Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Phase 4 (Civils) – As discussed.

Everyone else – if you see or hear anything that may be relevant to those sitting their Chartered Professional Review in September please post.

DS – if you fancy posting potential interview questions in the comments that would be helpful.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56716708

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/22/welsh-government-to-suspend-all-future-road-building-plans

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-57756991

https://highways-news.com/councils-block-he-plans-to-infill-70-disused-railway-bridges-and-tunnels/

Since leaving Phase One I have submitted 1x very short blog post. This is significantly less than the recommended minimum of one/month.

Meanwhile the client’s representative on my project has no issue filling my inbox with updates from site, which, to be clear, is currently a hardstanding awaiting the delivery of some site offices.

How can they produce so much content from so little?  

The updates are short and sweet but make a point.  A geo-tagged photo with the comment: “Hoarding sign has come away. Stronger cable ties required.”

Clearly, a balance needs to be struck between aimless waffle and a blog to assist in the Professional Development of the collective but my question to the floor is have we gone too far the other way?

Do we all just view the blog as a chore at the end of a long day / yet another thing you need to research and produce? Would a quick update about something you thought was interesting, sent direct from your mobile, increase the frequency of Blog posts and allow us to know more about each other’s experience?

I don’t know the answer but will try and blog a bit more in the 2^nd half of the year… So long as TMR 2, Thesis Form B, TMR 3, AER 3 and Thesis Form C don’t get in the way.  😉

I am currently working for John Holland on the upgrade of the Bruce highway between Edmonton and Gordonvale.

The project is currently still in the design phase.  One of the tasks I have been involved in so far is conducting a take-off from the Prelim Design drawings to compare this data to the estimates at tender. There are significant differences but identifying them has been more challenging than it should be.  Chainages are often a standard point of reference on a road job so how hard could it be?  What is the chainage of the top culvert in this picture? What is the chainage of the bottom culvert?

Hint: There are 3x different chainages shown on this drawing.

I know there were mixed views on PMQ but in my mind this is a perfect example of where configuration management and change control would be useful. If every culvert was given a name/number it would save time trying to second guess which chainage different teams had used to refer to which culvert.  As it stands the drawings, schedule and programme on this particular project are not as joined up as they should be.