Growing up, Liam Sprangers spent long hours with friends constructing tree houses out of scrap lumber, building makeshift bike ramps and designing bridges to span nearby creeks.

Sprangers, who graduates this month with a Bachelor of Engineering, says he was drawn to civil engineering, in particular, by the prospect of being able to work in the construction industry.

He spent his last co-op term on multiple Hall construction sites, coordinating day-to-day activities on complex excavation projects for the company, which is based in his hometown of Langley.

“Gaining an understanding of how a large-scale infrastructure project gets completed was like getting a recipe for your favourite dessert,” he says.

The experience and knowledge Sprangers gained at UVic—through four co-op terms, classroom work and his involvement with a student team—have helped prepare him for a job that starts in November. He’ll be returning to Hall Constructors, this time on Vancouver Island, as a project coordinator.

Sprangers spent his first two co-ops at Metro Vancouver, working on water transmission and dam operations initiatives, where he helped coordinate construction and maintenance projects and worked in water-supply modeling. For his third co-op, he assisted a UVic Civil Engineering researcher’s work in concrete repair by preparing samples, conducting tests and analyzing results.

During the last few years of his degree, Sprangers was a member of the UVic Concrete Canoe team, a civil-engineering-based student team that designs, constructs and paddles a concrete canoe as part of a national competition.

“I learned so much about concrete technology, as well as project management, communication, budgeting, design and problem solving,” says Sprangers. “It was such an interesting project to tackle and, overall, a great experience.”

Ultimately, he says, the best part of his time at UVic was meeting so many genuine, fun and like-minded people.

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