Interview: Structural Engineer – Daniel Kennedy

This month’s article delves into the career journey of Daniel Kennedy, a talented structural engineer from our team. 

• How did you get into structural engineering/what inspired you? 

From an early age I had a habit of fidgeting with things. Inevitably some of these things would break, and I would have to find a way to fix them (rarely effectively). My father is also an Engineer and so ensued a childhood of DIY and garage projects. I think it quickly became clear that a career in Engineering was inevitable. 

I started working as site labour in the construction industry at seventeen as a summer job and worked as a CAD Technician whilst studying Undenominated Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, specialising in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering.  

Since graduating, I have worked on large scale water industry, restoration, residential, landscape and temporary works projects across the UK, Ireland and Australia. 

• Major changes you have seen since your career commenced 

The biggest change I have seen has been the adoption of Computer Aided Design and BIM. I began looking at AutoCAD 3D early in my career trying to generate drawings from a model so that changes would be reflected on the associated plans, elevations and sections as a time saving measure. I had some success with this but it wasn’t what it what I was hoping to achieve. Soon after, the company I was working for became involved heavily in the UK Water Sector. The UK government had required that any projects going through government tender would have to be conducted using BIM. It was at this time that I was introduced to Revit. Building Information Modelling became a big part of my career as it allowed our company to coordinate our designs with other disciplines working on the project. It also helped us to produce or update Bills of Quantities rapidly, making it easier to price projects efficiently. As we developed our capabilities with Revit, we were able to take advantage of it’s interoperability with Autodesk Robot, a Finite Element Analysis package. This allowed us to build our models in Revit for coordination and then run quick analysis on the structure from a model we already had.  

• Most enjoyable project 

Pier One – Sydney Harbour.  

Pier One was constructed in 1912 as a cargo wharf and passenger terminal. The structure was built on wooden storey posts which had deteriorated and required replacing. The project involved devising a method of temporarily supporting the building while each post was removed and replaced all while the structure continued to operate in its new capacity as an operational hotel. Lift designs had to be carried out for the use of a barge crane to maneuverer the elements. Also on this site, a large concrete sump had to be removed from below the wharf deck. Due to its size, location and condition it had to be secured to a set of frames, cut in half and be removed in two lifts. This required careful calculation of the centre of gravity of the sump after it had been cut and while it was attached to the frame. 

This project was enjoyable for several reasons. There were a wide variety of challenges to overcome which was interesting but also the whole team was positively engaged in considering solutions. It was very satisfying to watch the elements lift out exactly as planned.  

• Best bit of career advice you were given and any you want to pass on to engineers starting their journey  

The most valuable advice I would give to young engineers would be to always query designs they don’t understand. I have been in situations where an engineer far more senior than I produced designs and I couldn’t understand what they were trying to do. It is easy to accept the solution and move on, but it turned out there was a mistake in their design. It taught me that that no one is correct all the time, just wrong less often with experience. Querying that design again taught me valuable skills and removed an error from our design. 

Anyone can get distracted and miss a small detail. It showed the importance of checking, no matter how senior the engineer.