Classification and professional competence of construction engineering and technical personnel of Tomsk province in the second half of XIX - early XX century

The article discusses the history of the formation of construction engineering staff in Tomsk province in the second half of the XIXth -early XXth centuries. Economic changes in the country also affected the Siberian region, causing rapid growth of civil construction and the necessity for skilled construction personnel. We made an attempt to classify technical personnel in the construction industry during the studied period. All construction technical personnel can be divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. The first group included architects and engineers who had graduated from a higher education institutions. All of them were members of the building commission, provincial and municipal government and other public organizations. Technicians of average level had different qualifications such as draftsmen, surveyors, land surveyors, hydraulic technicians; they were assistants to engineers. In their turn they could be divided into clerical and field workers. To the lowest category of technical personnel we refer craftsmen and foremen, whose skills had been based on practical experience. On the basis of architectural and construction literature the professional competences of engineering specialists and skilled construction workers are analyzed. Here are identified the duties of technicians and foremen as well as causes of accidents entailing responsibility in building. Technicians were responsible for the devices protecting workers from accidents, maintenance of their tools and devices. The introduction of new ways of working in the construction industry, the improvement of equipment led to increased competence of technicians and craftsmen of the construction industry. Technical personnel, from foremen to average technicians, were legally responsible for the correct performance of work and safety in the construction sites. We investigate the role of engineering and technical personnel in the construction industry. The construction experience of the Trans-Siberian Railway showed the readiness of engineering personnel to perform complex technical tasks in severe climatic conditions of sparsely populated areas of the Siberian region.

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