Simon Sheil

Name: Simon Sheil
Job: Graduate civil engineer
Area of work: Water and public health
Employer: Kier, working at KMI
Qualifications: MEng civil engineering, Loughborough University, 2006

My university ran a sponsored MEng course, and I was sponsored by Kier. I spent two summer placements and my sandwich year in the wastewater team, and am now working in clean water.

Making sure water is clean

I’m currently working on a project at the Poaka Beck water treatment works in Cumbria, making the plant compliant with cryptosporidium treatment regulations. We have upgraded the plant by adding new first and second stage filters, a contact tank, a flow balancing tank and associated pipelines and chemical systems. I look after the general running of the site: I procure materials and maintain health and safety. I work with the civils subcontractors on programming and variations, and I liaise with the design team if there are any queries.

Learning about other disciplines

Later and wastewater is a very multidisciplinary area: it covers various types of civils, as well as electrical and mechanical engineering. This project is 50 per cent electrical and mechanical and the crossovers present challenges. We shaved about 16 weeks off the programme to meet an OFWAT deadline, and that meant that electrical and mechanical engineers came in earlier than usual. We met the deadline for putting the water into supply and are now closing out the project.