© Paolo Dala
Illustration by Paolo Dala (2016)
Pier Construction
My seven (7) year-old niece came to me when we have a family gathering one night and said:
Uncle Paolo, there's something I've always wanted to ask you for a long time.
It kind of made me nervous. What could this kid want to ask from? I then told her to shoot her question... She said:
"How do they build the foundation of bridges in the water?"
The question made me smile because I remember having the same question when I was kid. I've wondered for a long time how they did this. And it was only answered when I was studying Civil Engineering in college.
I explained to her using Caissons and Cofferdams. I had to draw everything to help here visualize what I was saying... Explaining a civil engineering concept to a seven (7) year-old was a fun challenge. Haha.
