Week 5 – 11-13 Apr 12
Another short week following the Easter R&R period has been jam-packed with activity as the package leader is heading home to Ireland on Saturday for a 2 week break which means we’ve been thrashing ourselves to tie up all the loose ends. Having just been in the handover meeting I’ve ended up with a fair amount of responsibility in his absence, particularly chairing the weekly meetings and liaison with the design team. This should not be an overly onerous task and the extra responsibility will be good for raising my profile a bit with the key players.
My main effort has been finalising a contract for the pile cut off platforms which is going to end up in the region of $110,000 and the enabling works for the project site which is about $250,000 all up. I’ve also been investing time in the junior engineers, sweeping up their basic skills such as the production of meeting minutes through to formatting documents and improving the general professionalism of our products.
A new task this week has been investigating, researching and selecting the method for abrasive blasting over the water as well as the painting of the welded areas of the Jetty structural. This will probably be the subject area for my first TMR and will therefore leave the meat of the detail for that. What I will say though is that convincing people that the ecological/environmental benefits outweigh the financial is a very difficult task to which there is significant friction!
The plan for next week sees our team halved for the first part whilst the PL is on leave and our graduate engineer on a JH trg package for 3 days (opportunity to have some beers on the company is the basic aim) so I’ll be fairly busy. When this is combined to the fact that Lisa is going to be pushing towards 39 weeks pregnant it will be a tough balancing act. We’re all set though with friends appointed to take the kids during the birth and an escape plan hatched to get me off the island when the time comes!
The latest news I have had for a start date is that we won’t commence until 25 June 12. Whether this includes the enabling works is uncertain but I will keep PEW updated and the review of DOs due on 21 May should give a decent perspective of where I’m at. Not an issue yet at least.
So overall, things are ticking along. The long days are taking their toll but it makes the day off on the weekend very much appreciated and the management here are allowing me the time to undertake my coursework as and when required which means that the time off is largely dedicated to the family.
Until next week, Au Revoir!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Persuasion re environmental or ecological benefits is often best done as a reputation and finacial penalty statement in the event of problems i.e. the risk associated with technique A is that we end up with the following issue, associated bad press, clean up requirements and costs and ultimatley delay and greater expenditure than if we opt for the more environmentally friendly option B. Cock up on option A also means we are likely to have regulators crawling all over us in future….
Look forward to hearing how you fare on that one!
This approach has been taken as the last job that John Holland undertook like this ended up with a $2.5M fine for the company so they are well aware of the financial penalties. I think there’s been a few cock ups on the MOF job as well which means that there are already weekly visits from DERM (department for environment equivalent) and a general awareness across the board. However, money and profitability seems to be more of a driver!
What does it cost to host a DERM visit, to write a response to a letter of criticism and potentially prepare a defence case? Is thios costed in as part of the method cost? We always used to have a risk based bid value for works which added in costs for all estimated risk multiplied by thier estimated probability of occurrance. IT gives a better indicator of value as a monetary bottom line. It’s also useful for insurance purposes! If the cost is being presented as merely the works cost as quoted by a subcontractor someone is being less than clever and I question why.