Jamaican junior engineers gain experience on highway project

The two budding engineers are part of a mentorship programme by NROCC, which was born out of a need to expand its cadre of technical staff. “This is my first big project since leaving school,” Mr. Graham tells JIS News in an interview.

“I have been learning a lot on the project, so far. I am very grateful for the opportunity, especially when considering the scale of the works being undertaken on this project,” he adds.

The junior engineer points out that the project – May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 – being carried out under the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project, is just over 28 km long with three bridges, one being the largest four-lane bridge to be built in the island.

At 157 metres long, the new Rio Minho bridge will be more than twice the length of the two smaller bridges being constructed over the St. Anne’s Gully and Milk River, which are 74 metres long each.

Mr. Graham informs that he and his fellow mentee have also been able to observe the process of designing and constructing interchanges and toll plazas, which are included in the project.

He is also quite pleased that he has been able to observe the process of laying the foundation, which is done using a friction pile.

This type of pile utilises the frictional resistance force between the pile surface and adjacent soil to transfer the superstructure load.

Mr. Graham also points to the importance of being on the ground to experience the construction of underpasses and the insertion of corrugated steel pipes as well as the related compaction.

Meanwhile, Miss French who graduated in 2018, says this is her second big project.

The first, she points out, was the Closed Harbour Bay Beach Park in Montego Bay, but she relishes the idea of working on the road project, which has opened her eyes to many new things.

“Being a part of this team is really interesting. This is the first time I am doing road infrastructure. I was already exposed to building,” she says.

“You get to see how the different aspects of the work are done from start to finish. I expect to learn a lot and, hopefully, there’s a future for me at NROCC at the end of this project,” Miss French adds.

Senior Construction Observer on Part A of the South Coast Highway Development Programme, Marcus Gray, indicates that the junior engineers have been engaged to be a part of the observation team. He says that the mentorship programme was an NROCC initiative and that the mentees have been on board for approximately two months.

“They have gone through observing the contract documents, the drawings and the work on site, so they get to see how we translate from design, drawings and contract to implementation,” he explains.

Mr. Gray informs that the programme will extend for the life of the project. Senior Manager, Technical Services at NROCC, George Nicholson, gives some background to the mentorship programme and explains the rationale.

“We at NROCC realised that we need more technical staff. Generally speaking, it’s an opportunity with a huge project like this to train a new cadre of engineers coming up,” he says.

Mr. Nicholson further explains that the contract provides for additional observers on the site, and so the entity took the opportunity to engage the junior engineers, who are at different levels.

“Some are just out of school. Some have had experience on other construction sites, but because our project is so rigid in terms of quality, it was a great opportunity to actually bring some persons on and take them through a mentorship programme, where they get formal training about our testing methodologies, our quality control methodologies and, again, see the work on site,” the Senior Technical Manager says.

He points out that they have been engaged, in the first instance, on two-year contracts that will take them to the end of the project, followed by a six-month observation period.

Mr. Nicholson further adds that the contract also allows for an additional two years to monitor the defects on the project.

“We’ll be evaluating them, through the consultant, as they go along, looking at their progress. They’ll be tested, to see what they learn and how effective they are, so when they actually come into the formal engineering profession, if NROCC has the space, they’ll be competing to be absorbed into NROCC,” he informs.

He says the consultant is also likely to be trying to absorb staff and that this would present an additional opportunity for the junior engineers, to show how good they are at what they do and how much they have learned.

The Senior Technical Manager points out that NROCC is in the business of developing highways “and we have more highways in the pipeline, so we always have need for technical staff to work on site and so everything ties nicely together”.

“You have a bit of national development, training of engineers and also trying to ensure that NROCC has the best possible staff out there to oversee highway projects,” he tells JIS News.