Not a very intriguing post, but a funny one anyway. Projects across the US are stalled to finish because of a shortage in line-marking paint. That’s kind of funny, right? Link: Shortage of paint for highway stripes
I was browsing TED earlier today (Technology, Engineering, Design), and found a few things I wanted to share. The first being a completely new road sign concept and I find it fascinating! It’s called the “Take Turns” sign, and unfortunately, due to the semantics of the English language, it may confuse you at first.
It doesn’t want you to “turn”, but to alternate vehicles when needed. Envisioned by venture capitalist Gary Lauder, the concept is half stop sign, half yield sign. When there are no cars on an adjacent side street you can drive freely, but if there are vehicles on the side street, all vehicles must continue reading » »
This morning I attended a virtual workshop seminar hosted by the ITE entitled “Traffic Demand Forecasting”. Focused on local modeling and surveys taken by transportation engineers, the workshop was very informative on what models and tools are currently being used and their effectiveness.
One piece of information that I thought was especially useful continue reading » »
If you’re a member of the ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers), you should be pretty hyped about the upcoming Technical Conference and Exhibit in Savannah, GA that starts on March 14th. Because I can’t make it, I was very excited to find out that two of the seminars will be broadcast live over the web.
One seminar focuses on labor laws impacting consultants and the other explores local travel demand modeling and sustainability. If you’re a member, click here to register for one or both of the seminars.
Oh the joys of Gantt Charts. I’ve done them by hand. A lot of them. And then I used Excel for a while, which was tolerable. I even learned how to schedule in Primavera and Microsoft Project, both of which worked very well. But when I was in school, the most practical and friendly method I found for use on a team project was continue reading » »
What does it mean when the economy discourages investing, designing, and building? A general lack of development interest, which is exactly what we’re seeing here in the U.S. It shouldn’t be a surprise. If you see a lack of employment in the engineering and design sector, it usually means the pipes are sealed on new projects and the lights are off on new construction.
Well, in terms of supply and demand, this means that demand for construction materials is at a large low at the moment, and with an increased supply, it seems prices have dropped significantly continue reading » »
I do my best to search job postings at least once a day, either at listing websites (Monster and the like), individual firms, and State DOT offices. Want to know what they all have in common? None of them are listing entry-level positions.
I recently visited the NC State Engineering Career Fair and I was able to communicate with many firms, all of whom seemed nice and eager to be there. But upon discussing job opportunities, almost every firm replied that they were not hiring entry-level positions. Excuse me sir, but can you tell me who you expected to find at a college career fair?
It seems as though this is a Professional Engineers market at the moment, if you could continue reading » »
It should be of no surprise to anyone in the transportation industry to see state transportation departments short on cash at the moment. To make matters worse, previous legislation (pre-recession) was planning on cutting back funding, ultimately nullifying some attempted cash influx that was expected to come from stimulus.
The unemployment rate in this sector is still waiting to see the light at the end of this tunnel because of a lack continue reading » »
Did you know that some Departments of Transportation are installing automated tweeting scripts to their traffic reports for use on Twitter.com? If you live in North Carolina, check out @NCDOT, and if you’re in the Raleigh area, get your traffic reports from @NCDOT_Triangle and some from @NCDOT_I40.
One of the great things continue reading » »
With the technology we’ve had up to today, it’s been very difficult to account for the weathering of our bridges, buildings, and other structures. State Departments of Transportation spend millions of dollars every year in testing, but current methods include many assumptions and are not always accurate. Thus accidents happen like the collapse of the Minneapolis I-35 Bridge that crosses the Mississippi. continue reading » »