Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Monday – Rainy/Stormy

Tuesday – Rain/Stormy

Wednesday – Rain/Stormy

Thursday – Patchy Rain/Windy

Friday – Sunny with spells of rain.

So, even though, over half the workforce is Irish, Tradies in Australia don’t work in the rain! I think they must melt.

The Zone 5 suspended slab sits quietly rusting in the South, and now the clients are unhappy that there are rust patches on the formwork. This was also an issue with the Zone 4 slab but after negotiations at PM level, JHG eventually issued a site instruction to the formwork contractor (who is responsible for a daily blow out of debris (including tie-wire) from the slab) to powerwash the deck. It visually made bugger-all difference but there are minimal rust marks on the soffit now the formwork has been stripped. On the stripping of formwork, I did think it was rather open beneath the slab and pretty soon realised they had stripped all the backprops. I asked the question of the formworker whether he thought it wise to strip all of the propping from a suspended slab on which they were forming the next level on, but he seemed fairly unfussed that he was stood under a loaded, unsupported 3week floor. I pointed out the requirement for backprops in the design and sent the email to ensure it was rectified.

The big news for the week is that the structural engineers report into the Zone 3 concrete has come back and indicates that although the concrete is not to the expected strength and exhibits de-bonded steelwork and delaminated aggregate in some places, these places are in areas of contra-flexure and therefore any remedial work to the slab may in fact make the situation worse. This is a massive bonus as I was expecting to see Sappers down there chipping out concrete with chisels. We can now forge ahead and form up the columns and decks and push onto ground level.

The rain did very little to affect the programme, it only affected the amount of work completed during the week. Therefore milestones that were set to be complete in May remain where they were before the inclement weather and Strike action. This increased pressure on Engineers to hit targets doesn’t really transmit to the tradies though who continue to amble along at their normal pace. Frustrating.

The phrase that has been thrown around most of the week is attributed to one of JHG’s senior managers who stated during the planning for the NCH that “It doesn’t rain in Perth so don’t factor in that many days for wet weather.” Sensible. This decision was also made at a similar time as the one not to build in days for strike action – we currently sit at about 25days in just over a year lost to industrial action.

I organised a meeting with my PM this week to discuss a few issues that had arisen over the last few weeks. I put my suggestions to him as positively as possible in an effort to make them heard and maybe effect a change in the team structure. They were:

1. A weekly mid week meeting to RAG status the Short Range Programme in order to proactively manage and focus the effort of the team for the following days to meet the level 3 milestones. Currently the SRP is slipped weekly and I don’t think there is any buy in by the engineers as there is no real incentive the aim for milestones if they are all verging on impossible from the time of publishing.
2. Following on from point 1, a team review of the SRP to set realistic targets that will be bought into as everybody would have had a role in the planning. I quoted the Project Director who said “I realise the SRP’s are near impossible.” By having a programme that is not achievable, targets are continually missed and this damages team morale.
3. Following on from point 2, we need a team social. Time is obviously short so a day out of the office is not feasible, and nobody would go for  a weekend, so I suggested volunteering for a charity for the afternoon (assisting in local image and sustainability targets set by JHG) or at the very least a team lunch for 2 hrs once a month. I had also noticed that in the pub down the road from my house there is the 141 challenge (141 beers to be imbibed by a person or team in the shortest time possible – 28mins seems to be the record, so must have been a huge team or big drinker, but days seems quite common). Probably not in keeping with the 0% tolerance on alcohol on site though so maybe this is just one for after my TMR submissions.

The overall thought on my suggestions was that they are not new, there are changes in the pipeline, and a monthly lunch would be good. 1 out of 3 isn’t bad. I am still planning on a daily “RAGing” of the South area as a method to highlight the risk to the Snr Engr and PM.

So the Stormy weather has ended in time for the weekend, now the next couple of weeks look set to become a thrashing to meet the milestones that are in danger of being missed.

On a brighter note, I have just fired up the BBQ.