50th Anniversary Celebration
7
“I think anyone who is familiar with the area will know that it’s a bit of a funnel across Scotland for wind, and wind is the biggest obstacle to progress on the job. It affects everything that we lift with the cranes and it affects everything that we do on the water with our barges and marine work. That is the one thing we cannot control. All the other technical challenges – we can engineer those – we can find solutions to them. Unfortunately, we can’t change the weather.”
But David finds there is one element that drives him even as he navigates the whims of another, saying: “I think what motivates me most is the people that I work with. There are 1,200 people working on this project and every one of them has a fascinating story to tell. They’ve got a major contribution to
make to the project and without them all working together as a team we wouldn’t have the successful job that we do.
“It’s also interesting to note that I graduated in 1983 from Heriot-Watt University, from a class of about 70 civil engineers and seven of them are involved in this project in one way or another.
“Across the whole project we’ve got 15 alumni involved, between the employer’s team, the designer and the contractor’s team.”
Clearly a man with a particular passion, David cites having been involved in the construction of the second, fourth and fifth longest-span bridges in the world as the proudest achievement of his career. Another highlight is having worked in four continents – Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
Having a hand in the future, however, is something in which David very much currently takes professional pride and pleasure: “Being involved with graduates and students at the start of their career and seeing how they develop is great. I remember that when I was a student – and I had a lot to learn at that time! It’s amazing to have the opportunity to be involved in a job of this size and scale and, for me, to see how they develop in their careers.”
His advice for those at that stage of development is to remember that it isn’t a process that comes to an end... “The learning process never stops. Always listen to everything that goes on around you. There’s always something new to learn. I’m still learning new things today from the people I work with on this project. So remember, the learning doesn’t stop the day you walk out of the door with your degree.”
David Climie
Project Director of Queensferry Crossing
As we leave David to compete with the Queensferry Crossing for the attention of our photographer’s lens, he tells us that we came at just the right time: “We’ve actually just achieved a Guinness World Record today – we now have the longest freestanding balanced cantilevered structure ever built. It’s 644 metres long. That’s the deck either side of the centre tower, and that’s been measured and verified by the Guinness Book of Records within the last few days. It’s only in that state until we wreck the closure units at either end, but it is a world record, until then.”
CONTINUED >
David Climie
I LOOKED AT ALL THE UNIVERSITIES IN SCOTLAND AND HERIOT-WATT WAS THE ONE THAT HAD THE BEST REPUTATION FOR THE COURSE AND IT SEEMS TO HAVE DELIVERED ON THAT.
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