The Oil Boom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Throughout the last few years there has been an increase in the amount of work in western North Dakota and Montana.  A large portion of this work is directly related to the oil boom.  This provides jobs and work for all sorts of people including civil engineers.  Due the fact that the roads will be more frequently used the roads will need to be maintained, replaced, and built.  The oil boom is still going strong and the work is just beginning. 

The roads in western North Dakota and Montana were not designed for the large quantity of heavy traffic that is now using them.  With the heavy amount of traffic that is using the roads of western North Dakota and Montana the roads will need to be maintained frequently.  A good portion of the vehicles that are traveling these roads are large tankers that weigh significantly more than the average vehicle.  These heavy trucks do significantly more damage to the road.  For example, a single truck that weighs 80,000lbs causes more damage than 5,000-10,000 cars.  If the trucks were overloaded past 80,000lbs then the damage becomes exponentially worse causing an increase in damage to the road.  This could significantly shorten the life of a road that was designed for multiple years.

http://www.ihopnetwork.com

With all the new building and jobsites that are developing, there needs to be more roads and better intersections.  This would help everyone get to and from work faster.  It will also help take off some of the strain that would be on the original road.  On highway 22, the Department of Transportation changed the road from two lanes to four lanes to meet the demands of the increased traffic flow.  What was once a four way stop can no longer meet the demands of the traffic and needed to be converted to a roundabout.  The purpose of the roundabout was to provide an efficient way of travel by keeping the traffic moving while eliminating a high speed collision that could be the result of a four way stop.

As a civil engineering intern, I was able to work on highway 22 in Dickinson.  I sampled the soil and asphalt and returned it to the lab so we could test it and see how the road was holding up.  Later in the summer, when the road was repaved with asphalt, we had to take some tests of the new asphalt to ensure that it was meeting the proper specifications.  We also worked on the Killdeer roundabout.  This roundabout gave us plenty of work, such as testing the concrete as well as the compaction level of the soil.

With all the demands of the oil boom there will be plenty of work for the Department of Transportation. Since civil engineers work directly with the Department of Transportation, there will be plenty of work for years to come.  However, roads are not the only thing that civil engineers work on out in the oil fields.  They also work on buildings and the foundations of the buildings.  As long as there is oil in the towns, they will continue to grow and as long as the towns grow there will be work for civil engineers.  So, as you can see, there will be work for civil engineers as long as this oil boom is still going strong.

If you would like to see some more pictures please see the following link.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/north-dakotas-oil-boom/100473/