You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Meet Warwick Sextus
Job:
Mechanical Project Engineer.
Job description:
TBM break through and turn around engineer.
Work background:
Various projects and industries. Last 6 years spent working on construction projects in New Zealand with previous tunnel involvement at Victoria Park and AMETI tunnels. Prior to that 7 years in Aerospace industry in UK, Japan & USA doing aircraft manufacture. Before my big OE my first job out of University was working at a Pulp & Paper Mill in Kawerau.
Favourite part of job:
The variety of work that I get involved in. From being involved in scoping and designing of equipment through to installation and testing of it. Most days are a combination of office based meetings and computer work as well as getting out on site and making decisions.
Least favourite part of job:
Aspects of the project run 24 hours a day 7 days a week so there is sometimes a need to work nights or come in on early mornings and weekends to make sure the jobs are progressing correctly.
What I am working on now:
I am now looking after planning the commissioning of all the tunnel systems that will be installed once the second tunnel has been built.
A quick story about a job well done:
Alice the TBM is over 90 meters in length and 2500T in weight and we only had a space 40m by 40m to turn it around, which is a world first for something of this size. The turnaround team managed to achieve that safely and on time which was a great achievement.
A (humorous) story about a job that went badly and what you learned:
On a previous tunnel project one of the final tests we did was to light a small fire to demonstrate the fire systems to the client before it was handed over. One area of the tunnel sprinkler system was meant to be isolated where the people to witness the test were standing. The person who did this turned off the wrong valve so when the fire set off the sprinklers we got a group of VIP’s very wet, which surprisingly didn’t make them very happy. I learnt it’s not a great idea to dump water on top of your project's client.
Qualifications:
Mechanical Engineering Degree.
Interests outside work:
I enjoy watching and playing a number of sports but golf and fishing are the main ones I get involved in now days.
Meet Warwick Sextus a Mechanical Project Engineer with the Well Connected Alliance. Image: NZTA.
Warwick stands beside Alice the massive Tunnel Boring Machine. Image: NZTA.