Engineering Stories
As part of the team at Ayesa, our engineers make critical contributions to remarkable projects. These stories represent some of experiences of our engineers and their involvements in major projects.
Mike Harper
Principle Engineer
GRANGEMOUTH, SCOTLAND REMEDIATION OF DNAPL
"The remediation of DNAPL at the Grangemouth site was my first project upon joining TerraConsult Leeds. The site had been extensively characterised, both by TerraConsult and other consultants, with a huge amount of ground information and chemical data gathered.
The main objective of the remediation works was secure regulatory sign off to allow the construction of a £216 million Energy from Waste Plant to commence.
Working with several colleagues in the St.Helens office my role in the project was to write the remediation strategy for the works, initiate the on-site remediation works, co-project manage it and finally to produce the remediation verification reports for the client and ultimately the regulator (SEPA).
The principal difficulties encountered were due to the DNAPL being within very low permeability stratum and the demanding/short programme required by the client. The period from commencing installation of 365 remedial wells, undertaking the remediation works to gaining regulatory sign off was only 17.5 weeks. The works were completed successfully, on programme and within budget.
The project rapidly increased my experience in the remediation of challenging ground conditions and producing verification reports to a high standard in short timescales. Working with my colleagues in St.Helens demonstrated how well TerraConsult offices can work together to achieve project success."
John Martin
Director
KUWAIT ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION
"When Saddam Hussein destroyed the oil fields in Kuwait in 1991, it was one of the world’s worst environmental disasters, leaving a legacy of 24 million cubic metres of heavily contaminated soil. As part of the UN-funded Kuwait Environmental Remediation Programme (KERP), a tender was issued to construct a large engineered containment repository to receive some of the soils that were too contaminated to remediate. In the face of stiff international competition, TerraConsult supported an $18 million D&B tender successfully and led to 4 years of work in the desert to the south of Kuwait City. Our role was to conduct site investigations, hydrogeological studies, environmental impact assessments, site selection, engineering design, and to supervise the construction works. As a project manager, it was great to see the site development, infilling, capping, and restoration recorded on regular Google Earth satellite photo updates. The technical and contractual knowledge we gained on this project was invaluable and led to many other prestigious projects in the region."
Phil Roberts
Principal Scientist
HEATHROW EXPANSION PROJECT (HEP)
"The Heathrow Expansion Project (HEP) is one of the most challenging projects I worked on involving a £13 bn scheme to construct a third runway and associated infrastructure at Heathrow Airport.
Our role is to provide a wide range of design and regulatory support services to Jacobs, the main Earthworks Design Consultant. They chose us for our landfill remediation expertise. As Project Manager, I have had to coordinate and ensure the delivery of numerous, technically complex reports to very tight timescales. Thankfully we have a highly experienced and competent team who go the extra mile and helped me meet the delivery targets. What has been particularly pleasing is that we are seen as world-leading experts in our field and that our input has been really appreciated by the wider HEP design team."
Lerika Eigelaar
Project Engineer, Bahrain.
MA'AMEER BAY FLUSHING ASSESSMENT PROJECT
"My role working on 'Ma'ameer Bay Flushing Assessment' as both the Project Manager and the Technical Lead, has allowed me to see through all aspects of the project cycle from the initial meeting to the final delivery.
It gave me the opportunity present to high profile clients and gain insight into the commercial aspects of the project.
From a technical point of view, Ma'ameer Bay was particularly interesting due to the impacted flow within the Bay, consisting of two very different tides, one to the north and the other to the south.
I assessed different modifications and design solutions, which resulted in either the northern tides or the southern tides governing the flushing making the Ma'ameer Bay project unique. This project has explicitly broadened my knowledge on flushing assessments, enhanced my modelling approached and helped me identify risks and pitfalls early in a project."
Paige Leresche
Junior Environmental Consultant, Bahrain.
BAHRAIN - HAWAR SUB-SEA CABLE PROJECT
"One of the most interesting projects I had the opportunity to work on was 'The Bahrain-Hawar 66kV Sub-Sea Cable Project'. It proposed to connect Hawar to mainland Bahrain using three 66kV submarine power and one fibre optic cable. Ayesa provided consultancy services to determine the most economical and environmentally feasible route. I worked on the Environmental Impact Assessment, where I was involved in undertaking terrestrial and marine ecology surveys, noise monitoring, social impact assessments, GIS and mapping and report writing.
The subsea cable transects an area that is particularly sensitive from an environmental and socio-economic perspective; and the main challenge of this project was to find a route for the cable that considered the sensitivity of the area, existing borrow areas and future developments. The highlight of such a large scale project, (23km of sub-sea cable), was having the ability to satisfy the needs of the development while providing mitigation measures and develop monitoring plans to ensure the project had minimal impact on the environment."
Nick Peters
Senior Project Engineer, Dublin.
TROPICAL FRUIT WAREHOUSE PROJECT
"Tropical Fruit Warehouse, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay gave me the opportunity to be involved in a project from the outset right through to construction on site.
I was involved at the early stage of design by producing an interpretative report to detail the historical and recent ground investigations and to carry out preliminary designs of the secant-piling for the two-storey basement and foundation piles for the new 6 storey office block and renovation of the original warehouse. I carried out the detailed design for the secant piles for the office block and foundations piles for both buildings on behalf of the piling contractor. This involved working closely with the engineers, the piling contractor and main contractor for the project to provide satisfactory solutions for all parties."
Seán Byrne
Graduate Engineer
BALLINAFAD WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT BUNDLE
The Tubbercurry, Grange, Strandhill and Ballinafad Wastewater Treatment Plant Bundle was my first project at Ayesa. The main objective of the scheme was to provide long-term improvements and expansion of the existing treatment plants. The project design required an upgrade the existing wastewater treatment plants to provide for the modern, efficient and economically sustainable treatment of wastewater to ensure compliance with EU Regulations.
I was tasked with designing the drainage scheme for the treatment plant sites. My involvement in the project provided valuable insight into detailed drainage design and gave me the opportunity to gain experience using MicroDrainage software. Since then, I have built several different models for other projects. I look forward to being involved in other challenging projects in the future.
Matt Booth
Associate, Guildford, UK.
THE PURFLEET THAMES TERMINAL PROJECT
“I’ve enjoyed working on the Purfleet Thames Terminal project. The structural frame itself is very regular and so the challenges on this project have been found in the details, particularly at movement joint positions.
The joints need to accommodate movement in both orthogonal directions and withstand being trafficked by cars to allow access to all areas of the car park from either ramp.” - Matthew Booth
Maurice Ryan
Associate, Dublin.
"Opportunities to work on projects such as Aercap House have developed my knowledge and understanding of the cutting edge technologies and systems available for deep basement construction.
In conjunction with the main contractor, McNamara Construction, I developed a propping regime using high capacity Groundforce propping solutions, which I hadn’t previously used extensively .” - Maurice Ryan
“Typical solutions for achieving groundwater cut-off usually involved the installation of deep cut-off retaining walls. The particular ground conditions at Kent Station precluded such a solution and I was tasked with coming up with an alternative for SIAC Construction. Through the sharing of in-house knowledge and experience, I was able to develop an innovative grouting solution which satisfied the contractor and the overall client at Irish Rail.” - Maurice Ryan
Keith Jennings
Senior Engineer
“Project Wave gave me the opportunity to challenge myself on a high-valued large scale project. I enjoyed the challenge of interpreting historic pile load testing data, testing new data and comparing the results to designs based on the site investigation data.
As an engineer tasked with undertaking numerous pile designs and understanding the benefits and achievable efficiencies in design using this hybrid approach, has been very beneficial to my development as a geotechnical engineer. The knowledge I gained from this project will enhance my ability to deliver cost-effective solutions to future clients.”
Padraig O'Brien
Senior Engineer, Dublin.
“As a Cork native and a keen member of the GAA, I was delighted to have the opportunity to work on the Páirc Uí Chaoimh Stadium development and part of the team which delivered a technically advanced and efficient solution to the client. The new Páirc Uí Chaoimh is now a 45,000 capacity stadium which is entirely wheelchair accessible.”
David Beadman
Consultant
“The Shard was one of the first projects that Ayesa completed in London and it really got our name known as expert geotechnical designers. It was a fantastic project to work on, technically very challenging but highly rewarding to be part of the team delivering this iconic structure. I documented the results of the pile test in a paper published by Ground Engineering, co-authored with Mark Pennington of BBGE and Matthew Sharratt of WSP Group.” - David Beadman
James Lavin
Senior Technician, Galway
“Working on Aqaba Port was challenging and very beneficial to my own experience as a Senior Technician. The large development project forced me to work closely with the client on-site and also in their design offices. This ensured the best and most cost-effective solution was reached for the client in a timely manner.
I was delighted to gain experience working on such a large project of this size and have since worked on several other large ports throughout the Middle East and other parts of the world.”