Contractor Spotlight: Tim Blake, Soilfix

Tim Blake is a drummer, outdoor-enthusiast and Assistant Project Manager at Soilfix, a UK remediation contractor offering complete remediation services including decommissioning, decontamination, and specialist enabling works.

He typically works on remediation projects across England, but like many of us, in the earlier part of the year, Tim spent more time working from home. “All internal meetings we now do online. I’m quite lucky really, as the site I’m working on at the moment, infrastructure had already been put in place. There is a really nice area with roads, a pond, bandstand and children’s playground. We have started to use the bandstand as our regular spot for site meetings. It is perfect, as it offers shelter and is big enough for everyone to keep a safe distance.”

Tim lives with his girlfriend and two cats near Rayleigh, Essex. “During the lockdown, I went from managing projects to managing two kittens! They love getting on top of my keyboard and enjoy chewing through wires, which isn’t particularly helpful when you’re trying to concentrate on work.” Tim also enjoys playing drums to unwind after work. “I try to be careful when I play. Although I have an electric kit, it can still be quite noisy and it certainly is not the most neighbour-friendly instrument!” Hiking is his other passion: “There are some nice places to go nearby for walks, but what I really like is to meet up with friends and go on a bit more of an adventure, like a couple of years ago when we went hiking in the Italian Alps”.

He joined Soilfix at the beginning of 2018 and has worked in the industry for nearly 6 years. Tim holds a BSc in Physical Geography and an MSc in Environmental Monitoring and Analysis from Aberystwyth University, which he chose because of the course and the beautiful countryside in that area. He has always had an interest in nature and outdoor activities, but found it initially hard to decide what to do career-wise. “Like many young people, I wasn’t really sure what to go into until well into my degree. The first time I really felt inspired about contaminated land was during one particular project that I did as part of my master’s degree. It was a mock remediation for a contaminated groundwater discharge from a disused copper mine. That was a really good project for me. I enjoyed putting together a potential scheme, although I would probably do it quite differently now!”  Tim started his career in the environmental claims management department of a consultancy firm. He worked mainly on domestic oil spill sites, which allowed him to gain project planning experience and an appreciation of different stakeholder perspectives.

Since joining Soilfix, he feels he’s in the right environment to learn more about all the aspects of remediation. “Everyone’s got a lot of experience here and my colleagues have really helped to develop my contaminated land knowledge.” When asked what challenges him he says: “Every remediation project has its challenges. For me, one of the most satisfying aspects is when we get thrown a curveball, to then find a solution that everyone in the end is happy with. Which is a very difficult thing to do, because everyone involved in the project ultimately has different end goals.”

In terms of the skills required to make that happen, he reckons it is experience that matters most. “It’s through experience that you learn to see and manage different expectations. Having a healthy dose of empathy and people skills are really important too in order to do this job well. From being able to deal with people on a technical basis, down to being able to communicate to people on site what needs to get done, who perhaps don’t have a background in remediation, like machine drivers or site labourers.” He adds: “Managing the budget, client expectations, situations on site when things don’t go as expected; you can’t get those lessons in a university setting. I really think this is something that comes with experience. Learning on the job is the way to do it”

Soilfix and REGENESIS have a joint remediation project entry in this year’s Brownfield Awards, which has been shortlisted in two categories:

• Best remediation of a small site
• Best application of remediation technologies

As Tim was the Senior Site Engineer on this project he is, of course, ‘somewhat biased’ in his views: “It was such an interesting remediation. We treated a mixed plume of TPH and pesticides, including Dieldrin and Pentachlorophenol. We used pilot tests and additional mapping tools to be able to accurately execute the remediation. The works included limited excavation of soils followed by two stages of in situ groundwater treatment using a range of REGENESIS technologies, including their innovative PlumeStop product. The results speak for themselves and so yes, definitely, this project deserves to win.“

> Read the shortlisted project case study

> Brownfield Awards 2020 Info

> Watch the project video