Throughout the duration of this summer, I worked an internship with Hawkins Construction in Omaha. I was dedicated to the Connect Sarpy Paving Project as a field intern. This project is located at 180th Street and Giles Road. Because this project is primarily a paving project, I learned the steps necessary to construct the roads that thousands of commuters drive every day.I worked on a pipe crew for a couple months during this internship. The importance of a pipe crew on a paving project is the implementation of stormwater drainage pipe in the subgrade. The pipes are Class 3 Reinforced Concrete Pipes ranging from fifteen to fifty-four-inch diameter sizes.
I also worked on a structural crew to build a concrete box culvert to support the flow of a nearby creek. The structural crew and I mainly built wood forms and placed rebar reinforcement to prepare for concrete pours. In the remaining weeks of my internship, I will be working on a paving crew to flatten the dirt roads in preparation for concrete to ultimately create the finished roads. My internship with Hawkins Construction has extensively improved my knowledge of the paving process and on-site operations. I applied the knowledge from my academic coursework in order to benefit my learning during this internship, which really fulfilled my perception of construction industry. In the coming weeks, I have much to learn about paving, and I plan on continuing to educate myself through on-site and in-office work.
