John Ahern

Responsibilities

As a Project Manager/Technical Specialist it is my responsibility to provided excellent customer service with a focus on the delivery of new Strategic Water and Wastewater infrastructure for new developments.
This covers early stakeholder consultation, strategic development management, design consultation and audit, financial guidance and technical advice, to ensure the protection of existing public water and wastewater infrastructure and public health in accordance with Scottish Water policy.

• I audit designs for strategic new water and wastewater connections, give technical advice on the nonstandard solutions ensuring that developers design proposals meet with Scottish Waters requirement and/or Standards & Specifications.

• Assess current development requirements in conjunction with future development to proactively managing the implications for our network. This enables to forecast, resource and plan to mitigate against development restrictions.

• Ensure the protection of the existing infrastructure and public health in accordance with Scottish
Water policy whilst delivering excellent customer service including any other duties deemed appropriate in the support of the department and the business.

A wide technical knowledge is required in order to provide this guidance and service to developers/agents and in-house Scottish Water Staff. This will include ranges of technical and practical knowledge essential to allow to confidently audit a design, challenge developers, consultants and contractors to ensure fit for purpose delivery of future assets, to ensure the correct solution for both Scottish Water and the customer taking knowledge of both regulatory and legal requirements. The solutions will vary dependant on development site specifics and circumstances.

Within this role I assist and support colleagues in the operation of functional processes to ensure efficiency and KPI performance targets are met.

Achievements:

I am currently managing Strategic sites in Inverness Tornagrain Stratton and Aviemore Tornagrain Development.

Planning permission has been agreed for a mixed-use development of up to 4,960 homes and commercial units to be developed in a phased manner over a period of some 35 years. Phase 1A spine water mains and sewers are vested, £8 million foul pump away scheme was needed to be installed commissioned by SWH and vested by SCSP.

It is intended that Tornagrain will create a new and sustainable community for the Highlands. A new town has been built from the ground up with on a green field site with commercial units from schools to shops.

The layout of the development has its challenges when approving designs as its not typical to standard developments. Therefore, there has been significant discussions with Asset Planner and Networks. To give an example of the kind of waivers already approved, an infiltration basin has been installed in this development to deal with the amount of surface water engagement with the internal stakeholders is key in getting them onboard with these proposals so a lot of preparing and planning went into this before it could be delivered, as this will become Scottish Water Assets to manage important to get this right first time so this can be vested. Building good relationships with developers involved and internal stakeholders is key to when managing these sites keeping or stakeholders updated if there have been any deviations in design that could impact on the network or any other issues in not having this approved.

Stratton development

Originally for 2,500 plots plus schools, the government issued a CPO on the area to the north for expansion of the A96, so developer has had to cut back on the number of plots to 1,300 to 1,500. Offsite works were required for the water, this is being delivered by SWH, due to the lockdown and the big freeze we had in the winter months, this has held back the programme in delivering these works which has amount to costs escalating. Discussions have been ongoing on how to support the main developer through these times. Infra have also been involved as it was agreed that they would pay a percentage of the costs with the RCC covering the rest, so working closely with them has been a good support. The foul and surface water spine have been delivered for this currently I am supporting the developer with his application to have this vested, as this process is quite new to him.

There are other two developers for the other 4 phases that need to be managed along with the main developer sometimes this can be challenging as communications break down between them and you have to be the middle man to get things back on track while supporting each developer.

Aviemore upgrade works

This is for the foul network on Grampian Road and Dalnaybay and is now nearly complete. It was behind schedule because of the lockdown with contractor not able to get on site. Concern from Asset planner and Networks was the new hotel on Grampian Road had been completed and they had been given approval to connect to the network under the condition the upgrade works would be completed, so to mitigate any risk to the network flooding when the hotel opened. These upgrade works are also to accommodate other planned developments in Aviemore Infra team have been involved and have agreed to pay the costs for the upgrades as it will be the betterment of the Network. Having the relationship already from Stratton we were able to work well together in delivering this.

What was good I/we pushed hard to get this on site when restrictions became more relaxed, by preparing as much as we could approving the proposed design for the upgrade work by liaising with the Asset planner and networks this also gave them the confidence that this would be delivered this year when the hotel would be in peak session, mitigating any the risk of flooding in Aviemore during peak session.

Legal Reviews

Managing the legal reviews that are submitted by the team, as this will form part of the vesting process going forward creating the legal rights for Scottish water.

This involves reviewing each design and confirming that land transfers for over land assets, i.e. Ponds Basins swales Pumping stations and filter trenches have been identified correctly. That correct Pipe servitudes are given for underground assets that are not in adopted land, Access servitude for for tracks to these assets have also been highlighted by the consultants so a approval can be given.

Sometimes this can throw up technical issues if the design has been approved before it comes to legal review, which needs to be manged between all parties.

Responsible for coaching team members, so they can go back to the consultants to request the correct information and hopefully by doing this it introduces a culture where we get more consistency in the legal designs that are being submitted as its important as this forms the legal side to the vesting of these assets.

Responsibilities

I have worked within Managed Delivery as a Project Manager. I have significant experience in all aspects of water rehabilitation, at the design, planning and delivery stages.

My key role and responsibility was to make and ensure that all allocated projects are delivered safely, on time, within budget and to the correct quality and standards. This required all allocated projects within my portfolio to be managed professionally, efficiently and effectively.

I achieved this by ensuring the project team was aligned and focused on the same outcomes; that we effectively engaged with Specialist Services, Commercial Team, and SW CSD to facilitate the project and mitigate any internal or external blockers; we maintained and enhanced established relations with both internal and external stakeholders and at all times insured all project ethos met the objectives of Managed Delivery; I presented projects at governance approvals meetings as required and included current project status, cost , milestones, resources, risk etc.
I ensured that Health & Safety performance was extremely important in all aspects of each project in my project portfolio.

Achievements.

I delivered the Glendevon Ductile Iron Replacement meter project.
This was a difficult project which involved working on the network installing a bypass together with the installation of a new meter in a chamber on a bypass close to the Clear Water Tank in the Glendevon, Water Treatment Works.

When I inherited the project it was behind schedule due to management and design issues. There was urgency expressed by all parties involved to mitigate the delay and complete the project as soon as was possible. To this end I set about meeting and bringing all the stakeholders together to rebuild relationships and confidence and ensure no further blockers would occur that would delay the project even further.

One of the many I actions undertook was to ensure the contractor took complete ownership of the DOMs. This guaranteed we would have the correct information going forward to present at the Network Forum meetings and assured positive outcomes for the project.
It required me to support a continuous dialog within the project team and between the team and the Network Forum.

I have also delivered capital projects from inception through to handover and delivery, ensuring that time, cost and legislative targets were met, and resources are allocated as required.
Projects in my portfolio ranged from Infrastructure Capital Maintenance Projects to small value projects with each following a different procurement route. Projects needed to meet the highest standards of customer service with all the internal and external stakeholders involved in the life cycle of the project to ensure that the projects meet the expectations of the internal stakeholders, both the Client (SCSP) and the end-user (CSD). Arranging and mediating meetings with land agents, SW Specialists Service and contractors is important in assisting and mitigating any land issues that that could require compensation and/or delay the project. Managing sub-contractors effectively was also an important aspect of the project management process in order to complete the project effectively and efficiently.

As part of my role I carried out a Qualitative Assessments for the M&E mini tenders for the DI meter replacement project under Governance and Quality Assurance procedures.
Health & Safety performance was an extremely important to all aspects of each project in my project portfolio. I would challenge any unsafe practice or work method and I was not afraid to stop a process if it endangered the operator and/or public until I received further advice. I have undertaken CDM 2015 training and I regularly update myself on new H&S thinking via H&S web sites
I am very familiar with Scottish Water Systems which are essential to help me when carrying out my daily tasks as PM. I used CISP to generate CAPEX forms and Documentum to upload and download documents, drawings, and the information required for each project and I use Peoplesoft to approve payments and the Risk Register tool kit to create and generate the any risks for each of my project.

As part of my commitment to continued learning I have successfully completed courses on CDM, Construction Site Management which included the following modules: Industry and Management, Project Planning, Organising and Resourcing Projects, Project Monitoring and Control, Managing the Quality of Site Work, Managing Sub-Contractors, Health and Safety -CITB - Site Management Safety Training Scheme, Site Surveying Computing, Managing People, Contractual and Legal Responsibilities, Estimating and Measuring Work, Maintenance Management & Services Management

Responsibilities

As a Senior Technician with Scottish Water assisting the Project Manager I delivered capital projects from inception through to handover and delivery, ensuring that time, cost and legislative targets were met, and resources where allocated as required.

It was my responsibility to prepare and carry out the required site visits, meetings, to liaise with the relevant stakeholders, statutory bodies, land owners and customers. Site visits formed an integral part of the design and delivery process as they establish the environmental issues, health & safety issues and matters relating to other utilities present in the proposed area of development. I prepared and produced design solution drawings of the scope of proposed works. This was vital for informing the next stage of the project and in turn the project as a whole. I also prepared the required schedule of work and used the cost base for the proposed development.

Achievements

I worked on various projects, serving different areas within the Scottish Water Business including Infrastructure Capital Maintenance Projects together with New Roads and Street Works (NRSWA) projects within the Service Relocation Team.
I coordinated the tenders for the M8, M73 & M74 for the water and sewer diversions.
I assisted the Project Manager for the Iron works project managing the programme and costs.
I was involved in the Capital Maintenance Project in Glasgow City Centre in the rehabilitation of the water infrastructure as part of the Commonwealth games. In my role as Senior Design Technician assisting the Project Manager it was my responsibility to prepare all the necessary design information (proposed design drawings, health & safety, risk register, scope agreement) for the project to go to Technical Review.

I have worked on a number of NRSWA projects. These are C3 and C4 projects with turnaround timescales of 20 days and 25 days respectively.
With C3 projects I undertook a desktop study to determine the possible design and delivery options available for re-routing, re-instatement or replacement of the water supply system. I produced a basic design and a budget estimate. The prepared design information and budget estimate was submitted to the Service Relocation Team (SRT) and the relevant stakeholders for a decision on whether to proceed to C4.

At a C4 project level I managed and developed a detailed design and detailed estimate for the development. This involved liaising with the Asset Planner and Operations.

EditRemove

• Add
• Upload My Experience