America's Greatest Projects - The Panama Canal and Hoover Dam

In America's Greatest Projects - The Panama Canal and Hoover Dam, you'll learn ...

• Events leading up to construction of the Panama Canal
• Unique design and site challenges of the Panama Canal project
• Design, specification and construction of the Hoover Dam
• Timeless project execution lessons from the pioneering engineers who worked on these two great American projects

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 4 CPD

Length: 34 pages

During the past 150 years, Americans have achieved phenomenal success on our way to becoming the greatest nation in the history of the world. Notwithstanding the many inventions that we have created, such as the electric light bulb and the telephone and the airplane and the internet, Americans have been responsible for some of the greatest and most beneficial projects in the modern era. Basic concepts of this course include:

• Learn from these projects how they will benefit modern engineers in particular
• Get a behind-the-scenes account of great project development and management
• Understand the role that government engineers had with construction companies
• Discover how safety and health issues of the workforce as well as the engineers materialized.

Each of these projects may be considered by most Americans to be a construction project, but an engineer or an architect or a designer would see them with a different perspective. Without the support of individual engineers and without the vision and wisdom of quality project managers, these projects could not have achieved the success that they did. This statement is not intended to demean the many manufacturers and construction companies who were involved in these projects, because their foresight and experience were paramount to the success of each of these projects.

The first part of this course focuses on the Panama Canal Design and Construction and the many largely unknown events leading up to its ultimate development and success. The second part of this course describes in great detail the construction of the Hoover Dam. Both projects emphasize the tenacity and wisdom of the engineers in the Federal Government as well as the engineers and supervisors of the contractors in the private sector to complete such enormous projects. Each of these projects has lessons to be learned and, hopefully, each of you will be motivated to do greater things.

NOTE: This course and course C-2044 have duplicate content.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Compare the principal engineering and management obstacles encountered on the Panama Canal and Hoover Dam projects.
• Explain how engineers overcame limited technology, scarce resources, communication constraints, and workforce challenges.
• Analyze the influence of federal officials, engineering leadership, project management, and construction strategy on project outcomes.
• Extract lessons from both projects that can inform planning and leadership on present-day infrastructure work.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 44 questions. CPD credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.