Construction engineering, also known as construction operations, is a professional subdiscipline of civil engineering that deals with the designing, planning, construction, and operations management of infrastructure such as roadways, tunnels, bridges, airports, railroads, facilities, buildings, dams, utilities and other projects. Construction engineers learn some of the design aspects similar to civil engineers as well as project management aspects.
At the educational level, civil engineering students concentrate primarily on the design work which is more analytical, gearing them toward a career as a design professional. This essentially requires them to take a multitude of challenging engineering science and design courses as part of obtaining a 4-year accredited degree. Education for construction engineers is primarily focused on construction procedures, methods, costs, schedules and personnel management. Their primary concern is to deliver a project on time within budget and of the desired quality.
Regarding educational requirements, construction engineering students take basic design courses in civil engineering, as well as construction management courses.
Being a sub-discipline of civil engineering, construction engineers apply their knowledge and business, technical and management skills obtained from their undergraduate degree to oversee projects that include bridges, buildings and housing projects. Construction engineers are heavily involved in the design and management/ allocation of funds in these projects. They are charged with risk analysis, costing and planning. A career in design work does require a professional engineer license (PE). Individuals who pursue this career path are strongly advised to sit for the Engineer in Training exam (EIT), also, referred to as the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE) while in college as it takes five years' (4 years in USA) post-graduate to obtain the PE license.
