Breaking Ground: Recent Episodes
Ground Engineering Magazine & The Ground Forum
Breaking Ground is the voice of the geotechnical industry, and is supported by Ground Engineering Magazine and The Ground Forum.
Hosted by Steve Hadley, Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists, the podcast covers a wide range of topics including sustainability, design, commerce and STEM.
If you're in the industry - or if you're thinking of joining - there will be something here for you!
To find out more about Ground Engineering Magazine, visit http://www.geplus.co.uk.
To find out more about The Ground Forum, visit https://ground-forum.org.uk
In this episode of the Breaking Ground podcast, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings are with Natalie Bews (Managing Director at Skelair International Ltd), discussing her journey in the geotechnical engineering sector. Natalie shares her early passion for geology, her career progression from an assistant geotechnical engineer to a business development role, and the importance of proactive marketing strategies in securing projects.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings are discussing the journey into a Geotechnics career with some recent graduates from the Ground Forum undergraduate mentoring program discussing their journeys into the field of ground engineering. They share their educational backgrounds, experiences in the industry, and insights into the challenges and opportunities they face.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings are discussing CFA piling, the potential of machine learning in the industry and the impact of regulations on pile design. They explore insights from a survey on AI's role in the piling industry and the future of automation in construction jobs.
Our guests on this podcast are John Hopkins (Project Manager, Expanded Piling Ltd) and John Chick (Former FPS Chair and Technical Leader for Geotechnics, Sizewell C)
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings are discussing one of our Ground Forum members, the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, also known as IOM3. Specifically, they focus on the Ground Engineering Subgroup (GES) of IOM3.
Our guests on this podcast are David Waring Senior Geotechnical Engineer at BP, Emily Wood who is Engineering Manager at BAM and Paul Skerry, the Director of Membership at IOM3.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings chat with Dr Paul Beetham of Nottingham Trent University, a Chartered Civil Engineer specialising in geotechnical design and ground improvement.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and Ciaran Jennings chat with Luisa Hendry, who you might know from the world of social media as the Scottish Geologist.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
In this episode, Steve Hadley and his guests discuss social mobility and pathways into the ground engineering industry.
Hadley hosts the episode together with Federation of Piling Specialists (UK) and European Federation of Foundation Contractors secretary Ciaran Jennings.
They are joined by Ramboll design engineer Palak Shukla, Atkins Réalis senior geotechnical engineer Tony Bowerman, and Mott MacDonald senior geotechnical engineer Natalie Wride.
In this episode Steve Hadley meets Skevi Perdikou from Geofem. The company is a leader in the application of remote sensing and visualisation technology for monitoring infrastructure and geotechnical assets. This is becoming an increasingly important tool to use along with traditional and complex geotechnical models when assessing events such as dam, slope and cliff failures. Listen to hear more about the science behind these methods and projects where it has been applied.
Hock Liew and Javier Marti join Steve Hadley to explore the history and current implementation of the observational method in basement construction. They explain how better instrumentation and monitoring can help inform decision making that can save time and money, as well as managing risks to workers, the public and surrounding assets.
Dinesh Patel is a world renowned expert in geotechnical engineering. He has produced innovative solutions for landmark building projects and written papers that continue to be referenced decades after their release. Tune in and enjoy the second of two episodes exploring his career journey.
Dinesh Patel, is a world renowned expert in geotechnical engineering. He has produced innovative solutions for landmark building projects and written papers that continue to be referenced decades after their release. Tune in and enjoy the first of two episodes exploring his career journey.
In this episode Steve is joined by Keller’s newly installed Group Sustainability Manager, Luke Deamer, sustainability expert Erica Russell and Alice Berry of Arup who is returning to the podcast.
We explain some of the terminology being used in discussions around carbon and look into how the ground engineering sector can transition to a low Co2 future and ultimately achieve net zero.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast - this call is especially to our overseas listeners - please get in touch by searching for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the sales team at Ground Engineering magazine.
LQM’s Paul Nathanail, Atkins' Carrie Rose, and Ian Evans from Arcadis join Steve to discuss the topic of contaminated land.
They review some common sources of it, methods of investigation and containment. The panel also explore provide insights into contamination within popular culture such as films Deepwater Horizon and Erin Brockovich.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast - this call is especially to our overseas listeners - please get in touch by searching for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering magazine.
In this episode of the podcast Steve meets Carla Martín Clavé.
Carla, who moved to an Engineering Geologist role at Jacobs after completion of her PhD, won the prestigious Glossop award in 2022 and gave a presentation on the role of engineering geology in the energy transition at the event.
The conversation discusses the use of salt caverns for gas and carbon storage which was a focus of her research work. It goes onto review a wide range of low and zero carbon methods of creating electricity.
Steve is joined in this episode by Rebecca Penn of Balfour Beatty, Martin Griffin of Knight Piesold and Gary Evans from Plowman Craven to discuss neurodiversity.
The group explain some of the conditions, their experience of being neurodiverse working in the construction industry, and how having a neurodiverse team can make your organisation more effective.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast - this call is especially to our overseas listeners - please get in touch by searching for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode Steve speaks to Alex Petty, a Geotechnical Engineer from the UK now leading teams in Western Australia.
Alex talks about some of the exciting projects and unique geology in that part of the work. He explains how good geological knowledge can help provide clients with cost effective solutions.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch - search for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
Tarmac geotechnical manager Katherine Evans has set up Bold as Brass, a new network for women in construction, quarrying and mining on LinkedIn.
It was created so that women could have a place to network and support each other. In addition, there is a group for allies, as all genders are responsible for culture change within the industry.
“I wanted to give women a place they felt safe to discuss issues and network without toxicity; everything else has been a by-product of our members’ ideas,” Evans says.
In this episode, she is joined by friend of the podcast and Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions senior geotechnical design engineer Fiona Connor to discuss some of the issues facing women in the construction industry.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast - this call is especially to our overseas listeners - please get in touch by searching for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, host Steve Hadley chats to Jim Williams who works for Historic England, which advises the government on the historic environment.
Williams helps to carry out Historic England’s mission to “champion heritage to improve people’s lives” by managing a team of science advisors across the country.
It is their job to help local authority archaeologists with the scientific aspects of the archaeology that they see on a day-to-day basis. This includes offering advice on scientific dating, on different methods of geophysical surveys, how to deal with human remains and environmental sampling.
Williams notes that the historic environment and its study through archaeology is important, as it plays a key role in the planning and development process.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch - search for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
Steve Hadley meets Yuli (Chaido) Doulala-Rigby, Chief Engineer at Tensar. They talk about Yuli’s journey into geosynthetics, product types and applications. Yuli promotes geogrids as playing a key role in sustainable temporary and permanent works geotechnical solutions.
She also goes on to bust some myths about women in engineering and offers an inspirational tale for others to follow.
Tensar wish to invite listeners to a launch event for their new product range to The Building Centre located very close to Russell Square on Wednesday 13th July 2022. More details can be found on this link Geogrids, Engineering Products and Solutions | Tensar.
On this episode of Breaking Ground Steve Hadley chats to George Tuckwell, Director of Geosciences & Engineering at RSK, and Richard Pidcock, Joint Managing Director at Central Alliance, to talk about geophysics and the range of techniques available to ground engineers.
Steve admits that he has been more used to more conventional ground investigation techniques during his career, and of course this technology is evolving all of the time. In this conversation, George and Richard talk about both the techniques and the technology available, and also their different applications.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch - search for Steve Hadley from Central Piling on LinkedIn.
Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
On this episode Steve Hadley meets Prof. Neil Dixon from Loughborough University and explores how acoustics are being used to help identify potential landslides and reduce harm around the world.
He learns more about the research work going on in the laboratory, centrifugal models, and finite element analysis techniques.
Steve and Neil conclude the episode by discussing how we can attract more people into geotechnics and why funding is crucial in developing talent and technologies.
In this episode of the Breaking Ground podcast, Steve Hadley talks to Dr. Andi Pfaffhuber and Chris Pressdee from EMerald Geomodelling.
He learns more about the use of airborne geoscanning survey technology and its use around the world. The guests explain how the data can be combined with conventional boreholes and enable machine learning to develop sophisticated 3D models of the ground.
This offers the potential for early identification of appropriate construction techniques and infrastructure routing choices.
More information on these techniques will be made available on Ground Engineering (GE) (geplus.co.uk) and the Breaking Ground LinkedIn group.
This special edition of the Breaking Ground podcast reviews the difficult topic of suicide and mental health. Joining Steve Hadley is Vicky Gutteridge of the OLLIE Foundation and Jim Gelder, Technical Director at Mott MacDonald.
The OLLIE Foundation provides wellbeing, prevention and intervention events, training, talks and panel events for professionals, parents and students. Their mission is to reduce the incidence of suicide, particularly amongst our young people. Through their work OLLIE aims to reduce both the stigma and the fears people have in talking about suicide.
Jim, recently took the bold step of speaking publicly about coping with depression. A move that will help remove the stigma around mental health illnesses and give others the confidence that the industry is full of supportive friends and voices.
We understand that this topic may be very difficult to listen to and support those who decide they would prefer to skip this episode. For further support please visit theolliefoundation.org or email contactus@theolliefoundation.org
Further Useful Links:
Samaritans : https://www.samaritans.org/
SHOUT: https://giveusashout.org/
CALM: https://www.thecalmzone.net/
From asking whether we should be openly sharing more information as a way of contributing to the greater good, to whether Minecraft is the key to engaging younger people with geology, this is a fascinating conversation hosted by Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) and featuring Steve Thorpe from the British Geological Survey and Conrad Stewart from Harrison Group.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on Linked In or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
hyperTunnel promise "next generation tunnelling" as they aim to revolutionise the world of underground construction through AI, machine learning and swarm robotics - and in this conversation Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) talks to Patrick Lane-Nott (hyperTunnel's Director of Engineering) about how exactly they're doing it. Essentially, hyperTunnel are looking to use new technology to make tunnelling methods faster, safer and cheaper than they currently are now. The core engineering team has been assembled with people from many different backgrounds - Patrick is from the world of Formula 1, and his team have backgrounds in the academic world, the aviation industry, renewable energy and defence amongst others - with the aim of cross-pollinating and bringing fresh ideas to the tunnelling industry. Of course, he talks abut the key element of hyperTunnel - using robots to dig tunnels - and how their technology means that no humans are in the environment during the construction or excavation phases. He also discusses the other benefits of their technology - for example, how hyperTunnel eliminates the need to prepare for the unexpected. If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on Linked In or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Roni Savage (Managing Director of Jomas Associates) to talk about starting her business twelve years ago, the growth it has seen since then and the schemes that she benefitted from as a business leader.
Roni also talks to Steve about her many other roles within the construction industry, from mentor to aspiring engineers to UK Government advisor through her role with the Federation of Small Businesses.
This conversation is a must-listen for anyone who has ambitions to run their own company, or indeed for anyone who's already in that position: Roni is an inspiring speaker with a CV packed-full of accomplishments, and will undoubtedly be one of the leading voices in the ground engineering industry for a long time to come.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on Linked In or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Ian Webber (Coffey Geotechnics).
Ian shares the story of his career so far with us, chatting about how he established himself in the industry all the way through to his experiences of being an expert witness for legal cases more recently. We would like to thank Ian for his time and for giving us his fantastic insight on this podcast.
If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on Linked In or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Dave Petley (Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University of Sheffield). Dave is a geographer, scientist and global expert in slopes and landslides.
Dave talks to us about slope stability and what effect climate change is having on the way slopes behave, while also giving Steve a refresher on anything he might have forgotten in this area since leaving university!
Many thanks to Dave for lending us his expertise for this podcast. If you would like to be featured on the podcast, especially to our overseas listeners, please get in touch. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode and if you are interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on Linked In or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Dr. Dimitrios Selemetas (Technical Director at AKT II), Alice Berry (Associate at Arup) and Dr. Graham Webb (Associate at WSP) to discuss the Basements and Underground Structures and Instrumentation & Monitoring Conferences which were recently held by Ground Engineering Magazine.
Dimitrios, Alice and Graham all presented at the Conference, an event which highlighted just how much there is going on in geotechnics at the moment! In this podcast Steve explains more about the event for those who couldn't make it, and Dimitrios, Alice and Graham discuss in more detail the themes that they covered in their presentations.
On a quick side note, we'd like to thank everyone who spoke to us at the conferences with positive feedback on the podcast - we're delighted that it's being so widely received and listened to across the ground engineering industry. Please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Richard Fielden (Managing Director of WJ Groundwater and Chair of the British Drilling Association) to talk about the world of ground water and dewatering.
Richard started his career in the piling industry, working on a big basement project in Central London. He realised here that big holes in the ground interested him, and this lead him to take an interest in groundwater and dewatering.
Steve and Richard have known each other for a long time and this is a really interesting conversation between two experts in their field. The world of piling and the world of ground water have a huge number of crossovers, and they cover a lot of ground from looking at skills and the market to developing kit.
Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Derek Pennington (Geotechnical Services Specialist for TfNSW), Breaking Ground’s first international guest who joins Steve over Zoom from his home in Australia.
Derek got in touch after listening to the podcast, which shows just how far and widely our episodes are now being streamed and downloaded. In this discussion, Steve talks to Derek about his geotechnical career which has taken him across the globe from Singapore to Afghanistan, and also across a number of different roles (both within industry and also the academic world).
He also very honestly talks about his experience of being a gay man working within the construction industry, as he hid his sexuality for the majority of his career.
Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Julia Hill (Geotechnical Engineer at Roger Bullivant and Chair of the FPS Early Careers Group), Emily Riley (Senior Chartered Engineer at CGL and Chair of the Early Careers Group for the BGA in London and the South West), and Nick Koor (Associate Head of Research and Innovation at the School of Environment, Geography and Geoscience at the University of Portsmouth). We know that both university and school students listen to Breaking Ground, and this is a fantastic episode to showcase just how many different jobs and roles there are within the geoscience space in particular. Geoscience is the study of the planet and how various geological processes have influenced the way the planet works and looks - geoscientists and geotechnical engineers then analyse how this affects us as human beings, and on our built environment. This conversation covers many topics, and ends with a call-to-action - young scientists and aspiring engineers need to know more about the geoscience industry as a whole, and understand the impact they can have on wider society and the environment with a career in the geoscience space. Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Jane Towse-Laval (Business Director at BBGE) and Philip Hines (UK Group Managing Director at Soletanche Bachy) to discuss joint ventures, a business model which has become more popular in the last few years - what are they, how do they work in practice, and are they a good idea?
He is also joined by Nia Kajastie (Editor of Ground Engineering Magazine) to talk about forthcoming GE activities - something which will become a regular feature of these podcasts - and to provide her insight into current infrastructure projects, including a progress report on HS2.
Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In the second episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Michael Chendorain (Associate Director at Arup and Global Lead for Geothermal and Ground Water Engineering) and Bean Beanland (Principal Consultant at BBH Energy and Director of the Heat Pump Federation). The discussion in this episode focuses around geothermal energy in the United Kingdom, starting with how it has been used throughout history (for example, with the Romans harvesting it in Bath) and then moving on to what's happening now and then how the geothermal energy landscape could look in the future. People don't necessarily think about the UK as a geothermal place, but there is a lot of opportunity to develop ground energy systems. Geothermal could have some practical and financial benefits, but also it could help to reduce carbon footprint - it's got to be sunny for solar, it's got to be windy for wind, but from a ground source perspective the UK is very well suited to harvest ground energy on a bigger scale.
Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In the first episode of Breaking Ground, Steve Hadley (Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists and Managing Director of Central Piling) is joined by Yvonne Ainsworth (Director of GDG) and Martin Pedley (Managing Director of GSS Piling) to discuss the Piling 2020 Conference. The virtual event featured a large number of topics, papers and conversations, which are tackled in this roundtable discussion. Themes included, sustainable materials, new techniques, design and analysis.
Yvonne, one of the organisers of the event and Martin a keynote speaker, give you a real taste of what went on if you weren't able to attend, and provides some additional detail for those of you that did.
Thank you for listening to Breaking Ground - please subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode, and if you're interested in sponsoring an episode please contact Steve Hadley on LinkedIn or get in touch with the marketing team at Ground Engineering Magazine.
In this episode of the Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Chair of the FPS Steve Hadley is joined by Jyoti Sehdev (Chartered Engineer and Group Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead at Costain), Richard Totty (Senior Design Engineer at Bachy Soletanche and Ambassador for Stonewall) and Fiona Connor (Lead Project Geologist at Applied Geology and InterEngineering’s representative at the Ground Forum) to discuss what it's like to be LGBT+ and working within the construction industry. The conversation covers issues that LGBT+ people face such as the challenges of coming out at work and the prejudice that people can encounter whilst going about their day-to-day job. They also talk about the support that they've had, how LGBT+ allies within the workplace can really make a difference, and what we can all do to help make construction a more diverse and inclusive industry. Finally, we have some exciting news to share - this is the last episode of The FPS Podcast as we move on to bigger and better things. Moving forward, we will be teaming up with the Ground Forum and Ground Engineering Magazine for a new podcast called Breaking Ground, with the aim of reaching even more people. We will continue to use this channel, so there's no need to search for something new - however, if you haven't done so yet, please subscribe to this podcast now so that you never miss an episode.
In this episode of the Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Chair of the FPS Steve Hadley is joined by Jim De Waele, President Europe at Keller.
Jim has been one of the most prominent players in the UK foundation market for nearly thirty years and now as Group Strategy Director and President Europe for Keller, Jim talks to Steve about some of the biggest global issues that are affecting the construction industry across the world.
From discussing the European reaction to Brexit and how it may harm the UK skills market to the impact that Coronavirus has had in different areas, this conversation covers many of the current major talking points but also goes in to great detail in some interesting areas - for example, Jim talks about his involvement in the writing of the ICE Specification for Piling and Embedded Retaining Walls, and how much of the world looks to Britain when it comes to standards.
In this episode of the Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Chair of the FPS Steve Hadley is joined by Anusha Shah, Director of Resilient Cities at Arcadis and future President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The current focus of ICE under President Rachel Skinner is on net zero carbon emissions. Anusha has always had a passion for the environment and she will continue this work by focussing on resilient cities. In this conversation, she talks about what lessons we can learn from projects around the world - for example, how the Netherlands are constantly redeveloping their flood defences rather than reacting once a flood has happened, and about the East Coast Resilience Project in New York which is looking to create multi-functional structures where a flood defence is integrated with open space that the public can use as beauty spots too.
She also talks about her involvement with the Thames Estuary Partnership and the Tideway Project - and what effects this project will have on the quality of the water in the River Thames once it's completed.
Finally, Anusha speaks about gender diversity and inclusive design and how this is an issue that needs to be tackled by society as a whole, not just in the construction industry. She discusses fairness, inclusion, BAME representation and respect. She concludes that we made the systems, so we can remake them too.
In this episode of the Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Chair of the FPS Steve Hadley is joined by Alasdair Henderson from BAM Nuttall. Alasdair started with BAM Ritchies in 1996 and rose to the role of Divisional Director before being invited to join the Executive Board of BAM Nuttall.
Alasdair is also a former Chair of the Federation of Piling Specialists, and Steve describes this conversation as one of the most enlightening he's ever had. Alasdair talks about the wider industry and what changes could be made to create a better working environment as a whole, but also gives advice for individuals looking to progress in their career in the construction industry.
In this episode of the Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Steve Hadley is joined by Dr Jim Branch and Robin Styles from Hanson Concrete to learn more about one of our industry's most important materials - concrete.
Steve talks to Jim and Robin about what goes in to it, how it's made and how it can play its part in a low carbon industry in the future - and importantly, how about working together can lead to the best solutions to reduce waste, cost and energy.
In this month's Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Steve is joined by writer, actor, comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax, and James Rudoni, the Managing Director of mental health charity Mates In Mind.
Mental health issues have always been a problem within the construction industry, and in this podcast, Steve, Ruby and James discuss the potential reasons behind this - but also, importantly, what we can do to help each other. We would encourage you to share this podcast with your networks if you feel inclined to do so, as by talking about mental health openly and honestly, we can help to remove the stigma around it.
In this month's Federation of Piling Specialists Podcast, Steve is joined by David Major from the FPS Early Careers Group to talk about a busy summer period and what's coming up.
He is also delighted to be joined by experienced ground engineer Nirmal Tiwari - Nirmal discusses some of the world famous projects he's worked on during his many years in the industry and some of the intricacies of them, and he reveals that he's got no intention of stopping work any time soon!
Steve is joined by Andreas Körbler, Keller's Business Unit Manager for South East Europe & the Nordics. Andreas talks about what it takes to get to the top in Ground Engineering and also about his role as President of the EFFC, discussing some of the initiatives that they've got planned over the next few years.
Steve is joined by the President of the LABC, Anthony Oloyede, to discuss building control procedures, LDSA pile design guidance and the Construction Youth Trust. Ebenezer Adenmosun, the owner of Geofirma, tells us about his career journey and the role of mentoring in developing young people.
Chief Executive of Build UK, Suzannah Nichol, joins FPS Chair Steve Hadley to discuss the building industry’s response to the Covid pandemic.
They look forward to the recovery of the industry including development plans and efforts to modernise. Steve then summarises current and future FPS activity.
In episode two of our podcast FPS Chair Steve Hadley talks to A Squared Studio Director Tony Suckling about advanced geotechnical design techniques.
He welcomes leader of the FPS early careers group David Major to discuss professional development.
Then he spends time with Dave Trotter of Fatigue Science looking at how technology can help us manage tiredness in the workplace and beyond.
The FPS is an active Federation of geotechnical contractors dedicated to improving standards, safety, working conditions and commercial practices within the industry. We also actively engage with our supply chain through our associate membership scheme to develop strong partnerships.
In this episode of the FPS podcast, Chair of the FPS Steve Hadley talks to Tim Chapman, leader of Arup's London-based infrastructure group.