Bam Nuttall are building the £35m bypass around the village of Stubbington near Fareham. The scheme starts at the Titchfield Gyratory then down the existing Titchfied Road then diverts off to the East through the fields and then joins the Gosport Road. There is extensive road remodelling at Titchfield Gyratory, Titchfield Road, Peak Lane, a new roundabout on Gosport Road, re-aligning Gosport Road and Peel Common Roundabout. Bam have been on site since early 2020. To be honest its a bit different to what I am used to in that on previous jobs I have been the sole engineer on the job and have been involved with everything.

As 1 of 3 engineers on a job of this size (5440m bypass, 3600m of it new carriageway  I dont need to get involved with everything, just my section. I have on the go:

• Setting out for ducting for traffic signals
• Setting out drainage
• Setting out service diversions
• Setting out for kerbs
• Permits to break ground
• Earthworks and stockpile surveys.
• Mentoring yes thats correct, mentoring junior engineers
• Various surveys, sketches, as builts etc

I am now involved with the earthworks, which is a different scale to what I am used to, but very similar processes. Im not setting much out as all the earthworks is all machine control, so I'm surveying line and level and verifying 1st stage fill, roadbox, earthwork outline, formation, capping and subbase levels, weekly progress surveys and stockpiles. What I like about this industry is that you think you know a bit, but there's always someone who knows more than you! I've always been pretty good in keeping my gob shut and learning from others and try and learn something more from every job.

For example on this job I have been using my TS15, but also Leica Icon GPS and Trimble TCS7 with siteworks so getting a bit of variety with the instruments.

I think part of the reason they went for me was apart from being pretty good, with the right experience, I am self sufficient, in that they dont need to provide me with an instrument, they dont need to provide me with a laptop with autocad and LSS etc as I provide all that. Not sure what will happen when IR35 kicks in in April 2021 tho but until then theres plenty of kerbs and drainage to go in!!!

I liked it at Bam, learned a lot and worked with some talented people on an interesting job, but with the impending IR35 changes our Companys' working practices were not aligned - so we parted in early February.