I am currently working on a road building program in Afghanistan. Needless to say that contractors and suppliers are not as easy to find and work with as in the developed world.
I’m looking for an air entraining agent for concrete that we could import and supply to the local contractors as...
A friend who works for a large consulting firm recently had an employee pass out in the office. This employee was a landed immigrant whose wife did not speak very good English.
The information in the employee’s file was out of date since he had moved after starting the job. In order to contact...
How did these illiterates ever get out of high school?
Presumably some of them are graduating with engineering degrees.
It doesn’t say much for the future of a knowledge based society does it?
Anyone want to explain a complex technical idea to a group made up of these people?
Rick Kitson...
I am reviewing a report that has some average daily traffic volumes.
I am interested in an estimation on peak hourly volumes.
Can anyone provide a rule of thumb that give the ratio or range in ratios between these two traffic counts. The road will be in a third world country and be a toll road...
I am currently negotiating my rate for inclusion in a design build proposal for some work in Kabul.
I would appreciate if anyone with experience in the area could advise me of the going rate or multiplier for domestic rate for work in that area.
Position Construction Site manager with profit...
I was recently reviewing my insurance coverage and noticed that there was an exclusion for pollution caused by nuclear material.
Like a lot of other civil firms I own a nuclear soil density gauge. It contains a small amount of nuclear material.
I now know that I would not be covered for this...
For some insight into the relative costs of doing business see
http://www.competitivealternatives.com./
This is a comprehensive study done by KPMG on the relative costs of doing business in several countries.
Canada was lowest cost closely followed by Australia. The US was seventh out of 11...
I’ve been having some discussions with my MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly equal to a US State Senator) regarding approaching the government and the administration regarding a small business preference in government purchasing.
Governments have to wear two hats in making their business...
I’m working on some fire protection measures for a candle factory.
The main combustible product stored in the factory is beeswax.
Under the Canadian Building Code a factory can have either an F2 or F3 classification. F2 is medium hazard and F3 is low hazard.
The division between the two is...
I have a scanner (Logitech Pagescan Colour) that is only supported under Win95.
I like this scanner because it allows you to place the scanner head on a large drawing and it will scan a portion of this drawing. Its not something that I have to do often but it is handy to do when I need to do...
There is a real problem out there with spam.
I usually get twice as many spam messages as legitimate emails.
You can try to unsubscribe from these lists but this usually does not work. (Sometimes it flags your address as a live address.)
There are a lot of spam filters around but the...
I am designing a municipal sub division. In this design I have to calculate road grades, individual lot grades, top of manhole elevations etc. All these elevations are dependent on the centerline profile chosen.
While it is a simple calculation to calculate the lot grades from the road grades...
I’m looking for an easy to use economical COGO program.
I am doing a little municipal sub division work and want to be able to calculate point coords for layout and design.
I would like to be able to input road centerline elevation and have the program use this to calculate all other...
I’m thinking about buying a basic COGO package to use with a HP calculator.
I see that there are a lot on the Internet for the HP 48G series. However this calculator is discontinued and the HP 49’s are out. I don't have a HP48.
Will a GOGO program written for a HP48 work in a HP49? Will I need...
I recently bought a couple of RV furnaces for my construction site trailer. While installing them I thought that they would also be handy for cold weather concreting.
They are available in various sizes from 12,000 to 40,000 BTUH. Run on 12v and propane and weigh less than 25 lbs. I am running...
CSA S406 is the design standard for PWF foundation in Canada
Clause 7.2.3 states “ Perimeter drainage tile or pipe shall not be used with preserved wood foundations.”
The standard does call for a perimeter French drain and that it shall extend under the footing and be drained to a sump or...
Here is a question that follows from Flbob’s question regarding shop-drawing approvals.
Why do we really have shop drawings submitted in the first place?
This is not a naive question. I have been in the construction field for 26 years. I know that shop drawings are required for the fabrication...
I don’t want to get flamed by those who are qualified, competent engineers just not PE’s and who work in an industry exempt area but I cannot help but to ask this question:
How many people are there out there are in industrial exempt area because they are not qualified to write or capable of...
Here is an interesting article that should provoke some discussion
http://www.esmagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2503,69535,00.html
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com
I use AutoCAD 2002 LT. I am basically a novice AutoCAD user. (I started out only doing some basic modifications to drawings and now because I have found it easier than hiring drafting services have expanded my usage of it.)
I want to make some custom title blocks to use for various paper sizes...
