Meet the Team: Neville leans into Hychem’s ground engineering future

We sit down with Neville Chapman, Hychem Infrastructure’s Technical Product Specialist – Tunnels, Mining and Geotechnical, to talk about some of the projects he’s been involved in across the past 25 years, and what it takes to be taken seriously by the country’s top geotechnical engineers.

Neville Chapman has spent his career working on infrastructure most people only ever see from the outside, like Snowy Hydro, Sydney Metro, Brisbane Metro, and major mine sites across Australia and New Zealand. Twelve months into his role at Hychem Infrastructure, he is now applying that experience to building out one of the most comprehensive ground engineering offerings in the local market.

As Technical Product Specialist – Tunnels, Mining and Geotechnical, Neville heads up Hychem’s ground engineering capability to grow a portfolio that gives geotechnical engineers a genuine alternative to the overseas providers.

Building an ecosystem

Neville’s focus since joining Hychem has been on developing the ground engineering range into something he describes as an ecosystem – a complete set of products covering microfine and ultrafine cements, colloidal silica, polyurethane and acrylic resins, and high-strength structural grouts.

“If you’re going to play in the ground engineering game, you have to think about your product range like an ecosystem, as opposed to a product list,” Neville says.

Tunnelling, mining and major civil contractors don’t want to source ground support and permeability control from three or four different suppliers, Neville explains, they want a single partner who understands how the products work together and who can stand behind the system for its design life.

Training the people who do the work

While the right product range is key, the other half of the equation is making sure the contractors installing Hychem’s systems are using the latest methods.

Neville trains accredited installers before they’re permitted to work with the company’s ground engineering systems, but it’s the ongoing support that sets Hychem apart from other suppliers.

Installers value the real-time technical advice they get from Neville and his team, he explains, from engineering support to the latest installation methods. 

“We don’t just hand over a data sheet and send them off,” Neville says.

“We offer engineering support during planning, mobilisation and execution. I make sure our contractors are well-trained and properly supported by the Hychem team.”

Asked what he’s most proud of after 12 months in the role, Neville is quick to suggest it’s the team that really sets Hychem apart.

“We’re still a relatively small team, and that’s actually a strength,” he says. 

“The big multinationals can’t move the way we move. When a client calls, they get an engineer on the phone who knows the project, the product and the site. That’s the difference, and that’s what we’re going to keep building on.”

Find out more about Hychem’s ground engineering capabilities here, and follow us on LinkedIn for more updates like this one.