Duckers & Diving: Dicing with Death
After his sojourn in the country our fearless scribe is back in more familiar territory this week, catching up with John Nolan, new president of the Institution of Structural Engineers.
John Nolan has been telling tales out of school about some of the hair-raising times from his early days on construction sites.
John, chairman of Birmingham-based structural and civil engineering consultancy Nolan Associates, spilled the beans during his inaugural address – the post will see him touring the world visiting ISE branches.
Going back to the late ’60s and ’70s, he revealed: “My first job was during the Christmas holidays when I reached my 15th birthday. It was legal then. I was employed as a general labourer by a local firm on a 16 storey block of flats near Saltley gas works.
“I have vivid memories of that site as I almost managed to get myself killed on a number of occasions during the three weeks that I was there.
“Building sites in those days were seriously ‘macho’ places where the concept of health and safety hadn’t yet been invented and where the younger guys in particular would compete with each other to see who could take the biggest risks and the older guys would encourage this!
“I’m embarrassed to record that on one occasion I raced another lad from top to bottom of the building down the outside of the scaffolding!
“Thank goodness lunatic behaviour like that is no longer tolerated.”
But, he went on, management too would often take short cuts.
“I vividly remember tripping on the 16th floor scaffolding and, because of the absence of toe boards, losing a wheelbarrow and its contents over the side – luckily nobody was underneath!
“That period was also memorable for a huge explosion at Saltley gas works. I was working on the roof at the time and was blown off my feet by the blast!”
From that point on, during every school and university holiday, he could be found doing a variety of labouring jobs including pipe laying, concreting, hod carrying and, in the year he left school, piling the foundations for Spaghetti Junction. 
He quipped: “That piece of road has had lots of problems over the years but I am pleased to say that these don’t appear to have included the foundations – although I did have my doubts!”
His theme for his term is cost against value – he argues that too much waste is going on, particularly in the public sector, and it needs to be addressed.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, part of the solution is raising structural engineer fees!
Albeit to be fair he argues that paying a little extra to the engineer will usually save a great deal more from the cost of the project.
