Sion Nierada completed a work experience placement with VolkerFitzpatrick/VolkerRail Ltd from April 7th to April 10th. During the induction, he learned about health and safety procedures, common hazards on site, and personal protective equipment requirements. Over the course of the placement, Sion used surveying equipment like the Trimble and Leica tooling stations to take measurements and coordinate locations for tasks like track alignment, lamp column installation, and pile positioning. He also attended a subcontractors meeting to discuss construction progress and safety compliance. Sion enjoyed gaining hands-on experience using surveying equipment and attending the project coordination meeting.

1. Sion Nierada - VolkerFitzpatrick / VolkerRailLtd. Work Experience
Induction 7/4/15 –
Induction took place in the morning with myself and four other workers attending, it was
presented by Aga. The presentation started off with explaining the current construction works
proceeding on site, where to enter the site by the toilet compounds, where the emergency
access points are (access point 3 for ambulance) and the location of the emergency stations
which include eye wash, air horn, fire extinguisher etc. as well as a list of the first aiders on
site (Paul, Gill, Gary, Clive, Will, Mike).
The Health and Safety at work act 1974 is active, and the rules on how we can prevent
ourselves and others from any incidents were explained.
The main hazards are –
 Line rail
 Excavations (Edge protection)
 Poor lighting
 Plant movement (acknowledge driver before passing)
 Laser equipment
 Contaminated land (Metals – lead to dermatitis)
Other topics covered were -
Required PPE (hat, high Vis, glasses, gloves, high Vis trousers)
Safe system of work (Method, tools, machines)
Work Package Plan (WPP) – Method statements and risk assessments to be studied in the
morning before work and signed by participants.
Danger, prevention and mandatory signs
Fire procedures – Only to be dealt with by a competent person. North gate and South gate
assembly points. Should raise alarm in case of a fire.
Door to door policy – 14 hours inc. travel.
Nearest hospital – Morriston
Alcohol and Drug testing, need to inform company if taking medication or supplements;
testing is very sensitive.
Personal Track Safety (PTS) required to work on live railway lines, and to use RRV (Road
Rail Vehicles).
Hygiene – Hand wash facilities near access points, no food consumed on site, beware of used
syringes, no food consumed on site, always wash hands. Related – use hand protection
against wail’s disease.

2. There are no noise exclusions on site, therefore it is our responsibility to move away from the
noise if it becomes too loud.
Materials Storage – All materials to be stored separately, precaution of the adjacent river in
case of spillages; pollution.
Protected species – If a slow worm, grass snake or lizard is seen on site, need to stop work
and inform supervisor.
Company adheres to Considerate Constructor’s scheme - Standards on site, High quality
safety, Considerate, Clean, Good neighbours, environmentally aware. (Internal assessor
comes to the sites once or twice a year).
Quality of work is extremely important for the company – Workers need to take pride in what
they do, and get it right the first time.
Remember the four steps – 1) Plan – think before you act
2) Attitude – Be in right frame of mind
3) Lead – Be a good example to others
4) Share – Share good ideas and practices where possible
Volker Rail 7/4/15
I was with Adrian from the VolkerRail department on Tuesday and learned how to use the
Trimble Tooling Station. The task was to measure the alignment of the railway track within
the Train wash building. Two theodolites were set up on either side of the train wash
building, where known points of the site were, and the tooling station was then set up in the
middle with a straight view of the track ahead and the two theodolites either side. The tooling
station needed to lock on with the two theodolites for it to establish its own height, position,
co-ordinates. Next, an infrared sensor was placed at intervals on the railway track, ahead of
the tooling station, the tooling station would then measure the sensor’s height and send
information to the remote control stating whether the height of the track at that certain point
needed to be increased or decreased a certain measurement. The measurements took were
varied, the majority of the sections needed to be lifted, two sections were in equilibrium, and
a small amount needed to be decreased, all however within tolerance of 10mm.
Once the readings were taken, an engineer needed to decrease or increase the sections of the
track accordingly, once this is done grouting would be able to take place to support sections
of the track.
I also used a track gauge to determine whether the rail was level at sections, all of the
readings took were level.
VolkerFitzpatrick 8/4/15
Wednesday morning I went on site with Gareth, Will, Ian and another gentleman. The task
carried out was to mark out the coordinates for the installation of lamping columns on the
side of the track. The minimum distance the columns would have to be from the track is 2m.

3. Location of the columns were found by referring back to blueprints for known points and
using a metre wheel to work out the distance to the next column from there, each point was
sprayed with an X mark for when construction work commences.
In the afternoon Will and I went back on site to survey the lamp column markings. This time
a Leica tooling station was used. The tooling station needed to be set up with view of all of
the side of the track that contained the lamp column markings, as well as two known points to
set up the position of the tooling station. Once the station was set up, an infrared sensor pole
was taken to a known point, once on the known point the station would store the location.
This was done in another known point on the opposite side of the tool station, this allowed
the station to determine its location and co-ordinates. The sensor pole then was placed in the
centre of each lamp column marking, with the tooling station storing each location. This
determined all of the co-ordinates where the lamp columns will be installed, Gareth then
would input this information onto C.A.D ready to send off to the designers.
Sub-Contractor’s meeting 8/4/15
I had the opportunity to attend a Sub-Contractor’s meeting between VF, VR, Northern
Cladding, Whitehead and Graft. The meeting was to discuss the progress of phase 5
construction. A program was handed out to everyone involved and discussion led to what
activities had been completed, issues faced when carrying out activities, ongoing
construction- whether it will be completed within the timeframe and whether any extensions
were needed, and the start dates for future activities.
Discussion then moved on to the site inspections and whether workers were adhering to the
site’s Health and Safety rules. Highlighting the following:
 Housekeeping
 WPP
 Task briefing
 PPE standard (toolbox talks)
 Deliveries (liaise with sub-contractors)
 Disposal of materials
 Manhole covers
 Drip trays
VolkerFitzpatrick 9/4/15
The task for Thursday was to survey OLE piling positions with VF engineer Will and another
Work Experience student James. OLE (Overhead Lines Electrical) piles, are piles driven into
the ground to act as foundations for the installations of overhead electrical lines that will
contribute to the running of the trains. The purpose of this task was to determine the exact co-
ordinates of the installed piles, to establish whether all of the piles were installed in the
correct position or not. It was carried out with the Leica Tooling station technique, as was
described in the VolkerFitzpatrick 8/4/15 section. Approximately 75% of the piles co-
ordinates were measured as the tooling station started to switch off towards the end of the
afternoon and it was agreed the task would be completed on the 10/4/15. Five piles were
unable to be measured as they were buried under other materials on site, an additional 3 piles

4. were unable to be accessed as they were within an exclusion zone where subcontractors were
working. An additional feature I learned to use on the tooling station during this process was
the ‘Stake Out’ option, Gareth was contacted to read out co-ordinates for one of the buried
piles, we then inputted the co-ordinates into the tooling station remote which then acted as a
GPS until we reached the point of the buried pile. This technique will become useful to
remove the material off the top of the piles to take their exact measurements.
Simon (H+S Department) 10/4/15
I was given a task in the morning to work out the total NCR wasted on the project, which
added up to £30,000. From this figure I needed to determine the amount of work
VolkerFitzpatrick had to do to break even. VF have a 5% profit margin from the 23m job, in
order to break even the £30,000 wasted, VF will have to carry out £600,000 of works for free.
Gareth and I had a brief meeting on how the drainage is installed in this project. The drainage
type is a ‘Self Cleansing Velocity’ system, which uses gravity to allow the water and solids to
flow through the system. The drainage has to be set at a certain gradient, if it is too steep the
water will flow much quicker and leave the solids in a stable position, if it not steep enough
then the water and solids will not flow quickly enough. Surface/storm water and foul water
are running through separate drainage systems. The site is only allowed to discharge a certain
amount of litres/second back into the city’s drainage system, a vortex flow control chamber is
used to control this discharge. Attenuation tanks are in place to store water ready for dischare,
this gives more capacity for the site.
Ref: Feedback Form – What did you enjoy most about the placement?
Spending time on site was very interesting and enjoyable as I have very little site experience,
being out on site for the majority of the placement allowed me to view a construction project
from a different perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed using the various equipment such as the
Trimble and Leica tooling stations, this allowed me to develop new skills which will
undoubtedly come useful in the future.
Another aspect of the placement I enjoyed was the Sub-Contractor’s meeting, being allowed
in the meeting made me feel valued by the company even as a work experience student.
Witnessing how a meeting took place and how the sub-contractors work along VF and VR
motivated me even more to one day be a valuable asset of a leading company.
Ref: Feedback Form – Do you have any suggestions for improving the work experience?
 Timetable/schedule describing what department the work experience student is with
on what day. Also a brief description of the tasks that will be carried out on each day.
 Some responsibilities in the office while waiting to go back on site.