Year 1 T Level Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction students recently went on a site visit to two local construction and civil engineering projects in Weston-super-Mare, in order to get valuable experience of live, complex sites.

Half of the class were given a comprehensive tour of the new GP Surgery that is being built next to Weston Rugby Club, behind the Train station, by RED Construction.

The £15m project consists of a multi storey steel framed structure with a concrete stair and lift core, that will house consulting rooms, offices and a pharmacy. The project is progressing very well and is due to complete by July 2027. The students were given a tour of the whole project which included elements such as groundworks, concrete slabs, window installation, intumescent paint spraying and roofing works.

The tour was led by Jake, Senior Site Manager and Emma, Site Manager and former University Centre Weston Construction Professions learner. Students were told about many features of the build, including permeable parking bays, electric charging points and also the need for a survey before any works were carried out, for un-exploded ordance left over from the Second World War.

The groups then swapped over and went to the Octavius site of the Winterstoke Road replacement railway bridge in Weston. This tour was led by David, one of the Site Engineers on the £26M civil engineering project. David explained to the students in the site office, before going out on site, the 35m deep, 1.2m diameter, reinforced concrete piles that had already been installed on site, as part of the foundations for the bridge abutments. These were then seen on site in real life. David explained the various Health and Safety factors that Octavious that are undertaking, especially whilst working next to a live railway line with trains travelling at 100mph.

The students were also escorted around the site by Tobias, a former T-Level student, who has now been awarded an apprenticeship with Octavius and is undertaking his Level 3 BTEC qualification in Civil Engineering at Weston College.

David also went on to explain to the students about the problems that the project team had during the heatwaves in the summer, causing working restrictions imposed on them by Network Rail and how this has caused a delay in the overall completion of the project.

Construction Professions lecturer, Daniel Comerford, would like to thank all of the members of both RED Construction and Octavius, for their continued support with the students from Weston College, in helping them get a greater appreciation of the complexities of these two live projects, which will help them in their studies over the next two years at Weston College.