Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment

by Grady Hillhouse

Engineering in Plain Sight is a beautifully illustrated field guide to the infrastructure around us.

Engineering in Plain Sight extends the field guide genre from natural phenomena to human-made structures, making them approachable and understandable to non-engineers. It transforms readers' perspectives of the built environment, converting the act of looking at infrastructure from a mundane inevitability into an everyday diversion and joy.

Each section of this accessible, informative book features colorful illustrations revealing the fascinating details of how the human-made world works. An ideal road trip companion, this book offers a fresh perspective on the parts of the environment that often blend into the background. Readers will learn to identify characteristics of the electrical grid, roadways, railways, bridges, tunnels, waterways, and more. Engineering in Plain Sight inspires curiosity, interest, and engagement in how the infrastructure around us is designed and constructed.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Engineering, Technology, Urban Planning, Architecture, Reference

251 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2022

Reviews

[Bugzmanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one, but also felt that I would love it way more if I read it my teens. The book is pretty good at covering the basics of civil engineering, but it stops right there - at the basics. (at each chapter it felt that the same topics are covered way more detailed on the youtube channel) I kinda wished there were links or references to the resources if I would want a deeper dive.
The books is full of colorful illustrations, but because of cartoonish style it again made me feel that I'm not the target audience.
My conclusion - this is an amazing gift for a teenager that has interest in mechanisms and tech.

PS The practical engineering channel is great and I cann't recommend it enough.

[Earl Grey Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grady Hillhouse is knowledgeable and passionate about engineering. It is evident in this book and in his YouTube channel, Practical Engineering. While Grady does keep he topics relatively simple, he lacks the strength to explain something in a clear and concise manner that the average person could easily understand. As an example of presenting a complex idea in an easy to grasp manner, I would reference the Wendover Productions' video titled How Cell Service Actually Works.

I went into this book with the expectations of a The Way Things Work type of book: lots of wonderfully drawn picture that do most of the explaining of a concept with a couple of paragraphs for context. For each topic in Engineering in Plain Sight, there is one page with a scene containing lots of related items that are all labeled along with three pages of explanation. While informative, the pictures and the text didn't captivate me like the book The Way Things Work did.

Mr. Hillhouse tries to keep his explanation simple, but sometimes a lot of words and concepts were used that I couldn't grasp unless I took the time to research them outside of this book. I never really understood electronics when I was in my high school physics class. When the first section of this book was about electricity, it was a bit demoralizing for me after I got through a couple of topics. I powered through this part of the book, but many times I was left thinking, "Okay, power lines use three lines because it works best with some property of electricity that I don't comprehend."

Other parts such as roads, construction, and water felt more down to earth for me. The concepts were much easier to grasp, but I wasn't really excited about it. At other times, certain parts felt like a visual review of some of the videos that I have seen on Grady's YouTube channel.

I appreciate Mr. Hillhouse sharing his passion and educating the public about the world about engineering. His videos well made and informative. I am glad that I bought this book so that I can support his work but I plan to give it to my nephew. I am not sure if I would buy one of his books in the future. Maybe if it was an analysis of engineering disasters. His videos about these topics are well done and do a great job of explaining the reality of the situation without all the drama.

[Yura Gavrilovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book aims to explain (mostly in layman's terms) how numerous infrastructural objects around us work. And it accomplishes it brilliantly, in my opinion. It provides just enough details to explain most ideas and doesn't dive into intricacies to not get you bored.

I also like the book's format very much: many small chapters with a fabulous and descriptive picture for each of them.

[Lady Brainsample · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Will definitely return to this when The Child gets older and starts asking what stuff is.

[Thomas Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment, Grady Hillhouse, 2023, 251 pages, ISBN 9781718502321, Dewey 624

A wind turbine is most efficient when the tips of the blades are moving about 4 to 7 times the speed of the wind. The blades have variable pitch to make it so. p. 11.

This is largely about how to recognize various items of infrastructure.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is organized into 8 chapters: Electrical Grid; Communications; Roadways; Bridges & Tunnels; Railways; Dams, Levees, and Coastal Structures; Municipal Water and Wastewater; and Construction. The back of the book says you don't need an engineering background to enjoy this - overall, I'd agree, although there were parts where the author made an attempt to explain things that left me a bit lost. For example, although I appreciated the Electrical Grid chapter, at times the best I could do was accept that I wasn't going to be able to understand everything.

The title calls this a field guide, and that's where this work is strongest - if you've ever looking around at human-made structures in your town or city and wondered what they are or what they do, this text will likely provide a lot of insight. There's also a lot of information about hidden parts you'll likely never see (sewers, underground cables and pipes, etc.) and how those function alongside the things you can see. I've found myself approaching my morning drive differently, seeing things around me that I'd never noticed before, and I kind of wish I'd started reading this book back when some major road construction on my route had just begun.

My favorite chapters were probably the ones on roadways, municipal water and wastewater, and construction, probably because those featured things I'm most likely to be able to spot in my daily life.

The illustrations are, for the most part, excellent, and each one usually includes at least one little quirky background detail, such as a swan stealing a construction worker's lunch.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well that’s a delightful read. I relatively recently came across the Practical Engineer YouTube Channel, where he goes into a whole pile of various civil engineering and other infrastructure topics.

A particular favorite of mine is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OpC4...

So when I saw that he had a book… of course I was going to read it! And it’s pretty awesome. Topic by topic, he goes into a high level but with some detail on all sorts of ways that infrastructure actually works and neat things you can look out for.

I certainly learned a lot and I highly recommend checking it out.

If you’d like to see my various thoughts throughout the book, read on!

https://blog.jverkamp.com/2023/01/12/...

[Alan Temps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard of this book through Grady’s YouTube channel and thought I’d check it out.

It was interesting read! It gave a high level overview of a ton of different infrastructure and engineering concepts.

I personally prefer his YouTube videos, but I thought he did a good job with this book.

[Wilf Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book! Which I enjoyed.

The book is at a pretty basic level - just like the corresponding YouTube channel - but that makes sense: the intended audience of the book, and the channel, is simply the curious non-engineer. The point is to describe much of the large physical ‘engineering’ that you’ll see or encounter or use in your life, and sometimes to slightly explain it.

If you think you’ll enjoy this book, then you probably will.

The book is US-centric in its terminology and its topics. This makes total sense, of course, given the author and what I presume is the largest audience, but just beware of this.

(To fully satisfy my own curiosities, I’d have loved to read a book just like this one that instead used the British terminology and described things the way they’re done in Britain. Of course, the concepts are very similar and most of the terminology is the same - there is huge overlap between the British and American ways of doing civil engineering and so on. Nevertheless, I’d enjoy that more than I enjoyed this book.)

[Garrett Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book for some one with a 10 year old or better reading skill, like myself.

[Douglas Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful explanation of all sorts of engineering practices. Author Grady Hillhouse is quite thorough as he give clear explanations to everything that engineers must design and deal with.

I didn't give this 5-stars however because the drawings and artwork, while beautiful were too small to read everything. The library book I read was in a Kindle format. When I got to an illustration I tried making the font larger but that only affected the text of the book and not the text contained in the illustration nor the illustration itself.

[Anuj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book thanks to Grady’s YouTube channel “Practical Engineering”. Much like the channel, this book is highly informative. Finds that balance between nerdy details and being engaging for someone without a background in civil engineering. It’s a great reminder of the millions of highly nuanced decisions that go into building the world around us and how we often take them for granted. A helpful guide for anyone interested in how infrastructure actually gets built.

[John (Hey Y'all Listen Up) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to the engineering that makes modern life. The book does not have any math, so it is accessible to everyone. This book primarily covers civil engineering with a little bit of electrical engineering throw in. Other fields of engineering (mechanical, chemical & others) are not included.

[Yuri Krupenin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Невероятная нудятина.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably put this on hold after stumbling across a video on the author's youtube channel. Nice illustrations, short summary, and many bit of infrastructure to keep an eye out for. A lot of engineering in just 250 pages, plus a glossary and index.

Me as a kid would have absolutely loved a book like this, and I am reminded of author David Macaulay's books on technology. In place of mammoths, Hillhouse uses a person in a safety vest, dealing with leaks and skunks and all sorts of troubles. This little bit of visual humor helps make the rest of the image more memorable!

Other reviews say the youtube channel is better, but I am glad for the book. Occasional moments to read a section (and a liberal renewal policy) have made for a fun summer. Now sending it back to the library to hopefully make someone else's day / week / month.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of really interesting details and fun facts, surrounded by too much “naming things” and fluffy/vague intros and filler text. I’m a fan of the YouTube channel but I think the book sometimes reads too much like a video transcript which could’ve been trimmed down.
Great diagrams.
It’s possible that the target audience was tweens/young teens, in which case this review is way too critical. (Though regardless of target age, I’m not sure I agree w starting on electricity, which is arguably the most complicated and least visceral infrastructure to learn about?)
3.5/5.

[Franz Schrepf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has amazing dad energy:

“Where does the water go after it leaves the sink?”
“Why do utility poles look like that?”
“What’s underneath the road?”

Tons of fascinating insights. A walk in the neighborhood suddenly became a fascinating engineering safari.

The one pet peeve I have is that the explanation are on the lengthy side, so occasionally I’d just ask Perplexity to explain a concept instead. But the graphics are great!

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Grady for pulling together so many examples from our day-to-day life and providing insight into their design and purpose. This book gives much needed appreciation to the complexity of the seemingly mundane attributes of our developed world.

[Jimmy Hackstorm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the most exciting but super interesting and I definitely learned a lot. Love the visuals.

[Tetiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting, but I wish it had more photos, because I didn't see a lot of those construction with my own eyes. Will definitely watch some YouTube videos from the author :)

[Miro Cosic · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay 👌

[Jehnya Footitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I’m actually excited for school to start again in the fall.

[Roozbeh Daneshvar · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are curious about any of the engineering products impacting everyday lives, this book is a good choice for you. It could be from what is inside the manholes, what are the considerations for building the roads, what kinds of different bridges are there, how trains control their schedules to avoid accidents, where and how does drinking water reach our taps, what are the different construction machines in a site, what are the components of cellphone towers, and many more pieces that could ignite curiosity.

The book briefly and directly went over many pieces and the impact on me was that I now pay more attention to my every day trains, the roads I pass, the bridges, etc. Below I am bringing a few pieces from this book.

Unlike other utilities, electricity is quite challenging to store on a large scale, which means power must be generated, transported, supplied, and used all in the same moment. The energy coursing through the wires of your home or office was a ray of sunshine on a solar panel, an atom of uranium, or a bit of coal or natural gas in a steam boiler only milliseconds ago.

Creating electricity in three distinct phases provides a smooth supply that overlaps, so there is never a moment when all phases have zero voltage.

An important part of a turbine’s efficiency is how fast the blades rotate. If they go too slowly, wind will pass through the gaps in the blades without providing any power. If they spin too quickly, the blades will block the wind, reducing the amount of power that can be harvested.

It turns out that a turbine is most efficient when the tip of the blades is moving around four to seven times the speed of the wind.

Radio signals generally can’t reach beyond the horizon, which is why many antennas are mounted at the tops of gigantic towers (sometimes also called masts). The higher they are, the farther their signals can extend.

If the pothole repair does not create a good connection with the rest of the roadway, a pothole can recur in the same location.

Uniformity is a crucial concept in traffic engineering. If all road users know what to expect, they are less likely to make errors in judgment that lead to collisions.

In the United States, the manual that governs the uniformity of traffic control devices is more than 800 pages long.

At intersections, reducing the curb radius can slow down vehicles making turns and shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians. However, doing so is feasible only in areas without much truck traffic (since they need more room to turn).

A speed hump is a tool to slow down vehicles on public roadways and is usually 4 meters (12 feet) in width. A speed bump is smaller in width but taller in height, and is intended for parking lots and garages. Speed lumps (also called cushions) are similar to speed humps, but they have gaps to allow emergency vehicles to pass through without slowing down.

the duration of the amber light is usually set to around one second for every 10 miles per hour or 16 kilometers per hour on the speed limit.

Now, almost all signs and roadway markings are retroreflective, meaning they reflect light back toward its source in the same direction as it came.

most people significantly underestimate the length of stripes on a roadway. They appear much shorter than the standard 3 meters (10 feet).

Unlike concrete, asphalt pavement doesn’t go through a chemical reaction to cure. Instead, we use temperature to transform it from a workable mix to a stable driving surface, a process that is entirely reversible and repeatable. That means asphalt is nearly 100 percent recyclable. In fact, asphalt concrete is one of the world’s most recycled materials by weight.

But concrete has some weaknesses. Although strong when compressed, concrete quickly fails when subjected to tension forces, those trying to pull it apart.

Reinforcement within concrete creates a composite material, with the concrete providing strength against compressive stress while the reinforcement provides strength against tensile stress. For bridge beams, this reinforcement is often pre-stressed. The steel bars are stretched and held taut while the wet concrete is cast into a mold. Once the concrete hardens, the tension in the steel compresses it tightly like a rubber band, making the beams stiffer and less prone to cracking. These beams are constructed in factories so they can show up to a job site ready to be lifted into place.

Most materials are stronger against forces along their axis than those applied at right angles (called bending forces).

Many consider suspension bridges to be the pinnacle of civil engineering ingenuity.

A significant proportion of flood-related fatalities occur when someone tries to drive a car or truck through water overtopping a roadway.

Rapid transit railways often use subterranean space, allowing them to avoid conflicts with surface roadways and other infrastructure. Because they usually aren’t far below the surface, many rapid transit tunnels are often constructed using the cut-and-cover method, starting with a trench.

Driving into a tunnel during the day creates a sharp transition from the bright sunlight outside to the artificial illumination inside the tunnel. Engineers call this the black hole effect. It can be a serious safety issue because human eyes adjust to changes in brightness gradually. Drivers can be blinded by the sudden darkness at the entrance of a tunnel and the subsequent brilliance at the exit.

Most tunnels have an arched or circular cross section because it’s the strongest shape against ground pressure.

the steel wheels on steel rails waste little energy to friction (especially compared to rubber tires on asphalt). Locomotives may look huge, but their engines are almost trivial compared to the enormous weight they move. If your car were so efficient, it could run off a tiny string-trimmer engine.

Incredibly, the contact patch between each wheel and the rail is only the size of a small coin. That means an average freight train sits on an area of steel roughly the size of this book.

Unlike motor vehicles whose drivers see and respond to hazards in real time, a train can take more than a mile to reach a complete stop. If a train operator can see an obstruction on the tracks while traveling at full speed, it is already too late.

People don’t travel long distances by boat as much nowadays due to lack of speed, but shipping got its name for a reason.

Moving one ton of goods the same distance on a boat takes roughly half the amount of energy that it would by train and approximately a fifth of the energy it would take on a truck.

Although levees protect low-lying areas from flooding, they can create new issues too. Since levees constrain the power of a river to a smaller space, the water flows higher and faster than it would have without such structures, potentially exacerbating flood impacts farther downstream.

Even with excellent engineering, our ability to “control” Mother Nature is usually tenuous.

If a vortex is allowed to enter the mouth of the pump column, the air will reduce its efficiency and may even cause it to fail. Vortex breakers are sometimes installed within sumps to keep the flow from swirling as it is drawn into the pump.

If you could create a complete vacuum in a straw, the highest you could draw a drink of water is around 10 meters or 33 feet. Thus, deeper wells cannot use suction to bring water to the surface. Instead, the pump must be installed at the bottom of the well so that it can push water to the top.

the word aqueduct generally describes any human-made structure meant to deliver water across a long distance.

The pressure that pumps provide not only induces the potable water to flow to its destination but also ensures that contaminants can’t enter the distribution system through open joints or small holes in the pipes. If leaks develop, water will flow out of the pressurized system rather than allow impurities or pollutants to enter.

Energy is often one of the highest ongoing costs for a water utility. Conserving water reduces waste of the water itself and reduces the significant amount of energy required to collect, clean, and deliver it.

Many jurisdictions require that water mains be horizontally separated from underground sewers, so when these lines run parallel, they are often located on opposite sides of a street.

The microorganism communities that thrive in oxygen-rich (aerobic) environments are different from those that live in oxygen-depleted (anaerobic) environments. These various colonies consume different nutrients from the water, so treatment plants often utilize both aerobic and anaerobic conditions to remove wastewater contaminants thoroughly.

Raw sewage is 99.9 percent water,

all subsurface utilities must be identified and marked to ensure that excavators don’t inadvertently damage underground lines. Locators use colored spray paint to create utility location marks on the ground. In many parts of the world, these colors are standardized. For example, red is used for electric lines, orange for telecommunications, yellow for natural gas, green for sewers, and blue for drinking water lines. White paint is used to show the location of any excavations that will take place during construction, and pink is reserved for survey markings.

on windy days, mobile cranes are generally taken down, and tower crane brakes are released so that the jibs can weathervane, allowing them to rotate freely with the wind rather than fight against it.

[Andrei Barbu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have been advertised as a children's book. It's not bad as one. As a field guide, it's kind of boring and shallow.

[Paige Redwine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This orderly book covers a variety of things. Sections include: How power lines are constructed, stormwater drainage, how dams work, how tunnels are built and much more. It satisfied my curiosity and complex concepts were communicated simply. It was hard to read cover to cover and it took me a long time to complete. I kept getting sleepy or my mind wandered.

[Jaime Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations of this book are a big plus. You can even print a kids version of this book by taking into account only the illustrations. The book have been writing in a very straight forward prose and will boost your curiosity while improving your observation skills, big time. Engineers himself will enjoy the book as well, because will let them remember how they used to watch the infrastructure around them,before they become experts. Besides, I would add the chapter 13 for airfields and runways, which is a fascinating field for engineers.

[Harry Harman · Rating 5 out of 5]

GENERATION (production of power), TRANSMISSION (moving that electricity from centralized plants to populated areas), and DISTRIBUTION (delivering the electricity to every individual customer)

To avoid brownouts and blackouts, generation must be continuously adjusted up or down to match electrical demands on the grid. This process is called load following

If the worst comes, and there is not enough electricity to meet demands, grid managers will require that some customers be temporarily disconnected (called load shedding) to reduce demands and avoid a total collapse. Normally these disconnections happen on a rolling basis of 15 to 30 minutes to spread out the inconvenience of lost service, so they are often known as rolling outages.

Rather than a constant flow of current in a single direction (called direct current or DC), the vast majority of the power grid uses alternating current or AC, where the direction of voltage and current is continually switching. The benefit of having the current alternate is that its voltage can easily be stepped up or down using a transformer.

Creating electricity in three distinct phases provides a smooth supply that overlaps, so there is never a moment when all phases have zero voltage. A three-phase supply also uses fewer equivalent conductors than a single-phase supply to carry the same amount of power, making it more economical. You’ll notice that almost all electrical infrastructure shows up in groups of three, with each conductor or piece of equipment handling an individual phase of the supply.

Many of the methods we use to generate power are just different ways of boiling water. Plants that use this method are called thermal power stations because they rely on heat to create steam. The steam passes through a turbine, which is coupled to an AC GENERATOR connected to the power grid. The speed of the turbine must be carefully synchronized to the frequency of the rest of the grid.

Pay special attention to lakes outside large cities as well, because they sometimes serve as a source of cooling water for power plants.

Unless the plant is situated next door to a coal mine, the primary way to move this much fuel efficiently is by FREIGHT TRAIN.

Utility-scale turbines are usually rated around 1 to 2 megawatts each, but units as large as 10 megawatts have been installed. That’s enough to power about 5,000 households with a single turbine!

It turns out that a turbine is most efficient when the tip of the blades is moving around four to seven times the speed of the wind.

Most turbines use a gearbox to convert the slow pace of the blades to a speed more suitable for the generator.

Turbines operate at their best when facing directly into the wind. Older windmills used a large tail to keep this proper orientation, called YAW. Modern turbines use a WIND SENSOR atop the nacelle to measure both the speed and direction of the wind.

The theoretical maximum efficiency that can be extracted (called the Betz limit) is about 60 percent.

Wires used for the transmission of electricity are called CONDUCTORS,

voltage is the amount of electric potential (somewhat equivalent to the pressure of a fluid in a pipe), and current is the flow rate of an electric charge (like the flow rate of a fluid in a pipe)

The amount of wasted power from resistance is related to the current in the line, so more current means more wastage. If you increase the voltage of the electricity, you need less current to deliver the same amount of power, so that’s exactly what we do. Transformers at power plants boost the voltage before sending electricity. strung overhead on TOWERS (also called pylons). sometimes considered a type of visual pollution.

The higher the voltage, the more distance required between each PHASE and above the ground. Many transmission lines carry multiple THREE-PHASE CIRCUITS to save cost, so instead of three phases, you may see six or even nine.

A lightning strike can send a massive surge of high voltage down the wires, leading to arcs (also called flashovers) and damaged equipment. Overhead transmission. lines typically include at least one non-energized line running along the tops of the pylons. These are called SHIELD WIRES and are intended to capture lightning strikes so that the main conductors are not affected. Stray voltages are harmlessly routed to ground at each tower.

The most commonly seen substation around cities are step-down facilities that convert high-voltage transmission to a lower, safer voltage for distribution within populated areas.

This grounding grid also makes sure that the entire substation and all its equipment are kept at the same voltage level, called an equipotential.

utility poles are considered medium voltage and usually range from 4 kV to 25 kV.

TELECOMMUNICATION LINES (such as cable, telephone, and fiber-optics)

Engineers establish zones of protection around each major piece of the power grid using fuses and circuit breakers to isolate faults and make them easy to find and repair. These devices create “managed failures” where you have some loss of service at the cost of protecting the rest of the system (just like the breakers in your house).

They usually trip and reclose a few times before deciding that a fault is permanent and locking out. If you ever lose and regain electricity in a short period of time, a recloser is probably why. Other types of ISOLATION SWITCHES atop utility poles help lineworkers perform maintenance or make repairs.

Communication isn’t unique to the human species, but telecommunication is. Sharing information beyond a shouting distance requires plenty of innovation. From smoke signals and carrier pigeons to GPS and the internet, telecommunications have profoundly shaped the ways we live, work, and play.

Radio signals generally can’t reach beyond the horizon, which is why many antennas are mounted at the tops of gigantic TOWERS (sometimes also called masts). The higher they are, the farther their signals can extend. Antenna towers are some of the tallest humanmade structures in the world, with many topping out above 600 meters (about 2,000 feet). They are so tall that they often pose a danger to aircraft and often must be painted with alternating bands of orange and white color and feature WARNING LIGHTS at the top. These towers serve a critical role in modern society, enabling wide transmission of radio and television signals, communications for emergency first responders, and more.

low-Earth satellites do have to account for DOPPLER SHIFT. Because the satellites move so quickly compared to an observer on Earth, the radio waves compress while moving toward an antenna and stretch out as they pass by overhead, complicating the job of receiving and decoding the signals.

intersections are also where a vast majority of crashes occur. For those reasons, traffic engineers put much thought and analysis into the design of intersections

The formation of a pothole happens in steps, the first of which is deterioration of the surface pavement. They might seem innocuous, but CRACKS are critical flaws in a pavement system because they let in water. Soil below the pavement can become waterlogged from precipitation, softening and weakening the SUBGRADE.

Repairs can be wide-ranging depending on the materials, cost, and climate conditions. But they all mostly do the same thing: replace the soil and pavement that was lost and (hopefully) seal the area off from further water intrusion. If the POTHOLE REPAIR does not create a good connection with the rest of the roadway, a pothole can recur in the same location.

Where a sidewalk meets a curb, it often includes a ramp down to the street’s surface. This ramp is called a CURB CUT

sidewalks often feature TACTILE PAVEMENT. These bumpy areas help people with visual disabilities delineate the boundary between sidewalk and road.

RETROREFLECTIVE SURFACES take advantage of headlights, bouncing their light directly back toward the vehicle and driver inside.

Concrete consists of cement, rocks (known as AGGREGATE in the industry), and water

Asphalt pavement has only two primary ingredients: aggregate and BITUMEN

a process that is entirely reversible and repeatable. That means asphalt is nearly 100 percent recyclable. In fact, asphalt concrete is one of the world’s most recycled materials by weight.

PORTALS (the name for tunnel entrances and exits)

[Josh Liller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up from my local library (which I was glad to see they ordered) because I follow the author's interesting YouTube channel about engineering. I ended up with mixed feelings about the book.

Pros: It is well-organized with colorful and helpful illustrations. Some parts were very interesting and I learned a lot from them. Many common examples of engineering infrastructure I've seen before, but only now learned what they are. There's an extensively glossary at the end with all the terminology that was clearly marked throughout the book.

Cons: Some parts I didn't find interesting, often because they discussed infrastructure I was completely unfamiliar with and haven't seen. Other parts I was too familiar with, often because they've been well-covered by a video on the author's YouTube channel. I also felt Grady's style works better in spoken YouTube videos than in the written word.

It's also worth noting this is a physically larger than typical book (8x10 - basically textbook size rather than the standard 6x9) which, depending where you tend to read books, can cause some practical issues for reading. You'd be surprised the difference those inches can make.

Moderate recommendation. YMMV more than most books.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book! Gives 3 page explanations of a huge variety of civil engineering projects, tools, and activities. Not all the sections are interesting though, and it straddles an odd line between reference and explainer.
Decent as a coffee table book though!

[Joe Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankly, I had hoped for a little more detail. It was a good quick overview of civil infrastructure and definitely has me looking more closely at bridge abutments and utility poles. I understand that the surface level detail is likely necessary due to the breadth of the material, but I had hoped for a slightly deeper dive.