At Tideway, our aim is to inspire the engineers of tomorrow by promoting the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.

We also want to showcase some of the many talented people we have working across the project. Meet Construction Engineer Bianca Wheeler.

“I’ve just always been interested in the way things are built - as well as a lover of design,” answers Construction Engineer Bianca Wheeler, when asked why she originally chose a career in construction.

As a young girl Bianca dreamt of being an architect, or possibly a chef, but once she’d had her first taste of working on a major construction project her mind was quickly made up.

“After completing my work experience with Crossrail when I was 16 and getting a taster of a major project in London, I was certain I wanted a career in construction.”

Bianca then set about charting a course into the industry.

“I chose (A-level) subjects that would suit my chosen career path and then started as a Level 3 Civil Engineering Apprentice working four days a week on Tideway and attending college one day a week”

That was back in 2016. Fast forward to the present-day and Bianca is now an engineer at Greenwich Pumping Station with a wealth of experience on several Tideway sites.

Joining initially as part of the Central and East Delivery Teams she quickly expanded her knowledge on construction and design, whilst fulfilling her role in delivering construction assurance to the client.

“I worked closely with my two sites’ Construction Engineers, Project Managers and site managers”, Bianca remembers. “Every day was different as construction works were 24/7 on some sites and there were always new challenges and problems to solve”.

Bianca’s day-to-day now involves working closely with main works contractor on the east section in helping to overcome design and construction issues on site. She’s also responsible for maintaining a close working relationship with third-party companies, including Thames Water, the DLR and the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Bianca says she balances her hectic schedule of daily tasks with an unerring focus on doing things safely.

“I help promote the excellent health and safety culture across our site by sharing lessons learned, interacting and sharing feedback from our workforce on site and engaging with the RightWay initiative and sharing our sites best practice with the project.”. For more information on Tideway please visit their website https://www.tideway.london/news/site-news/2020/april/meet-the-engineer-bianca-wheeler . 19/20.