Portal frame footing

Hi there,
I've been dragging my feet over the erection of a portal frame which an engineer specified for our removal house house/extension. It supports one side of a full-size carport (7m long), the other side being fixed to the house which is 3m away from the portal frame. Due to access problems the bobcat couldn't get the auger in to the exact spot for the footing....house eaves, Acro props etc. He drilled it 1300mm deep, but 300mm or so from the right place... with my OK:-. Today I dropped a plumb bob and extended the hole, so now there is more or less a figure eight double hole. Crow bar and post-hole shovel in clay, down 1300mm!
My question then is, should I somehow shutter the hole, putting form-work down through the waist of the extended hole to reduce the size, and therefore concrete, or should I just accept its a blurry big hole and use a third more concrete than should have been!? I reckon I should halve the hole with form-work, and back fill with spoil, tamping down as I go...but maybe not kosher.
Another question, on the ends of the uprights that sit in the holes, what is the accepted fixing to the RHS to bind it in the concrete? Does reo bar normally get welded to the RHS, and then wrapped about, or would a simple piece of scrap RHS welded at right angles at the bottom suffice? BTW, the engineer has specified 150x50x5mm RHS for the frame, OTT in my eyes, and cost about $900 in steel!

Thanks for reading, I look forward to some pointers.


Andy

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