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Editor’s note: “On the Job” is an occasional series that looks at the experiences and lessons learned by workers in the construction trades. Today’s profile: Jake Wichman, a young engineer who recently began working for Mowat Construction.

When Jake Wichman first became fascinated with engineering at Great Falls High School in Montana, it was hard to tell how his math and chemistry classes would fit into the equation of his future career.

What interested him most then was working with the computer program AutoCAD, and exploring the details of how various structures came together and were built over time.

But now, after spending his first several months on the job as a field engineer with Mowat Construction Co., the lessons that once seemed disjointed have fallen into place – and he’s been surprised by how important every single detail of a project can be, the 24-year-old said.

“It’s definitely eye-opening what really goes on and how detail oriented you have to be,” Wichman said. “If you miss something small on a job it can have big repercussions. In school a small thing would mean maybe losing a few points on a grade. Now, a small thing can ruin an entire project.”

Wichman’s passion for engineering started as an interest in building and seeing how pieces fit into a larger structure in a project.

“I liked experimenting with AutoCAD and seeing how things were built step by step,” he said.

In college, when he was working on his bachelor’s degree in construction engineering technology from Montana State University, that interest morphed into a larger fascination with materials and how they worked, he added.

“I was surprised by some of the strength of materials classes we took – the statics and dynamics of materials, properties of structure support – those classes were tough, but interesting,” Wichman said. “When I first took chemistry classes, I didn’t really think they applied to anything, but when I started taking material classes I suddenly found they did.”

Calculus, as well, didn’t seem all that useful at first blush, but as he progressed through college he found it helped him understand some of the underlying processes used in programs like AutoCAD.

It’s still not a subject that he uses much on the job, but at the same time, he could create the results of some of the programs and charts he uses without need of a computer – if necessary, he said.

“It was more to have an appreciation for where the numbers come from,” Wichman said.

Mowat and another company started recruiting Wichman before he graduated in May 2010, showing that the need for engineers remains strong despite the poor economy. A month before graduation, Wichman found himself with two job offers on the table.

“I had an offer from another company and one from Mowat, and I decided to choose Mowat,” he said.

Wichman has worked on two projects since he started in May 2010 – one was rebuilding a bridge that had caught on fire around North Vancouver Avenue and the other was work on a flyover for the Portland Streetcar at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Grand Avenue, he said.

“Mostly what I find myself doing day to day is job management – planning the engineering and the schedule of the layout,” Wichman said. “On the MLK project I was helping out with erosion and sediment control and ordering the materials we needed and making sure they met the right specifications.”

He’s also worked on traffic control and on coordinating efforts to build structural elements like bridge trestles.

“I feel like I’ve learned immensely about how bridges are built,” Wichman said. “Before, I just knew what items were used; but now I really know more about all the things that go into it. It seems like 90 percent of what goes into building a bridge, people never see.”

Planning, he added, plays a much larger role than he ever thought it would.

“If you’re not three weeks ahead of the job on a plan, you’re going to have problems,” Wichman said. “It’s the key to a project – how well you plan things. I’ve seen that watching the people I work for – they’re very good at it. They’ve been mentoring me and helping me learn how to do that.”

His job today makes him think back to a point one of his teachers tried to make to him and his classmates, after they complained that a test had been unfair, he said.

“The professor said that in real life you had to be responsible and do what has to be done. You can’t just walk away and not finish something because you don’t want to or you think it’s too hard,” Wichman said. “At the time I didn’t take it too seriously, but it turned out that what he said was pretty accurate.”

As for the future, Wichman says he’d love to still be working for Mowat 10 years from now, maybe even running his own project.

For younger people who are considering entering the field, his advice is to be detail oriented and to take opportunities wherever they arise, he said.

“Everything’s important; nothing can be looked over,” Wichman said. “Also, I’d say the earlier you get an idea of what you’d like to do, the better – and you should find ways to pursue internships if you can, which is something I never got to do. Out in the field, a lot of things I learned in school now make sense. The more experience you can get, the more beneficial it is.”

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Mowat Contruction is also bidding on the Detroit Dam and Reservoir in Stayton, Oregon. Bids are due Feb 14 at 11am.

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Mowat Construction, of Woodinville, Washington has requested bids for the Detroit Dam and Reservoir Minto Fish Collection Facility Rebuild. This project is in Stayton, Oregon. There are many areas of work that Mowat is looking for so please see the full sub bid request ad for details.

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Two cranes, one from Campbell Crane & Rigging and one from Mowat Construction Co., placed four 115-foot-long, 80,000-pound girders to support the middle of the Portland Streetcar flyover bridge in Southeast Portland. The bridge, a part of the Portland Streetcar Eastside Loop project, will extend to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The 425-foot-long span will be supported by 47 piles that are up to 120 feet long. Mowat Construction is the contractor on the bridge while Stacy & Witbeck Inc. is the general contractor for the entire 3.3-mile project.

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Work is under way to demolish the Vancouver Avenue bridge over the Columbia Slough in North Portland. Replacement of the 75-year-old bridge became necessary when, nearly two years ago, the wood supports ignited from a fire built by transients. The new structure will be a three-span, reinforced, prestressed concrete girder bridge with a cast-in-place deck. Two supporting piers will be in the water of the slough. The bridge is scheduled to be open to traffic early in 2011 and then completed the following fall. The project is being built by Mowat Construction Co. for the city of Portland.

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