James

 

My role on the project related to modelling the structure and developing the detailed design. With such an innovative structure we were very careful to carry out checks to ensure that what we had designed would actually work in practice. So once the structure had been fabricated in the factory, we tested whether it was strong enough by putting a pond liner in the bridge and filling it with 10 tonnes of water. I was a little apprehensive in the run up to the test, since if anything had gone awry the bridge would have collapsed and the factory would have flooded! But of course the bridge behaved as predicted and there were no problems at all with our design or the quality of the fabrication.

The best day was seeing the bridge lifted into position. This had to be done overnight with the railway closed, and thankfully the installation went without a hitch. Seeing the sun come up on our new structure was very rewarding!

It's exciting to be working in such a vibrant team that is consistently winning awards and getting involved in pioneering projects. One of my objectives has been to work with the best and brightest engineers in the UK. PB offers that opportunity.