Tribulations of an inexperienced construction manager

The first two years of my project management career which started in the year 2000 were a full character development experience. Having graduated as a civil engineer I had not come across any training or practice in project management yet the very first job that came calling threw me right into a project management role. I was appointed by Mobil Oil Kenya as an Operations Engineer for the first 9 months to learn the ropes of the oil and gas industry. I shadowed a project consultant during the tank removal and replacement at the three fuel storage terminals in the country and coordinated safety for several pipeline upgrade projects.

When they decided I was ready to take on my own projects I was appointed as the Project Engineer for the brown field project upgrading the Mobil Oil Nyali Service Station in Mombasa where I spent 4 months on site as the construction manager under the close pupilage of Eng. Leonard Ithau who taught me everything about interpreting site drawings, pacing construction teams to ensure adherence to project schedules, managing site changes, preparing payment certificates, reviewing contractor claims, coordinating site safety and permit to work procedures, etc.

One of my toughest learning moments was when under work pressure, I authorized a contractor to remove underground tanks from the Mobil Oil Salama service station downtown on Tom Mboya street (Nairobi) - this was a very old ex-Esso fuel retail site which had been shut down for several months. I was by then running concurrently multiple service station construction sites around the country. This particular contractor failed to complete all the safety checks before commencing the site demolitions. I received a call from the Company Safety Officer informing me that my team had created a hazardous situation by pulling out old tanks that still had residual petrol product and due to age had leaked fuel into the ground causing significant environmental pollution. This particular retail site was squeezed into a tight location and was surrounded by hotels with hot kitchens, creating a perfect recipe for a flammable gas explosion.

What followed over the next two days was an intricate process safety operation characterized by continuous gas testing and monitoring, decanting contaminated fuel from the old tank and the open hole in the ground with support of the fuel operations team from Nairobi terminal, careful strapping and hoisting of the tank which was old and rotten with the risk of tearing during lifting, clean up and disposal of contaminated soil ....all of which ate 3 weeks into my construction schedule.

The early years of my project management career were stressful and character building but by 2005 I had become quite a pro at running construction projects!