PART 1
1.0 Introduction
Historically, civil engineering is one of the oldest practices in engineering, and still remains the broadest professional field combined with scientific principles. Many early structures, facilities, and transportation aspects were the result of the greatest engineering minds, then branching out into materials science, soil mechanics, waterworks, environment, mechanics and other subgenre fields. However, a particular discipline thriving in one geographical area may not necessarily thrive in another. This explains why sustainable design in the United Kingdom prefers to keep its design sustainability a step ahead for all aspects of civil engineering design (Sherwin, 2012). Since civil engineering umbrellas a multitude of engineering fields, it is important to recognize how sustainability is integrated into the design process of all designs.
Unbeknownst to many road engineers, including the ones with the most practical experience, many elements are overlooked before the planning stage of development and design because of the difficulty in accounting for every environmental and social factor Schon, 2001). These factors usually illustrate implications after the fact that a project has been approved and then completed. In such cases, civil engineers need to be heavily involved in project forecasts and consult with the subject neighborhood that would be impacted by these projects. Hence, for the purposes of this assignment, it shall entail sustainability of the life span for a constructed road bridge in the UK, and how it utilizes a critical path to reduce as much impact on the environment and the neighborhood as much as possible.
2.0 The Design Strategy
Sustainable development for the road bridge involves more than solely formulating the proper design team and sourcing the proper materials. Each factor needs to equally contribute at the management and material level to determine the bridge lifespan. Since the UK government has taken up active measures to reverse the environmental effects that may be a long shot, an initiative in long term road bridge planning is developing environmental and ethical protocols, and sustainable development guidelines to meet the needs of climactic changes, shall be addressed to the community. Where in the earlier pioneer days, civil engineering has prospered in the technological aspects, road engineers now need to set aside the physical components and focus on the macroscopic level. The key factors to be addressed are the minimization of waste material and energy use to only impact the environment. Unless another strategic plan to reuse material can be integrated into other projects, they can be considered into current projects in question where little land use is to be yielded to store waste products (Anastas, P.L. & Zimmerman, J.B., 2003).
Before the planning of the road bridge can begin, all engineering firms involved shall provide a public referendum for both the design team and the public that may be affected by the project. The referendum would at least forward some feedback as to each individual interested in the project, because the locations of the extent of the road project would call for diverse impacts per capita. In other words, a communal report following a notification distribution could search for information on any thoughts of the project. This procedure may reach out to other professionals currently dwelling within the community who may even be interested in the project. Since they are familiar with the area, these local professionals could be an ideal choice to be part of the design team, depending on the length of time they lived there. Since the neighborhood community is faced with the construction of a roadway, a general consensus throughout the neighborhood to be impacted may have the first opinions whether in favor or in contrast. The more outreach that occurs, the more opinions can be gathered and examined by the professional design team. As a project instigation, the important agenda item to illustrate is the presentation of the project for public viewing to identify the promises and pitfalls. The aforementioned concept of the road bridge design provides an alternative to traditional practices to meets the needs of future generations who plan to move into the area.
3.0 Concerns Regarding Sustainability
The team was required to submit a report of the conditions, new and existing. The purpose is to itemize the through-life perspective in introducing durable assets to prolong the design lie of the road bridge, and subject it to testing. Besides overseeing the road project and how it impacts urban design and planning, minimizing environmental impacts on natural environments has to be considered. The design shall be in relation to the finished products that may have long-term coexistence with people and the natural environment other than the initial stages of project design (Egen, 1998). Civil engineers in the UK for some time have utilized a set of guiding principles concerning the following topical issues for road bridges under consideration for practical purposes: socio-centric, techno-centric, and eco-centric.
Each of these concerns continue to be thoroughly researched and addressed by the Institutional of Civil Engineers (ICE) adapting standards of practice from the Royal Academy of Engineering where the first two (socio-centric and techno-centric) are incorporated into the third concern (eco-centric). It is to be utilized as a peripheral method in which, besides adjusting to the community environment, how the community may adjust to the carefully planned human influence on this project.
Technology may be helpful in quickening the project’s performance, but not suitable alone if not favorable to the environment. This is why the service and design of the road bridge shall be considered from all angles, including its future impact and challenges. The first assets to consider are the components of the road bridge itself. The designs shall entail the lives of the foundation, deck slab, bearings, and the surfacing. Following the required components are the retaining records of client decisions. Since the completed project takes time to settle after the fact, it is important to keep records of all client decisions frequently maintain vigil over the project. As a correspondence, the wants and needs of the client shall be passed to the client, and hence to the remainder of the community. This sustainability shall stem from interdisciplinary solutions for the good of the community and a holistic approach is required to supersede the individual approach as in the case of a general consensus for the sake of fairness to the community.
Once the general scope of work is examined and understood between the design team and community, the responsibility of road engineers lies in the social and environmental principles to reduce adverse effects of the project, and retain long-term environmental performance. Evidently the proposal shall be proven sustainable as the wants and needs of the community may change over time. Urgently, products, services and infrastructure currently compatible with the environment may need to undergo upgrades or replacement. Additionally a detailed environmental report to completely phase out the once permitted usable products need to declare a new set of products on the market for this new development.
Forecasting the state of the environment can be tedious and vital for civil engineers, as introducing the latest designs in sustainability rests on their shoulders. Engineers seeking specific skills and abilities to coordinate with professional diversity demand a new perspective of a positively or negatively impacted community and to create models for better preparedness. This explains why a general consensus from the community and region in question shall be allowed the first input regardless of economic opportunities. Unfortunately, the data can only be gathered by a referendum from those who are willing to participate in the project, whether directly or indirectly involved. For the laypeople deemed uninterested in a project, may either support or hinder during the project stage if not initially willing to forward their input. By extending the approach throughout the environment, the project functions shall proceed accordingly from the viewpoint of the community. Varying degrees of functionality may also depend on the existing surroundings whether the road bridge is being built near a commercial or residential area.
Sometimes even when engineers are confident in future implications of this project in spite of public consultation, issues emerge during a construction phase unexpectedly. A well-accepted tool commonly used in the UK use for wise decision-making is the sustainability environmental assessment tool (also known as SEA). This tool shall help reduce problems that may arise during the road project to help cover costs and investments in case the project travels sideways. While public consultation may help, allowing space for flexibility in cases of environmental sensitivities, resource availability, and damage due to weather conditions that may hinder construction or trigger project boundaries situated beyond project budgets and areas (Townsend, 2005). What shall be initially avoided are the costs as community safety and the durability of the bridge’s components shall be treated as mandatory. Although tying in the SEA tool with prior public consultation with the neighboring community cannot fully prevent, as the neighborhood shall understand, all unforeseen circumstances and setbacks, but only reduce them. Plus by pre-arranging this project in stages may also assist in monitoring durability failure once, and if, it occurs. If failure occurs, this deems the components not maintainable. The project may be halted or safety may be compromised. However, settling of the structure is also the norm in design and in construction, but failed components shall be replaced by longer lasting material.
Frequently civil engineers in the UK follow key steps to achieve the required service and design life. Preparing an effective through-life support plan is essential to maximising the benefits of the road design or acquisition project. Some extra effort at the design or production phase may save more in maintenance or spares. The ecological footprint calculation (EFC) is embedded with experience engineers at the integration and technical systems into existing operations and infrastructure. As the community uses or consumes the vicinity’s natural resources and discharge wastes into the environment, an intense examination of the components need to be considered, because the resources wasted have adverse effects on components. The EFC is updated every year to collect all the data needed to determine the rate at which the resources regenerate to replace the resources wasted, along with the deterioration rate of the components. This method may also pose as a test for components in future considerations, determining if components are deemed effective and safe.
PART 2
4.0 Project Level Issues of Progression
As stated earlier, sustainability comes in the forms to which options are available, affordable, challenging, resolvable. The three important integrations to sustainability fall under environmental, economic, and societal factors. Options available may entail zero waste to the landfill, storm water infiltration, precast concrete, roundabouts, and low-maintenance landscaping. Just because these factors are not immediately part of the road bride itself, they require a review on durability since they will be impacted by the route in which the road bridge will be constructed. Hence, the design life of the bridge and the surrounding community need to coincide with each other’s performance. If for example, since the presence of the bridge is to create alternate routes and reduce congestion at the roundabouts, and if the bridge sustains severe damage, this trigger immediate traffic problems for some time. Additionally, an alternate design shall be in place in the event if the bridge sustains damage to continue the traffic flow through the highway. The service life of both needs to be carefully studied and prepared by averting to a new method not practiced for the sake of sustainability.
5.0 Some Challenges
As integral solutions become part of the design realm, there also challenges that must be faced. One of these challenges is the financial aspect. Whenever a dollar needs to be saved, some projects are inclined to using recycled components. However, this is not always a viable option. Recycled has been deemed to have a shorter life span than new products. Concrete actually increases in strength over time, but if used concrete is present, it has the high potential of easily becoming brittle. On the other hand, the notion that recycled material has a short span is also preconceived idea. When the issue comes to taxes for lowest capital costs, lowest life cycle costs become trumped. Specifications books normally will not allow recycled material.
Another challenge is the durability of the products involved in the road bridge. Degenerative products shall be forecasted so as not to endanger the design life, and the environment. Only if elements are deemed necessary to be included within the project components, shall they be readily replaced, and monitored over time to observe the life of the components. The design life of components is basically measured by various service life aspects of the project. Three of the most common are technical service life, functional service life, and economic service life. Each of these life services is correlated during the design stage and carry forward into the project stage.
Although, initial planning for the project environment is a must, both the team leaders and field practitioners constantly face change. How the changes are faced and challenged determine the durability of the project environment also dictate the critical factors of sustainability. One good practice is looking for upcoming opportunities during work in progress instead of solely relying on the planning stage, although it serves as a guide to preserving the community environment and its natural resources. Having an alternate road route to reach the bridge shall be in place in case the initial design is not feasible.
Even before the bridge project begins, during the planning stage, the subject property and properties to be affected by change can be studied to extract and determine what material the environment currently provides (Ryan, 2006). The notion is to retain the natural resources already present rather than replacing them with incompatible and artificial products. An alternative, in case not enough resources can be yielded, is for environmental engineers to derive external products suitable for the project area to maintain the natural aesthetics, or material resources designed to return energy and water back to the ecosystem. As a community grows, the environmental concerns around the bridge will also grow. Transportation and rerouting roadwork would definitely bring a community up in arms if they are forced to evacuate their territory or dedicate parcels of land.
Surely, during the work in progress, many obstructions come to head in large developments. If excessive wastes are being forecasted, measures to transport them and properly dispose of them shall be minimized. Hence, the initial planning stage is in place to reduce these effects, but shall be conducted post-construction, as well as duration of the project. With products potentially turning into waste, a practice of reusing them in other stages and aspects of the projects, or preserve them for future projects elsewhere would benefit project investors and maintain healthy levels of environmental effects. This is why it is important for civil engineers to seriously consider the existing on-site materials to be reused on current projects if deemed usable. Naturally, not every piece of wood or every handful of soil cannot be usable on the subject property, but could be usable elsewhere.
Since most roadwork requires excavation and disturbance of soil, groundwater needs to be preserved and maintained to balance the layout of the road, otherwise the road connections with the bridge would either buckle or disconnect. Only if the project needs to truly interrupt the natural water flow, shall waterworks be included in the project design. Groundwater that is essential to marine wildlife and integral to the ecosystem cannot be diverted to a secondary path, as it may not allow the subsoil to be stable (Dooge, 2000). Measures into collecting filtered rainwater may be initially costly, but would reduce harmful residual effects to the environment and costs in the long term. Again by using the readily and naturally occurring resources offered by the ecosystem, the harmony between the road project and nature would prevail. The need of creating artificial products would be reduced and may also serve as learning and training grounds for the soon-to-be inhabitants of the new project to rely on the natural environment essentially becoming helpers to civil engineers and the community.
5.0 Conclusion
Over the years the roles of civil engineers have changed and the number of civil engineers involved in sustainable design has increased geometrically. Unfortunately, past practices, although durable and inventive, have overlooked the environmental and ecological impacts of their relative designs for bridgework. However, as progress usually travels, gladly the study beyond technology has evolved to gradually reduce environmental damage and restore the ecosystem with natural and compatible products and resources. Yet road concrete had proven to have minimal impacts on the environment. The only concerns are the durability when concrete ages. The terminology for sustainable design has also adapted into the term sustainable development and is somewhat deemed to be an engineering category on its own as it encompasses the economic, social and environmental aspects of engineering design. Because civil engineering umbrellas several other engineering practices, sustainable development has become an integral part to the civil engineering faculty in the UK.
As the university and trade programs are changing along with the practical aspects of sustainable design, this makes the engineering students well prepared and proficient when undertaking field projects. All it would take is for a small change in academics beginning a ripple effect toward the sustainable development approach in the field. Positive and impressive results never do occur overnight, and only a few minor improvements to constitute larger ones would see how improvements on a macroscopic scale would be illustrated.
Work Cited
Sherwin, C. (2012). Embedding Sustainability In All Design. The Guardian Sustainable Business.
Dooge, J.C. (2010). Concepts of the Hydrological Cycle Ancient and Modern. Irish Meteorology Society.
Ryan, C. (2006). Dematerializing Consumption through Service Substitution is a Design Challenge. Journal of Industrial Ecology.
Anastas, P.L. & Zimmerman, J.B. (2003). Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering. Environmental Science and Technology.
Bennett, J. & Crudgington, A. (2003). Sustainable Development: Recent Thinking and Practice In the UK. Engineering Sustainability 156 Issue ESI.
Schon, D. (2001). The Crisis of Professional Knowledge and the Pursuit of an Epistemology of Practice. Competence in the Learning Society.
Sustainable Buildings Task Group. (2004). Better Buildings – Better Lives. Sustainable Construction Report UK.
Townsend, T. (2005). Why Don’t We Build More Sustainable Housing? Urban Design.
Egan, J. (1998). Rethinking Construction. Department of Trade and Industry.
