Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

This has been a glorious week to be on site here in Southampton, only I haven’t found myself on site much this week.  I can’t really put my finger on exactly why that’s the case but it seems to be mainly because I’ve been doing paperwork. 

After inheriting the Site Waste Management Plan from the other assistant site manager who left the company a little while ago I was told it was all fine, after who knows how many HOTOs you would have thought if anyone said that it should ring alarm bells in my head, clearly I haven’t learned my lesson.  So digging into the SWMP allowed me to discover that all was not well and being that it’s a legal requirement it probably shouldn’t be the work of fiction that it was.  That took up Monday. 

I had yet more students on site this week as the ones that I spoke to last week had obviously said there was some old bloke who still thinks he’s down with the kids that is willing to give out answers freely.

The most interesting day this week was Thursday.  The problem of artesian water continues to be an issue, a meeting was called with the client, the geotechnical consultant and the site team to discuss what has happened in the past and where we might go next.  With the best estimate of the borehole location (the log only recorded it to 100mm accuracy) plotted on the ground 4 very well paid men and me stood around looking into a hole next to a pile cap with some dirty water in it.  We spent 3 hours discussing what could be done on site and in the meeting room and all the while the geotechnical expert was remarkably quiet on what could be done.  Not much of plan came out of the session other than to find out what would be the opinion of the EA in a round about way if we did nothing.  The tip that the Great Orator mentioned on one update about the water problems about the UK spec lead me to do a bit of a search on IHS and allowed me to reveal a few choice lines that would indicate to me that the Geo Consultancy haven’t done what they should have done and didn’t inform Osborne of the potential problems.  I didn’t wheel this out during the meeting but mentioned it one of the client’s representatives (who is also part of the Osborne Group) afterward who seemed very excited about what I was telling him.  This morning (Friday) during a conversation with the same guy I mentioned where I will be doing my consultancy placement and he asked me to initiate contact with them explaining the problems and exploring the possibility of them coming to advise on the situation, they have accepted.  In 2 days I’ve managed to make both my current and future employers happy.  This is all TMR gold dust so I’m also happy.