With years of industry expertise and a passion for problem-solving, we wanted to find out how he first established himself within the industry, gaining an insight into his role, the challenges he encounters, and what he thinks the future of the construction sector could look like.
Tell us about your career to date?
I first discovered a passion for geology during my school years, and I haven’t looked back since. After completing an undergraduate degree in the subject, and a Master’s in Mining Geology, I fell into Ground Investigation contracting. This was before working my way up to my current position with Jubb, where I head up the Ground Engineering Team.
Throughout my career, I’ve been able to collaborate with, and learn from some great engineers, to whom I owe a lot. Working on a variety of fascinating projects, whilst being afforded the freedom to manage and deliver these as I see fit, has allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them. This is something I consider key in my career development. There’s always a challenge to overcome, and I thoroughly enjoy coaching the next generation of ground engineers.
For those of us outside of the Ground Engineering world, can you explain the sort of work your team undertakes?
In short, we advise clients about the ground below their sites, and provide solutions for their developments with mitigations where hazards are identified.
Initially, projects start with site appraisal to identify hazards and characterise the ground, giving recommendations for design. Where hazards aren’t mitigated through design, we’ll carry out further investigation to minimise risks, and cost or program impact. Beyond this, our work frequently involves proof of concept and foundation design, designs of earthworks and allied structures, such as embankments and cuttings, with settlement assessments. From environmental and waste perspectives our work typically includes quantitative risk assessments, material management plans, remedial method statements, and so on.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Like most engineers, I enjoy problem solving – and guiding our teams to the correct solutions. I find this particularly satisfying in the context of the ground, through the creation of robust predictive ground models, with provision of well-considered engineering specification and design. This is where our team can add real value to the client.
What challenges do you face within your discipline?
That would be attracting and retaining new talent. Although there are plenty of capable graduates within ground engineering related disciplines, too few find their way into our sector. And when they do, too few stay the course to become skilled practitioners.
As an industry, we need to expend effort to attract the next generation of engineers, then invest in, and train those graduates who do wish to make ground engineering their career – this is something Jubb is committed to.
We should provide more informal opportunities to engage with students through small group sessions, placements, etc. For those who chose to enter our industry, we must make sure they receive a structured learning pathway with clear career progression, ensuring they remain challenged and stimulated – hence the need for Jubb’s Learning Pathways Programme.
Where do you see the future of Ground Engineering?
The construction sector will need to significantly reduce its carbon footprint over the coming years, due to the introduction of new regulations. Although progress is being made, there is still much more to be done.
We must increase the value provided in our advisory reports, giving special consideration to carbon emissions. This will necessitate a reduction in the level of conservatism employed and a willingness to present the benefits to clients of better quality or more data. In doing this, we’ll develop a sound basis for risk quantification and assessment. We also need to increase skills within the ground engineer sector to allow those risks to be appropriately assessed to ensure such options can be presented.
How can engineers influence climate change?
As the impacts of global warming become harder to ignore, there are certainly things that engineers can do within a professional context to aid positive change – aside from adhering to new, climate-focussed regulations. Expanding our knowledge on how to reduce our carbon footprint is essential, and this, in turn, will help us to enable our clients to do the same. As we move away from financially driven conversation and focus on how to tackle the detrimental effects of using embodied carbon in our projects, we can begin focussing on lean design strategies – for example, reducing or eliminating materials where possible, renovating and reusing rather than building from scratch, and using low-carbon alternatives.
Aside from my previous point, another area we can control is data sharing. Sites are often investigated multiple times, whether that’s by vendors or prospective buyers – but there is a significant carbon footprint associated with this.
On the client side, this data is initially sensitive, but then tends to get lost. The Ground Engineering sector does tend to retain this data, albeit to varying degrees, but is not currently able to share this without client authorisation and is not motivated to do so where it could reduce future work opportunities.
For a long time, the British Geological Survey (BGS) has run a repository for this data, which they provide access to though their website. However, little new data is deposited here for these reasons. Once again, only regulation will be effective in overcoming market pressures.
I believe we must find a way to share this data in a timely manner whilst protecting the commercial interests of site owners, and returning benefit to the companies who gather and hold that valuable data.
Here at Jubb, our close-knit Ground Engineering team is committed to providing a top quality service, providing end-to-end project support – from pre-acquisition, through to construction completion. Our clients can trust that they’re in safe hands, as we have the in-house skills and industry expertise to ensure that all projects undergo a thorough risk assessment – whilst paying close attention to our environmental impact.
To find out more about how we can help, contact us today.
