CPT GREAT BRITAIN (or so my email address says)
Right, my first foray into the ‘blogosphere’! I understand I’ve been a little ‘under the radar’ so far, but fear not! It isn’t that I haven’t been reporting on all the exciting Engineering that I’ve been doing, more that to date there hasn’t been much exciting Engineering to be reporting on! However, last week I was finally granted access to site, and later this week the final part of the enormous and unwieldy security clearance ‘jig-saw puzzle’ which began in November last year should finally fall into place! It makes me feel slightly better when I hear that senior level civilian and military personnel from my office have been waiting for over a year for this honour, still with no end in sight! So in some sense (particularly with regards to any US Federal organization [sic]) I’m actually still well ahead of the game! So where will I be working, and what have I been doing so far:
East Campus
The overall program on which I’ll be working is called ‘East Campus’ and it’s essentially the re-development of the Ft Meade golf course into a super-duper all-singing all-dancing state of the art complex for a ‘high security’ client. Currently the level of ‘agreed’ government investment stands at something near $1.4bn! This is clearly a lot of money even for the US, and especially a Democratic government (we’re standing by for the blank cheque in November if Mr Trump continues to do well), so it hasn’t all been coughed up at once. Congress finds it much easier to write these cheques if they’re asked for in smaller bite-sized chunks over a period of many years. The afore mentioned $1.4bn is only what has so far been approved, and should take the programme out in construction terms to round about 2021. However there are four more phases yet to be put before Congress that would take the build out towards the end of the 2020’s and cost who knows what. As it was put to me, “It just depends on the demand and political circumstance”. The obvious down side to this ‘bit-part’ approach is that each ‘bit’ of secured funding equates to a completely separate project which is being constructed on a shared site. There are currently four projects being constructed simultaneously on the one site. All have different contracts, designers, contractors, funding arrangements and timelines, and as if that weren’t mad enough, some of the projects even tie-in structurally to each other! It should be quite chaotic, particularly as all parties share the same site access; however someone had a cunning plan which involves not enforcing any sort of traffic management plan and only vaguely checking who moves to and from site, which has alleviated some of the congestion. More on this in following weeks I’m sure.
My Responsibilities
So what am I going to be doing? My role and site experience will be quite different to that of everyone else. Instead of working for a contractor during this phase I’m going to be working for USACE (United States Army Corps of Engineers), which aside from wearing green kit all day means that as a team we are responsible for overseeing the contractor and acting as the client’s representative on site. It is worth pointing out at this stage that USACE is completely different to the Royal Engineers. Whilst there is an ‘Engineer Regiment’ as we might recognise one (mobility, counter-mobility, survivability etc etc), USACE takes a far more active role in civilian projects than the RE and have some quite staggering capabilities. For example USACE provide and manage something like 25% of the American hydro-electric capability (nationwide)! In my office of perhaps 50 personnel there are maybe four military personnel, the rest are Engineers or other specialists all working for USACE.
I’ve not been in the office long enough to really nail down exactly what my responsibilities will be. There is certainly a huge amount going on here and the potential is huge. However after reading a number of the other blogs I’m a little concerned about how much ‘crunchy’ engineering there is to do here. The project I’ve been put on is something like 65% complete already, and much of the remaining work for us appears to be in checking and verifying what is already being built and making sure that the contractor doesn’t take too many liberties! I’ve also been given a few rather menial paper-pushing tasks. However, I’m still battling to understand exactly how everything around here works and fits together, so my plan is to work hard, try and create a name for myself (in a good way) which means I’ll be able to grab the opportunities when they do arrive. Two of the other projects on site are just coming out of the ground and I know there is scope to move around if I need to gain experience in a particular area so I may well get to do some mud-licking yet (John the soil here is most definitely ‘yellow sand’, or maybe ‘well-graded yellow sand’). The real positive is that everyone seems really friendly, approachable and genuinely very happy to have an exchange Officer with them. Everyone in the hierarchy here has expressed the importance of me achieving my objectives, so they understand my situation and it’s up to me to make it all happen.
Other News
I have an American driving licence, or more accurately a Maryland driving licence (it’s done on a State by State basis). To achieve this I had to do a three hour drink and drug awareness course (so I now know where to find drink and drugs in Baltimore), then drive round in a circle for 15 minutes making sure I went through all the appropriate red lights. I’m the proud owner of a Golf GTI (sorry McClure, but the GTI is the smallest car you can legally buy in the USA, fact). It recently passed its bi-yearly emissions test, presumably because it has emissions, and also because it’s a VW. Apparently there’s a certain amount of pollution a vehicle has to produce which is written into the Constitution.
I’ve been asked if I’m Australian a worrying number of times, but after that the accent seems to do wonders. I’m constantly thanked for my service, but then neglect to tell people my only ‘tour’ was in flip-flops and polo shirt in Cyprus!
When dealing with Federal or State agencies, if the computer says no, the computer really says no and nothing will change it. I was recently asked for my UK address. Unfortunately England wasn’t available on the computer, no Great Britain or United Kingdom either, we looked for GB and UK just to check, but neither or these worked so in the end I had to settle for Watford, Germany. But the computer was happy so all was good.
More technical blogs will follow (I promise)……
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Cookie
Good to hear you are alive and all is well. With regard to your client’s representative comment – rest assured there are a number of us who have similar concerns. A few of us feel we are much more project managers despite being employed by Main Contractors. There was some Whats App chat to the effect.
As for the GTI – I am sorely disappointed, you should have demanded a VW Up!
Surely you could have got the UP in your carry-on?
Thanks Alan,
Checking out how QA QM works, what the contractual arrangements are and everything to do with close out will be a good thing. However, as you say, crunchy engineering is highly desirable and close second only to being allowed to demonstrate independent judgment (and selection of car is a dubious illustration of this). Are you going to be allowed to take a camera anywhere near site?
Kukie,
I second McClure’s comments. My project is based solely around a Design & Construct so Brookfield Multiplex do not get involved in anything technical and purely co-ordinate the construction process between design office and sub-contractor. I’ve found this rather frustrating to date as it is difficult to learn when the people around you can’t answer your questions and aren’t even that interested in the question in the first place. If I didn’t poke my nose into things, regardless whether I have been given involvement in it or not, the only thing I would be doing is tracking process and not learning very much…expect maybe how not to do things. To overcome this I have opened communication with the design engineers and get on site and poke questions at the sub-contractors who are actually doing the work. The subbies seem genuinely keen to assist when I explain what it is I am here to do – almost like no-one normally gives two hoots. Whenever something new is happening which I haven’t seen I also try and find some articles about the topic so I can go armed with at least a few questions so it appears as though I know a little more than I do. I’ll also pass on a bit of advice that I was given recently…..everything you self-teach through asking questions or reading, record on your CPD record which will obviously reflect a gap which you have identified in your development plan.
Hope this was of some help – I sense we are all more in a similar boat than we initially thought. Thumbs up on the car.
Alan,
Well done on posting your first blog! Did not quite publish it in time for me to read on the flight over, but in time for me arriving on site in the morning…see you first thing.
I read with interest your observations on the bit part approach to the four ongoing projects; it strikes me that a programme approach is what might be required? Perhaps we can chat and consider drawing any comparisons with Olympic Park in Stratford?
I also note your, and others’, comments on lack of crunchy engineering detail. I’m not overly concerned; remember to focus on the end-state of achieving broad expeience against UK-SPEC (or Development Objectives) by June next year. There is no need to be seduced by the bright lights of large or glamorous projects – often the best expeience is gained from smaller projects or projects that don’t run well. I’d offer that there is much to learn from the USACE approach; and hence understanding why we might consider doing things differently.
I think there is also an important lesson to learn through asking the rhetorical question “what does one need to know to be able to project manage successfully?” There are two schools of thought: one only needs to know management, and one needs to understand a degree of technical detail of what is being delivered. I sense that you, and the wider group, fall in to the latter school. I agree. And, I would offer that it is valuable to ask questions and try to understand. However, also note my comments above, don’t lose focus on the end-state in your quest for complete technical domination. Ask your self – what do I need to know….
CI
Kukie,
Excellent to hear you are now settled in. I echo what Jo and Rich says regarding access to technical engineering problems. I am doing a lot of project management type tasks because of the nature of the contract. Almost all engineer design, including temporary works, is sent back to the engineer consultants for them to work through with their ‘Brains’. BM very clearly allocate all design risk to the company they have already paid to design the building. I would also recommend you snoop around for technical stuff in your spare time though be careful not to upset the americans!
Tom