Insite: Diary of a civil engineer

I am hoping to become a chartered civil engineer this autumn, five years after graduating from Durham University. This is how it all happened.

September 2001

I went to Durham to study engineering. The first twoyears of the course were general engineering, and after that I chose to specialise in civils. I liked the fact that you could physically see what you have done to change the environment.

June 2005

I graduated with a 2:1 MEng degree, which put me in a good position when looking for work. I started my career at a local company, Torquemeters in Northampton. I joined as a testing engineer working with their products - but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do in the long term, so I started researching where I wanted to work. I picked Balfour Beatty because of its great reputation and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) accredited training scheme. My application was successful and I was offered a graduate position.

September 2005

I joined the training scheme at Balfour Beatty Power Networks, which later merged with Balfour Beatty Utilities to become Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions. It involved four placements in different parts of the company, each lasting six months.

“Balfour Beatty’s training has been amazing. I’ve worked hard for them and they’ve worked hard for me.”

The first six months were spent in the design offi ce working on overhead power lines and tower foundations, and analysing existing lines and structures where upgrade or maintenance work was underway.

The next six months were with the estimating department where I worked on tenders for some really big customers like National Grid, Scottish and Southern Energy and Central Networks. It gave me a really good idea of how prices are structured and was a great foundation for managing future projects.

September 2006

After a year being office based it was time to go on site. For six months I worked on a 400KV refurbishment of a 95km long overhead power line between Pelham and Walpole, East Anglia. The scope of works was the replacement of bundles of conductors on 259 towers.

My initial role was as design co-ordinator so I had to make sure all the design information that came to site was acted upon, that the most up-to-date drawings were used and that any issues the guys had on site were fed back to the design office. After three months I became the site engineer, overseeing the subcontractors working on tower strengthening works.

My final six month placement was in the commercial department, which taught me a lot about how customers deal with Balfour Beatty. It covered the commercial aspects of projects and contracts and made me aware of what my input in projects needed to be.

September 2007

When my training programme ended I was offered a job with the Wireless Networks business as an assistant project engineer. Primarily, I was offi ce-based working on tenders, which are the offers that companies submit when bidding to carry out work on a project.

Within this role I worked on the estimate for design and build of a new broadcast mast at Tacolneston, near Norwich, in preparation for the digital switchover. A mast is a steel lattice spine supported by cable stays that are then anchored to concrete blocks. The structure at Tacolneston is 191m tall.

As part of the tender team I was responsible for liaising with subcontractors to get prices for the work on site, and then working with the operations team to develop the programme based on resources and materials. I then built up the tender documents for submission of the quote to our customer Arqiva.

June 2008

The contract was awarded to us for the Tacolneston project. I knew that I was going to be managing the project at design stage and it was decided that I would also manage the project on site too. As it is a large scale project worth £5M, I am learning all the time and it is great that the company has so much faith in me.

Managing site works involves monitoring construction activities including the day to day responsibilities of the foremen and operatives; writing method statements; conducting risk assessments and safety inspections; and solving problems that arise during the works.

What’s next?

My key goal is becoming chartered when I take the review in September. Balfour Beatty have been fantastic in supporting me. The training has been amazing. I have worked very hard for the company and they have worked very hard for me.

After that I would like to work overseas. Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions has an international business and I hope to move into that, preferably in the US.

• To find out more about opportunities for graduates within Balfour Beatty visit their graduate jobs site.

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