Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

End Ex was called for me at Battersea on Friday and as I handed in my phone and PPE I realised that I had outlived the Project Director, Construction Manager, Construction Project Manager and the other Sub-structure Engineer!  There were only 2 others in the original construction team that had lasted longer than I had!!  To me that suggests that the grass is not much greener on the other side and that this project was certainly taking it’s toll on the workforce.  My task back in Feb was to complete the installation of the utilities and Network Rail Road by the 26 Apr.  Here is what actually happened and why:

-High Voltage Cables (power on planned 1 Apr): Actual power on: mid-Oct due to client not completing the contracts with the shipper and meter operator.

-Potable Water: Pipework installed on site, still awaiting pressure testing, swabbing and chlorination which can’t be achieved until just before the final connection to Thames Water-they still haven’t got the pipe over Battersea Park Road yet.

-Comms:  Ducts installed but BT are yet to bring their infrastructure to the site boundary.

-Gas: Not even designed properly yet!

-Foul drainage: See microboring.

-Surface water drainage: No pumps installed yet as they haven’t been ordered, outfall to the Thames has been redesigned to accommodate Northern Line extension works and a new flood defence consent is required.

-Network Rail Road:  Part opened on 26 Apr but remainder not opened till 30 Jun due to the requirement to install a second retaining wall.  The road was then not wide enough and has already been dug up a number of times to pull temporary HV cables and find water hydrants.

-Road Retaining Wall: Completed on time but part was broken out by the concrete frame sub-contractor for access to arches.

-Microboring:  Much to my amusement the microboring machine was still sat outside the launch shaft on Friday afternoon when it was meant to be halfway under the road by then.  On digging the reception shaft they found that the sewer was actually 1.5m closer to the bridge than they thought, leaving about 0.25m to get the 1.75m machine out of the ground!  I refrained from shouting ‘I told you so, should have gone with pipe-jacking!’

So in terms of grand achievements part of me feels that I have failed but they have all been as a result of the large complex moving parts of the project or client and third party involvement.  The only thing I would do differently is be stricter with monitoring the Quality Assurance of the sub-contractor as they got away producing extremely bad ‘as built’ records and some mistakes were made with connecting ducting.  Until the project employed a Quality Manager we were making it up as we went along!  On a positive note I have learnt a huge amount on the project especially from a contract management, quality assurance and health and safety point of view.   Now I need to just turn my DO’s into ICE speak to prove that I have been achieving everything.

Here’s a start and finish picture of the project showing that we have actually achieved a hell of a lot on an extremely complex site with many constraints.  I think Rich G will have an interesting time there and enjoy being part of such an iconic project.  They can certainly do with some military help in terms of planning and co-ordination!

Feb 2014-a muddy puddle!

Nov 2014-Upwards progress in the north and excavation almost complete in the south.