Secondment time!

After discussing a few options for a secondment over my year as Apprentice it was agreed that I would spend two weeks full time working with Alun Griffiths (Contractor’s) Ltd during August. I was really pleased that a secondment came through as I was keen to see how a major regional contractor works and get a flavour of Mr Griffith’s company.

I spent the first week in the company’s head office in Abergavenny, just round the corner from where I had been on-site back in 2006 working on section 1 of the A465.

Here's the outside of the office:


I got stuck in to working on the quality submission side of tenders for small/medium size schemes. For example, one was to be on a framework for a county council. The tender asked us to give advice on buildability and risk issues for two sample schemes – a retaining wall reconstruction with new footpath alongside, and a drainage bypass channel to relieve an existing river pinchpoint under a bridge. Whilst in the office I took the opportunity to work with all the people involved in the tender process, from the guys who find and identify the prequals, through to the estimators and engineers developing and pricing solutions. Interesting stuff, particularly seeing how smaller schemes are managed differently to the big projects I’m used to.

My second week took me to ‘Valleywood’, a large development centred around film studios and silent stages. AGCL were contracted to form and construct earthworks, services and access roads to 3 new housing plateaus. I worked with the engineers setting out batters/ gully locations and as checking levels of works such as pipe runs into manhole locations as you can see here:



It was interesting to see how site engineers interpret the construction information we designers give them, and what they like to see on it to make their jobs easier. I also worked with the sub-agent and got involved with how works are managed such as plant, ordering materials and programming.
I spent the last day of the second week working with a Quantity Surveyor based in the Swansea waterfront site office, working on the AGCL framework with Swansea Council. Mike showed me all of the development works being carried out under the framework and the financial/contractual issues in running the jobs. For example, AGCL have done a huge amount of resurfacing of pedestrian areas with associated landscaping, railings etc as you can see in the photo below.



Overall, the secondment was a great experience and a perfect end to my year as Apprentice to Mr Griffiths. I got stuck in with a variety of projects of different scales at different stages. I can now sympathise a lot better with the issues contractor’s face on site and interacting with designers and I’ll definitely have a different perspective.

The whole year has been eye-opening, interesting and educational. I’ve met people from a wide cross-section of engineering areas and seen exactly how the Institution of Civil Engineers works, both within Wales and nationally. I’ve learnt a lot about the industry that will help me progress as a a Civil Engineer and I would like to take the opportunity to thank Keith and everyone at ICE and especially Mr Griffiths for his time and efforts on making my apprentice experience so successful.

Back to London

I think I’m still recovering from a whirlwind 10 days of one of my best friend’s stag weekends, work and some special ICE events.

It all started with a long weekend canal boating on the Thames, mooring up in Oxford and Abingdon along the way. It was my first time on a canal boat, and the whole experience of chugging along through locks with friends and a cold beer in hand was very serene and relaxing. The obligatory embarrassing fancy dress (literally) for the stag also made the evenings a good laugh.

Things are really busy with Halcrow at the moment, working on Halcrow’s Employer’s Agent role overseeing the detailed design of the A487 Porthmadog, Minffordd and Tremadog Bypass. Work on site is starting to pick up pace and it’s a really interesting stage for the project. The fact that Network Rail have chosen the ‘quiet’ Cambrian Coast line, which we need to divert to fit our road in, as a testing ground the new European Signalling system is proving a challenge. Good to work on though and has given me some good opportunities to broaden my engineering horizons.

Inbetween work, we had an ICE Wales Cymru Executive Board meeting on Tuesday at 4pm, including a presentation on the member satisfaction survey by ICE Comms Director, Anne Moir. I had to take the minutes of the meeting, which sounds like a chore (okay it is), but it’s a really handy way of keeping you involved in the issues and you can’t let anything go over your head! The meeting closed at 6pm as Anne, Heather from her team, the Director, Chairman and I had to catch the train to London in preparation for the State of the Nation – Infrastructure launch the next day.

This was my second trip to One Great George Street and you notice something new about the place everytime you go. Past President David Orr presented the Infrastructure report to the Government’s Chief Construction Advisor at the event. After this Alun and I went to the Regional Affairs Committee meeting. Being in OGGS I had a bit of a preconceived idea that any meeting here was going to be ultra formal and intimidating, but it was quite the opposite. ICE Director’s gave us a few briefings on current affairs and we then broke up into focus groups to discuss them. I ended up compiling our groups thoughts on a flip chart and presenting them to the Committee. Much like my local committee it was great to see everyone was keen to listen to a lowly Apprentice’s opinions.

Official meetings finished about 4pm and after a quick change back at the hotel we returned to OGGS for the ‘President’s Reception’. A black tie dinner for ICE volunteers held in the Great Hall, and also pretty much the poshest doo I’ve ever been to! The hall is amazing (as featured in Bridget Jones’ Diary 2 if you’ve got the DVD on the shelf!) and my wife was also invited which was nice as I got the chance to introduce her to some colleagues she’s never met before. We sat next to David Orr who showed us round the building after dinner. A guided tour off a past-president was very cool and a great honour. Much appreciated! Emily asked him whether you still get to be called 'Mr President' after your term in office like the US President. Apparently not unfortunately! P.S. Did you know every President has their portrait painted and it’s hung in OGGS foyer for their year? After that they slowly make their way along the corridor and down the stairs!

Here's a photo of Emily and me being given the Presidential tour by David Orr (sorry for the blurry camera phone pic):

GSNet Induction Pack

I'm pretty much working full time on the A487 Porthmadog, Minffordd and Tremadog Bypass at the moment. My company, Halcrow, are the Employer's Agent to the Welsh Assembly Government so we've overseen everything on their behalf leading up to and including the construction which has now started.

I got chatting today to my counterpart in Hyder (Contractor's Designer), Jamie Orme. Jamie is on the Executive Committee of GSNet so was interested in what I was doing as Apprentice. He asked me to shamelessly plug the GSNet Induction Pack he's been working on this year, so here it is:
http://www.ice-gsnet.org.uk/support/support_view.asp?articleid=191

A useful summary of who GSNet are and how they fit into the grand scheme of things.

Integrated Transport and Peter Hansford...

Peter Hansford, ICE’s next President, is visiting us at ICE Wales Cymru this week. His visit started yesterday evening when he met us over dinner. Peter and I had a good talk about the Apprentice role and he was very supportive of my ideas to promote the use of OGGS by members. With the purchase of 8 Storeys Gate Peter told me there’s going to be some available space at OGGS for new facilities. A great opportunity to get members more involved with the building and Institution. We discussed how these new facilities could be used to make OGGS a ‘drop-in centre’ – maybe with something along the lines of a lounge/coffee shop/informal work and meeting space. Hopefully ICE will consult us on the options for the development. I’m looking forward to having a better look around OGGS next month.
Today we had the ICE Wales Cymru Integrated Transport conference. There was a full programme of good speakers and my company, Halcrow, was the lead sponsor of the event so I was split between manning the two stands in the breaks!

The Chairman and I at the Integrated Transportation conference:


Peter Handsford addressing the conference:


Here's me with my ICE hat on (not literally!) giving a member some advice on how he could go for the Fellowship grade:


The final session of the day was ‘Politicians meet the Professionals’ with a panel including the Deputy First Minister Ieaun Wyn Jones. The subject of Transportation proved as emotive and complex as ever, but some interesting debate was stimulated. I was very luck to get the chance to meet with the Minister and he kindly posed for a photo on the Halcrow stand (pictures by Betina Skovbro photography www.skovbro.com). Halcrow sponsor the conference and our theme this year was sustainability, to reflect how high this issue is on our agenda in relation to transport projects:

ICE Apprentices - LinkedIn.

Anyone out there an ICE Apprentice? If so, I've set up a group for us on www.LinkedIn.com:



Here's the link:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3059680&trk=hb_side_g

For those who've never used LinkedIn before, think of it as a professional version of Facebook. Please come and join the group. The discussion forum will give us a good place to share experiences and discuss all aspects of the Apprentice role and maybe how it can be improved in the future. I'm a big fan of discussion forums and I think they're a very useful tool for communicating within a network such as those associated with the ICE Apprentice scheme.

Other Apprentices and One Great George Street

After my presentation to the President on his visit to ICE Wales Cymru last week he suggested I get in touch with other Apprentices. The first job is to get in touch with One Great George Street and try and get a list of names and email addresses for them all. Then I need to come up with a good way to link us all together. Something to think about over the coming months.

A suggestion I made to the President in my presentation was on OGGS. I’ve met quite a lot of Engineers, even Chartered ones, who’ve never been to OGGS. For those who haven’t been, OGGS is an amazing building located a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Here it is with Big Ben in the background:


Aerial plan of its location:


Its rich history and impressive architecture make you feel very proud to be involved with the Institution. Next time you go to London it’s definitely worth a visit. Just take your ICE membership card and you’re free to walk around. Speaking to an archivist there, they have a leaflet that you can read as you wander around the building (email me if you want a copy):


They’re currently working on an audio tour that we’ll be able to download onto our mp3 players/iphones.

Engineers often talk about raising our profile and making our profession more respected and valued by the public. We can all spread the word by involving our families and friends in the Institution. Taking them to visit OGGS can only help, and there’s even a bar and restaurant for a bit of grub while they soak up all the history.

You can take a look at OGGS’s website as a conference and event venue here: www.onegreatgeorgestreet.com. You can even get married at OGGS!

Mr President....

We've had two ICE Wales Cymru committee meetings in as many weeks. The first was, as normal, held in Bay Chambers and covered a variety of matters from the Chairman, Director and members.

One of the items on the Agenda was the upcoming Presidential visit and as part of that, the second of the committee meetings. Before that took place on Thursday evening, we met the President at Cardiff Castle for a presentation on the design and construction of the new interpretation centre by the consultants Mann Williams.

The view from the Interpretation Centre roof terrace towards the motte:

We then had a tour of the Castle itself, including a room in the clock tower which is normally out of bounds. The Marquis of Bute entertained friends in this room and he owned every piece of land you could see from the windows:

Me with ICE President Paul Jowitt:

After the tour we walked through Bute Park to view the bridge that Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd. have just finished building off North road, then went to the Marriott hotel for the Presidential committee meeting. The guys from Engineers for Overseas Developments (EFOD) gave a presentation as well as Gemma Hancock and Mark Legge from the Graduates and Students Committee (this year and next years G&S Chairman), then I gave a presentation on my time as Apprentice.
Friday saw a visit to the White Water Rafting Centre for a presentation on it’s design and construction as well as the nearby Pont-y-Werin bascule bridge. It required the largest mobile crane in the UK to lift its four sections into place and will open up this area of the Bay for pedestrians whilst allowing river traffic to continue. After the presentation there was a ‘Meet the President’ meeting where Mr Jowitt gave feedback on national developments and their impact on the Welsh region.

The visit was rounded off with the ICE Wales Cymru annual dinner and awards evening. Karyn Thompson (ICE Wales’ Marketing and Communications) had orgainised an impressive stage set-up from the events team that do the stage/I.T. for ICE conferences.

I sat next to David Lloyd-Roach who is ICEs Membership Director. Not only was David interesting he was a good sport, and didn’t mind the guest speaker poking some fun at him. It turned out to be a late night but worth it, and our President was happy to stay in the bar until the early hours to talk with me and the guys from G&S, despite him having a flight early the next morning. I was surprised and pleased to later receive a note from Mr Jowitt saying how much he enjoyed the visit and dinner, so I think we showed him a good time!

Cardiff International White Water Centre

I was kindly invited by the Chairman to dust off my tux and attend the Civil Engineering Contractor’s Association (CECA) Wales dinner last Friday. Before the dinner, I got the chance to meet the top table guests with Alun and to have a good talk to the Griffiths Contracting staff before taking a seat with them. The old cliché is that Contractor’s events are a bit more raucous than others and I suppose the CECA dinner to a degree didn’t disappoint. Howard Mark’s after dinner speech was certainly controversial but a welsh male voice choir tempered the mood perfectly. The speeches covered the difficulties of the economic climate and challenge ahead of government spending cutbacks, but also presented a positive message of successes during the year.

ICE Wales Cymru had a ‘school trip’ this week. As a change from evening lectures in the Trevithick we had a site visit to the newly completed Cardiff International White Water Rafting Centre in the Cardiff Bay Sports Village.

The first thing that struck me from the Simon Howell’s presentation was how good a job the Harbour Authority he manages are doing. The regeneration of the Bay has been a huge success and as a result the Authority was able to fund a substantial amount of the Centre from savings. Simon went into detail on the design and construction of the Centre. The Centre’s reservoir, surrounded by a steel pile wall, enables careful monitoring of water quality (purged from the River Ely) which maximises the days the Centre is operational. At a cost of around £13m, you have to say it was good value when you compare it to the English equivalent currently under construction which has a 50m longer course but is costing three times as much. Combined with the new other developments coming through, the Sports Village is really starting to take shape. It’ll be interesting to see where it is in another five years from now.

Some photos below from the visit showing the course with and without the water pumping, plus the elevator to transport you and your boat back to the top. Sadly, we didn’t get the opportunity to test it out!

New Zealand in 3000km, 2 weeks..and 1 Mouse.

After an exodus of colleagues I’d been dying to see for myself what New Zealand was really like. A friend’s wedding in Sydney was the perfect excuse to tag on a couple of weeks campervanning it round NZ with my wife Emily.

We’d been to Sydney before so steered clear of the usual tourist spots, but the harbour bridge and opera house never fail to impress. This time we decided to try out the train connection to the CBD from the airport rather than getting a cab. The service was perfectly timed, cheap and very user friendly. Double decker trains were an interesting novelty and made me wonder what the pro’s and con’s are of this? Less carriage length per passenger obviously but surely the trains less aerodynamic? I’d never seen this before anywhere else.



My first ever Jewish wedding came and went (if you’ve never been to one they’re an experience in themselves!), and we swiftly flew on to Auckland, beginning our road trip through Rotorua, Lake Taupo and Wellington in the North Island, then the interislander ferry to Picton and then on to Kaikora, Franz Josef, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin and finally Christchurch. Phew! Campervans are the best way to see this place. A theory confirmed by the number you see on the road, and the number of excellent camp sites on offer. Free camping by the side of the road is always an option to keep costs down, although after a mouse spending the night keeping us awake running round our van we stuck to the pay sites!

Overall New Zealand’s countryside struck me as being similar to Wales, but at an extreme scale. The vastness of the landscape was sometimes difficult to comprehend. A waterfall that seemed close was infact 9km away. I don’t know what I was expecting of the towns and cities, but they surprised me in how American they were in style. Cities were set on the Jefferson grid layout and the small town’s main streets had more than a striking resemblance to something out of a western cowboy movie. The roads connecting them were 99% single carriageway, with dualled sections only sited near the largest of cities of Auckland and Christchurch. Generally the road surfacing quality was high, but some of the sight lines over hogs must have been less than DMRB desirable, even at the 100kph speed limit and from my camper’s elevated driving position.

New Zealand’s ‘style’ was undoubtedly relaxed. The minimal H&S training you needed to jump out of plane at 12,000ft or climb through crevices of a glacier struck me as something you would have to go a decade or two back in the UK to be allowed. Other things from infrastructure through to marketing also reminded me of where the UK was years ago. The massive opportunities for Engineers to emigrate and work in NZ shows that the country is moving on, and I bet there’s plenty of interesting work to be done out there. It’ll be interesting to see how the place develops over the next decade.







Then it was back to good old Wales just in time to go to the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Annual Dinner with my Halcrow lot. Despite the jet lag it was a great evening.

The Waste Conference

I attended my first ICE Wales Cymru conference last week on ‘Waste’. ICE tested out a new ‘event management’ company using some gadgets such as plasma TV’s instead of an overhead projector. They definitely made a good impression on the 100 strong audience as all the speakers presentations went really smoothly and looked highly professional.

Another first for this conference was that it was paperless. Delegate packs etc were all uploaded to a website beforehand which not only saves a massive amount of paper, it also makes the info easily accessible from anywhere. The same website will later host all of the presentation slides for delegates to revisit. Everyone I spoke to couldn’t find fault in the paperless system and it sounds like this may be carried on into other conferences.

ICE Wales Cymru were again lucky to receive support from Jane Davidson AM, Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, who gave the Keynote address. She talked of ‘One Wales, One Planet’, the new directive to get our footprint down to ‘one world’ equivalent level rather the around the ‘3 worlds’ we currently do. This links back to the 2020 and 2050 carbon emission targets that formed part of the last ICE ‘State of the Nation’ Launch on Low Carbon Infrastructure.

Here’s some photos from the event. Me with the Chairman, Director plus Jane Davidson and Phil Butler, Chairman of the ICE Waste Board, then a few others of the event underway:



Others events recently were the evening lecture on the LNG pipeline construction. Some interesting and funny stories from, Nigel Bevan the Project Manager for National Grid. The scale of the project was absolutely immense so it’s an incredible achievement. This morning there was a Business Breakfast on the ‘Remedies Directive’ – basically changes in tendering legislation to make things fairer and more transparent, which can’t be a bad thing. As always, a marvellous fry-up was served whilst you gained CPD. Awesome!

Getting from A to B - Sustainably?

Happy New Year to all you people out there in blogland. Now that the snow’s cleared ICE Wales Cymru meetings and events were all kicking back off this week. We had; an evening lecture on Monday, the start of the 2010 written assignment group on Wednesday in Bay Chambers (hopefully getting me that little bit more prepared for professional review!) and a twice rescheduled ICE Wales Cymru Executive Board to look forward to next Monday.

Monday’s lecture on ‘Sustainable Transport in Wales’, held in Cardiff University, saw some controversial proposals presented by Neil Anderson (no not Neo from the Matrix before you think it) on how engineers, government and society all need to change in order that we get a truly sustainable transport system. I was somewhat cynical of the speaker’s personal interests in light rail when he vehemently criticised road developments in Wales as well as bus systems, but ideas he presented on de-centralising transportation networks were very interesting. It was suggested that instead of every form of transport linking in the city centre and radiating out, that intercity transport terminated at the periphery and then linked into a light rail network to quickly link people to their destination.

Fully integrated mixed mode transport systems surely have to be the way to go. Easier said than done, but I’m sure the bus and train companies will tell you they already go to lengths to try and achieve this. To get the public onto public transport information is key. Knowing exactly when the next train or bus is coming helps travellers make informed choices and save wasted time. Display screens in bus stops and train departure boards in public buildings are the start of that, and the wider availability of internet connection on mobile phones is now allowing people to get this info instantly. This is one step towards integrated transport (be it made up of public with some private in the mix), which is surely a step towards sustainable transport.

Carbon credits were also discussed in the lecture. How long before we get a ration of ‘carbon’ and have to choose between our New York city break or taking our car to work instead of the bus? Could this realistically be enforced? Perhaps. On a more realistic basis the cost of fuel duty/air flight duty will inevitably rise far beyond current levels to make leaner use of remaining fossil fuels until the technological breakthrough we’re all waiting for arrives. Or has it already been achieved and the oil companies are waiting until the black stuff really does run low before handing it over to us. Conspiracy theories abound…..

Talking to Neil, a kiwi, after his lecture I managed to get some good tips on what to see in New Zealand when I drive a camper van from Auckland in the North to Christchurch in the South next month with my wife Emily. To justify my carbon footprint for the trip I’ll report on how sustainable and integrated their transport system is. Can’t wait!