“A lot of people think if they become an engineer, all they’ll do is sit in an office and talk to three people for the rest of their life. PND gives you a great chance, even for young engineers, to get real-world experience and fieldwork.”
No Bridge Too Far
PND Staff Engineer Ben VanderHart, EIT, knew he wanted to incorporate hands-on work into his engineering career. Ben grew up 30 minutes outside of Delta Junction in Interior Alaska, two hours south of Fairbanks and six hours north of Anchorage. His childhood was defined by hauling wood for the hearth and water from the well for the family homestead, where temperatures routinely tipped the negative scales and the nearest water source was a half-mile away. Wild bison herds roamed alongside domestic ranches. Ben recalls the temperature plummeting once to -58°F, which was the coldest temperature the thermometer could calculate.
From a remote private school of four to studying civil engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), Ben immediately discovered his vocation when a bridge model from an American Institute of Steel Construction Student Steel Bridge Competition caught his eye. “Day one at school, I saw one of their steel bridge models from a previous competition and said, ‘I want to do whatever that is.’”
Three years into his nascent career at PND Engineers, Inc., Ben has found the perfect hybrid position that honors both his technical training and his outdoors-focused upbringing: rope access bridge inspection, a role that combines rigorous engineering analysis with travel, fieldwork, and physical challenge.
From Office to Rope Access
Ben’s career path started with construction internships, paving highways in Alaska and building airport terminals in Hawaii. “I didn’t want to be in an office; I wanted to be outside doing stuff,” said VanderHart, who graduated from UAF in April 2022 and was hired full-time at PND in our Anchorage office less than two months later. He knew he wanted to use his technical education on something more than construction management mathematics.
PND’s website caught his attention. He saw photographs of engineers inspecting bridges in remote locations. “I figured I’d get to do inspection work and have that hybrid career where you’re part in the office, part out in the field.”
The field experience dramatically improved Ben’s design work. “Construction workers tell you stuff like, ‘Why did you design it like this? This is awful. How are we going to pick this thing up when you didn’t give us any lifting points?’ You realize there are all these constraints you wouldn’t think about sitting in an office.”
When he first started at PND in June 2022, Ben was providing bridge inspection services as a helper, observing senior inspectors and learning the ropes—quite literally. “You’re not expected to do anything super technical. You’re there to take pictures, write notes, and observe, while the senior person handles all the coordination.”
After a year of supporting rope inspections, Ben received his Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT) certification. The 40-hour weeklong course covers everything from knot tying to actual rope climbing. “With rope access, you’re actually hanging from the ropes—constant tension. You always have a main line and backup line.”
Ben is a Level I technician, working toward accumulating enough hours in the field to gain Level II access. PND partners with Level III rope access technicians to handle the professional rigging setup. “They’re super safety-oriented so we’re not exposing ourselves to the risk of deciding how to rig something.”
First Drop: Cook Inlet
Ben’s first rope job took him to a refinery dock in Kenai, Alaska, inspecting catwalks 30 to 40 feet above Cook Inlet’s rushing tides. “Underneath me was water flowing 20 miles an hour. We take all safety precautions—life jacket, safety boat watching for someone to fall in. They might fish you out a little downstream, but they’ll get you.”
The inspection process is methodical, despite the dramatic backdrops. Ben carries minimal equipment tethered to his personal protective equipment—camera, tape measure, waterproof notebook, small hammer for testing metal and concrete soundness.
Rope work operates within nature’s constraints. Wind speeds above 20 mph halt operations. “You’re just a pendulum going back and forth.” Half of Ben’s rope jobs involve rain; almost all of them involve spectacular wildlife encounters. “If you want to see cool Alaska wildlife, go up to the North Slope. We see caribou, Arctic foxes—occasionally polar bears—every single day.”
Ben’s biggest inspection—six days on ropes across three North Slope bridges—included an unexpected visitor. “I was underneath the bridge when I heard a double car horn honk and someone said ‘bear, bear.’ I’m thinking, ‘How close to the water do I want to be if this bear’s right around the corner?’”
After a 10-mile swim from pack ice in the Beaufort Sea, the polar bear emerged onto the road an eighth of a mile away from the project site. “The dockmaster told us bears swim in off the ice, and when they make it to shore, they’re so tired they lay down and nap for a couple of days. He said, ‘We don’t want him to nap here because then you guys can’t work.’”
“You definitely don’t want to be dangling from a rope like a meal hanging up there!”
Complete Project Lifecycle
Ben’s most rewarding project combined inspection with full engineering design at a remote granite quarry on Kodiak Island. Accessible only by floatplane, the job started with inspecting a loading ramp for 38-ton rocks.
“First, go look at this ramp, see if anything’s wrong,” Ben said. “Then they needed a load rating; tell them the heaviest weight they can roll over it.” The structure, built from salvaged materials of unknown vintage, failed the analysis.
“They said, ‘We just want to replace it.’ I spent a couple of weeks designing a new ramp from 1950s riveted bridge girders―also salvage material. That project was really rewarding because it was the whole lifecycle: figure out the problem, iterate solutions, design it, then see it implemented.”
The Appeal: Beyond the Office
Ben spends 80 percent of his time in design work but keeps his schedule flexible for inspection calls. “A lot of people think if they become an engineer, all they’ll do is sit in an office and talk to three people for the rest of their life. PND gives you a great chance, even for young engineers, to get real-world experience and fieldwork.”
The financial incentives help, too. “PND pays time-and-a-half overtime. When you’re working 12-hour days, seven days a week away from home, it’s a great bonus―a reward for taking time out of your life.”
Evolution from Helper to Lead
Ben recently stepped into a lead rope inspector role at PND, organizing his own trips and coordinating with clients. “Someone used to tell me, ‘We need you here,’ and I’d hop on a plane. Now I’m the one organizing it, which is more rewarding. You see how these things actually get done instead of just showing up.”
Looking ahead, Ben sees a full month of fieldwork planned for next year on the North Slope of Alaska. “I want to do projects all around the state. Getting to travel, see different places, work with cool people―it’s so much better than just sitting in an office.”
Ben has a pro tip for engineering students who are browsing company websites while searching for internship opportunities and entry-level engineering positions: Pay attention to project variety. “You can nerd out over these projects. ‘Look at that cool bridge. I want to design something like that.’ PND is really giving me the chance to do that.”
Ben VanderHart joined PND Engineers, Inc. in June 2022. He is based in our Anchorage, Alaska, office location. He specializes in structural engineering and rope access inspection of bridges, docks, and marine structures throughout Alaska.