Coastal Transportation Engineer

By train, plane, or car, Transportation Engineers see that travelers reach their destinations safely and quickly, and Coastal Transportation Engineers cover the car part of the equation. Coastal Transportation Engineers construct the roadways that run along coastlines, where the climate and soil conditions prove tricky to deal with. Working as a Coastal Transportation Engineer requires both planning skills for drafting blueprints and problem-solving abilities for working around tricky spots of land.

The unique environmental challenges you’ll encounter include waves that can wash away chunks of road and soft soil that can crumble away, to name a few. Your first order of business is evaluating the construction site and drawing up blueprints that meet all the road’s needs. You consider the volume of traffic, the weather patterns, and the quality of the land itself before you start building.

Once the roadwork is underway, you supervise the Construction Workers, answer questions, and check that all work meets safety regulations. When a car is sliding off the road, it’s not the best time for a guardrail to fail.

Projects can take months or even years to complete, depending on how far your roadways stretch. You consider other roads that join yours and plan ahead for increased traffic as the population grows. Most importantly, you continue visiting the site even after construction is over. Roads need proper maintenance and alterations to keep the asphalt fresh and the crisp white lines looking white.

When it comes to preventing driving accidents, it all starts with a Transportation Engineer.