I can’t keep up with the testing team; they’re growing their reach, advancing their service offering and increasing their staff base.  And with every new person comes a swathe of new expertise and epic anecdotes.

We’ve had a spotlight on the King of Concrete, we’ll soon have one on the Soil Queen – but for the latest addition to the Staff Spotlight hall of fame, I’m shining the beam of my far-reaching torch on Richard Prescott, aka the Sultan of Surveys.

Most people in the road and rail industries know Richard already because his experience in both sectors spans many years and thousands of projects.  But for those who need to know more…meet Operations Manager Richard.

What on earth are you doing here?

Great question!  When I was asked by my old friend and former colleague Peter Godfrey if I wanted to start a survey business stream at Igne from scratch, I jumped at the chance. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to grow teams and increase service offerings, but I’ve never had the opportunity to design an entire survey capability from new.

The opportunity is incredible for everyone within Igne and every client they serve.  I have pulled in the best people, been given the green light to invest in the best equipment and been allowed to design the data delivery process in the best way possible.

When you’ve been in the surveying business for as long as me, and bear in mind I started at the very beginning of my career on site as an assistant surveyor, I know every way that works, and have seen every issue encountered.  I know, better than anyone, what works and what to avoid. 

And so, this is my dream come true.

You’re a bit excitable.  Why should our clients be as excited as you are about our new survey department?

Because we can ensure a one-stop shop for them whether they come to Igne for site investigation, geo-environmental consultancy, UXO advice, complex drilling.  No matter their touch point at Igne, we will ensure their project proceeds safely and with the data it needs.

Why?  What do you actually do?

Using the latest survey equipment, such as the Leica RTC360 Laser scanner, DJI Matrice 350 UAV and Stream DP as just a few examples that spring to mind, in conjunction with brand-new high specification processing machines and software we can provide a wide range of services to our clients both below and above ground.

So, you survey for stuff…

Yes, or to put it another way, our surveying teams specialise in high-tech precision measurement solutions, providing land, property, and specialist surveying services to a variety of professional sectors.

We use the very latest technology and instrumentation, and adhere to excellence in terms of quality assurance.

Who can benefit from the surveys you offer?

As well as working for all our colleagues within Igne to ensure their own project outcomes are achieved safely and accurately, we work for the likes of architects, civil and structural engineers, property developers, infrastructure and construction teams.  

OK.  Devil’s advocate here – why should they choose you?

Our approach is designed to be flexible, adaptable, cost-effective, and fit for purpose.  By that, I mean the well-established reputation of everyone within my team is based on their many years’ experience.  Any one of us can look at a client’s scope and know straight away whether what has been suggested will give them the data they actually need. 

We will help a client get exactly their data requirements by talking to them, understanding their objectives, and designing our service to suit.  You don’t need a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but sometimes our clients have been told they do.

Collectively, our knowledge and experience allow us to understand client requirements and offer tailored solutions to surveying and measurement problems.  We talk to them to understand the data they need and then design the right surveying solution that directly delivers their requirements.

We focus on client satisfaction, we commit to high standards, and by ensuring client integration into the process of designing the survey solution, we deliver exceptional data of real value.

Alight, calm down.  You’ve made your point.  Now tell me more about you?

After being engaged to Jan for 10 years as long as I could drag it out, we tied the knot and are parents to three children, Leah 24, Layla 14 and Thomas 10…and just when I thought we were passed the baby car seat stage Leah delighted us with two grandbabies – Sullivan who is 2 and Freddie who is 3 months. 

Personally, I’m too young to be a grandad, but the less said about that the better.

So, is free time family time?

Varies its either sorting kids out, taking Thomas to football matches or training, and whenever possible going out with my drone tractor stalking or fishing (to get a bit of peace ????)

Yeah, what?  That sounded like you said ‘tractor stalking…’

Well, I come from a farming background, and I maintain an interest in agricultural machinery.  I like drones and video editing too, so I often video, photograph farmers at work – my wife says it’s tractor stalking, I edit the videos and put them on YouTube. Otherwise, I also like a bit of fishing on top of family time. Unfortunately, none of the kids have the same passion, but they do like cars like daddy which is something I suppose. Layla does like coming when I go to see one of my friends in the summer when he is driving a Claas combine but that's because he lets her drive.

[Here's the evidence!]

Oh, hang on I forgot – I’m meant to ask about your professional background – tell me about your professional background, Richard

Right.  Well, I thought I wanted to do electrical engineering but it turns out I didn’t like the university way of life and so I changed track and started with Atkins as an assistant surveyor back in 1999.  It was a hands-on, outdoors way of life and it suited me much more.

I started at the very bottom of the survey ladder, did my ONC and HNC on day release in civil engineering and then had the opportunity to carry on and do my degree.  But I knew by then I wanted to stay a surveyor and progress my career that way.

In terms of surveying work - I’ve been a jack of all trades - highways, landfill, river work, Bathymetric surveys, flood modelling and alleviation, feasibility studies for managed motorways and no end of rail work – a lot of nights and weekends have been spent surveying up, down and across the entire country, and as far as America.

Any projects of note?

I’m proud of work I did for Network Rail in supporting and advancing rail safety at level crossings.  It followed from some near misses and then the death of a couple in Scotland.  My work helped facilitate the introduction of new and better barrier systems.

Then there was the monitoring we did on Thelwall Viaduct – we began a bridge inspection only to discover the bearings had sheared.  That was that – it was closed immediately, and we continued monitoring it all as the bearings were all renewed.  That was a critical save.

I then went to America for Pilkingtons – it was only meant to be for 2 weeks, but it turned into 2 months.

That sounds fun!

It wasn’t.

Oh.

It was a challenge!  They were doing a massive refurb at a glass plant near Chicago, bearing in mind my job is measuring things and I was providing them with measurements in millimetres when they were used to feet and inches.  There’s a lot at risk when measurements get lost in translation!

It was even more bizarre when the quality assurance was done by a man just using a plumb bob.

As in a weight on a bit of string?

Exactly, not really highly precise kit…

Have you ever saved someone from a terrible design mistake?

Oh yes!  On many occasions.  I’ll give you one example.  There was a problem with the control at a new train maintenance depot - the control was wrong, and there were two different control networks on site, one for the track element the other had been used for the maintenance shed and associated infrastructure. 

If there are control issues it means the points you are coordinating from are wrong.  It’s all trigonometry and angles – if one is wrong, everything from that point is out.

I saved them a LOT of money because if they’d carried on without me, the tracks would have run straight into the walls of the newly built sheds.

That’s all folks.  If you want surveys surveyed and measurements measured, there are clearly no safer hands than Richard’s.  Email him or ring the team.  Now, let's give the final word to Director of Materials Testing, Pete Godfrey (he always wants to have the last word - sigh)...

"It's the best decision for Igne to have recruited Richard and invested in the establishment of his team, and a comprehensive win for every one of our clients.  The additional services we can now offer are literally value added.  Delighted to have, in some small way, facilitated this extension to our services and our team."