Doing the dishes. Something you may not expect to do in an engineering internship, but something I did in just my first week at Olsson! (Disclosure: it was my own choosing, so if previous life skills haven’t prepared you for a moment like that, don’t panic.) Dishwashing aside, there has been a huge amount of variety in the work I’ve done so far, even in the short duration I’ve been here. Some tasks include things you may actually expect, such as printing plan sets and delivering them to the city, making use of or better learning CAD skills by helping out with redlines, or taking a trip to check out a site under construction. Other jobs I’ve done include putting my survey skills from class to use, learning and participating in the excitement of utility marking, and helping out with new development research.
Having only been at Olsson a month, when first thinking of what to write about I was kind of stumped, even with all I’ve done. But, as well as I can recall, some jobs include:
· SWPPP inspections and reporting
· One-Call utility markings
· Measuring & surveying dimensions of small sites
· Redlines for a baseball field in Hastings
· Setting up retaining wall plans
· Calling gas company representatives from Oklahoma to Texas
· Printing from every printer you can imagine
· Traffic counting!
Being in the Land Development Department has given me a great opportunity to learn a ton about such a broad range of services. A few that have stuck out, for different reasons, are SWPPP inspections, setting up retaining wall plans, and a small survey job I did.
· SWPPP, or Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan, in a nutshell ensures, like the name implies, that sediment does not get carried away from the job site, or into surrounding sewers. This is managed with BMPs, or Best Management Practices which are simply structures to hold back sediment on the site. As an intern, I do inspections making sure these structures do what they are meant to. It may get tedious, but it’s pretty cool to see the construction and progress of the site, as well as leaving the office for a bit!
· Setting up retaining wall plans was nice because it really threw me into CAD. I had a little knowledge, but after this experience I felt I learned so much more.
· For the Landscape Architecture guys, I took a trip out to Millard North Middle School with a fellow intern to get elevations and dimensions around a small patio. It was a little random, but a nice change of pace, and allowed me to actually use my surveying knowledge, something I didn’t know if I would really ever do.
To keep from dragging on, this has been my experience so far. All in all, it’s been a very enjoyable month, and I look forward to seeing what interesting activities I’ll be asked to do throughout summer!
