Ground engineer Charlotte Woodhall-Jones excels in ICE Graduate and Student Papers Competition
Charlotte Woodhall-Jones, a geotechnical engineer in Buro Happold’s Bath office, recently won the final round of the south west ICE Graduate and Student Papers competition, which was held at the Castle Hotel, Taunton.
Charlotte’s paper, 'Thinking outside the cube - construction risk management through a strategic ground investigation at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’, explored the necessity of team collaboration in the ground engineering works at the famous Stratford venue.
Charlotte’s work added to the already extensive programme of refurbishment that the listed theatre is undergoing. Extensive planning and organisation between the client, consultant and contractor enabled an additional centrally located borehole to be made within the existing auditorium in November 2006, during the busy and prestigious Complete Works festival. This required completion within a 76-hour period, between two shows.
The new borehole strengthened existing findings, providing further data and allowing the team to investigate and mitigate potential ground risks which could have impacted on the major project construction programme. The results also influenced further designs and costs.
Overall, the paper reflected the necessity of team collaboration for the whole project, in order to overcome time and space constraints.
Charlotte said: “I am very excited to have won the regional final and would like to thank my fellow ground engineers for all their help and encouragement. The Royal Shakespeare Company has also been great, giving me their full support to submit the paper, and their enthusiasm for undertaking the borehole provided me with a fantastic subject.
“I have been working on The Royal Shakespeare Theatre project since I joined Buro Happold in October 2005. It’s really helped me to develop my knowledge of the design and construction process.”
Charlotte will collect her award at the ICE south-west regional dinner in Bristol on 6 June. Her paper will also be submitted for consideration in the national competition, for which the shortlist will be announced on 21 May and the final will take place on 19 June.
To add to her achievements, Charlotte has also recently been appointed as the evening meetings officer for the western regional group of The Geological Society of London. The group has recently reformed, and formal meetings will begin in October 2008 covering more vocational topics.
Ends
Note to Editors:
For further information about the Royal Shakespeare Company's transformation project, visit www.rsc.org.uk/transformation. Alternatively, please contact Jane Ellis on 01789 412 668 or at jane.ellis@rsc.org.uk.
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Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976. We now employ over 1,700 staff in 21 offices worldwide and our aim is to produce high quality engineering design in concept, in detail and in execution, on time, to programme and delivering excellent value for money. Our distinctive culture and ethos is still based on the same principles of care, value and elegance that were established when the practice was founded.
We offer structural, building services, civil, infrastructure and façade engineering, as well as a broad range of specialist consultancy services including sustainability, ground and environmental engineering, fire and security design, health and safety management, inclusive and urban design, project management, and specialist CAD and computer simulation provision.
