Starting Out!
Having pursued my career on a vocational basis I place a strong emphasis on
the experience I have gained over the years, holding the conviction that
learning through a "hand-on" experience is, frankly, worth it's weigh
in gold.
I started my career as a trainee quantity surveyor when I joined Todd and
Ledson, an Edinburgh firm of Chartered Quantity Surveyors. I worked, as do most
trainees, as a general 'dog body' whilst at the same time I attended Napier
Technical College on a Day-Release course recognised by the RICS.
My starting salary was £850.00 per year and for that I got all sorts of tasks
thrown my way, which provided me with a foundation that has stood me in good
stead throughout my career.
I gained first hand working knowledge of the process and procedures necessary
for feasibility studies, measurement and production of Bills of Quantities,
tendering, all the way through to a final account.
The firm handled building projects of various natures, including low rise
residential flats, housing, office fit outs, refurbishment, commercial property
and specialist works such as the single bay fire station in Innerkeithing in
Scotland, which was my first job as a project QS.
Overseas Working
Bahrain
With this foundation of training and concurrent study, I traveled to the Middle
East in 1979 to work full time in the region, initially with the associated
practice of Harvey, Todd and Ledson. In that first year in the Middle East I traveled
extensively throughout the region handling works in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and
Ras Al Khama to mention a few.
The nature of work was varied and included working as a consultant along side
Architects and Engineers but also included working as a contract advisor with
contractors in the preparation of final accounts, cost and time claims.
Of particular interest was my involvement with the development and
preparation of a tender of the Upper Zukum Island, which was the 'sister' of Das
Island, the petro-chemical
installation in the Arabian Gulf. This project, for the client Abu Dhabi
National Oil Company, was for a complete support town
and included everything from the potable water plant to the prison and was
undertaken whilst I was in Beirut in Lebanon.
My time in
Bahrain allowed me to develop
my
interest in architecture,
and there are
still some fine
examples of traditional construction
to
view around the capital of
Manama.
However, after my first years contract I sought out, and successfully obtained
consistent employment in Bahrain for nearly four years. During which time
I worked for the locally owned construction firm of Mohammed Jalal Contracting
as a Principal Quantity Surveyor and after that as Quantity Surveying Manger with a company called Project S. A. Construction
Ltd.
Over this period I gained experience in :-
-
low cost housing;
-
commercial office development;
-
high rise office tower construction, (for private clients);
-
petro-chemical shutdown works and hospital renovations for BAPCO (a local subsidiary
of Caltex);
-
a five star hotel and office commercial development and a luxurious
residence for a Sheik and
-
three secondary schools for the Kuwait Technical
Office.
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Qatar
I left Bahrain and went to Qatar in early 1983 where I was seconded to the
State Water Authority, based in Doha, to develop and implement a budgetary
control system, (capable of computerization) for all Capital, Minor and
Maintenance Works, and to develop and present the annual budget to the Ministry
of Petroleum and Finance for that year. The budget proposal prepared was for 8
Billion Qatar Riyals (equivalent to £800 million pounds Sterling 1983 prices)
The National Museum of Doha
Home for a while
Scotland
Upon returning to Scotland in late '83 I took up a position as Senior
Quantity Surveyor seconded to Lummus Crest Co. Ltd., who were the construction
managers for the Shell/Esso project called the Fife Ethylene Project located at
Mossmorran in Fife
.
May
1985. Mossmorran, Scotland.
Fife Ethylene Plant
During this period of my career I took the opportunity of advancing my
progress with professional qualifications and joined the Chartered Institute of
Building as an Associate and, because of the American influence of Lummus I
gained full Membership status of the Association of Cost Engineers.
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India
On completion of my contract in the Fife Ethylene Project in 1984, I joined N.E.I. Project Ltd, (a subsidiary of Northern Engineering Industries Group) in Newcastle as a Contract Administrator on a project for 2 x 500Mwatt coal burning power station for the National Thermal Power Corporation of India under an Oversea Aid Development (O.A.D.) grant from the UK government. This
contract was a full turnkey set up and awarded to NEI Projects.
 My initial task was developing contracting procedures for the . After setting up the systems necessary for sub-letting the erection contract at the Rihand site (this is located about 1800 miles north east of Delhi), I initiated the procurement of sub-contracts in India whilst liaising with the UK suppliers, most of whom were
Group companies.
The initial packages which were let comprised the Materials Handling and Inland Transportation Contract for the 11,000 tonnes of plant, equipment and erection goods. This sub-contract along encompassed the port clearance and the rail or road transportation of the entire power plant. Thereafter I tendered and negotiated sub-contracts for the erection of the site heavy craneage, the coal handling
plant, the turbine generator hall structural steel, turbine generator, HV transformers and the heavy and light power cabling, the electrostatic precipitators and the control and instrumentation contracts. All of which, under the O.A.D. agreement had to be sub-let to local Indian contractors, which thus required extensive Quality contract and assurance measures being introduced into the
packages in accordance with BS 1578
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Singapore
The Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRTC) offer me a position as a Project Quantity Surveyor in early 1985 to work on the new subway system's Phase I and II. The construction of both of these phases was procured through international tendering on a Design and Build lump sum basis, a switch in procurement strategy which MRTC adopted to capitalise upon the, then, world glut of
tunneling contractors. 
The system then comprised the green, blue and part only of the red and yellow lines, refer to the illustration shown here for an idea of the extent of the system.
This was, at that time, the foremost civil engineering development in the world and I was fortunate enough to work with some of the most experienced engineering in the mass transit field and especially in tunneling. Conditions for tunneling in Singapore present significant problems and with the deployment of some of the worlds most prestigious international construction firms the system was
partially completed in 1987 and was providing full scheduled passenger service by 1988.
 Of special note, from an engineering point of view was the Singapore River crossing, illustrated below, which was carried out by constructing a two stage cofferdam, the first shown in the photograph. This was singularly impress piece of engineering!
Further details of this and other project of the system are available to view in my Projects pages.
Of equal interest was the diversity of architectures that was adopted in order to give each station it's own particular character, two illustration of such diversity can be seen here in the form of Tao Payoh Station on the left and Dhoby Ghaut Station on the right.
This contract gave me experience of mega-dollar international contracting,
from procurement and tender assessment through to final accounts, including
extensive work on the appraisal for claims for extension of time, unforeseen
ground conditions, re-design claims. As such the experience I gained as a
Quantity Surveyor in this predominantly "engineering" environment was
a significant boost to my key skills in the field of civil engineering which I
had previously not been exposed.
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China, Hong Kong
Lantau Fixed Link
 Lantau fixed link, previously call the Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge - Towers and anchorages carried out by VSL Engineering for the Anglo-Japanese Consortium. This project was one of the of the Hong Kong Airport Core Programme
projects. (click on thumbnails to see full sized pictures)
The Lantau Link was offically opened on April 27,1997, and it opened to traffic on May 22, it is the vital connection in the transport network serving the new airport, comprising the Tsing Ma Bridge, the Kap Shui Mun Bridge and the Ma Wan Viaduct.
The double-deck crossing, 3.5 kilometres long, provides the first road link between Lantau Island and the rest of Hong Kong.
The two bridges and the viaduct have six lanes for road traffic on the open upper deck and two railway tracks together with two road lanes for emergency use on the sheltered lower deck.
World's longest span suspension bridge carrying both road and rail traffic.
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Length
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-- 2.2 kilometres
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Main span
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-- 1,377 metres
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Shipping clearance
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-- 62 metres
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Tower height
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-- 206 metres
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Suspension cable diameter
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-- 1.1 metres
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Length of wire in suspension cables
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-- 160,000 kilometres
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Structural steel
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-- 50,000 tonnes
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Volume of concrete
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-- 500,000 cubic metres
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Central Reclamation
Twenty hectares of land have been reclaimed from the Central waterfront and a further six hectares of existing land redeveloped.
The reclamation, between Rumsey Street and Pedder Street, has extended the waterfront by up to 350 metres beyond Central's existing shoreline.
The Hong Kong terminus of the Airport Railway is built on the new land, which also provides opportunities for the expansion of the Central business district.
Six new ferry piers, serving both inner harbour and outlying island routes, have been built on the reclaimed land. A large promenade has been provided as well as a bus terminus.
Details of the particular project may be viewed by following the link to
"Projects" as the side of the page.
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