Joined ACE
Operations Director Paddy Lynch joined Absolute Civil Engineering in January 2010 with 33 years of on-the-job experience under his belt.
Experience and most memorable jobs
“Two jobs spring to mind and both were nature reserves. The first was when we shifted muck on water underneath the Humber Bridge, using boats and barges to create duck and geese runs for ICI. We had diggers on pontoons in the middle of the Humber digging cuts through the reed beds. Boats would come in, hook up to the barges and pull them up river. We had a big 40 tonne digger on a ‘spudleg’ pontoon with 30 metre hydraulic legs. We would literally float the machine on the Humber, drop the legs when in position and excavate muck out of the river. The second memorable job was Saltholme Nature Reserve. Haverton Hill. I did the first two schemes there for the RSPB. We constructed an Arctic Tern nesting island in the middle of a one-mile-wide lake. We formed a causeway and kept tipping muck into the middle of the lake for two or three weeks. Then we imported £5,000 worth of live cockle shells and put them on the island to encourage Arctic Terns to nest. I was invited to the official opening of the Saltholme Nature Reserve in Teesside, with RSPB president Kate Humble where they named the island ‘Paddy’s Island’ and the pond ‘Paddy’s Pool’.” Another claim to fame for Paddy is that he was the first site manager in the region to win the prestigious Northern Region CECA (Civil Engineering Contractors Association) award in 1997 for bio-remedial work he did on the old tar site in Delves Lane, Consett. Paddy and Mark Short teamed up with a French-Canadian company to use bugs to digest the tar in contaminated soil so it could be reused on site as clean material.
What is the biggest benefit for clients working with Absolute Civil Engineering?
“Biggest benefit? One word quality.”
