Matt Dalton - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about Jay Bridges:

“Jay has a maturity above his years, and is universally liked by the project team. His work has exceeded all expectations that could be put on someone of his age, current qualifications and experience in terms of:

- Reliability/ confidence under pressure

- Willingness to take on additional work, and ownership of his tasks

- Desire to learn

- Flexibility

- Communication skills

Delivery of track designs for a major London Underground blockade for the NLE (Northern Line Extension Project) that took place over Christmas 2017 required Jay to work significant overtime at short notice, including weekends. Notwithstanding this, Jay relished the opportunity to help deliver this time constrained package, often at unsociable hours, willingly.

Jay has always been open to discuss comments and implement design changes, consistently asking questions to expand his knowledge and ability to develop the design. He led inter-organisational design review meetings, including contractors and sub-contractors with the aim of getting a fully compliant, co-ordinated and constructible design for the Christmas blockade.

He has always been willing to do whatever is required to move the project forward, during some very stressful times, without complaint. He has, in my opinion, stepped up and taken responsibility for a design way beyond the requirements of his current position, under great pressure.

It is not exaggerating to say that NLE would not have delivered this time and safety critical work package without Jay. He has great potential for a very successful career ahead of him. We are very lucky to have had him working on the NLE design team. As above, given his age and experience his performance has been exceptional and we continue to rely on his input.

Jay has recently completed a HNC finishing his second year with distinctions in every unit, he has been given a direct offer to continue with his studies from the university he is currently studying with.

Jay strives to encourage many young people into engineering, he is passionate about educating young people about apprenticeships and the benefits that they can have. He has attended over 15 events across his 4 years in industry, including a STEM event at a museum in Manchester to discuss railway engineering to primary school children. During this event, a competition was run to see if the children could design a train and bridge in separate groups, with the train being able to cross underneath the bridge. This taught the children that you need to communicate to ensure that your design fits with what your colleagues are working to. He was also involved in the Network Rail Fast Trackers scheme where he spent a day in London with young adults from Northern England learning about high speed travel, he was able to help explain the task in terms of design and guide the groups into understanding the requirements.“