MEng Mechanical Engineering,
University of Exeter
The attraction of engineering for me is about being able to see your work out there. It's solid and substantial, rather than just being on a piece of paper. It's like a legacy and you've given something back.
I started with Balfour Beatty in 2003 and my first project was on the West Coast Main Line upgrade for a couple of years. I was on cable route installation – we had over 110km of cabling routes to install through stations and platforms, including digging up a large part of Watford Junction, one of the country's busiest stations.
Since then I've worked on the Heathrow Terminal 5 Underground station and extension to the Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly Line. My first role was overseeing the installation of the track for the two 1.6km-long tunnels for the Heathrow Express extension. I was also responsible for several escape and intervention shafts, as well as installing several access bridges and line-side equipment rooms. One of my biggest achievements was setting up a 1600m-long pipeline to pump concrete to do a pour at the end of the tunnel.
You feel really proud to have achieved something that people will be using daily. I walked up and down those tunnels enough times, it'll be nice to travel through them on a train.
Bookmark using:
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
