Meet our Experts: Rob Law, Head of Temporary Works.
Reimagining Temporary Works on Infrastructure Projects.
(video transcript)

There’s a saying that everything’s temporary until it’s permanent. Even if you intend it to only be there a short time, sometimes it can be there quite a while.

Temporary Works is more accurately defined as the works we do to allow us to build something else and then usually they’re removed before that’s completed.

For Conquip, a big part of temporary works is our basement propping schemes, but also our CantiDecks. They’re a piece of temporary works they sit in a structure.

Within the temporary works department, there’s a number of areas we look after, we have what we call the major projects, big basement digs that we’re quite famous for, and that’s where a lot of our geotechnical and ground experience goes into.

Next, we have shoring and sheets. Those are smaller excavations such as sheet pile, cofferdams, and trench shoring.

We then have what we call equipment development, so that’s working with the mechanical engineers at Conquip to design the next range of temporary works equipment, and lastly we have a structures team who deal with the design, detailing fabrication of steel frames and gantry decks.

I get a real buzz from taking a piece of equipment from concept through to detailing and fabrication, and getting out there on site. To be able to have a new piece of equipment that we then incorporate into the designs we do, producing all the calculation templates, drawing templates, and the digital models, it’s very satisfying.

Within large propping schemes, the key is to try and get it right first time and yet be able to cope with change, because we know in temporary works and especially when you get involved at preconstruction, change happens.

Every design we do is a set of calculations, it’s a drawing, it’s a model, there’s details in there and all of that is time. What you want to do is minimise having to redo work, but if you have to make that as painless as possible.

Every project has its challenges, now in a construction project, let’s say a basement with an RC frame, there are many different elements designed by different people that have to come together and form a whole. Now everybody has an interest to make their parts the leanest possible. And lean means sustainable and good value. And people can individually make their part as lean as possible. But what we find is sometimes having a holistic view to step back and realize actually by changing one part to be slightly less lean we can then make more savings elsewhere and it’s that stepping back and looking at a project as a whole, where Conquip can get in early at preconstruction, come across with these ideas and push a project into greater savings.

Managing safety and risk is a top priority for anyone involved in construction for us that starts at assessing the information we receive to base our designs on. It’s important to document assumptions and significant or unusual risks associated with our designs and ensure these are communicated clearly to our clients and people on site building the temporary works. So we’re considering our designs right from it being picked out in the yard, part or preassembled, transported, installed on site, maintained and decommissioned and brought back to the yard for refurbishment.