Michael Harvey

The third part in this series is devoted to another great civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  

Not only was he a civil engineer, but also a structural and marine engineer.

Brunel was one of the most versatile and audacious engineers of the 19th century, responsible for the design of tunnels, bridges, railway lines and ships.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9 April 1806 in Portsmouth. His father Mark was a French engineer who had fled France during the revolution. Brunel was educated both in England and in France.

When he returned to England he went to work for his father. Brunel's first notable achievement was the part he played with his father in planning the Thames Tunnel from Rotherhithe to Wapping, completed in 1843.

In 1831, Brunel's designs won the competition for the Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon. Construction began the same year, but it was not completed until 1864, Brunel died on 15 September 1859 (aged 53)

My third choice of civil engineering wonders is the Clifton Suspension Bridge which commenced construction on 21^st June 1831 and took 33 years to complete.

A reason as to why the bridge took so long to construct was that an attempt to build Brunel's design was halted by the Bristol riots, and the revised version of his designs was built after his death and completed in 1864.

The revised design was made by William Henry Barlow and Sir John Hawkshaw, with a wider, higher, and sturdier deck than Brunel intended, with triple chains instead of double.

Although similar in size, the bridge towers are not identical in design, the Clifton tower having side cut-outs, the Leigh tower more pointed arches atop a 110-foot (34 m) red sandstone-clad abutment. Roller-mounted "saddles" at the top of each tower allow movement of the three independent wrought iron chains on each side when loads pass over the bridge. The bridge deck is suspended by 162 vertical wrought-iron rods in 81 matching pairs.

In writing this paper I am reminded of many great civil engineering projects, but who were the people behind these great projects?

The father of civil engineering was John Smeaton.

John Smeaton was an Englishman the first self-proclaimed civil engineer, often regarded as the “father of civil engineering.” Smeaton was born in Austhorpe, Leeds, England on June 8, 1724.

John Smeaton was a pioneer in the use of cast iron in water and windmill mechanisms. It was the President of the Royal Society who recommended John to design the Eddystone Lighthouse.

Recommended by the Royal Society at the age of 30, Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse after the previous structure was destroyed by fire. He pioneered the use of hydraulic lime, a form of mortar that will set underwater, and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. He also developed a method to raise the blocks from a movable floating base 60 feet in the air, so that the stones could be placed atop the lighthouse.

One of my favourite civil engineering projects would be the third Eddystone Lighthouse, no doubt many will disagree with my choice, however, such an undertaking in such dangerous conditions of the time took remarkable ingenuity and nerve.

About Eddystone Lighthouse

Height: 49 m

Opened: 18 May 1882

Material: Wood

Automated: 1982

Owner: Trinity House

Range: 17 nautical miles (31 km)

Smeaton was responsible for the development of modern cement, having identified the compositional requirements needed to obtain hydraulicity in lime, work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement. His lighthouse remained in use until 1877. After the rock underlying the structure’s foundations began to erode, it was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeaton’s Tower.

The current Eddystone Lighthouse is the fourth to be built on the site (or the fifth, since the first lighthouse was substantially rebuilt after only a year due to harsh conditions). The first lighthouse (Winstanley's) was swept away in a powerful storm, killing its architect and five other men in the process. The second (Rudyard's) stood for fifty years before it burned down. The third (Smeaton's) is the best known, renowned because it influenced lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building; its upper portions were re-erected in Plymouth as a monument. The first lighthouse, completed in 1699, was the world's first open ocean lighthouse, although the Cordouan Lighthouse off the western French coast preceded it as the first offshore lighthouse.

Blog revised 29th November 2021

What does a Civil Engineer do?

Civil engineers conceive, design, build, supervise, operate, construct, and maintain infrastructure projects and systems in the public and private sector, including roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and systems for water supply and sewage treatment.

The term engineering comes from two Latin words: ingenium, meaning “cleverness” and ingeniare, meaning “to devise”. For centuries, mankind has been using its intelligence to conceive, design and construct things which help us to solve life’s problems. There are many great civil engineering projects across the globe.

If I were to name my favourite civil engineering project, it would be the Westway in London where I was employed as a young civil engineer working for John Laing Construction.

In its time in the UK the Westway was lauded as an exceptional fete of civil engineering.

The Westway was funded by the GLC with a 25% grant from central government.

The main contractor was John Laing & Sons, while the flyovers at the eastern end were engineered by Sir Bruce White and Partners.

Every engineer will have a different opinion on the most impressive creations, however, in a series of papers I am declaring my favourite ten civil engineering projects which rate as being unsurpassable.

My number one on the list must be Great Pyramid of Giza

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid—the oldest, largest, and most famous of the monuments—is the last of the ancient world's "seven wonders" still standing. ... Today the Great Pyramid stands at 450 feet.

Built mainly of limestone, mortar, some granite in .

The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes total. Most stones are not uniform in size or shape and are only roughly dressed. The outside layers were bound together by mortar. Primarily local limestone from the Giza Plateau was used. It remains largely undamaged. It is the largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex and was the tallest construction in the world for over 3,800 years.

It is believed that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, Khufu and was constructed over a twenty-year period.