Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Finally I have reached site. It has taken a fair degree of admin to move countries and a brief period of R&R in the wine region to pacify Nicky; apparently 36 bottles will last until next visit (24 Mar).

I attended a corporate induction at head office Western Australia which was a good welcome to the company but lacked any of the detail that I really wanted for AER 1 and mainly consisted of powerpoint presentations given by people who would rather be doing other things. A fairly standard induction I think. The following day was spent in an isolated cell on the top floor of the building frantically clicking my way through online learning packages that I was assured were essential for site.  I was told on arrival at site that 2 of the 3 were not necessary immediately so although I will not have time to do them when required at least I will have done them in order to forget them later.

The site induction was interesting. It actually gave a pretty good background to the project and was pitched at all levels. The team building activity of completing a 21 piece puzzle was my favourite part, though some struggled more than others.  I had the corner piece so nailed it early and decided to project manage from the back.

The project is huge and has advanced rapidly since Steve left, as such has been split into North, Centre and South Blocks, with the superstructures well and truly out of the ground. The North is more advanced than the South with the main cores well into jump forming with the decks chasing the cores up rapidly. In the Centre and South the majority of the piles are now capped and columns cast with work well underway on the first slab for the upper car park level. The ground slab has been leapfrogged as the E&M plan was not completed on time and would have held up construction (Proof that E&M’s worldwide are slow and unwieldy). This will be completed once the backprops have been removed allowing work to commence beneath the first slab.  (I may delve into this further for a TMR as I am sure it was not a lightly taken decision). I can’t really provide much more detail as yet, as after day 2 my head is pretty much still swimming.

The local schools entered a competition to name the cranes. The winners were:

• Koolangkas
• Kranasaurus
• Magnus
• Sir Lift a lot
• Tall Bert (My favourite)

View from Core C – North (Tall Bert in foreground)

I have been appointed as a Project Engineers though I am currently shadowing the Centre and South Engineer until I can take of the training wheels and fly free. Could be a while. Initial chat was that I may take over the as Project Engineer for the Centre block but I am meeting with my PM next week to discuss my objectives and set a plan to achieve them.

My time currently has been spent preparing works packs for column pours and I will soon be looking at preparation of a slab pour. I have  been out and about on site whenever possible mainly to bring some of the masses of drawings to life, but also to ask the other Engineers how we have got to where we are and why things have been done as they have to understand the history of the project.

I have been impressed by the quality of engineer on the project. Even the youngest of site engineers is incredibly knowledgeable and luckily,  all are quite willing to lend a hand to understanding the processes.

I have only met a few Australians on site so far. In similarity to Rich, everybody else appears to be Irish. It is no wonder the Irish economy is in turmoil, they are all working overseas! Looking forward to Paddy’s day this weekend.