Mohamed Hegab,PhD,PE,PMP,CCM

Test your knowledge of engineering ethics.

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Attention High-Speed Rail Stakeholders: Today, the CEO Selection Committee of the California High-Speed Rail Authority met to deliberate over CEO Candidates. I was the only one who participated in public comment. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The good thing would be if I was the only applicant. The bad thing would be if I needed to go through a staffing agency to be considered. I gave the Authority HR department my $50 submittal package. In a nutshell I summarized the testimonies from the April 2012 Board Meeting in San Francisco. 2012 was a tough year for many of us. I only made $3,000.00 that year where many of my colleagues made 100 times that, and knew nothing about the project whatsoever. I was debating, were all of these trips to San Francisco worth it? Then I heard, "This is our turn. This is our System. Previous generations gave you the transportation systems that you enjoyed. It's your turn to give to our generation. We'll pay for it. Just get it up and running. This defines how we will access our employment and vacation destinations." To answer my question, Absolutely! These are Millennials. I'm a Gen X'er. I felt the previous generation the "Me" generation simply "kicked the can down the road", and failed to deal with the realities of our crumbling infrastructure. I also underscored the importance of getting Merced to Bakersfield up and running by the 2028 Summer Olympics and having the basketball venue at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The current plan is to have Merced to Bakersfield up and running by 2023. #highspeedrail

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Are you aware of the challenges that come with the Professional Engineering Civil Engineering Transportation Exam? One such challenge is that the exam is being dominated by qualitative questions. These questions may seem simple at first glance, but they require a thorough understanding of the manuals listed by NCEES as design standards. https://lnkd.in/gGyVAr66 Knowing your manuals is the key to success, as time management is the #1 reason people fail the PE exam. It is crucial to be able to find information in the manuals quickly and efficiently. To help you with this part of your exam preparation, I will be posting various qualitative questions on a regular basis to help you gauge how well you know your reference manuals. If you are not familiar with the manuals listed by NCEES, it's important to start studying them now. On exam day, you will have access to each of the manuals, but if you wait until then to open them (in electronic format), you are likely in for a long and disappointing day. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts, where I will be sharing example qualitative questions and their solutions to help you prepare for the PE exam. Remember, knowing your manuals and managing your time effectively is the key to success. #PEExamPrep #CivilEngineering #TransportationEngineering #NCEES #EngineeringSuccess #TimeManagement #ProfessionalEngineer

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What are some of the barriers to the adoption of proof load testing of concrete bridges as an assessment method? I have explored this question (and potential solutions) in this paper: https://lnkd.in/e6ffyhQH

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Filing a Complaint against an Engineer. The California has the authority to investigate complaints of violations of the Professional Engineers Act, such as fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, negligence, incompetence, breach of contract royalties, and kickback fees failure to use a written contract, failure to record abetting, violating the Codes of Professional Conduct, and practicing without a license. Enforcement actions include, but are not limited to, suspending licenses, revoking licenses, placing licensees on probation, issuing administrative citations, and referring the matter to the Anyone practicing in the following professions must be licensed by the Board: The Board also regulates the use of Licensed Engineer, Professional Engineer, Structural Engineer, any combination or abbreviation of those words and titles. HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT In order for the Board to investigate your complaint, you need to provide the Board with all of the information you have about the problem. We need you to provide a complete chronological description, including dates, of the situation. You also need to provide the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of other persons who know about the situation, including the names of any city and/or county staff if you have had contact with them about your problem. The Board needs all the facts you can provide in order to process your complaint. The Board does not have the staff to investigate inquiries based only upon suspicion or speculation. Act before filing your complaint, please contact the Board's Enforcement Unit by e-mail at BPELSG.Enforcement.Information@dca.ca.gov or by telephone at 1-866-780-5370 [toll free].

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https://lnkd.in/gJkpmKg7 The Parties vs The People is one reason we don't have High-Speed Rail in the US. Another is misplaced spending priorities. A final is the Koch Brothers exposed. Let's take the first one. The Political Parties are more interested in "playing King of the Mountain" than doing what their constituents want. That would explain the single digit approval ratings. The Democrats have championed the framework of High-Speed Rail projects under the Obama Administration. This became the number one target of the Republicans as it was deemed the ultimate example of government waste. #highspeedrail #civilengineering #transportationplanning #trafficengineering

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Part 1: How will Civil Engineering adapt to the challenges of tomorrow? ASCE San Diego board director Isaac Kontorovsky, P.E., recently explored emerging technologies and the profession’s future with the official nominees for ASCE’s 2025 President-Elect and 2026 President. Exciting changes are on the horizon! Here is the link to Part 2: https://lnkd.in/g2fvcEVP Part 3 will also be released this week. The official Nominees for President-elect on this year’s ballot are: ✅ Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, H.ITE ✅ Kenneth Rosenfield, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE Did you know that the 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers Leadership Election is still open? Voting is easy; just use your ASCE Username and Password to login and fill out your ballot. Follow this link to cast your ballot today: www.asce.org/VoteNow One important benefit of ASCE membership is the right to select the leaders who will guide our organization into the future – make sure your voice is heard! The election is open through June 1, 2024, 5:01 PM PT. Topics discussed in the series: Emerging technologies in civil engineering and the #AEC Industry, anticipated impacts from the use of #Artificial #Intelligence #Al, #legislation, career advice, and many others. Stay tuned for more!

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One of the biggest benefits of construction manager/general contractor (CMGC) delivery is the collaborative nature of making engineering-based decisions while evaluating process and reducing risk. For example, on the Yankee Jims Bridge Replacement Project working with Placer County (owner), HDR (geotech), CONSOR Engineers (design) and Flatiron Construction (CMGC), our team completed numerous analysis/evaluations, had many meetings and countless discussions about the difficult rock removal at this challenging project site. The logistics of removing the rock material on this large project would significantly impact the project costs and overall schedule. The magnitude of this risk could have represented a major amount of the overall project cost. A CMGC delivery process allowed us to roll out anticipated equipment, assemble the various project team members and experts, and put on a live demonstration, which provided the hard data needed to make critical decisions. The result of this demonstration was a reduction in the overall project timeline by months, as well as substantial risk and cost minimization. #Consorprojects #CMGC #bridgeengineering #iworkforconsor

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Part 2: Will Artificial Intelligence replace Civil Engineering jobs? Will legislation help with job preservation against AI? Marsha and Kenneth share their perspectives here. If you missed Part 1, here is the link: https://lnkd.in/g-AmKdQr ASCE San Diego board director Isaac Kontorovsky, P.E., recently explored emerging technologies and the profession’s future with the official nominees for ASCE’s 2025 President-Elect and 2026 President. Exciting changes are on the horizon! The official Nominees for President-elect on this year’s ballot are: ✅ Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, H.ITE ✅ Kenneth Rosenfield, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE Did you know that the 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers Leadership Election is still open? Voting is easy; just use your #ASCE Username and Password to login and fill out your ballot. Follow this link to cast your ballot today: www.asce.org/VoteNow One important benefit of ASCE membership is the right to select the leaders who will guide our organization into the future – make sure your voice is heard! The election is open through June 1, 2024, 5:01 PM PT. Topics discussed in the series: Emerging technologies in civil engineering and the #AEC Industry, anticipated impacts from the use of #Artificial #Intelligence #Al, #legislation, career advice, and many others. Stay tuned for more!

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Just finished the learning path “Procore Construction Management Professional Certificate”!

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Comprehensive detailed design and documentation software for civil infrastructure Deliver design and construction documentation for road and highway, site design, rail, and bridge projects. Reduce overall design time with faster modeling for surfaces, corridors, terrain, and more. #civil3d #ınfrastructure

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12 May is a very important day for me. It marks the anniversary of "Why" I became a civil engineer. Back in 2008, my final year of high school, an earthquake (measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale) struck the Wenchuan (汶川) county in Sichuan (四川）Province in China. The fatalities and destruction were immense. I remember seeing the reports on the news and feeling so helpless sitting at home in South Africa. One thing that struck me was the reports that questioned the structural integrity of the schools, the designs and the construction quality. This led to me researching whether buildings can be "earthquake-proof", then who designs "earthquake-proof" buildings and the search led to Civil Engineers. Not really knowing what Civil Engineers do aside from they can design earthquake-proof buildings and control the quality of structures being constructed. I decided to apply for Civil Engineering at the universities; and the rest is history for another day. When work gets stressful and I falter about my career choices, I take a breath and think of my "Why". Why do you do what you do? #STEM #Engineering #why #knowyourwhy #earthquake #512 #womenengineers

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The US High-Speed Rail Association tells me that the California High-Speed Rail Authority is one of the most challenging roles in the nation. What are traits of successful High-Speed Rail Authority CEO. I say, three things under the appreciation of "cup". C stands for Communicating Effectively. U stands for Understanding Poverty. P stands for pursuing opportunity. For C, join Toastmasters. For U understand that one of the goals is providing a "Windfall for All" including the impoverished. The project is all about opportunity to all across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds including the impoverished by connecting them to opportunity like never before. For P, passionately pursing opportunity, note that Brightline West just broke ground. They are focused on building Los Angeles to Las Vegas in four years. Take the opportunity to learn from them what it takes to expedite a High-Speed Rail System. Apply it to Merced to Bakersfield, so that this segment can be completely up and running by the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. www.ushsr.com #highspeedrail

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Here is another argument for High-Speed Rail (HSR) in California (CA). According to this article, California leads the nation in the number of fatalities associated with trains. What does High-Speed Rail have to do with all of this? These fatalities were at at-grade crossings. California High-Speed Rail through the Central Valley would operate at 220 mph, and all at-grade crossings would be eliminated. High-Speed Rail Systems in Japan and France have been operating for decades without a passenger fatality. Let's get CA HSR up and. running, so that we can demonstrate the safety possibilities. #highspeedrail https://lnkd.in/g5DGjX4G

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Attention Civil Engineers: This is a desperate plea to ask that we definitely sharpen our social perceptiveness skills, because social perceptiveness is the number one most recession-proof skill. We failed to make the “150 best recession-proof jobs” list. The lead Fresno County Traffic Engineer bills out at a measley $125/hr vs. $450/hr by a typical Lawyer in that same county. I have 4 PE licenses in 3 states. I have more than a quarter century of experience. I got the ASCE awards for outstanding leader and outstanding engineer in legislative activities. I have experienced numerous layoffs and prolonged periods of unemployment. Guess what? I live in a trailer part. It’s our profession’s inadequacies in social perceptiveness that causes these challenges. Therefore let’s sharpen our social n perceptiveness skills. Thank you.

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Ice Production in the Time of the Persian Empire in the Desert: The Yakhchal or "Ice Pit" is an architectural method used to produce ice and preserve food. The Persians were already making tons of ice and freezing food in the desert 2,400 years ago. 1- Structure Design: The Yakchals had a dome shape with thick walls made of bricks and clay. This construction helped maintain a cool temperature inside the vault. 2- Water collection: during the winter water was collected from rivers or from the melting of the mountains. This water found its way to the Yakchals through canals. 3- Freezing process: The water was distributed into small ponds or pools inside the vault. During the night and in the coldest hours of the day, the water froze due to the low desert temperatures at night. 4- Ice storage: Once frozen, the ice is cut into blocks and stored in the lowest part of the Yakchal, where the temperature was coldest. The dome shape and natural insulation of the walls helped keep the ice frozen for many months. 5- Later use: During the summer, stored ice was used to cool drinks, preserve food or even for medical purposes if necessary. In short, the Yakchal took advantage of the natural cold of desert nights to create and preserve ice, using simple but effective storage and thermal insulation techniques. Source: https://lnkd.in/egC44SbC

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