Along with many of our colleagues in the SI community, CCGI are actively encouraging students to study Geosciences at University and then enter into the industry. So what is the life of a site engineer like? Scott explains a typical day – or night!
The day time edition:
My day starts quite early! Usually meeting at the yard for 06:00am with the teams gathering the equipment needed for site and loading up our vans. The early morning commute is always a good time to have a bit of down time before a busy day starts – a moment to yourself, time to enjoy a coffee.
Arriving on site its important to know what is needed. The first half hour can be hectic liaising with the team, giving your morning briefing, issuing the permits and setting out the positions for the team to crack on. After this the busy bit is often done for now, but sometimes it’s not, that’s the beauty of site life, each job is different and presents a different challenge! And then onto our other role as the site geologist – logging soil and core throughout the day.
And then suddenly the day is done and it’s time to scan paper work, email relevant documents back to the office and to pack the vans ready to commute home or to the hotel, to enjoy a meal and have time to relax before it all starts again!
The night time edition:
Setting off to work as the world winds down can be a bit of a strange feeling to begin with, but you soon get used to the quiet of the night.
Infrastructure works on road or rail are often carried out at night. The pace is a bit quicker and people are more focused, however the general premise of an engineers job remains the same. We meet early on site and brief the team on the nights activities with tool box talks on any adverse changes (other work crews, weather etc). We then work together to get the equipment loaded onto the rail and onto position. This requires teamwork as we only have a short time on the track before the morning trains begin running. A lot more involvement is needed. After the initial busy start and getting the drill crew onto position it’s time to log, using portable lighting towers. Then you do the whole dance in reverse! Loading the vans and getting back to your place of rest to send your paperwork, photos and logs before getting some well-deserved rest!
You can find more details about our projects on our case studies page.