11 August 2011

Students at Longhill School tasted civil engineering life when a team of 4Delivery engineers (including Costain) which is currently working on behalf of Southern Water in Peacehaven, arrived to set them a Rapid Response Engineering Challenge (RREC).

The day-long event, organised by STEM Sussex, focused on a natural disaster – in this case Hurricane Mitch in Honduras – and showed the year nine students how key civil engineering is in such crisis situations.

The students were challenged to complete different scenarios, similar to the ones faced by those in natural disasters, including the building of shelters and providing a water supply using limited resources.

James York, 4Delivery Community Relations Manager, said: “The aim of the day was to introduce the pupils to the key concepts of civil engineering in an exciting, structured and informative manner. Using a real life example allows the pupils to see that they are surrounded by engineering everyday.

“Also by only giving the groups limited resources and time they were forced to work together to complete the challenges with additional points awarded for team work.”
The students were advised by Costain Engineers, Alan Faherty, Joe Miller and Andrew Belson all working on the Brighton & Hove 4Delivery scheme.

4Delivery is a consortium comprising Veolia Water, Costain and MWH, which works on behalf of Southern Water to deliver a programme of environmental improvement and water quality schemes across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Ends