Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

After a number of visits to our site this week I’m starting to feel that this quote applies equally to construction, it is far easier to attempt to win a Considerate Constructors award to make your bosses happy than it is to understand what exactly is going on on your site.  I’ve said it to a couple of you over the phone, but for the wider audience; I am beginning to truly understand why construction isn’t really profitable.

We poured our first slab and put up the final tower crane this week, which has really changed the face of the site, the first of the core walls has been poured also.  The remainder has been much the same as the previous few weeks, pile cap after pile cap, I estimate that we have poured about 25 pile caps so far, approximately 30% of the total.

The main core pile cap on the highest (17 storey) block was due to be poured on Friday however this was postponed due to in complete detailing by the structure designers.  What I haven’t managed to find out yet is why we got to 18 hours from pouring before the issue became obvious to the site team of the main contractor.  In short the groundwork and RC sub-contractor had done the take off for the core, found that some walls hadn’t been detailed and raised an RFI, this was transmitted via a complicated info management system that doesn’t seem to keep the site staff informed.  An incomplete answer was received from the consultants, at this point I believe a notebook, a to-do list and a willingness to be engaged in actual engineering would have been useful.  In short the sub-contractor was unwilling (and rightly so) to proceed with incomplete details and when we (I) managed to get the structural engineer who happened to be visiting that day to commit his answer to paper with a signature it was too late and the steel required wasn’t on site.  My knee jerk reaction to this is that communication is the key problem I’m witnessing currently, there are plenty of meetings that go on but getting the information out of those meetings if you weren’t there originally is very difficult.

Cell Core laid in advance of steel fixing on the B Block main core

AER 1 is coming along and I think I have an option for TMR 1 but thoughts on a thesis are non-existent.

Well its been another week in the office and things are looking good. After my initial medical, drugs and alcohol test BAMNuttal are getting their pound of flesh.

I started off being told I would be working at Farringdon station, then it was Bond St and now it is Holborn station. The good news is my commute has now increased to just over an hour, however it does allow me to get any extra work completed before getting home to a crying baby.

To my surprise the project site isn’t that different to being on tour.

• Crossrail have commandeered an old pub/flats that we are in the process of converting into usable office space. Much like taking over a FOB on tour.              

 I’ve already managed to acquire the old optics from the bar ready to install at home.

• Like on tour a number of the Engineers seem to have misplaced their razor blades and have been unable to get themselves to a barbers.
• There is just as much un-necessary paperwork here as there was on tour.
• The structure of the organisation is far more complex than initially realised.

The first thing I have been getting to grasps with is where I sit in the Project and the Company, no easy task.

Project

Crossrail are in the process of investing billions of pounds, approx. 18 billion, into the rail network system, in order to connect West and East rail services. As part of this investment, London is benefiting from a huge uplift in its rail network. The upgrades are broken down into 4 main sections, the Western tunnels, Eastern tunnels, Thames tunnels and the Connaught tunnels. Each section comprises of a number of smaller projects. For example the Western tunnel section consist of tunnelling between Old Oak Common and Farringdon. This one tunnel drive takes in Old Oak Common, Westbourne Park, Paddington, Bond St, Tottenham Court, Fisher St and Farringdon.

 At each one of these sites a number of Works are required ie Enabling/Demolition Works, Piling/Diaghram Wall works, Tunnelling Works and Final fitout works.

BFK has won the contracts for the Tunnelling works on the Western Tunnel Section. These Works are incorporated into the C300 and C410 contracts.

As such, my role is as an Engineer for the Tunnelling Works at Fisher Street, one of 7 sites on the Western Tunnelling Section. Hence the Enabling/demolition works and the Piling works have already taken place, by different contractors, and BFK are due to start tunnelling works in 3 weeks time. In due coarse BFK will hand the site over to a new contractor in order for them to start the Final Fitout Works.

Company

Although BFK’s part in the entire project may appear small, only the Western tunnel section and only the actual Tunnelling Works, it is still such a large contract that one company alone was unable to cope with.

As such a number of construction companies have come together in a joint venture, in order to take on the task. BAMNuttall, Ferrovial and Kier have joined forces to win the Crossrail contract and are known as BFK joint venture.

I have been seconded to BAMNuttall , one of the companies within BFK, as one of 2 Engineers on the Fisher St site. However BAMNuttall is not a company in its own right and is part of the Royal BAM Group. The Royal BAM Group consists of a number of major operations:

• BAM Woningbouw – Residential construction
• BAM Civiel – Civil engineering
• BAM Infratechniek – Utilities
• BAM Wegen – Environmental engineering
• BAM Construct UK – Building in the UK
• BAM Nuttall – Civil engineering in the UK
• BAM Contractors – Building, Civil Engineering, Facilities Management, PPP, Property and Rail in Ireland
• BAM Utiliteitsbouw – Non-residential construction