PROFILE: This is my story - Richard Arnott

Please give us a brief summary on your career to date.

I have spent over 25 years in the construction industry. I have worked in 13 countries on 3 different continents. For most of my career, I have worked as an Expat. I genuinely enjoy working in foreign countries as you really get a better understanding of those countries and their people. Each country does things in their own ways. You learn to appreciate this and learn not to try change the ways different people do things. You get to meet interesting people, see beautiful landscapes, and get to see how things are built in different ways using different technologies and ideologies.

I have had an extremely varied construction career ranging from building railway lines in Zimbabwe, irrigation schemes in Tanzania, township roads in Maputo, township roads in Soweto, motorways in Pretoria for the 2010 Football World Cup, diamond mines in Botswana, motorways in the UK and Ireland, defence projects in the UK and a shopping centre in the Western Cape.

Give details of a project that made an impact in your career.

Between September 2015 and September 2017, I worked in Qatar in the Middle East. I worked on the New Orbital Highway Project 3. The project was the largest I had ever worked on (Contract value = $1.6 billion). The Client was ASHGHAL (Qatar Public Works Department). 

ASHGHAL were the Employer, they provided the vision for the project, provided the funds and the governance for the Project to proceed. KBR were the Engineers and Program Managers on the Project. They monitored the progress and undertook approvals and audits. AECOM were the Engineer’s Representatives (Full Site Supervision team). They undertook the design reviews as well as conducting the contract administration and HSEQ approvals and Audits. I worked for the contractors who were a joint venture between Leighton Contracting Qatar and Al Jaber Engineering (a local Qatari company). The JV was a design and build joint venture.

Map of Qatar Showing Start & End of 5 Lane Highway.

The Works included 31km of mainline New Orbital Highway network and 31km of interconnecting side roads and a total of five grade separated cloverleaf type interchanges. The Orbital Highway consisted of a 10-lane section (5 in each direction) with additional Collectors/Distributor roads, link roads and ramps at the interchanges and four separated truck lanes (2 in each direction). The New Orbital Highway is one of the only motorways in the world were the trucks are separated from the cars on the motorway. This was for safety reasons. This was to avoid the cars being forced to slow down due to the volume of trucks on the motorway. The mainline typical section also provided for the provision for the future addition of two more inner lanes in each direction. Our section of motorway was 14 lanes wide (including the truck lanes). In addition, the project included the footways and cycle ways.

In slightly more detail the Works included the Design and Construction of:    

• A new expressway (14 lanes wide and a widened median to facilitate the future lanes) that included all the related works such as five grade-separate interchanges, crossroads, collectors-distributors, ramps & link roads.
• Cross road / pedestrian & bicycle paths (constructed from Techspan arches) with the appropriate under-pass structures.
• Highway structures included bridges, flyovers, underpasses, culverts, retaining walls (Reinforced Earth Walls), substations, drainage structures, & gantries,
• Traffic signs, road markings and the required Intelligent Traffic System (ITS).
• Street lighting and bridge underpass lighting works
• Storm water drainage system
• Treated sewage effluent network.
• Water supply network.
• Electrical network.
• Telephone and other communication networks.
• Utilities protection and diversion works.
• Protection of existing underground/aboveground Qatar Petroleum lines.

The works were categorized in six main categories:

1. Earthworks

2. Pavement

3. Structures

4. Precast concrete yard

5. Utilities (New and protection / diversion of existing)

6. Protection of Qatar Petroleum assets

There were Project Managers in charge of each of these categories.

BIM Model of One of the Interchanges.

What was your position and duties on this project?

My initial position was Project Manager in charge of the precast concrete yard and the erection of all precast elements (bridge sections, MSE walls and Techspan arches). The precast yard was massive measuring over a kilometre long by 200m wide. The precast yard was split between VSL (pre-casting 2,000 ramp bridge segments and 900 main bridge segments) and the JV precast yard that cast 13,000 Techspan arch segments, hundreds of street lighting columns and just over 60,000m2 of reinforced earth wall panels.

Precast Yard

I oversaw the erection of the ramp bridge segments using two underslung launching gantries. The main bridge segments were erected using bespoke made high load frames.

During my second year on the project, I was promoted and took over the protection of the Qatar Petroleum assets, the road works and the asphalting operations. At the peak of the project, there were just over 10,000 employees and staff on the site. The site worked 6 days a week, 24 hours round the clock.

Interchange Under Construction

Why does the project stand out to you?

This project was the largest project I had ever worked on. The number of employees and the number of machines were absolutely mind blowing. We moved over 11 million cubic meters of material within a 2-year period. At stages there were over 200 excavators on site, over 400 tipper trucks. In a 24-hour shift, we laid in excess of 2,000 tons of asphalt (wearing course, base-course and road base).

As the site worked round the clock, there were at times over 300 lighting units to keep the site illuminated at night. To transport the employees round site, the JV had seventy-two 65-seater busses (running round the clock). The logistics of this project was amazing.

I had never worked in the Middle East so being exposed to the extreme heat and high humidity was also a learning experience.

Bridge Decking

 What were the important lessons you learnt from this project?

I managed the concrete batching plant that provided the concrete for all the precast units (precast bridge segments, the Techspan arches, the Reinforced Earth wall panels, lighting columns etc.) Due to the extreme heat and humidity in Qatar, we had to chill the water and add crushed ice to the concrete to reduce the heat of hydration of the concrete. Prior to adding the crushed ice, we were getting flash setting of the concrete on the hot formwork (even if the forms were shaded). More than 90% of all the concrete cast in the precast yard was done at night.

In the pier segments of the ramp bridges, we used Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) due to the high volume of rebar (between 380kg/m3 to 420kg/m3 of rebar) and the shape of the forms. Using standard concrete, we simply could not get the concrete to flow to the bottom of the forms. Our optimum flow was 610mm for the SCC.

We placed thermocouples in strategic places within the concrete pours to monitor the heat of hydration of the concrete. This allowed us to early strip the forms once we had achieved the minimum of 25MPa strength. This saved a lot of time in the precast yard (early stripping of formwork).

Surfacing of Highway

What were the regrets you experienced on this project?

I am sorry I never took my family with me to Qatar. The schools are very good, and I think my children would have benefitted from living in a different country and experiencing different cultures.

Certain Middle Eastern companies do not allow for the rotation of staff to go home each month or every 8 weeks or even every 12 weeks. You work for the company for 11 months and then you go home for 1 month. This was particularly challenging on my family and me.

How did you overcome your regrets?

I gave advice to other Expats making the move to Qatar to take their families with them. The other advice I gave them, was to fly their families to Qatar for the school holidays if they themselves were not allowed to go home. This allowed the guys to see their families more often.

Also read: THIS IS MY STORY - Wade Leaf

What has been the most satisfying thing for you personally about this project?

Once I had found my feet in Qatar, I recruited several South Africans and Zimbabweans (guys I had previously worked with in South Africa and Botswana). It brought me great joy to see how they flourished in Qatar. They all adapted quickly. The South Africans and Zimbabweans were held in high esteem in Qatar for being determined and hard working. We “get the job done”. We were all willing to work extremely long hours without any complaints. The Project Directors truly valued our efforts and dedication.

This industry is said to be one of the toughest industries, how did you manage to stay in it for so long?

What I really enjoy about construction, is that every day is different. The construction industry is so multi-faceted. You can be in buildings, civils, bridges, rail, estimating, piling, marine work, design, QAQC, HSE, plant hire, you can work for Consulting Engineers, for Clients, teach in Universities etc. There are so many options to choose from. I enjoy the options that are available in the industry.

What are the biggest challenges facing the industry currently and how can they be overcome?

Construction is mainly an outdoor profession where you are exposed to the elements (hot and cold). Construction needs to market itself well for the people who enjoy being outdoors.

The number of construction related Apps/software that are being produced is just phenomenal. We all need to embrace this technology and try our level best to keep up with all the new technology i.e. BIM models, costing and production Apps.

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