What is infrastructure engineering?

Before you can understand what infrastructure engineering is, you need to understand what the term “infrastructure” means. This term refers to all of the systems in place that support a community of any size, whether it is an apartment building, a residential community, a city, or even a nation.

Infrastructure includes:

–          Networks of roads, highways, and railways for transportation into and out of a community

–          Water and sewage systems that ensure an adequate supply of clean water as well as the disposal of waste

–          Power and gas grids that can handle the needs of the entire community

Engineering considerations

Infrastructure engineering refers to the branch of engineering that coordinates all of these systems for a given engineering project, whether it is a single structure, an industrial complex, or even a whole neighborhood. The infrastructure needed for each of these types of projects is unique, and the challenges facing engineers as they work on this type of project are great.

In the metro Washington DC and Virginia area, engineers face complex geography including large bodies of water as well as a roadway and electrical infrastructure that is anywhere from decades to centuries old. Working with these old systems and adjusting them to address the needs of a modern engineering project requires not only technical skill and experience but a creativity to develop innovative solutions to “one of a kind” problems.

At The Engineering Groupe, our team has been rising to these challenges for over two decades, meeting and exceeding the needs of our clients with each project.

Getting a better understanding of this important area of practice

Commercial engineering is a somewhat broad area of practice that encompasses all projects related to commercial pursuits. This means that commercial engineering deals with any and all projects designed to result in monetary or other gain for the client, including industrial engineering, retail engineering, mixed use engineering, and even recreational engineering. As such, commercial engineers draw upon a broad skill set and perform a wide range of services.

Some of the services performed by The Engineering Groupe in our commercial engineering projects include:

–          Planning, including land planning and drawing plans

–          Zoning, including rezoning and applying for special exemptions and well as special use permits when necessary

–          Feasibility studies as well as environmental constraint studies to give clients an accurate picture of the project before they decide to commit to it

–          Construction management

–          Document preparation, including permit applications and construction document preparation

–          Surveying

–          Water resource planning as well as infrastructure engineering

–          Civil engineering

Wide range of experience required

Commercial engineers are required to have a working knowledge of many other areas of engineering to offer clients the answers they need as the project progresses. Not only does the commercial engineer need to help the client address today’s needs, but he or she also has to be able to forecast the changes that are likely to occur over the coming years and work with the client to develop plans for those needs as well.

At The Engineering Groupe, we are able to draw upon our decades of experience and broad knowledge base to serve our clients commercial engineering needs.