Civil engineering is more about providing solutions to those problems we encounter every day without even giving a thought. This includes everything from maintaining safe road networks to ensuring robust houses are built. However, as new trends like sustainability and resource deficiencies pose themselves, engineers have started being creative in giving solutions in a different way.

For instance, instead of sticking to the basic materials, engineers are now turning to green concrete and even recycled plastic. It’s not simply a question of making sure that structures can take loads, it’s actually constructing them in a manner that is more environmentally friendly. Such products are already on the market – for example, a road made of partially recycled plastic bottles.

There’s also smart infrastructure. Engineers now incorporate sensors in roads and bridges so that whenever they are hard at work, the structures are able to monitor themselves and ‘ communicate’ when they need repairs. We can therefore avoid situations where we wait for a major failure to happen before taking action on it and in this way make sure that everyone’s routine is a bit less hectic and calmer.

And one of the coolest new tools is 3D printing. Today the engineers can manufacture some components of the buildings in a couple of days instead of weeks thus using less material. It is speedy and effective and just the right tool to achieve the accurately shaped models.

And at the end of the day, civil engineering is all about helping people and improving our spaces where we live. And with these new innovative solutions we are finding smarter ways to do it.