Pupil spends week working at Crossrail
Jack Sissons at Crossrail
During the summer holidays, I carried out six days of work experience working with Vinci at one of the Crossrail sites in London. The Crossrail project, when completed, will be a high speed railway running under London and it was an unbelievable experience to be able to spend time on one of the construction sites. This was the perfect opportunity to carry out some work experience in an engineering field, the subject I am looking to study at university.
I was mainly based with a team of four civil engineers and so was involved with a number of tasks both in the office and out on site. Initially, I started by shadowing the engineers as they went about tasks including laser surveying to ensure accurate locations of works, testing the strength of a concrete order and monitoring works to ensure they met the meticulous standards set out by Crossrail. As the week wore on I was given more independence and by the end I had written a method statement and risk assessment for some works, been introduced to CAD (computer aided design) and also had put an order in for a section of pipework that I had designed myself.
The highlight of my time there has to be getting a ride though the tunnels on one of the welfare trains, seeing the works being carried out but also the transition between tunnels constructed in the 19th century to tunnels constructed last year. The six days really showed me how a construction site operates and the role of the engineer within it, including the incredibly high level of detail and planning required for its success. The time has only further fuelled my ambition to pursue an engineering career.