My work experience covered an eight week period over the summer of 2006. I was assigned to the Foundations department in the Ryton on Dunsmore office.

 

Part of my placement involved a very useful 2 weeks site experience at the Former Delta Compton Site in Fabian Way, Swansea Bay in Wales, where Keller were constructing the foundations for a proposed 8000 square metre distribution centre for Amazon.  I learned the importance of keeping to a programme and being able to resolve engineering issues in a methodical and logical way. 

Having actual site experience enabled me to appreciate the importance of health and safety and to take on responsibility at a very early stage - from securing my own accommodation in Swansea to being the only Keller civil engineer on site.  I also found that it was very important to have regular contact with my line manager in Ryton and good communication with the site foreman and construction staff on site.

 

During the time I spent in the office at Ryton, I was assigned to the drawing office in the foundations department. Initially I started off on small scale on ‘as built’ drawings in order to get familiar with AutoCAD, the commands and layout, then as I progressed through the summer, I worked on more technical drawings and jobs.  During my final weeks at the office, I was involved with drawing foundation design layouts from scratch for both housing and warehouse developments.