Risk Profile: Hamish Nelson (Geotechnical Engineer)

Hamish explains to me that geotechnical engineering is concerned with ‘where structures meet the ground’.  We’ve arranged to meet at J B O’Reilly’s on Cambridge Street near Subiaco to break bread, admittedly in the form of Guinness, and talk risk.  He already understands that I’m not a geotechnical engineer.  If that was at any time unclear, the reality becomes apparent immediately.  He painstakingly scribes a drawing relating to the interaction between soil conditions and structure involved in building a ‘car dumper’.  He asks me if I’ve understood what he has drawn and – realizing the blank look on my face indicates I don’t have a clue – he draws it again in a different profile, explaining the structure with the infinite patience that only a father of two young children can muster.  “Geotechnical engineers provide advice to civil or structural engineers”, he tells me.  “Be it retaining walls, foundations or dams, we are paid to provide advice that ensures things don’t fall down.  Equally, clients do not want to spend so much that building becomes cost-prohibitive.  We are expected to flag what the hazards are, and to make recommendations that help to address those issues.”  Now I understand.  It all sounds so simple.

 

Hamish moved to Perth in 1998, having grown up and studied in Melbourne.  His elder brother liked the geology teacher at school, and Hamish remembers looking at his brother’s notes from class and being equally interested in the subject.  When it came time to decide how to earn a living, his father told him ‘there are two types of people in this world Hamish.  There are those who want to make the pie bigger, and there are those who want to divvy the current pie up’.  Hamish decided that being an engineer was about ‘making the pie bigger’.  After his initial studies at RMIT, he spent 3 years at ‘GC Black & Associates’, 4 years at ‘Soil & Rock Engineering’ (“which at least described exactly what we did!”), 7 years at ‘Coffey’ and the last year at ‘Golder’.  Moving from a publically listed company to an employee-owned business has been a move he has clearly enjoyed.  “Our clients are in oil and gas, mining, civil infrastructure and land development.  It’s great to be in the industry at the moment, particularly in the mining states“ says Hamish with an excited glint in his eye.  He’s just in the process of completing his ‘Masters in Geotechnical Engineering’ through the University of New South Wales, is Secretary of the ‘Australian Geomechanics Society’ and a member of the ‘Institute of Engineers’.

 

I ask him about the key risks that he faces.  “Clearly, the risk we face is if we are blatantly wrong in the advice we provide.  The prospect of being sued for poor advice is ever present in the industry.  Even if the advice is not wrong, but it is not as comprehensive as it could be, clients will just go to our competitors.  Given that around half of the work in the industry is via competitive tender and half is through existing work, relationship management is key for us.  Interestingly, Perth has a higher proportion of geotechnical engineers than any of the other state capitals, illustrated by our industry CPD hours, which are larger than anywhere else….. except perhaps if Sydney has a big conference”, he says remembering the caveats that have protected him from litigation.  The best piece of risk-related advice he ever received was from his first employer, George Black.  George said ‘Can you justify what you have just done to a magistrate if something were to go wrong?’.  It’s a question that Hamish continues to ask of younger geotechnical engineers now. It’s evident that you have to serve your time in this field to be respected, and usually that process of moving up the ranks with experience would tend to lend itself to mentoring.  Hamish is adamant that it’s not his experience.  “Mentoring schemes look great on paper, but in my experience the personalities of engineers make them difficult to succeed in practice.  Engineers are practical people, who are keen to get on with the job in question.  We work within  a quality system that is externally audited, have an in-house lawyer to deal with contractual issues and a process that ensures that all technical work is peer reviewed before it is sent out.  If you take all of that alongside individual professional development and professional pride in what you do, then those are the best controls for making sure the advice you provide is correct”.  Hamish also tells me that the poorer practitioners don’t get used on the larger projects.  I cheekily ask him about the size of his projects, and he’s happy to rattle off the four on his desk at the moment.  “At present, I have four significant projects on the go.  One is a desk study for the Perth sports stadium, one is construction supports for the Gorgon project at Barrow Island, another for a proposed gas development  and lastly, a train  unloading facility in Port Hedland”.  The latter project relates back to the earlier drawing of a ‘car dumper’ (equipment which tips iron ore laden train carriages into a 25 metre pit for removal on a conveyor).  Hamish continues, “I make sure I get up to Port Hedland once a fortnight to validate the plans that have been drawn back in Perth, to answer any queries (out of interest, we’re presently on query 212, but only half of them are geotechnical-related), to make sure I’m seen and available.  To me, being there is relationship management and liability-limiting all in one recurring event”.

 

“One of the other main risks we face relates to onsite health and safety.  There is often equipment, large and small, that we’re interacting with or operating.  For example, we might be using large drill rigs which are dangerous pieces of kit, or we might be using smaller equipment like a ‘dynamic cone penetrometer’.  This involves driving a stake into the ground and dropping weights on it to understand the ground strength, but there wouldn’t be many geotechnical engineers who hadn’t lost a finger nail or worse on undertaking those tests.  I remember once that I was standing in a test pit, dug by a backhoe, when I saw a crack appear in the weak ground and just managed to lift myself out as the ground collapsed.  The health aspects can’t be downplayed either.  Geotechnical engineers will always be feeling soil onsite and then washing their hands.  Invariably, they walk around the site with dirty hands all day so it’s possible to pick up some nasty bugs.  Equally, sites present other issues that need to be managed.  On certain heritage sites, or ‘sites of significance’, we may have aboriginal monitors present to provide advice and ensure our treatment of the area is in keeping with their expectations.  Environmental aspects are always on our mind, but we bring in our own experts to provide that advice.

 

The wider issue for the industry is the real shortage of people.  At the moment, companies have to rely on bringing people in from inter-state, and farming out jobs to less busy state counterparts.  Many of our own people are also moving to the large mining companies for better remuneration, but I don’t believe it’s as exciting as being a consultant.  I love the variation in the work.”

 

As we’re finishing off our Guinness, Hamish tells me of his interests outside his professional field – his family, his WAFL teams (which he has whittled down to 4 that he continues to support after 13 years in the state) and his sporting loves.  As we’re leaving the pub, the conversation turns back to engineering, and one of his hero’s – C Y O’Connor.  Hamish tells me he will not read the West Australian or The Sunday Times today because of the criticism they handed out to O’Connor in the late 1800’s.  I offer him a lift home, but he waves me away and sets off at a brisk pace – thoughts of the injustice handed out to O’Connor still making him bristle.