Changing Role of the Civil Engineer in Society

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realized. It would be a high privilege indeed if engineers could

Robert A. RubinPartner, Postner & Rubin, New York, NY 10004.

Bettina QuintasDeputy General Counsel, New York City Transit Authority, New YorNY.

Deborah RothAssociate, Postner & Rubin, New York, NY 10004.

The engineer in America, the legitimate child of the ep-ochal wedding of science to the useful arts, was the humanmedium through which it would work its profound socialtransformation. He was, as engineers themselves tirelesslboasted, a new breed of man, the link between ‘the monastery of science and the secular world of business,’ whosecalling, engineering, bridged ‘the gulf between the imper-sonal exact sciences and the more human and personal afairs of economics and sociology.’1

Each morning Americans rush about their business, thinkmuch about the ticking clock and perhaps very little aboutbridges they cross, the roads they travel, the height and girththe towers that house their offices. Infrastructure and morncoffee are assumed rather than cherished. One does not pauponder structural theories or the technology of reinforced ccrete. Rather, we fret and complain that traffic is too heavy, thare too few lanes, or the long ascent to the 60th floor will shacritical minutes off an important meeting. Even in structural traedy, our first reaction may be sympathy or criticism for the arctect rather than for the engineer behind the structure. As ntechnologies have emerged, the civil engineer has becotransparent—his or her work acknowledged only by a smplaque or the occasional documentary.

The rise of the United States, however, is inextricably linkto the aspirations and successes of the civil engineer, and attime the engineer was heralded as both hero and civilizer of lastretching as far as the Pacific. Traditionally male, he becamenew romantic adventurer, both a revolutionary and ethical figua welcome alternative to the prototypical industrialist or financiHe was a symbol of optimism in the late 19th and early 20centuries, devising bigger, taller, and more expansive structuthan ever dreamed possible. He was at once scientist, artist,soldier of an untamed land.

In the mid-19th century, territorial growth and Manifest Detiny ushered in the golden age of technology and its ‘‘lusty isswas engineering.’’2 The first surge occurred when Congress athorized western expansion through the construction of the tracontinental railroad in 1866. Several decades later, U.S. invoment in the construction of the Panama Canal allowed Ameriengineers to participate in perhaps one of the greatest featengineering in modern times. Science truly merged with art, hoever, when John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge was completed1883. A quintessential American immigrant, Roebling’s dreamstructural strength and elegance was realized in a bridge thahis own words ‘‘...will be ranked as national monuments,’’ an

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‘‘...will forever testify to the energy, enterprise, and wealth of thatcommunity which shall secure its erection.’’3

In the cities, towers and bridges soared to new heights with theadvent of cheap, readily available steel and reinforced concreteIn the spirit of the French architectural theorist, Viollet-le-Duc,engineers like Louis Sullivan4 experimented with ideas of struc-tural form, where both technology and structural art played a dualrole in the appearance of buildings. How a building was struc-tured, rather than how it was decorated, became the central desigelement that both Sullivan and later engineers employed in creat-ing visually appealing works.

From a sociological standpoint, these structural forms best rep-resented the society that created them: in an age of increasingefficiency and optimism they became technological monuments.Even as early as the 1880s, critics recognized the importance ostructural art and its role as visual reference to progress and in-dustrialization. One leading architectural critic stated that ‘‘It sohappens that the work which is likely to be our most durablemonument, and to convey some knowledge of us to the mostremote posterity, is a work of bare utility; not a shrine, not afortress, not a palace but a bridge. This is in itself characteristic ofour time.’’5

The engineer’s success, although mirrored in great three-dimensional works, was reflected in literature and popular cultureas well. Between 1890 and 1920, scores of silent films were pro-duced and millions of books were sold—all depicting the civilengineer as the new American hero. The civil engineer foundhimself the central character in tales likeSoldiers of Fortune, TheWinning of Barbara Worth, andThe Iron Trail: An Alaskan Ro-mance.6 These engineers were depicted as fearless gentlemen positioning themselves in an often harsh and barbarous landscapeUncorrupted and courageous, their adventures became the stuff ochildren’s literature as they crossed deserts and mountains in theYoung Engineersseries, theTom Swiftseries and theBrightonBoys with the Engineers at Castigny. In addition, building setslike Erector, The Constructioneer, and Jr. Engineerflooded themarket and prepared youngsters for what was becoming the fastest growing profession in modern times.7

It was an age when a child could aspire to be both an engineerand President of the United States. No one embodied this duaconcept more than Herbert Hoover, whose genius diverted theColorado River and provided both irrigation and electricity tomillions of westerners via the Hoover Dam. His unfortunatepresidency during the Great Depression failed to undermine hispassion and status as an internationally recognized engineer, andin his memoirs, he solidified his love for the profession when hewrote: ‘‘It is a great profession. There is a fascination of watchinga figment of imagination emerge through the aid of science to aplan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal orenergy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates thestandards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is theengineer’s high privilege.’’8 As President, Hoover could conjureup that ‘‘figment of imagination.’’ As an engineer, he could see it

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both conceive of and implement their own altruistic agendas. Ufortunately, most are limited to implementing the visions of others. A civil engineer may design a dam, but he is rarely the owho decides that the flow of water needs to be stopped or rerected.

If civilization was moving forward in the early part of the 20thcentury, it shifted into high gear at the close of World War II. Thface of the civil engineer began to pale into the frenzy of militaexpenditures during the Cold War and the advent of new tenologies in the late 1950s. The slide rule disappeared undershadow of an ominous new presence: the computer. Engineeschools shifted their focus from the professional art of engineing to the almost exclusive format of applied science and maematics. Humanity diverted its attention from the wonders of steand concrete to the first small steps on the moon, while nuclenergy and space exploration became the red-hot noble scien

Dark clouds were forming on other fronts as well. Societchanges were reflected in changes in the law. The emergencconsumerism held business and professionals increasinglysponsible for individual harm. The attitude that death and psonal injury, albeit regrettable, was an inevitable product of greprogress, gave way to the attitude that progress must be tempby respect and concern for these issues.

Although Judge Cardozo dealt a blow to privity in the 191products liability caseMacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., the priv-ity barriers that once shielded architects and engineers fromability were shattered in the 1957Inman v. Binghampton HousingAuthoritycase. In reaction to this, statutes of repose, which woulimit liability from the date of substantially completed construction, were modeled and proposed by the National Society of Pfessional Engineers, the Associated General ContractorsAmerica, and the American Institute of Architects. As opposedtraditional statutes of limitation, these statutes of repose coexpire before the date of injury, thus limiting liability that mighoccur decades after construction was completed. Although mstates adopted some form of the statutes, many were revisedlowing due process and equal protection constitutional chlenges.

Likewise, there has been a gradual erosion of the economloss rule. The economic loss rule shields designers from liabilto third parties for damage that is purely economic in nature,opposed to personal injury or property damage. An exampleeconomic loss would be delay damages suffered by a contraas a result of defects in an engineer’s design. In recent yemany states have eroded or even abandoned the economicrule. This trend continues.

The effect of these legal changes expanding the engineliability has been to create a chilling atmosphere in which tcivil engineer has become increasingly risk adverse and defsive, at the expense of innovation in design and construction.

Post-war attitudes and the flight from cities inevitably placedtoll on the engineer’s image as well. As architects assumedlofty position of building design, civil engineers were handed thlucrative yet unpopular job of connecting suburbs to the cities va vast network of highways. Lewis Mumford denounced the higway bill of 1957 and depicted the engineer as a villain who lawaste to ‘‘streams, parks and human neighborhoods in ordecarry his roads to their supposed destination.’’9

Running parallel with this unhappy image was a growing ditrust for technology in general. Not only was a once-hailed infrstructure deteriorating at an alarming rate, but a number of blobuster disasters sent shockwaves through the American psychwell. Premiering this list was the dramatic 1940 collapse of t

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Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Subsequent disasters compounded dillusionment with the Teton Dam failure in 1976, the Three MileIsland disaster in 1979, and the tragic Kansas City Hyatt Regencwalkway collapse in 1981. Forgotten were the days of adventurand innovation. Safety of both workers and citizens was pushed tthe forefront, and federal agencies became increasingly involvein the review and evaluation of civil works.

As ecoactivists marched boldly into the 1960s and 1970s, thcivil engineer was inadvertently transforming into a political pa-riah. TheEndangered Species Actof 1973 introduced an entirelynew era of plaintiffs and resulted in litigation such as the classicenvironmental caseTennessee Valley Authority v. Hill~TellicoDam!.10 The nearly completed construction of the little dam thatcouldn’t—the Tellico Dam—was halted when the Supreme Cournarrowly construed the act to favor the endangered snail darteThe ‘‘incalculable’’ risks surrounding the Tellico Dam projectstand in sharp contrast to Hoover Dam, where the discord focuseprimarily on whether to name the dam Hoover or Boulder.

The offspring of children who had readThe Young Engineerseries were reading a different kind of literature. Rachel Carson’Silent Springand Edward Abbey’sMonkey Wrench Gangher-alded the necessity for environmental law and ecoterrorism, respectively. Once the symbol of growth and optimism, steel andconcrete were becoming increasingly synonymous with vampiricindustrialism and greed. The civil engineer thus became the unfortunate straw man under which militant conservationists couldchant: ‘‘Concrete is heavy; iron is hard—but the grass will pre-vail.’’ 11

Whether a civil engineer is a hero or a villain, a movie star oran ‘‘extra,’’ depends not so much on the nature of the professionas on how society values the structures that he or she builds. Thprofession ultimately stands or falls in relation to policy choicesmade by others. Blaming civil engineers for what they create ismisguided. It assumes that they can set social or political agendagoals, and standards. It credits them with a greater degree oinfluence than they actually have. Civil engineers may find themeans to implement agendas set by others, but they don’t dictathe direction growth or development takes. To the extent that themake possible the realization of goals that later prove to be shorsighted, they may enable poor choices, but they can’t be faultefor choosing them. If we make civil engineers responsible for thecharacter and quality of social agendas they don’t control, we runthe risk of distracting attention from the true decision makers andlose the opportunity to more carefully scrutinize the actions ofthose who actually do influence the choices made.

Time, however, is arguably layered rather than linear, and perhaps the American civil engineer has successfully laid a foundation by which the country and its ever-changing culture can moveforward, albeit within parameters set by others. He or she, thougno longer reflected in the mass entertainment of our time, is nonetheless visible in our psychic landscape. On September 11, 200one could stand on the Brooklyn shore and view through the verarches of a great bridge built over a century ago the tragic destruction of a more modern symbol of steel and concrete. In theaftermath of the World Trade Center collapse, leading civil engi-neers have been asked to perform an autopsy on the remainsthe buildings by studying the original drawings and performingonsite investigations.12

Additionally, in an industry where the public perceives civilworks as low tech, civil engineers assume new responsibilitiethat will safeguard citizens from both forces of nature and theviolent acts of men. However, one does not call on the doctoonly when sick, and civil engineers are faced with the dual task o

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maintaining an existing infrastructure while devising new wayshouse an increasingly faster paced and demanding society. Temergence of new technologies and engineering innovations wno doubt make possible the seemingly impossible. Already, theis a flurry of debate over the proposed Millennium Tower in HonKong and the Gilbratar Bridge that is proposed to connect Spaand Africa. Projects of this scale are currently uncharted territofor engineers, and there will be little margin for error if it isdecided that they should be built. Civil engineers, howeveshouldn’t just be called upon to implement these concepts. Thshould be included in deciding whether, all things considereincluding the state of existing technology, they should be builtall.

Before civil engineers can be praised or blamed they mustgiven the opportunity to join the ranks of the decision makers.civil engineering is ever to bridge ‘‘the gulf between the impersonal exact sciences and the more human and personal affaireconomics and sociology,’’ as David Noble predicted, steps wneed to be taken to liberalize the civil engineering educatioRequire that civil engineers pursue a liberal education, assimilathem into the social, corporate, governmental, and academicstitutions that actually set policy, andthen judge their perfor-mance critically. The future of the civil engineering professiolies in integrating civil engineers into the existing power structure. The challenge ahead is ultimately more of a political ansocial one than a technical one. To wield more power, civil engneers must lose their innocence and increase their sophisticatA start would be to create a more well-rounded educational prgram that focuses on both oral and written communications, thwill foster critical thinking and analysis, that will let civil engi-neers speak the language of politicians, lawyers, and businemen. Then, civil engineers will have a better chance at influencichoices that affect our physical environment. Toward that enmaking a master’s degree the first professional degree for ciengineers would be a significant step forward.

Yesterday, the task of the engineer was to implement policithat bridled nature and connected us to the vast unknown. Todand tomorrow, the engineer will perhaps play his or her owpivotal role in economizing our built environment and socia

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space. This will require a unique vision—one that both stretchethe imagination and takes into account the complexities of modern civil life. But is this not the high calling of the civil engineer?

Endnotes

1David F. Noble,America by design: Science, technology, and therise of corporate capitalism, 33 ~1977!. This paper is based upona panel discussion held at the 2002 Construction Contracts YearReview Conference. It is reproduced with permission from theeditor of the ‘‘The Construction Contracts Law Report’’ where itwas originally published.2Id. ~quoting Ralph E. Flanders, ‘‘The new age and the newman,’’ in Charles A. Beard, ed.,Toward civilization, 22 ~1930!.3David P. Billington,The tower and the bridge: The new art ofstructural engineering, 75 ~1985! ~quoting from Alan Trachten-berg,Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and symbol~1965!.4Id. at 108~stating that Louis Sullivan was largely educated onhis own in respect to architecture and engineering, and joined thfirm of Dankmar Adler, who was also a self-educated engineer, i1879. In 1881 they formed the firm of Adler and Sullivan!.5Billington, supra note 3~quoting Montgomery Schuyler, ‘‘TheBridge as monument,’’Harper’s Weekly27, May 1883, reprintedin American architecture and other writings164 ~William H.Jordy and Ralph Coe, eds., 1964!.6Cecelia Tichi,Shifting gears: Technology, literature, culture inmodern America, 118 ~1987!.7Id. ~stating that ‘‘@b#y 1900 there were approximately 45,000engineers, by 1930, 230,000, a fivefold increase!.8Herbert Hoover,Memoirs~1951!.9Get cite.10Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hiram Hill, et al., 437 U.S. 153~1978!.11Edward Abbey,The monkey wrench gang~1975!.12See, 21st ‘‘Century Skyscrapers: Engineers say materials exto build high rises resistant to assault.’’San Francisco Chronicle,Oct. 1, 2001.

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