A day in the life of … Lee Durrant
Lee Durrant, 39, joined Central Piling as a banksman 12 years ago. He’s also been a rig driver. Here he describes a typical (or not so typical) day as an operations supervisor, his job for the past two years.
I have worked my way up to my current job role with the help and support of the company and my favourite aspect of it is that no two days are the same.
As an operations supervisor I can be responsible for overseeing anywhere from two to eight sites at a time, and this involves setting up the jobs from a pre-start meeting all the way through to the completion of the piling works. I am constantly in touch with the clients and the piling crew to try and ensure a smooth running of our works.
Monday morning is my most regular routine as I generally start in the office which means I don’t need to get up until 6am. This allows me to have breakfast with my son Bradley who has a strict routine of up and breakfast done by 6.30am because he hates being late for school!
It takes me about an hour to drive the 30 miles to the office from our family home in Harwich so before I leave at 7am I always wake up my wife Annmarie and my daughter Teaghan as they prefer to have a little more sleep than Bradley.
Once I arrive at the office and warm up the computer my first task is normally catching up on all the piling logs which have been sent to me from the rig drivers running the live sites that I am currently supervising.
Along with making sure my sites are up and running this takes about an hour and takes me up to our weekly toolbox talk which is delivered by the Health and Safety manager Colin Newman. The subjects vary week by week but this weeks was on drugs and alcohol, being as we are in the run-up to the festive season. Everyone who is in the office and yard must attend the toolbox talk and sign in to show attendance.
After the toolbox talk we try to hold a weekly contracts meeting which I actually managed to attend this week. This is a general sit down between departments to discuss the upcoming week and jobs and to share any relevant information that may need to be shared.
This week’s meeting was fairly straightforward and gave me enough time to join Roger Cox (contracts director), Sam Nicole (contracts manager) and Colin at the local café for breakfast before I need to leave for a client meeting. I like Mondays – it means no sandwich on the go for lunch!
After breakfast I hit the road, allowing enough time to make my site meeting with one of our more regular customers to discuss the Health and Safety and logistics plans of an upcoming contract in Hackney. The meeting lasts about an hour and I got all the relevant information I needed to put together a site visit sheet and logistics plan for the transport and buying department so they can start planning deliveries for the job.
We already have a live site which I am supervising in Hackney so I decided to pop over and surprise them with a cheeky little five-point safety audit. Everyone loves a safety audit! We try and do these once a month on each of our sites so we can ensure our sites are running efficiently and safely.
We are coming to the end of this contract so space is disappearing quickly but the crew are working well. I spent roughly two hours on site because I like to watch how the boys are working as opposed to filling out a form and leaving. This took me nicely up to about 4.30pm so I left site and started making my way home.
Luckily for me traffic was kind to me and I made it home with enough time to grab a snack, hug my kids, kiss the wife and run out the door to go to rugby training at my local club where I also coach an under 13s side. This is definitely my favourite pastime and makes my Sundays a pleasure to wake up to.
So there you have it, a not-so-typical day in my life at Central Piling.

Steve Hadley
Managing Director
RELATED NEWS
Piling innovation rises to a technical challenge
July 1, 2022
Central Piling is using two continuous-flight auger (CFA) piling rigs to install deep foundations…
0 Comments5 Minutes
Central Piling MD talks compassion in leadership
April 22, 2021
Seeing yourself as a brand and identifying how you want to be seen by others, are fundamental…
0 Comments3 Minutes
Future ICE President talks green with Central Piling MD
April 22, 2021
Changing the civil engineering industry to benefit both planet and people cannot be achieved…
0 Comments2 Minutes
A preview of the FPS’ 2021
March 24, 2021
The mental health and wellbeing of people in the piling industry will continue to be a focus for…
0 Comments2 Minutes
Central Piling starts 2021 with a quadruplet of contract wins
January 11, 2021
Contract wins worth over £2.6 million take the contractor happily into the New Year. Specialist…
0 Comments2 Minutes
Central Piling wins Investors in People
January 4, 2021
Central Piling has won the prestigious Investors in People accreditation. And far from resting on…
0 Comments1 Minutes
Ruby Waxes lyrical about mental health
November 16, 2020
Since becoming chair of the FPS (Federation of Piling Specialists), Central Piling MD Steve Hadley…
0 Comments2 Minutes
Confronting racial discrimination
June 5, 2020
Following his appointment as chair of the FPS (Federation of Piling Specialists) earlier this year,…
0 Comments5 Minutes
Central Piling provides piling solution to major housing regeneration project
September 2, 2019
The first stages of a major flood defence and residential regeneration project is underway in West…
0 Comments3 Minutes
Central Piling provide solutions for tallest residential building in West London
January 31, 2019
Piling solutions from Central Piling help to save time on excavation works on a new prestigious…
0 Comments4 Minutes