First "Solo" Project
My first job out of school was for a 3-person site engineering company, Dieter Engineering Services. My first day on the job I asked Barry, "who does our Surveying?" "We do."
Broad responsibility, long hours, good equipment and software (386s, SVGA monitors, AutoCAD and DCA Software), the smell of ammonia wafting from the blueprint room. Ink pens drying out on halfway through an overnight plot. Fedex Tubes driven to the airport a couple of times a week.
My first big job, 30 acres, 1 designer (me). full site plans, grading & drainage. dozens of store footprint changes. all the changes and their ripples were performed manually, all the way through.
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How fast could I do it today with new software?
Big Project Collaboration
In a small, tight group, you didn't lose a lot of productivity with handoffs or poor communications.
It wasn't until working within design teams in a multi-disciplined organization on big integrated projects that it became obvious that fast-typing was not only NOT a reliable way to increase productivity. Hurrying was, in fact, a reliable way to reduce quality. Improving the system speed saved a lot more time than clicking faster. Better tools, better handoffs: better systems.
First Civil XLr8 Training Contract (2000): SNC-Lavelin in Valera, Venezuela
This was an unforgettable class. When I got in to Valera, they were really glad to see me. Unusually glad.
"We heard that you were kidnapped at the Caracas airport!"
I thought my Spanish was passable; I can get around, but not enough to teach. To this day, I am still grateful to Scott McNicoll for his in-class translation services. And extra thanks to Armando Garcia (seated at the right) for showing me around the beautiful countryside.
SNC - Lavelin - Valera Venezuela - 2000
Favorite Highway Job
Foothill Transportation Corridor South - Orange County, CA (map)
This one was a blast: 18 miles of essentially virgin highway along steep foothills.
The existing terrain was close to or exceeding the maximum cut and fill slope in large stretches. This made for some VERY interesting side slope solutions. In their original limits of construction studies, they simply offset the daylight line by 18 meters (yes, metric!) for the brow ditch. Turns out, that assumption was incorrect by as 30 meters too wide to 100 meters (!) too narrow.
I was later able to incorporate the correct way to design the sideslopes into some Bentley deliverables and training (see: "Perfect" Brow Ditch on the Bentley Road Communities)
Note: in 2001, the image was the upper limit of the visualization you could do without spending a LOT of time (a simple recoloring of triangles). Nowadays, OpenRoads provides a photorealistic model - out of the box! With ConceptStation and LumenRT you could have moving traffic and palm trees with waving fronds in no time at all.
CalTrans Staff Augmentation
I spent a year in a CalTrans construction trailer working on I-15 HOV Lanes expansion in their equivalent of a Design Build "fast track" project. Direct Access Ramps and Drainage was my role.
While I felt the software was a cruel joke (CAiCE), I really enjoyed the people I worked with at the trailer and at my later 6-month stint doing Interchange Drainage Design Studies for the massive I-5 Corridor Widening project.
After our team won the 2006 CalTrans District 11 Volleyball Challenge, there were charges of "Hey, no fair! You guys had a ringer!" Our team's response: "I guarantee that, over the past year, Jeff has had more time in Caltrans offices than you."
