Professor Bullock led a group of fourteen engineering students on a Study Abroad trip to the United Kingdom in May, 2014. The trip blended experience-based learning about 18th and 19th century civil engineering infrastructure with field visits to modern 21st century engineering systems under construction. The class began in London with visits to historical and cultural sites such as the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Tower of London and Churchill War Rooms. Students also had the opportunity to extensively use mass transit (London underground, light rail, heavy rail, bus) as well as a bicycle tour through downtown London.

Highlights of the trip included two days of field visits to Bechtel construction sites. Bechtel is the largest construction and engineering company in the United States and works on projects in nearly 50 countries. Students had the unique opportunity to see the progress of the London Crossrail project, which is a new 73-mile railway serving London and the surrounding areas. They visited a tunneling site near Canning Town, the downtown Bond Street Station, and the suburban Reading Station outside of London.

The last week of the trip was spent living and working together on two narrow boats. Students manually operated over 100 locks in order to navigate the 70’ boats around the Stourport Ring. Along the way students were introduced to many bridges, tunnels, and viaducts while enjoying the countryside of the United Kingdom Midlands.

View more pictures from the UK Study Abroad experience

Posters that summarize the experience are displayed outside the Traffic Lab on the first floor of Hampton and available here:

Bechtel Crossrail Site Visits

London Sites

Stourport Ring Narrowboat Excursion