America’s Greatest Projects and Their Engineers

Course Description:

Each of these projects may be considered by most Americans to be a construction project, but an engineer or an architect or a designer would see them with a different perspective. Without the support of individual engineers and without the vision and wisdom of quality project managers, these projects could not have achieved the success that they did. This statement is not intended to demean the many manufacturers and construction companies who were involved in these projects, because their foresight and experience were paramount to the success of each of these projects.

The first part of this course focuses on the Panama Canal Design and Construction and the many largely unknown events leading up to its ultimate development and success.  The second part of this course describes in great detail the construction of the Hoover Dam. Both projects emphasize the tenacity and wisdom of the engineers in the Federal Government as well as the engineers and supervisors of the contractors in the private sector to complete such enormous projects. Each of these projects has lessons to be learned and, hopefully, each of you will be motivated to do greater things.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the obstacles that confronted early engineers.
• Learn how early engineers coped with limited technology and very few resources.
•  Acknowledge the roles that federal government officials and engineers played in the approval and development of some of the world's most well-known projects.
•  Discover how leadership played such a major factor in each of these significant projects.
•  Enhance your skills by learning the strategies used by the early engineers. project managers, and construction management.
• Envision the techniques used by engineers and constructors despite a lack of communications and experienced workers.