Site Visits around Muscat as part of Continuing Professional Development
During his presidential visit to Muscat in October 2012, Richard Coackley emphasised the importance of professional development.
Subsequently, many young civil engineers, who are just at the start of their careers, have shown great interest in obtaining the ICE professional qualification.During further ICE meetings in Muscat, the local ICE representative, Ranganathan Subbaraman, presented the required attributes for professional qualification including the importance of preparation of a Development Action Plan (DAP) and CPD (Continuing Professional Development).
A planned site visit was also considered necessary in order to get an appreciation of the whole project life cycle alongside experienced project managers and senior staff members. Thus a site visit was arranged at one of Atkins’ projects. During the visit, all participants had an opportunity to learn about and understand areas such as:
- How to identify project constraints
- Providing solutions adhering to build ability, retaining wall & tie bars according to existing road width and height of the structure.
- Selection of appropriate locations for drilling in walls to suit the available space
- Existing traffic management systems
- Maintenance of existing facilities for Pedestrian crossings
- HSE and sustainability including removal and disposal of waste materials and pollution control systems
- Identifying the existing structure and road furniture conditions (such as panels eroding due to sulphate and phosphate infringements ; improper fixing of guards and cracks on parapets)
- Identifying the need to improve the method of statements during the course of construction
- A broad overview of asset management
- Potential scope and need for Building Information Modelling (BIM)
- Existing utility protection schemes
The site visit was very successful and Ranganathan looks forward to carrying out further such visits in the future. Anyone interested in attending should contact Ranganathan directly at Subbaraman.Ranganathan@atkinsglobal.com.
Photo: Visit to Atkins Bridge Project in Muscat