The Civil Engineer’s Songbook
Civil engineering does not, as a profession, have songs written about it. Cops have many, many songs, cowboys have songs, rockstars have songs, but there are only a few songs for civil engineers. I mean, at least there’s no song titled “F–k Tha Civil Engineers.” (If there was, it would definitely be on my playlist). As a civil and environmental engineering student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the third-ranked civil engineering school in the country, I’ve decided to annotate two of the few songs I found about civil engineers.
The first is “Civil Engineer,” by the band Astronauts. It’s an EDM-inspired song about, fittingly, civil engineers. I was unable to find the lyrics online, so parts of the song may be reproduced incorrectly.
I’m a civil engineer, I’m working quality control 1
And I’ve worked so hard, so hard, I’ve worked so hard and so long
And I’m the one they talk about, and I’m the one they call,
When anything goes wrong in this town, when anything goes wrong in this town 2
(vocalizations)
1. Quality control is the performance of tasks that ensures construction goes according to specifications, comes within budget, and is in a safe environment. Court cases often revolve around issues of specifications, like this one with the Army Corps of Engineers. Quality control also makes sure the materials used are suitable. Court cases also often come from the use of unsuitable materials.
2. In the previous sentence, the singer says he works in quality control, which is a part of the construction industry. It generally would be undertaken by contractors or project managers. Then he says when anything goes wrong in his town, he gets a call. This points to him being a city engineer/municipal engineer/water commissioner/public official that will eventually get swept up in a corruption sting and plead out. There isn’t too much overlap between the two, so that means the writer either was confused about what civil engineers do or the singer is meant to represent all civil engineers.
And there’s a certain way (indistinct) gets so hard to explain,
But I’m the king of (indistinct), I’m at the head of the parade
And I’ll be here when they tear it down, I’ll be here when it falls away
And if you see me when you’re going ‘round, you’ll see me build it back up again 3
Just don’t ask why, why I come there, live by your side, ’cause it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
A guy needs something to recognize, something to recognize
Just don’t ask why, why I come there, live by your side, ‘cause it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
A guy needs something to recognize, something to recognize, something to recognize (it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright), something to recognize (it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright), repeated six times
3. There’s quite a bit of repetition at the end of this song. “I’ll be here when they tear it down…” refers to the life cycle of a project. An engineer’s career can outlast the projects he or she worked on. A bridge’s life expectancy is roughly seventy-five to a hundred years, but an asphalt road only lasts about eighteen years. There may be unanticipated changes that necessitate a new project, or there may be unexpected damage to the project. An engineer probably won’t see the natural destruction of his or her project, as concrete in particular can last a very long time. There are sections of Roman buildings still standing that were built over two thousand years ago. Closer to home, there are sections of concrete sidewalk in Urbana that were poured over a hundred years ago.
Next up is Song for the Civil Engineer by David Dondero. This is a more specific song, talking mainly about roadwork.
It’s a song for the road
Snakey stretch of tar, concrete, and gravel, 4
Stretching near and far
Those highways and byways, lovely scenic routes, 5
From the mazes of our cities to the desolation south
4. Dondero is mixing his components up a bit here. He is speaking about asphalt and concrete pavements. Asphalt, or flexible, pavement, consists of an asphalt binder and aggregates like gravel, sand, or crushed concrete. Asphalt is a bituminous material created from the process of oil-refining. Coal tar and pitch are also bituminous materials but should not be confused with asphalt. Dondero is confusing asphalt with tar, and he also is conflating concrete roadways with asphalt. Concrete roadways use no asphalt, but instead use a mixture of Portland cement, aggregate, and water to make inflexible pavement.
5. The scenic routes Dondero speaks of are created by accident. The Interstate system in particular was inspired by Germany’s Autobahn. The Autobahn was designed to give travelers a scenic and efficient route, but the Interstate today is designed for efficiency.
Yeah, for every stretch of road, there was a civil engineer,
And a crew to lay it down, 6
Through the heat, and the dirt, through the years 7
They blasted through the bedrock with sticks of dynamite, 8
They dug the mighty tunnels, worked all day and night 9
6. Roads can be public or private. Public roads are maintained by a government entity, like a county or township. Private roads are not owned by the government. A good rule of thumb for who owns a road: if you have to pay out-of-pocket for someone to plow it, it’s a private road. There are over four million miles of public road in the United States.
7. Road crews don’t work as much in the winter months due to cold and snow. They start back up in the spring and are seen most often in the summer.
8. Dynamite, created in 1867 by Alfred Nobel, is still used today in the construction and mining industries. It is also used to blow up boulders and whales.
9. Tunnel boring machines, or TBMs, are used today to dig out tunnels, like subways and the Chunnel railway.
I was a-thinkin’ about a bridge
That stretched across a gorge
And all the time it took for the steel to be forged
Yeah, for every stretch of road, there was a civil engineer,
And a crew to lay it down, through the heat, through the dirt,
Through the years
Yeah, for every stretch of road, there was a civil engineer,
And a factory crew, to forge the steel, to build the bridge, through the years
These are two of the few songs about civil engineering. I hope that these have given a greater understanding of the civil engineering industry.
