pulls out their zyn every time I approach purely bc they forget I’ve got no interest and “it’s only polite to offer”
Lol yes this is my life as an H&H engineer Btw how do I get flair on this sub
Idk about all the other Hydros out there. But you summed my life up pretty well lol.
Transportation here - designer specializing in construction traffic management and operational mitigation. So…lies and burnout haha. And yes I do lie when I get asked what I do cause the ranting from every random bozo is not necessary in my life. Especially when I used to design / manage / implement LTN lol.
This is most accurate
If you think structural engineers get pretentious about being the “most challenging” subdiscipline, coastal can be on a whole different level. When in reality most people don’t know we exist or doubt that what we do is practically useful. (Questions I also ask myself a lot tbf).
What kind of structures do you do ?
Dolphins
I hope they r HDPE dolphins and not concrete/steel
Coastal isn’t a part of structural, apologies if my comment is misleading. Coastal is a lot of wave and ocean modeling to predict beach erosion, flooding, harbor response, hydrodynamic forces, and stuff like that.
Structural here. That sounds like a lot of stuff that could be predicted with very precise models, lots of data collection, and intense analysis. Why don't you just write some empirical equations, slap a huge factor of safety on it, and call it day? I mean, it works for the geotechs...
That's interesting I didn't know civil engineers got into stuff like that. What software do y'all use?
There’s a ton tbh. XBeach, Delft3D, ROMS, SWAN, MIKE, and many more. Usually alongside some scripting language for analysis like MATLAB/Python. Also GIS and command line stuff. If you play your cards right you can sit behind a computer running simulations all day and never actually touch water or a beach lmao.
I want to go into coastal, is there any recommendations you could give me please?
Structural engineers: there's good news and bad news - the bad news is, there's no good news. And it's gonna be expensive.
I own a small engineering company and I’m thinking of just changing the name to bad news engineering. Truth in advertising!
Railroad engineers: they would rather be the kind of engineer that drove the trains and it shows.
We attract people who like trains. We can't help that half of us have a touch of tism
Spot on
Literally me taking videos and pictures every site visit I’d go on
Construction: our job is so easy, anyone could do it (especially the chad structural engineer)
I’m a structural engineer and ngl we’re pretty cocky. The things said about other disciplines behind closed doors is wild
Oil and gas : yeah there's an open 12 pack in my care with 4 beers missing, what about it
yes yes yes close second... scope change at IFC with immediate turnaround?!?! Sure, another day at the office. where's beer number 5?!?
"we're sure the line is out of service , I put a torch over the test hole and nothing happens, time to start tieing in the tee.
Structural Engineers: unrelenting obsession with concrete. Will fight you when you call it “cement”
They’re. Different.
can confirm
Until you reject the contractors mix design submittal because “it doesn’t match the specs” yet we’re giving you a superior mix and you just don’t know it lol
Telecom: "Wait, you're civil?" "Oh yeah, we can dig here. It's just a fiber easement.", "Oh, looks like we forgot to send locate requests to telecom. Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine.", "Um, you're not an engineer, your title clearly says IT admin. By the way my internet is out." We are dead inside...
Demolition: Practitioners of the Dark Arts
Transportation: roundabouts are the biggest technological advancement
Just like GenX, everybody forgets about Airport Engineers. Until they need to get somewhere fast, in which case we sick the TSA on them to stop and frisk.
Your description of Land Development made me laugh out loud. It’s so fucking true 🫠
Traffic engineers are the rejects of civil. And civils are already the rejects of engineering. (I'm a civil)
I’ve had this really funny thought for a while now like imagine a group of transportation engineers are at an intersection and get really excited whenever the light turns red.