USF Engineering Students Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at I-4 Ultimate
SGL's Area 4 Superintendent Adam Wolff (left) takes USF students on a tour of the construction site near the I-4 and S.R. 436 interchange. |
A group of post-graduate civil engineering students visited the I-4 Ultimate project from the University of South Florida (USF) in early November.
SGL Constructors – the joint venture of Skanska, Granite and Lane – gladly gave them a look inside the project and showed the future engineers what awaits them after school.
The seven USF students were welcomed into the Area 4 construction office in Altamonte Springs, where Phil Hernandez, SGL’s Areawide Equipment Manager, explained the in-depth process of hiring and training equipment operators for all of the various tasks along the 21-mile project.
M.D. Hoque, a civil engineering Ph.D. candidate at USF, was awed by the detailed training and the size of the team deployed along Interstate 4 (I-4).
“I was surprised that [SGL] used a new method of training with simulators to learn how to operate heavy machinery,” Hoque said.
Rakesh Rangaswamy, Ph.D. candidate, said the I-4 Ultimate Project is “beyond our imagination.”
Students were escorted to a live construction site near the I-4 and State Road (S.R.) 436 interchange, where they observed heavy machinery in action, the construction of a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall and had the opportunity to talk with one of SGL’s field engineers.
Hoque said the site visit was overwhelming.
“The challenges of implementing a project like this are immense,” he said, “and it is great to see how you guys are managing things with precision.”
Shrut Shah, civil engineering master’s student, would like to be a part of a project on the scale of I-4 Ultimate.
“[A large project] gives you more time to gain different types of experience and work with different types of people and experience unusual things,” Shah said.
The future civil engineers returned to Tampa inspired to make an impact in their profession.
“These projects can transform an entire landscape,” Hoque said. “The Orlando downtown area and the businesses around it will be immensely benefitted… That makes me excited.”
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