Offshore on the Magnus platform
Offshore!!!
After three cancelled trips I finally got onto the Magnus platform to have a look at the jobs I’ve been working on for the last ten months – and now I’m stuck here!!! Having been delayed on Shetland on Saturday night we got in on Sunday morning and I was supposed to head back around noon today but alas, the fog stepped in once again and here I am, sat in a cabin at the top of Magnus (itself sat in 190m of water, 160 km NE of the Shetland Isles). Not a bad place, but having had family (younger siblings and spouses) up with Liz in Huntly since Saturday evening I’m feeling a little sorry for her!
So what’s it like? Well, in many ways it’s a 30 year-old rust-bucket! It’s quite strange wandering round actually, as all the photos I’ve looked at and plans I’ve studied are now there in front of me and some things seem very small and others a lot bigger. Inside the quarters there are nine floors up to the helideck and a broken lift, and “outside” in the process (working) areas there are 3-4 floors and an open piping deck, with an ALQ perched in the middle as well as the prominent cranes, drilling derrick and flare stack. It’s certainly impressive, and although its only 56 x 62m width-wise, getting anywhere takes a fair while due to the labyrinth of walkways and closed off areas, interspersed with stairwells and heavy, sealed doors. Geeks (you know who you are) – you will like this New Scientist article (from before Ben’s time!) that shows the scale of it: http://tinyurl.com/ayvb98l
Anyway, it’s been brilliant here, on a kind of treasure hunt looking at where the Piping and Instrument Diagrams (P&IDs) tie into the real thing. As most of my jobs are in the execute stage it has been a bit of a sightseeing tour since most of the engineering is done, other than looking at the Bunkering Lines job which is just going into Define…
Bunkering Lines
If I was to listen to our contractor, WG PSN, this job is bigger than Ben Hur. But going out to look at it, we are removing the existing fuel and water hoses (they’re replaced every 2-years anyway) and adding a semi-permanent fitting so they can be extended onto the flotel’s gantry when it pulls alongside in 12 months’ time. Which is all of 15 foot away. Difficult as it is to actually get a survey booked and done, the adage holds true: time on recce is seldom wasted!
Cold Boot
Two blogs ago I explained that the Cold Boot project had been delayed – but didn’t quite realise the implications of leaving it as it is. And this site is secure, right?
So… currently (and this has been the case for 4 years now), the boot drains “fluid” (mostly water and a few hydrocarbons) into the open drains. In doing this, the nearby gas monitor is switched off, but not the others (as this is judged to be too many). So, last week they drained it and the gas monitor picked up some hydrocarbon and caused a “yellow shutdown” which caused a partial but not complete shutdown. Without going into too much detail as this is now subject to a lot of investigations, this led to a build-up in pressure further down the system and kaboom! A 22” water pipe, specced at around 60 bar was subject to approximately 140 before it exploded and split wide open. Fortunately there was no one present as they would have been royally f*cked. Anyway, there’s lots of folk looking into it – predominantly because the pressure should not have built up like that and also because the platform’s been shut down since. So that’s nine days now that Magnus has not been pumping something like £1.5m worth of oil and gas. A day. Ouch.
Understandably, I’ve got a meeting lined up for when I’m back in to let people know how the project is progressing so it won’t happen again; they’ll love it when I tell them we’re looking at 1Q 2014 at the earliest!
Other jobs:
Bravo Crane has now finally been handed over, the last piece of which was a few days at Kenz in Zaandam, near Amsterdam last week. Finally, I thought, four of us going out for Amsterdam, what could possibly go wrong? Well ladies and gentlemen readers; never overestimate the power of civvies. After a good steak dinner, we retired to the hotel. I could not believe it, sat on my bed at 2130 hrs because the others were all tired/under the weather. Maybe I should have dragged them on my run (minus something in shorts and t-shirt in central Amsterdam, aah yeah) a few hours earlier to get some life into them. It just felt wrong (and I did check that they weren’t just going out without me…). I did consider having a night as the lone ranger but clearly hanging around civvies has made me weak too!
ETAP ALQ is nearly ready for handing over to the Renewals Team/ Cat B projects, as being £10-20m it’s outside of the “remit” for projects and mods. Shame really as it was interesting.
And design work (me doing some technical design) is due to start in March – better find that calculator of mine!
And in other news:
I’m doing a presentation to BP’s graduates (there could literally be a hundred but I’m expecting a few less) on leadership on Thursday as part of their “lunch and learn” series where they have a non-O&G developmental presentation. I think I’ve got a copy of MATT 6 somewhere…
Running on the Shetland Islands is windy and rainy; running on a running machine is just plain dull, but I’ve got to fight the pounds somehow!
Spare time offshore would be ideal for getting work done if the internet wasn’t as slow as it is (hence no sexy oil platform shot today folks). In all, this makes the “free time” all the more frustrating!
Liz and I haven’t entered any gnarly races this year (boo!!!!!), just the toughmudder, Edinburgh marathon and Balmoral trail race. Am considering running the Spey Way (60 something miles) at the end of June – can’t wait til the thesis is smashed and I can have my life back again!
And once again, Dougal is still getting bigger…
A consultant’s perspective……
Six weeks into my design office placement with WSP, I think I have come to understand why consultants are consultants, contractors are contractors and architects are architects….! I was also surprised to discover how quickly I switched allegiances and adopted a consultant’s perspective….nothing to do with the central location, swish office, great coffee machine and invitation to the opening of the Shard of course!
I was asked to contribute to the monthly ‘Knowledge Sharing Forum’, and conscious that I was highly unlikely to have discovered anything structurally ground breaking worthy of dissemination to the WSP Structures department, I went for a comparison of a design office and the military! Interestingly, I found the design office to be more comparable in many respects than site (summarised in the meeting minutes below):
Major Rachel Beszant is on secondment from the Royal Engineers. From her first month in WSP she has drawn five key similarities, and two differences to the military:
The similarities are:
- There is a strong teamwork aspect to our business – though we are each capable as individuals we can only deliver the projects we do working in teams.
- Within each team there is a structured hierarchy. This is necessary to ensure accountability and allocation of responsibility
- Goalposts change throughout the lifetime of a project. Whilst in the Army this may be due to a change of political leadership in our business we are faced with clients and architects changing their minds and on-site discoveries.
- Communication is vital to the success of our projects. This is particularly well done through the structures portal.
- People are the centre of the organisation and success is reliant on the skills and expertise they have.
The main differences being:
- As a private company WSP has to maintain commercial competitiveness. Money does unfortunately drive many of the decisions we make, though this does also ensure we are efficient.
- There are no Sergeant-Majors enforcing discipline on the second floor!
I fear if my turn comes around again before July I may have to work on a groundbreaking discovery!
Aside from organisational and people observations, I can confirm that geotechnical parameters and water levels are indeed as vague as John warned us… and London is sat on a lot of water! The British Standard generation hate the EuroCodes….. and software packages are almost as reluctant to change as the BS era! Software modelling is the way forward as long as you understand the programme and know how to fix the errors, and hand calculations are key for checking, but any longer than 2 pages are reserved for graduates (or RE attachment officers!!)
Verifying references (thesis)
Guys – don’t do this as it causes pain!
Joking aside, I just thought I’d confirm a study from Deloitt (Wauld, C, on fuel usage (it’s steadily increasing to 22 gallons/soldier/day on average) with some figures from their Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service (should be pretty solid). But oh no, whilst 68 million gallons of fuel, on average, were supplied by DOD each month to support U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (Solis, 2009) there were 188,000 “boots on the ground” (Belasco, 2009). Which means a paltry 12 gallons/soldier/day.
My only thought is that Solis’ figures somehow don’t include airpower. In which case they are hugely misleading as the figure should be much more (124 million gallons a month). All the more confusing is that I imagined that there might be more fuel requried (because of air/avn) rather than less.
Any thoughts?
References:
Belasco, A. 2009. Troop Levels in the Afghan and Iraq Wars, FY2001-FY2012: Cost and Other Potential Issues. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40682.pdf accessed 9 Feb 2013
Solis, W. M, 2009. DEFENSE MANAGEMENT. Increased Attention on Fuel Demand Management at DOD’s Forward-Deployed Locations Could Reduce Operational Risks and Costs http://www.gao.gov/assets/130/121644.pdf accessed 9 Feb 2013
Wauld, C, 2009. Energy Security, America’s Best Defence. http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/AD/us_ad_EnergySecurity052010.pdf Accessed 30 Jan 2013
All Change in the Aberdeen Office
All Change in the Aberdeen Office
Well, a month back and there’s a good amount of stuff going down in the Dyce office.
Staff changes
Promotions all round in my department which his good, as my Programme Lead (1-up), Eugene is keen to iron out those things that frustrated him when he was an SPA. (He’s replaced Hugh, who was a little bit “wet” at times). Similarly, Pete Neilson has taken over as Team Leader (2-up) and he’s pulling no punches in holding WG PSN to account. A few of their management have been “moved on” since his promotion and he’s bought in new staff to oversee their methods of working. Pete is taking a much keener look at the individual projects and our management and initiation of them. His predecessor, Paul Mullan, was good but never seemed to be around, basing himself in the main BP office rather than our separate office. This may have been good for him personally, but I think the leadership of the team suffered for it.
At my level, we have a new SPA who I am handing over the B Crane changeout to. While this is a shame as it was a good job to be running with, it will eventually give me time to get stuck into some discipline engineering. This is something that has been amiss on my placement but I’ve just came away from a chat with WG PSN’s engineering manager (a Fellow of the IMechE who sits on the interview panel) who is reading through my Personal Competence Statements in order to find the best projects to get me through Review.
It may transpire that I actually hand over all my jobs, which would be a big shame as they’re not due for offshore execution til July and I’d like to get them there! Still, no time for sentiments when I’ve got a thesis to write and A and B competencies to develop.
Contractor Changes
Such is the nature of this kind of work there’s been a good few chaps from the office move on over recent weeks. As well as being paid anywhere from £60-100+ an hour, contractors are on 1-weeks’ notice (either way). This means that if a new job comes along they are more than happy to move on within that length of time; regardless of a successor being lined up or not. With some drama, our lead process engineer was told to clear his desk then and there, whilst one of the construction planners sat next to me managed his full 5-days before moving on to better and brighter things. With one of the SPAs off at the end of March and the BP planner away at the end of February, there are more and more empty desks by the minute. This is causing some problems already; our cost estimator left in November and still hasn’t been replaced. The comment of there being far more jobs than “qualified” people in Aberdeen has never been truer.
My jobs
These are all progressing well with one notable omission, that of the Cold Boot upgrade…
This has massively stalled due to two main factors: the postponement of the Controls Improvement Project (CIP) and the realisation that there is no suitable pump to empty the boot (a vital part of the project). Being located at the bottom of the platform, already having a low NPSH, potentially having muds within the “fluid” and being at low temperature (JT effect kicking in there too) there really is nothing on the market that can cope. Separately, the postponement of the CIP means that any tie ins to the ESDVs will have to be through old-school “manual” logic gates cards – literally hardwired AND/OR gates that slot in to the old control panels (Ben would love it). So, while I can still get most of the TAR work completed, I am redefining the complete scope to use a N2 blow-down system instead; something that is so very different it will need a new HAZOP and LOPA to be done to ensure it is safe. Furthermore, when we re-connect the ESDVs we may need a gas outage to allow for them to be programmed; this is where it will get painful…
While this is a motherfudger of a change, I am thankfully not entirely responsible having inherited it midway through Define (plus, the CIP project only got postponed in December). Still, it is a bit of a nightmare and something I want to get back on the straight and narrow before handing it on. To be fair, having HAZOP’d the old (pump) system we are in a far better place for getting this N2 system right after a good Define.
On the plus side, it also looks like a much better solution that might be fully ETP compliant and so a permanent modification, rather than the pump system which was only a temporary solution until 2016.
Extracurricular Activities
How are you all getting on with CPD? The IMechE meetings here are at the opposite end of town, so I’ve only gone to one so far (it took 90 mins to get through the traffic and then it was really boring anyway). Still, BP are hosting one later this month so that will just be a trip to the other office. As for now, I’m just about to head into town so I can get stuck into some fun with the Young Members’ Panel; what better way to spend a Tuesday night?
Purple Monday
Poplar Island: Last time I blogged I had a conundrum on suitable temporary coffer dam configurations for the installation of the proposed dual purpose inlet / spillway structure. The proposed solution seems to make better use of equipment and resources and avoids re-mobilization of manpower and equipment. There are other potential benefits in so far as one of the temporary structures may be able to provide another dual purpose by acting as a ‘check dam’ for later stages of the project but I need to research this a little more first.
I have begun the stakeholder engagement to see if the proposed structure could have any wider benefits to the other users (such as the Ports Authority, University of Maryland or the Environmental Protection Agency) as I have seen testing stations precariously jerry-rigged to similar structures around the island. I basically want to see if we can incorporate something into the design that will make life easier for others. The initial response has been one of outright flabbergast. Apparently people don’t normally think outside of their bubble and the invitation to have input has so far been well received…..though I may live to regret it and start sticking to my own bubble as a result!
My current puzzle is to figure a way to make stop-log structures stop leaking without introducing bulk heads or spending any money…..this will be a fun one. [Richard – I’m sure you’ve puzzled over this in a previous life, perhaps during a long pause in a bell-ringing session – any thoughts or guidance will be gratefully received (bell ringing or otherwise)].
Stop-log structures used at Poplar
Building 45 Seismic analysis: Having been totally flummoxed by random circular references in the codes I have finally made some headway. The problem is that it’s not just the building codes that count, it is also subject to additional requirements because it is a federal building….which also references more design guides but in a way that only serves to complicate the issue. I have since discovered that because of this they have had to produce a ‘codemaster’ booklet just to help us poor mortals actually put pen to paper instead spending a lifetime reading in circles. I have undertaken a pretty extensive desk study and created the framework for the report to hang off of as well as generating a field check list for the survey itself to make sure we don’t miss anything. Thankfully the seismic analysis is based more on empirical data and observations of particular building types and their observed responses to seismic activity from previous events as opposed to having to come up with a super cone-head analysis and FEM….phew. Unfortunately the owners appear to want the moon on a stick included within their scope of works and now the whole renovation is in jeopardy unless they can trim it down somewhat.
Levee Screenings:…are long and tedious. Thankfully they spread the love on these so I won’t be stuck in damnation for too long. They are actually a really good way of learning from the experts, some of the knowledge they’ve spent a lifetime building up so I won’t complain.
Occupational Health and Safety Audit: Me and my big mouth. Having done my last TMR on H&S and asking lots of H&S questions of everyone, when the shit sandwich of dealing with the baseline info for the ARMY wide review came in – guess where it fell. I did a bit of questioning with the poor soul at the next level up who was eating an even bigger sandwich, it turned out the deadlines for this were tighter than PET student with a 75% thesis submission due. Ultimately I devised a questionnaire, gathered a sample set of folks, got the data and turned it around in quick time with a whole bunch of wider recommendations to push up the chain. It’s all gone quiet again for now but the next phase will be to revise the office H&S procedures, update the risk assessments and make sure everyone is processed….perhaps I will fake a heart attack that day.
Officer Professional Development: The most recent OPD was a trip to Washington DC with the other ‘green skins’ to have a look at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the USACE HQ to see how they deal with emergencies, coordination of resources and command and control. Having comfortably making it through security to the briefing room FEMA decided that they still haven’t forgiven the Brits for that little misunderstanding in 1812 and ejected Ben and myself. Not to worry – we caught up with everyone for the USACE HQ brief where we got all the info anyway (go figure). Unfortunately I made a comparison of us being the foreign soldiers creating admin issues to the floppies at Sandhurst. I think Ben is now paranoid that the USACE lot think we’re the floppies….sorry Ben.
The OPD concluded with ‘Chem-Ops’ – the codename that was applied for us going to one of the officer’s houses and learning how to brew beer….all educational. Ben and I added to the educational theme by delivering a presentation on the history of the Corps, key achievements, current day and future……while they drank beer. I found that this makes an audience much more forgiving and would like to propose that this is how we should undertake the senior officer de-briefs in phase 4.
Other News:
I’m quietly confident that my long term light-rail stalker has moved to Canada – I feel safer already, but I appear to have picked up a stalker from the IT department now and am convinced he’s even more dangerous. I’m considering tracking down George in Canada to tell him all is forgiven….or better still – hook him up with IT stalker.
Ulli has progressed well with her horse riding and took part in her first fox hunt recently…..I didn’t ask what was for dinner that night.
…And the Baltimore Ravens have taken the Superbowl. What a game! They were…….running…..and hitting each other……and sometimes kicking the thing. I really have no idea what was going on, but if they had lost I am led to believe that Baltimore would be in flames about now. The parade is this Wednesday – so I will acquire a giant purple foam hand and show my support….and hope that nobody asks me anything about the game.
Week 3 – More of the same really…STOP PRESS – Brisbane Floods
This week has seen me focus my efforts on finalising a tender proposal to win an option study for the Upgrade of Port Drive at Brisbane Port. It was like being a 2IC all over again with the red pen (actually I used a pencil as it’s less aggressive) and really started to add some value, particularly on the commercial side of things. The most interesting element for me was starting to realise the urgent need to win work. Initially I costed up the job to just under $500k. I then had to make reductions to the works programme to reduce man hours and subsequently reduce rates to 70%. This reduced overall cost to $300k but it still wasn’t enough. After further slashing by the Project Director and devaluing me to nil cost (billed to work experience instead of my grade) the cost was brought down to $250k.
There is a clear shortage of work and the transportation group are very desperate to win this one!!! That said, it’s not solely based on price and there is a technical element to the proposal evaluation. GHD put together a reasonable offer with some strengths which will put them in a good position, not least the current works being undertaken for the Port of Brisbane (the client) and previous involvement with the Department for Transport & Main Roads who will be a large influence on works.
There is sadly not much else to report on less for social activity. I am part of the Transportation Group touch footy (rugby) group and once a week we run round Roma Street Parklands of a lunchtime for an hour in the ridiculous heat and humidity. I’ve lost a yard of pace since I was younger but still have a good side-step. I have signed up for a new training regime at the gym “kosama” which claims to “see the benefits in 4-5 weeks”. We’ll see, but going to the gym again after a 10 month absence is doing me a world of good.
BRISBANE FLOODS
Fortuitously I had not published the above as I was going to try to add more to it but since last week we have been battered by horrific storms and subsequent flooding! The state of Queensland is in tatters along the coastline following the storm damage caused by a downgraded cyclone moving South from the Cape York Peninsular. Our previous home of Gladstone was hit pretty hard and I know that there was considerable damage to the port and some elements of the GLNG site; the site was closed for 4 days and people were left stranded on Curtis Island. A few kilometres away in Boyne-Tannum my old supervisor had flood waters rise to the front of his house but fortunately not enter the property. The town of Bundaberg has been declared a disaster zone with the worst ever recorded floods and even the beloved rum factory (my favourite tipple since turning native) has been affected but fortunately the stock and molasses has been saved. The rest of the town however is in bad shape and will take months if not years to recover.
More locally, Brisbane has not suffered as badly as first anticipated with flood levels significantly lower than 2011. That said we live in the Oxley Creek flood plain and it was a little bit tense for a while. In 2011 our house was 2m under water so the neighbours were rightly excited and emotional about the potential of a flood again. We were advised (by the overly emotional neighbours) to empty the house and sand bag it as they had done but followed the Brisbane Council guidance instead, coupled with my own calculations based on Richard Farmers lectures on drainage and catchment areas! There was a risk of flooding but a low(ish) risk, but to appease Lisa who was slightly concerned, I drew the short straw on Monday night when the peak was meant to be reached and undertook flood watch for the house. As predicted we weren’t hit but the water got to within 5 metres away and about 0.5-1m below the house. Close enough for pushing our comfort zone but not close enough for panic stations.
Brisbane is now in recovery mode reconnecting power to the 200,000+ homes who lost it, cleaning up the debris, cutting up the fallen trees and trying to get life back to normal. All being well it’ll pretty much be there by next Monday but there is still a risk of more flooding in some lowland areas. Overall, not a particularly great Australia Day weekend on the East coast but a life experience all the same!
WSP and Dan – 2 weeks in
So it’s almost the end of my second week, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my new existence as a consultant. Having thought I knew a thing or two, towards the end of my contractor attachment, I’ve landed firmly back on the learning curve. Here is a little bit about my first two projects.
Lot 460 – Mechanical, hydraulic and fire design
My first job was to do the mechanical (HVAC), hydraulic and fire designs for a block of 40 flats. IN the end I have handed the mechanical design off to another engineer because the other two have turned out to be much trickier than they first appeared.
Architects rendering of the block of 40 flats – that’s me sitting on the wall 🙂
There was little water under the bridge here as this is a project that had received some preliminary work in the past before being mothballed when the developer ran out of money. Now he is back in the cash and so the project is back on. Unfortunately the engineers working on the design before me no longer work here at WSP. The upshot is that I’ve had to do a bit of back and forth with the client and some digging in the archives to find out what has gone before and to avoid repeating completed work.
The developer has been very keen on reducing the noise inside the flats as much as possible, and so hired an acoustic consultant to do a report. Some of the measures he suggests would indeed reduce the noise but would result in an extremely expensive building. The developer, as you’d expect, wants all of the benefits of the acoustic report but none of the costs.
One example of conflict of objectives between the acoustic and hydraulic performance has been in the design of the bathroom drainage. The acoustic engineer wanted separate branch drains from each fixture to a soil stack located in an acoustically treated plumbing duct. His idea is that by eliminating all changes of direction in branch drains, which sit in the ceiling void of the level below, no annoying swoosh sounds will be transmitted to the bathroom below when the sink of shower is used. I wanted to collect the fixture arms (not the toilet obviously) at a common trap to the floor waste and empty through a common branch drain to a stack in a normal plumbing duct. My idea being that this would ensure the floor waste remains charged and so make sure no drain orders escape into the bathroom. This is the standard drainage strategy in WA and can achieve relatively quiet performance when the pipes are lagged, though there can be problems with quality control and maintenance of lagging. By having only one 2 connections to the stack, my proposal also reduced the required size of the ceiling void. In the end I was able to placate the acoustic engineer by specifying all drain pipes be formed of Gerberit PP-SK (http://www.geberit.com.au/web/appl/au/wcmsau.nsf/pages/prod-drai-ppsk-1), a pipe with acoustic attenuation properties better than or equal to plain PVC. In my experience on site, the marginally higher cost of PP-SK over PVC is offset by the ease of installation, offered by its push-fit assembly, reducing labour costs. It also offers better quality control over lagged pipe – often a job given to the apprentice. As a result, the acoustic engineer, the architect, and I, are going to visit another job where a plumbing sub-contractor I have used before is installing PP-SK. Hopefully they go for it.
The fixture arms collect at a common trap to the floor waste to keep it charged. Fewer branch drains means a smaller ceiling void. Skew P trap pans allow the nastiest noise to be kept in the room of origin. Partial shot of the BIM built in REVIT.
Another interesting aspect of this job has been the design of the stormwater drainage system. The local authority mandates that storm water is disposed of within the confines of the site, so I have designed a series of soak-wells to sit under a car park on the ground level of the building. It has also been instructive to work with the structural engineer in specifying so pipework to be cast into the structure of the building without compromising the structural design.
Design of the fire hydrant system has been a little tricky. I picked up a design done by another engineer for the hydrants that had previously been sent to the architect. Unfortunately the other engineer had misread the Australian Standard and so had under specified the system. The developer, understandably with a prime focus on profitability, wasn’t too happy when I explained the system was going to be about 30% more expensive than originally planned. I’ve booked some time with a fire engineer next week so may be able to come up with some other scheme to reduce the costs, but I’m not hopeful.
The Red Barn – Rural waste water treatment
I am designing a waste water treatment scheme for a client in a remote area, where it is not possible to discharge into a public sewer, and where there is no watercourse nearby. I had been looking at a number of options, the most promising of which was to use a primary stage septic tank followed by a secondary stage reed bed then discharge, following a pass through a UV sterilizer (unnecessary but required in WA for reclaimed water), to a pumped irrigation system serving an adjacent vineyard. Unfortunately WA does not approve of reed beds. I spoke to the Chief Environmental Engineer at the Department of Health who told me, and I’m not kidding, ‘we don’t like new things here.’ In the end I’ve gone for a septic tank followed by a set of leach drains. I’ve positioned them uphill of the vineyard so that the water may leach in a useful direction.
Using a septic tank and leach drains – surprisingly reed beds are not allowed in WA. My sketch for initial planning authority submission on top of architect’s outline sketch – the notes about Hardenbergii and Brachychiton are the Gardener’s.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m going to ask for a mechanical project next as I think I’m being used for all of the hydraulic jobs no-one else wants, but, as the wise man said, ‘society needs good plumbers as well as philosophers, otherwise neither the pipes nor the ides hold water.’ Boom Boom!
In other news, the weather has finally cooled down to something liveable for the last few days; over Christmas we had day after day of filthily hot weather. Tasha has got a new job at the Children’s Hospital (the one that the one Steve was building will replace – does that make sense?) near our house, and I’ve joined the office 5 a side team – we’re 4th in the league. I’ve also been roped into an inter consultancy triathlon. It’s pretty tame compared to the ones Chris does though: just 250,10,5.
Week 2 – 14-18 Jan 13
This week has again been fairly quiet with the office still missing about a third of the staff who have taken extended holiday post Christmas (bearing in mind that it is the main school break here as well). Despite the horsepower shortage there is still not enough real work available in the office to keep everyone busy so there is a fair amount of tension as people are (slightly) fearing for their jobs. This places me in an interesting predicament of not wanting to take someones work away from them yet also get amongst something to gain the full benefit of the attachment. I’ve got the balance right thus far but a couple more weeks of this may prove interesting…
What I have been doing is preparing (as part of a team of 4) a proposal to bid for an option study. This sounds a bit dry but luckily I have been digging into the depths of the commercial world and cost benefit analysis which is broadening my perspective of the engineers role. There is plenty to learn and with a bit of legal thrown in for good measure I have learnt that there are certain words/phrases banned from use in all GHD documents including “best practice”, “expert”, and “fit for purpose”.
I managed to get out of the office to a client meeting for the bid proposal and added some value which was appreciated by the team leader and am starting to find my level in the office hierarchy. The option study is for the upgrade of a road to a dual carriageway / motorway for the port and the main element is how to deal with a junction that gets blocked up during peak periods (apparently queuing in traffic for more than 5 minutes is unacceptable in Australia). I am currently of the opinion that the best solution is a burger bun roundabout but convincing the team is challenging and even if successful there, the greater challenge is convincing the department for transport and main roads that it’s not a wind-up, it increases traffic flow/volumes and would prove to be successful in the cost-benefit analysis. We’ll see how it goes but I don’t expect it to get approved in my lifetime…. if all else fails I could suggest a replica of the magic roundabout in Swindon!!! As one of the team keeps reminding us, you always need a “crap option” to make your preferred one look better!!!
Away from the trials and tribulations of the office I am pleased to report that a more favourable work-life balance (for now) has harmonized the Serevena household and I have joined a gym. Having undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of gym membership it was proven to be the way ahead and it is nice to get back running again. The weekend sees us doing not a lot (TMR 4 needs a bit of a nip/tuck) and thus nothing overly exciting to report on that front. Next weekend however will be slightly more exciting with Australia Day celebrations.
Lawyers – and other useless creatures.
Creating the staging area.
Placing the armour stone
Expansion of the dike
Dredging conducted to generate draft for vessels. Dredge material used to expand dikes.
Collapsed Bunker: After releasing the report back to the guys in Afghanistan I wanted to use the event as a lessons learned for wider consumption. Being of the military mind it is obvious that this is not possible without security vetting and authorisation, so I put in the request and it all went ominously quiet. I eventually discovered that one of the Corps Lawyers has been delivering ethics training, citing an example of a British officer who divulged potential security threats to outside contractors! Furious doesn’t even come close. Having put the guy straight he has now circulated a formal apology to all who received the ‘training’. My co-workers are stunned that I managed to get an apology from the Office of Council – they have a history of getting everyone’s back up apparently. Good news is that we should be on track to release limited information for wider circulation soon.
Poplar Island: My investigations for subsequent cell construction has thrown up the fact that we will need to adapt the construction sequence to include a double coffer dam as opposed to a single one as has been historically used. Traditionally, a staging area is built and then extended out to form the outline of the dike (photos not available at this time – I need to post from work). Once completed, dredge material is pumped in and excess water siphoned off using a spillway until the interior of the island is useable. At this stage a coffer is built on the external portion and the inlet structure is installed. To use a dual purpose structure as proposed, we will need to place the structure before the inner section of the cell is complete, meaning a wet gap on both sides, so I need to come up with a suitable plan to execute this without affecting the ongoing cell wall construction.
Building 45 Renovation: Myself and my mentor have been called in to help come up with the designs for the renovation of an existing brick masonry bearing wall building with heavy timber roof trusses and solid wood decking supporting a slate tile roof . Apparently anything over 100 years old is a big deal around here – I sometimes forget how ‘young’ this country is! Either way we need to get in there to identify the original construction methods before we can get stuck into the juicy stuff. It’s a much wider project with involvement of pretty much all the disciplines, but Preston and I are to address seismic and structural issues.
Levee Screening Projects: These are killers. I sit in a panel of experts to appraise the condition of the levee structures in order to help prioritise funding for repairs. We have a hydrologist, a geologist, a civil works rep and myself acting as the structural engineer. Between us we pour through all of the technical data, reports and photographic evidence to grade the levees. It’s like applying the ‘so what’ in the 7 questions. Some elements of the existing structures do not conform to the guidance, but it is down to us to determine what the real implications are and what the severity is likely to be. Our results will determine if townships remain within the protection scheme, whether home owners will be affected by insurances and what the priorities will be for funding (or removal of funding). It’s long and tedious, but important.
Officer Professional Development: I have volunteered to organise the next quarter’s OPD for the USACE after forging links with Philadelphia district and the crew of one of their biggest dredge vessels. This will essentially turn into the equivalent of OPD. It’s early days yet and I have more to coordinate as the ship has been called up for emergency work. In the meantime I have also volunteered to present at this quarter’s OPD on the Corps of Royal Engineers and the exchange program itself to help our cousins understand why we have folks with funny uniforms and posh accents floating around.
Other News: Enjoyed a vacation with the boys home for Christmas – so we had a long weekend in New York. Amazing place – some great photos to show for it and my wallet took a huge kick in the nuts…..but it was worth it. Evidence has also started to materialise of my involvement with the christmas corrol service. I now appear to be a regular feature on the front page of the USACE intranet…..all positive!…promise! – and before you ask – yes I’m normally lunging!
Happy new year
Happy new year!
Just a quickie as a “distraction” from TMR 4 as Dougal charges around the house and Liz packs for an MA module in Edinburgh next week. Unlike you guys I’m not really doing a separate Phase 4 so I’m developing what I’ve been doing up til now, with an aim to join some of our designers to get the A and B competencies ticked. This works for me, but I’m starting to feel conscious of the fact that I’ve not got overly technical yet.
TAR jobs. These are going well and materials are finally getting specced and ordered; I’ve made a few calls on materials for some of the lines that are being replaced so that’s always an interesting one! There are still a few outstanding issues mind, including the only remaining vendor pulling out of the fabrication of one of the emergency shutdown valves (ESDVs) on the cold boot upgrade. We’ve now got another procurement team on the case, as ESDVs have a 20-week lead time and the TAR starts in July…
The ETAP ALQ is moving forwards slowly, mostly due to it getting pushed down on my priorities list. This isn’t ideal and it may get “taken from me” if I don’t get some progress on it, but there are only so many hours etc. etc and the programme lead understands that. I’ve asked if I can keep it chugging along and give it to Imran when he gets in as it’s a nice and easy (albeit pretty big) one to start off on.
The Magnus Bravo crane. We have a decision, and the decision is… PIECEMEAL!!!!! After months of investigating and putting together arguments for different options we’ve going with a piecemeal/stick build approach (like a 6-piece lego set) to replace the 100 tonne Bravo crane. The reasons: essentially it’s because there are known-unknowns using a piecemeal approach, plus it is easier to modify if and when things slip. The HLV option is technically easier (once the cab’s removed, sail in a big ship with a massive crane on it up to Magnus to swap the cranes over in single lifts), but the unknowns remain unknown and it’s a lot of commitment that can easily change. For more details see TMR 4 where I investigate what drives the selection of the method!
And in other news: Christmas was spent at home in Scotland with the in-laws up for a few days and various other visitors here and there. We got another day of skiing in on Cairngorm which was good fun, maybe best described as “better than some days I’ve had in the Alps”. I also got the axes out for a play on Lochnagar which was exciting, but the ice was melting rapidly so we didn’t get too much done. Lots of good walks on the beaches, woods and over the hills though. Looks like the weather is starting to chill again over the next few weeks, so hopefully get some routes in between the thesis and everything else.
Liz is loving life in RHQ right now – with a Regt 2IC on resettlement courses and the RCMO gapped it’s not the easiest of lobs for her so we take it in turns to complain about our workloads. She normally wins hands down during the week, but I champion it at weekends!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 