Disk of Knowledge

NCEES Adds Construction Module to Civil PE Exam

In the "January 07 Article of the Month" I present the importance of continuing education to promote excellence in Construction Management.

Many of my professional colleagues are now coming to appreciate that Construction Management and Construction Engineering are important elements of being a professional engineer.

I was pleased to see the following article appear in the October 2006 Professional Engineers in Construction E-news article:

"The Board of Directors of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) recently approved new specifications for the Civil Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam. The specifications include new content areas focused on construction engineering.

The Civil PE exam is a breadth and depth examination. All examinees work the same breadth portion in the morning and then choose one depth module to work in the afternoon. The topic areas of the current depth modules are environmental, geotechnical, structural, transportation, and water resources. Beginning with the spring 2008 exam administration, the exam will include a construction engineering depth module.

The Council has been discussing and researching the possibility of a construction depth module in the Civil PE exam for more than five years. In 2001, the Council voted to include construction issues in its study to update Civil PE exam content. As a part of this study, NCEES surveyed more than 10,000 licensed civil engineers to determine the knowledge areas needed to practice. The survey group represented various fields and geographic locations and included more than 1,600 construction engineers. Survey responses confirmed the need for a construction module.

Many codes, specifications, and regulations now require a licensed professional engineer to design various production and safety systems used to execute the construction process, and it is becoming more common for construction engineers to coordinate other licensed design professionals in design-build projects. NCEES has responded to issues related to the design-build construction process by creating a position statement to recognize the need for licensed professional engineers to be in responsible charge of all engineering services included in design-build projects.

The NCEES Construction Engineering Exam Subcommittee is currently creating questions for the new depth module based on the new specifications. The subcommittee, also chaired by Johnston, is made up of 27 licensed construction engineers working with the Civil PE exam committee. More detailed information about the specifications and content areas of the exam will be published after the fall 2007 exam administration."

I challenge each of our readers to start your own inititive for 2007 to improve your knowledge of Construction Management and to prepare young engineers for professional registration through mentoring and challenging experience.

As always, please submit your comments by e-mail to Larry J. Smith, P.E. . All comments received will be posted to this news article.