• Question: What's the most fun you've had on a project? What was it?

    Asked by JJ Bear to Ashwanth, Jeni, Mark, Natalie, Stephen on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Jeni Spragg

      Jeni Spragg answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      The most fun I’ve had on a project was when I was working on a site that processed natural gas 24 hours a day. I was put in charge of a maintenance project on some big reactors (three storeys high!), when I was only a few months into the job.

      That meant I had to work with people all over the site – not just engineers, but people like technicians and managers too. We all had our different parts to play. Once I had set up the project, and it was up and running, I was out on-site every day catching up with them all, talking about the job (and plenty more too!). It felt good to have been given responsibility for something important. It was fun, because it has lots of variety in it – I wasn’t just working at a desk, I was out and about seeing the practical side of things too.

    • Photo: Mark Gowan

      Mark Gowan answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      JJ Bear
      It has to be the during the construction of the A55 road across the island of Anglesey in North Wales. The majority of the engineers building the road were all living away from home during the project, so we lived together in houses which we rented. The island has stunning scenery and beaches, so once we eventually finished work for the evening, we used to the beach, have a bbq and go canoeing.

    • Photo: Stephen Richardson

      Stephen Richardson answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Hi JJ Bear – the first thing that springs to mind is when I had to go into a cellar that a school had been built on top of and there was a risk that the cellar might be full of some sort of poisonous gas. So we had to get some guys to come with what they call a man-recovery system. So I was tied to a rope the whole time I was down there in case I passed out and they had to pull me back up with the rope. Fortunately that didn’t happen.
      Apart from that the most fun I’ve had is when I get to work as part of a good team

    • Photo: Natalie Wride

      Natalie Wride answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      Hi JJ Bear!

      One of the most fun projects I worked on was a project in Manchester. It was a storm water tank which meant when there was heavy rain, the water would flow into a storage tank rather than flow into the canals and increase water levels which might cause floods.

      It involved building a big vertical tunnel in the ground (a bit like a huge circular swimming pool!) which was nearly 20 metres deep. Because the project was in an area where they had identified historic artefacts, we had to scan the ground before hand to check what was in it – we wouldn’t want to damage any artefacts for historians and archaeologists! I also spent a lot of time examining historical maps of the area to see what had been on the site before us for clues of what we might find in the ground – it was like being a detective for the day!!

      It was amazing to watch something like this being built – especially when you get to stand at the bottom of the tank and look up! It’s a shame you can’t see it now as it’s buried in the ground 🙂

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