In this year’s Ground Engineering Awards Geotechnics is in contention for accolades within four separate categories, underlining the strength and consistency of its offering.
“We didn’t enter into the awards last year as we felt that we hadn’t really achieved anything of the necessary gravitas but this year we’re very pleased that we’ve had so much to shout about,” explains John Booth, Managing Director. “We’ve been able to deliver a health and safety initiative and two highly successfully projects, one fairly small, one much bigger; that have been shortlisted for awards. On top of that we’re in the running for Ground Investigation Specialist of the Year, which would be the ultimate accolade for us.
“We’re delighted to have been shortlisted across a range of different categories. Not only are two of the nominations project-related, but being in contention for a health and safety award really underlines the importance we place on this area. We’ve carried out an awful lot of work over the last year on an initiative called GOSAFE, which has helped us to formalise our overarching health and safety culture to be relevant to the wider geotechnical industries. In order to do so, we worked closely with our new Health and Safety Manager, Michael Coates, who has come into the business and been instrumental in achieving the goals we’d targeted. Our Business Development Manager, Dave Cage, meanwhile, has worked with a graphic design company to really put some edge onto the campaign. This has been a hugely successful exercise.”
As for the project-specific awards that Geotechnics has been nominated for, the contender for the ‘Ground Investigation Project of the Year’ award involved a large ground investigation in West Cumbria for a new water transfer pipe for United Utilities. “As you can imagine ground conditions and general access to sites up in the Lake District can be quite challenging,” highlights Mr Booth. “We’ve done a considerable amount of work for United Utilities up there already and there’s more to come as we’ve been identified as the ground investigation contractor for further work on that scheme. We’ve worked collaboratively with them to achieve further progress and add value to the investigation.”
“The other scheme that is up for an award is within the ‘UK Project with a Geotechnical Value of up to £1m’ category and is another collaborative contract, this time with ASH Group at the Cambrian Quarry in Mold, North Wales. It was an interesting and challenging local project close to our Chester office. It’s an old abandoned quarry that’s going to be restored using inert construction waste, thereby diverting one million tonnes away from landfill.
“With the site being located in beautiful countryside that’s perfect for walking and camping, the proposals didn’t initially go down very well with local people. Thanks to some very hard work, not to mention a great deal of interaction with the community and residents, the team were able to allay any fears. The local population were actually good enough to say at the end of the scheme that they’d been really impressed with what we’d done. In fact, they said that the site looked better afterwards than it had done in its previous state, which was extremely refreshing and rewarding to hear.”
To have excelled in so many areas would be a notable achievement in anyone’s book. So how has Geotechnics been able to achieve such consistency? Mr Booth believes it all boils down to its approach. “Our overall technical capability in identifying optimum ways of looking at ground investigation and geotechnical problems that we’re presented with has been key. We’re trying to work collaboratively with clients that also want to work that way. Of course, we are happy to work as a traditional GI contractor when appropriate, but we’d much rather sit down with the client and fully ascertain what they’re trying to achieve and the options they have to go about things in the optimum manner. It’s these contracts that are great to do.”
This is a strategy has obviously been paying dividends for Geotechnics. What’s more, as the market recovery continues, it is increasingly better placed to capitalise. “The market was a bit slow when we last spoke two years but we have definitely seen things pick up since then. In the last financial year we had just about the biggest year we’ve ever had, generating turnover of around £11m, while our profit margin was also very much up,” says Mr Booth. “Certainly for us the water industry is still a major area for us. We’re not actually on the list of work for HS2 – other contractors have got on that shortlist – so we’re seeing plenty of gaps that they’re leaving in the market for us. They’re committing large numbers of rigs and engineering staff to deliver HS2-related ground investigations so there’s a wealth of other work across the other sectors that we’re able to pick up.
“With the growing number of opportunities available we have been able to be much more thoughtful about the future in terms of investing in training and equipment. We bought some new lab equipment for our testing laboratory. We’ve increased staff levels to over 100 so it’s steady and more confident progress than we’ve been able to make. We’ve also rebranded ourselves as we felt our logo and vans were looking a bit tired and dated so the same design company have helped us to bring our image up-to-date by making it a bit cleaner and modern.
“We’re now looking to maintain some of the framework contracts that we’ve got, particularly with major clients such as United Utilities and some of the other water companies. In addition, coastal engineering, particularly inter-tidal work, has been a fruitful sector over the last few months with the inter-connector cables and pipes that are coming in from offshore installations.”
As well as overseeing the continuing development of Geotechnics as a business, Mr Booth has also been wearing his wider industry hat by working on a joint committee between the AGS (The Association of Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Specialists) and the BDA (the British Drilling Association) looking at the future of ground investigation in the UK. He concludes: “This is certainly something that I’m passionate about, especially helping to improve standards and recognition for the work that we do as a sector within the construction industry.”