Since the down turn in the housing markets we have only been coasting along, working on design & build projects and local council works. This is not work to be turned down as it has so far kept the company turning over enough money to limit the number of redundancies and kept us out on site.

To try and improve our ability to win new contracts and to bring a much-improved system of work we set about implementing quality management procedures. Back in April 2009 we got ourselves accredited for ISO 9001 Quality Management System. This system allows us to work through a contract using a standard set of forms, allowing us to keep track of most events and developments. With us all working to the same system it also means that any time the management on site is changed, due to holidays or scheduling needs, the new person can quickly see the history of the contract and continue from where it was left.

Of course there has been some grumbling about ‘more paperwork‘ and ‘inefficient procedures‘, however we were already using the majority of the forms within our previous record keeping practices. All the QA system has changed is that our procedures are now set out more clearly with key areas of responsibility highlighted.

Since gaining the ISO 9001 accreditation we have pushed forward. We are now working towards getting accredited under ISO 14001 Environmental Management. We hope this will bring a better understanding of the environmental impacts we have on site and improve our environmental performance.

This has added a few more form to our list contract forms and highlighted a number of key legal requirements when it comes to how we as a company interact with the environment, both on site and at our head office.

We have also taken the opportunity to implement our procedures for OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health & Safety. This phase of our works collates all the required permits and method statements to enable us to work safely whether it is on site or within our own offices.

With a little extra work and attention to detail from each of us we hope to open up opportunities for plenty more work in the future.

Having been a little unsure as to where my next contract would be based it seems that I have been settled up in Crewe until further notice.

We are working on the behalf of the local council to help regenerate one of Crewe’s main high streets. The purpose of this contract is to replace all the existing footpaths and kerblines with a patchwork mix of granite paving slabs. The kerblines are mostly being replaced to match the existing lines and levels, with a small exception design to standardise the road width along the street. The granite paving slabs are a little more difficult to place.

With most block paving you work with 1 or 2 block sizes and can get yourself into a rhythm, whichever pattern you are laying. With the granite slabs specified we have 4 colours (proportioned 35%, 30%, 20% & 15%), 2 widths and 4 lengths of slab. These must be placed ‘randomly‘ to create the required blend of paving. This of course has given us a slight headache to sort. Given that the granite has been quarried in China we have a tight wastage policy and each slab counts.

Due to the site being on a public highway we have to keep a close eye on our works with little more than a few cones separating us from Joe Public. Work can be awkward at times, even though the footpath is closed with big red signs at both ends we still get people wandering around us, past cutting equipment and heavy plant. This will only get worse as we progress past shop fronts that we must maintain access to at all times.

Some tidying up of the street furniture, painting the lighting columns and adding some fancy brackets, will help the new benches, cycle stands and bins fit in nicely. Due to Crewe’s railway history we are also placing some decorative nameplates into the footpath. These have been designed with name of steam locomotives previous stationed at Crewe and cost a sizable chunk each.

When all the footpath works have been completed we shall be resurfacing the road to provide a fresh new look to a currently tired looking street.

This time last month I had just started a most enjoyable 2 week break in Brittany, France with my family. With my Aunt & Uncle having the enviable job of spending several months each year as reps for holiday camp, we got to spend our time in the Yelloh! Village Camping in Bénodet – Le Port de Plaisance.

Bénodet is situated on the mouth of the river Odet, with a large sweeping beach. With a strong sense of tradition this town is everything you can imagine about Brittany. We spent many an evening strolling along the river into the town, soaking in the relaxed and friendly surroundings. It was impossible not to unwind and let yourself forget all the deadlines and hectic lifestyle that we take as the norm in our daily work lives.

Although we had a couple of days of changable weather we were lucky enough to have the majority of our break basking in glorious sunshine and clear blue skies. Yes, one of us forgot to apply the correct dosage of sun cream but to save any embarrasment I shall not be naming him, he knows who he is.

We deliberately took things slowly, not pushing ourselves to pack each day with sightseeing tours. We instead took each day at a time, often just chilling out on the beach or reading a book by the pool. A few days were spent exploring, the day in Concarneau, a wall town on an island, was a delight with it’s many restaurants and shops now dedicated to the tourists. Our visit up to Oceanopolis gave us plenty to look at with a myriad of sea creatures and colourful displays. The seals were a playful bunch, the saw-toothed shark a little intimidating and the penguins rather inquisitive.

All of us had a superb time and didn’t want to leave at the end of our allotted time. Oh, I also had time to capture a couple of GigaPans;

The family sitting down for one of several BBQs.

Bénodet waterfront and the river Odet at sunset.

Before I went away for my holiday in France, I had noticed the release of WordPress 2.8 . Being the kind of geek that likes to keep all his software up-to-date and running the latest version, I knew this was a job for me to tackle as soon as I returned home. Somehow I was able to find time during the seemingly endless laundry and holiday clutter to upgrade my blog.

I know WordPress is very simple to self install on the initial setup and I am also aware that the upgrade, although simple in itself, can throw up some issues if you don’t keep track of what you do. This in mind I made sure I had backups of all my data and read through all the upgrade guides. Within 30 minutes everything was completed and looking rather swish, another upgrade completed without incident.

Well, not quite…

When I tried to log in to my admin panel the following day I was greeted by a “500 Internal Server Error“. Initial I thought my host was just having a tough time and I should be patient, after nearly a day of the same thing I reached out to the World in search of a cure. It quickly became apparent that mine was not a lone case. Thankfully after finding the ‘official’ support thread I was able to track down a rather useful post by Glenn Reffin over at the Redcentaur Blog that helped me both troubleshoot and fix my own blog and regain access to my admin panel.

As with all things computers you should always keep a safe copy of your data and be prepared to do a little research when things do go fully to plan. Stay clam, try not to blame everyone else around you! With WordPress specifically, disable your plugins and themes should you have a problem and activate them one-by-one to determine if any are causing conflicts.

If your lucky everything will go smoothly and you’ll never have to troubleshoot a thing.

For the first time this year I’m able to find some time to get away from work and spend an extend vacation with family and loved ones. For a few moments it looked as though I had ruined it all before we had even got into our journey. I cleverly managed to leave my hand luggage, including passport, on the train we took to the airport.

• Designer sunglasses… £12
• Daring low cut swimwear… £25
• Missing my flight & flying via Lyon… £540
• Spending time away from work… Priceless

I’d like to thank all the hard working staff at London Midland Trains and the efficient crews of Air France, without who I wouldn’t have been able to join up with everyone, albeit a few hours late.

Over the previous week I’ve had the pleasure of doing two jobs instead of just one. With my site manager on holiday I was left holding the reins. It was an interesting week with a simple aim, to pour the structural floor slab to block C.

Thankfully being a bank holiday I only had to cope for 4 days. It all started with blustery showers and a sense that all could be achieved if only the weather treated us kindly. I knew that I could cope with having to do both the engineer work and also do enough planning and organising to keep the job progressing.

All I had to do was to tell people to wait and if necessary to stop until I had time for them. This may seem a little odd but I know that I can handle the pressure of multiple tasks as long as I keep in mind the end goal. I tend to treat each task with the same priority unless something is going to lose us time and/or money. This strategy usually keeps me sane and in control.

Early on I had to put my foot down and ensure the brick-layers turned up and waited out the showers on Tuesday to enable us to complete the blockwork that would form the boundaries of our floor slab. We all worked well and I was complimented on Wednesday for being able to get everyone to work in small teams preparing a different part of the floor slab.

Late Wednesday saw things change in a bad way, it was pointed out that a blockwork wall to be used as a joint in the floor was not in the correct position. This was not good. The block wall would eventually be continued at a later date up through the first floor until it reached the roof. This was a show stopper. If I called off Thursday’s concrete pour everything would be set back and not a lot of people would be happy. With my finger poised on the phone ready to cancel the concrete pump I had an epiphany. The blockwork was out of position in our favour. By adding a second skin of 100mm blockwork to the wall we could keep the pour on for Thursday and still have the block wall above floor level sit on a solid foundation.

Everything went well and half of block C had a structural slab by the end of Thursday. All we had to do was repeat the process Friday to complete the floor slab. We all worked well together and by working late on Friday we walked away at 6pm knowing we had completed what we had all set out to do a the start of the working week. Block C had a floor and as per the client’s program of works.

It all starts again come Monday morning as we move over to block A.

—

As a final thought, when my site manager is away I must adapt my role and time to cover his absence. I go away in a week and on Friday I will be briefing a replacement engineer on the quirks of the contract so he can continue the job in my absence. I’ll let you decide who is the more important person on site…

Over at the GigaPan website they have a dynamic front page that features panoramas from a user created, themed collection. These change periodically and can have pretty much any theme you could want, from panoramas created on a specific day, panoramas of an area to those associated with a public holiday.

Having returned from a pleasant few days away over the bank holiday I checked in on the world of GigaPans and was surprised to see my Armed Forces Memorial panorama staring right back at me. Thanks to Jeffrey Baker my panorama had been listed along with 37 other images as part of his ‘memorial day gigapans‘ collection to commemorate Memorial Day, a national holiday in the US marked on the last Monday of May.

To suggest your own collections of featured panoramas you first need to be a registered user of the GigaPan website, registration is free. Then send an email to illah [at] ri.cmu.edu with the following information;

• name of collection,
• curator user name (you),
• id numbers of panoramas separated by comma.

Example
Lego
cidodd
542,4964,4983,4985,10993,11033,11160,22300

Just a quick post to add to my slowly expanding set of GigaPans.

I intend to give you a more in depth account of my more significant and/or interesting GigaPans. However from time-to-time I will give you a quick look at other panoramas that I have taken. You can always check out the GigaPan website to keep up-to-date with the latest creations.

Everywhere you look these days construction companies are ripping up the grass, trees and natural landscape, only to replace them with large areas of concrete, tarmac and roofs. When it rains the water would soak into natural landscape and work its way to through the ground. With all the hard landscaping on housing projects and cap parks all this water can not soak in and runs off to the lowest point. To control this storm water drainage is designed to channel the water into pipework and outfall it into a watercourse. In built up areas this often mean adding to an already over capacity system. 

To get round this problem the use of soak-away and attenuation systems are becoming more prolific in new builds;

1. Attenuation tanks are often over-sized pipes, 1200mm diameter and over, or culverts. When it rains the water fills the tanks and due to a restriction on the outfall the water is slowly released into the local storm water system. This method uses a lot of concrete and creates large voids underground. Maintenance can be an issue with confined spaces.
2. Soak-away units are designed to do a similar job to attenuation tanks. When it rains the soak-away fills with water, unlike the attenuation tank the soak-away does not have an outlet. Instead the water dissipates into the ground over time and return to the environment without creating sudden storm flows into local watercourses.

The soak-away is constructed by excavating an area, levelling it out and often spreading a layer of gravel or sand in the base. You can then build a small soak-away using a perforated PCC ring or a large soak-away with plastic modular cells. These are plastic blocks with a massive 95% void content. When placed together you can create almost any size or shape you require.

For stability you clip the blocks at their edges and small rods prevent horizontal movement. Wrapped in a geotextile membrane to keep the backfill material from clogging the soak-away you simply cover over the units. These are designed to be used in both soft landscaped areas and under car parking areas.

The modular cell blocks provides a high capacity system that can be incorporated into most developments. The only draw back with a soak-away is that the natural ground conditions must allow water to pass though it, installing in heavy clay conditions is a big no.

The GigaPan website has been created to enable people and communities to come together through images that have so much detail that they themselves are the objects of exploration. Create yourself an account and you can upload images, over 50 MegaPixels, of your own. The real aim is to create massive images, with the robotic mount now available for a range of cameras you can take 1000′s of images and combine them to produce panoramas of a GigaPixel (1000 MegaPixels) and more. Since I purchased the original robotic mount at the start of the year I’ve slowly got used to the new style of photography and some of the quirks of stitching the large number of images into one panorama.

The end of April saw a milestone for my production of massive panoramas.I took a trip out to the National Memorial Arboretum. Located just down the road from us and set within the National Forest, The NMA is devoted to Remembrance. A former gravel and sand quarry converted into over 150 memorials and gardens many with national significance. The centre piece being the Armed Forces Memorial. This 43 metre diameter curved wall containing the names of those who have served their country and paid the ultimate price since the end of the Second World War.

Getting up early on a Sunday I made my way to the NMA and set up my camera in the centre of the AFM. 50 minutes later the robotic mount had taken nearly 600 images and I headed home to begin the stitching process. For a little over 24 hours my computer crunched away and finally churned out what I had been waiting for…

A 1.43 GigaPixel panorama.

I’m rather proud how this panorama turned out and also that this image should be the first true GigaPan I have created. Have a look round and explore. If you are impressed with what you see take a look at my other panoramas and the 1000′s available on the GigaPan website. Now all I need to do is find more time to get out and find more places to photograph.