Unique insight into construction at Quartermile

If you’re a student preparing for life in the ‘real world’, there’s nothing quite like hands-on work experience.

That’s exactly what a group of 100 engineering students from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University were given when they visited a construction site at Quartermile. All in the first year of a degree in civil or structural engineering, they were given a unique insight into what it would be like to work in a genuine construction environment.

Quartermile construction manager, Alan Laidlaw, gave the students a tour of the latest phase of development at the £500m mixed-use development, which is called Quartermile Four.

Commenting on the visit, Alan said: “Seeing structural engineering in practice is just as important as the study of it in a classroom. These students are the potential engineers of the future and we hope that by giving them some insight into construction at a development as vast and significant as Quartermile we were able to help them to see how engineering is put into practice.”

The youngsters were given the chance to ask questions and learn about the entire development engineering process, helping to put their theoretical studies into context by seeing work in action.

Student, Kyle Marshall, said: “The visit to Quartermile was a fascinating first site visit with my Civil Engineering course. It was very insightful seeing different aspects of this construction, right from the foundations up to the finished apartment."

Work began on the seven-storey office building in July and once complete it will comprise 128,600sq ft of Grade A office space.

Dr. Pauline Thompson, course leader at Heriot-Watt University, added: “We were thrilled to have been given the opportunity to take our first year students to such a prestigious development as Quartermile. Visits like this are vital in the learning process as they allow students to put their studies into context, see the real life challenges engineers face and to start to think about the variety of engineering job roles that exist for them once they graduate.”

Once complete, Quartermile will comprise over 900 apartments, in the excess of 350,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation, 65,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space and seven acres of open landscaping. The development is expected to be completed in 2018.