Dave Wallington to The Moon And Back

Whilst watching the splashdown of Artemis II our project survey manager Big Dave wondered how many miles he had done for Kemp in his close to 25 years’ service with Kemp. Like all good surveyors Dave keeps impeccable records, and it hasn’t proven to be overly difficult to work out.

Artemis II – travelled 252,756 miles to the dark side of the moon and was the furthest manned flight from earth. And hence to return it must have travelled 505,512 miles. Dave has calculated that he has travelled 524, 851 miles since he joined the firm and so he has certainly “been to the moon and back”. This is how he did it………

Dave joined the company in 2003 and took the keys of a brand-new Ford Ranger double cab pickup. He is now on his sixth pick up so we shall call this Ranger 1. An early mission took Dave to Swansea in support of a new industrial estate and retail park that was being constructed by PJ Carey Contractors with whom we did a number of projects for at this time. By the end of 2005 Dave had 57,345 miles done when he handed the keys to a colleague.

Dave’s next truck was Ranger 2, identical to 1 but with some prettier wheels. This coincided with Dave leading our team on the A30 Bodmin to Indian Queens (Gossmoor) road project. This truck spent many hours driving through “the spread” with a GPS antenna on the roof carrying out earthwork’s measures and checks. Ranger 2 only added another 15,759 miles however before again it was passed to a colleague, so we are now up to 73,104 miles

As the A30 pushed on Dave moved onto his third vehicle “Silver Navara”. The Nissan was the luxury pick up of the day and whilst it saw action at the A30 Gossmoor it also spent a good few years at Newquay Airport where Dave led our survey team during the transition from RAF St Mawgan to CAA compliant Cornwall Airport Newquay. It also spent an elongated period at St Ives where Dave was involved in the development of luxury multi-storey apartments overlooking the golden sands of St Ives. Silver Navara added 148,563 miles to the total, so we are now at 221,667 miles.

With the Navara being the truck of choice Dave stuck with the brand but not the colour as he moved onto vehicle number 4 – “Black Navara”. Sticking with airports Dave spent periods at Exeter Airport supporting the fire training development works. Black Navara also took the big man to the A391 extension to the north of St Austell where again Dave led our team for this infra-structure project that included two feature structures that go over the new road. It wasn’t just large civils projects though, the Black Navara was seen at solar farms and multi-storeys. Dave was spent periods at Millbay docks in Plymouth where regeneration involved the construction of several high-rise apartment blocks. By May of 2016 Black Navara had added 93,419 miles to our tally taking us to 315,086.

Time for a change and with VW now in the pickup market Dave went for the VW Amarok and back to silver as black is not great to keep clean, especially in our industry.

Vehicle 5 is possibly Dave’s favourite and covered 139,248 in his service taking us to 454,334 miles. Where didn’t this truck go? Some of the projects covered by Dave with number 5 included the A38 Carkeel junction, quarry surveys in Bournemouth, the Ikea enabling earthworks at Exeter with snowy commutes over Dartmoor, along with the setting out of Exeter City Football clubs’ development. Amarok was busy on night shifts at Newquay Airport in preparation for the G7 summit and the bonnet doubled as a desk when the pressure was on. By the autumn of 2023 the Amarok had been busy installing primary control and carrying out as built surveys on the A30 Chiverton to Carland and it was time to change again……

Dave stuck with silver but moved to his current vehicle the Isuzu V-Cross, this top of the range truck served Dave for the remainder of the A30 project and now takes him to his latest project at Newton Abbot where he is supporting the £250m development of Channings Wood prison. Security is tight here of course, but Dave is used to that. We haven’t told you about all the secret military bases he has taken his trucks into over the years because they are secret of course!

Daves trucks have been on the odd family holiday over the years, the Isuzu has seen the monkeys at Longleat, and the Amarok went to the Eifel tower so it is safe to say that Dave has always had an affection for his trucks over the years. Being a surveyor, every truck has had Daves bespoke storage solutions ensuring that every pole, tripod and instrument has its place. Changing trucks has traditionally been a two-week process whilst the shelving is moved and adapted from one vehicle to another.

The Isuzu had hit 70,517 miles by the time Artemis II splashed down taking Dave’s total to 524,851 miles, more than to the moon and back, its just taken 6 pickups and 23 years!!