Oct 2013 - May 2014 - Institution of Civil Engineers

ICE West Midlands Chairman’s Report
Oct 2013 - May 2014
No: 2
Dear West Midlands Member
As we get ready for the new autumn session and near the end of my Chairman’s year I would like to share some of the event
highlights from 2013-14.
My high-profile chairman’s programme began with a thought-provoking presentation by Ed Mcann, ICE Council member and
inspirational engineer. It continued with a superb HS2 debate chaired by Evan Davis, voice of Radio 4’s Today Programme and
Dragon’s Den, and culminated in an extremely well attended Annual Awards event with passionate speaker, Pete Waterman.
Our six regional sub-groups, Hereford & Worcester; Shropshire; Coventry & Warwickshire; Staffordshire; Graduates and Students
and Seniors have all worked hard to provide excellent speakers on a broad number of topics across the region, resulting in over 2300
delegates attending 52 events across the region during from October 2013 - May 2014.
We also trialled on-line broadcasting for some of our events via Web-ex in 2013/14 and plan to increase on-line broadcasting in 2015
to widen the audience for our events.
Below you can read about some of the broad range of knowledge sharing events which have taken place in our region. If you didn’t
manage to attend this year please look at the Combined Calendar or ICE West Midlands web site to plan your CPD for 2014-15
session which begins in September.
Peter Mills
ICE West Midlands Chairman 2013-14
Key events
Engineering - the future
(Austin Court, Birmingham - 24 Oct 2013)
This first event of the new Chairman’s calendar proved extremely popular, and members, eager to
hear from this inspirational engineer, filled Austin Court’s 150 seater theatre to capacity.
Ed, outlined the challenges faced by the modern engineer “enabling 9 billion people to occupy the
planet safely.” He said: “ICE exists as a societal response to two basic needs; knowledge, and protection against Charlatans. To remain relevant, ICE needs to be the ‘best’ way of delivering these.” Ed
explained that in his view ICE should embrace social media and evolve to keep up with advances in
technology. He advocated that ICE should look at ‘through career learning’ and move towards ‘work
related competencies’.
The presentation covered five main themes: the need for civil engineering; survival of the ICE; the art
of civil engineering; education, and civil engineering in the UK. (150 delegates)
Water - too much or too little? - 30 October (Coventry & Warwickshire Group)
Jean Venables CBE, ICE Past President and Chief Executive of the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA) gave a presentation
at Warwick University.
Jean’s message was that the experience of drought and flood in the UK in recent years underlines the need for climate change
adaptation, management of rainwater as a valuable resource and for integration of supply with water control and drainage. It was
significant that some 10% of England and Wales is under managed drainage and 50% of electrical generation is in such areas.
Hence their management on a national scale is vital. (150 delegates)
ATM Hard Shoulder Running - 19 Nov (Shropshire Group)
Jeff Curry of Carillion spoke about how ‘Smart Motorways’ are changing the way we use the M6, M5 and M42 in the West
Midlands, which are regularly reported as having some of the UK’s highest traffic flows. The Birmingham Box Managed Motorways
teams’ objective is to maximise the use of the existing motorway asset providing much needed additional capacity; reducing
congestion and improving journey time reliability. The audience learned that these improvements are achieved through a number
a techniques all of which rely on remotely controlled technology. The implementation of “Smart Motorways” requires complex
engineering, online construction and asset refurbishment, all within the highly constrained network and all to be safely delivered
with minimum impact to the travelling public and wider stakeholders. (38 delegates)
Bridges technical meeting: the devil is in the detail - 19 Nov (Graduates & Students)
The presentation by Will Butcher, Principal Engineer and Sustainability Leader at Mott Macdonald in Birmingham was well
received. He gave a brief background on the topic, key statements from ICE and other organisations, common standards
and processes used to measure sustainability and few examples using personal experiences on how sustainability can be
applied to ‘everyday’ projects. (34 delegates)
Tunnel Vision: the challenges of refurbishing Birmingham’s 40-year-old tunnels - 28 November 2013 (Chairman’s
Event)
John Sunderland, Sector Business Director, PFI Highways, Amey gave an overview of the first phase of the refurbishment
of the 40-year old St Chad’s and Queensway tunnels through the centre of Birmingham, from traffic management challenges
to construction techniques.
The audience heard about the people behind last years project; from the challenges faced by designers and engineers to how
traffic planners kept the city moving. (81 delegates)
HS2 -to be or not to be? - 23 Jan 2014 (Chairman’s event)
A joint event with RIBA, RICS, RTPI and the Landscape Institiute, with a record 250 turnout.
The 2014 debate took on a new format, drawing expert panellists from the ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ HS2
lobby. Chaired by Evan Davis, BBC Radio 4 Presenter and offering an intelligent balanced argument
exploring the points for and against the project. Panellists were given 2 minutes to outline their
stance which was followed by questions from the audience. The Chairman took an audience poll at
the beginning of the debate which resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of HS2 with just a
handful against.
Against were; Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive, Campaign to Protect Rural England; Chris Stokes, independent consultant
representing 51M, a group of local authorities opposed to HS2;
and Jerry Marshall founding member of AGAHST (Action Groups
Against High Speed Two).
In favour were; Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council;
Davinder Bansall, Architect with Glenn Howells Architects (GHA);
and Pete Waterman OBE, Waterman Railway Heritage Trust,
Attendance at this event had been waning in recent years and
audience feedback confirmed that ICE members enjoyed the
new format. (250 delegates + 30 on-line)
We are now planning for the 2015 Great Debate which will
feature politicians from the three major parties presenting their
policies on the built environment.
Make and Break Competition - joint with IStructE - 18 Feb 2014 (Graduates & Students)
This popular annual event took place at the University of Birmingham and was well attended by both ICE and
IStructE members.
Teams were made up of civil and structural engineers and students with a brief to construct a cantilevered structure
from tape and straws. The winning structure was the one which could sustain the largest moment.
Interestingly the structural engineers’ structure suffered immediate failure!
A great opportunity for students and graduates from both professional bodies to meet and compete together in a friendly
relaxed environment. (63 delegates)
The History of the Severn Bridge - 13 March (Hereford & Worcester Group)
The History of the Severn Bridge - 13 March (Hereford & Worcester Group)
Presenter, Jerry Cutter, worked at the bridge for 17 years and retains an involvement with ongoing maintenance activities and
operations.
Jerry’s talk started with the history of the ferry crossings and the various wonderful Victorian bridge schemes over the Severn
estuary. The main focus of the talk was the (first) Severn Bridge - the world’s first steel, box girder, suspension bridge, opened
in 1966. The bridge is the major structure of the original 3km long Severn crossing which now carries the M48 motorway across
the Severn estuary.
During its lifetime the bridge presented engineers with a number of complex problems which required the development of
innovative solutions and needed meticulous planning to minimise costs and traffic disruption.
The talk outlined the background to the bridge’s development; aspects of its design; construction; strengthening; refurbishment,
and maintenance. It concluded with the construction of the Second Severn Bridge and the present day operation within the
context of the Severn Crossings Concession Agreement. (delegates not reported)
Asset Management - 15 April (ICE Shropshire Group)
The speakers, Lila Tachtsi and Alan Taggart of Atkins, who are the authors of the HMEP Pothole Review, Asset Management
Guidance and Lifecycle Planning Toolkit and are contributing authors to the CIPFA Code of Practice, gave an extremely insightful
talk on Asset Management. In 2013 the Department for Transport published the new Highway Infrastructure Asset Management
Guidance and for the last 10 years the Government has been encouraging the sector to embrace asset management. Recently
the Department for Transport has highlighted that the take-up is not what had been expected. The presentation explored why asset management is so important for the highway maintenance sector. (28 delegates)
Commercial Awareness - 23 April (Graduates & Students Event)
This is a popular annual event at which speaker, Patrick Waterhouse, held the audience for a full hour.
His presentation covered the route to chartership with a focus on a few of the commercial aspects. It was very much an entry
level talk for new graduates or those just starting out on the route to chartership. It was also useful for those wishing to obtain an
awareness of the commercial competencies. (40 delegates)
ICE West Midlands Annual Awards Dinner - 21 May (Chairman’s Event)
This year’s Annual Awards Dinner took place on 21 May 2014 at the ICC which has been
the home of the Awards for the last 4 years and always provides top class food and
professional service.
This year keynote speaker, Pete Waterman OBE, DL, railway entrepreneur, music
mogul and HS2 Supporter was the keynote speaker and his inspirational words and
the heartfelt admiration for engineers went down extremely well with the audience.
The event attracted sponsorship from Hays and Topcon and drew the biggest
audience in recent years.
Professor Carl Chinn, MBE, hosted the event and announced the Award Winners in his inimitable way. Birmingham Box Phase 3
Smart Motorways Project (BB3) was the overall winner for 2014.
Seven category awards were given and three projects received highly-commended awards.
The event was summed up by this audience member from Balfour Beatty:
“Many thanks for organising another successful and thoroughly enjoyable evening last night.
Over the years, attending many similar events this was the best for format and venue, fantastic. A
regional event attended by people passionate about engineering.” (365 delegates)
Graduates and Students - meet the President event 29 May
The evening with the ICE was an occasion for the G&S committee to showcase all their activities for the 2013/14 so far. The event
was hosted by the Social Secretary of the committee, Jessica Marsh and the President’s party included the President, Geoff French,
his wife, one of the ICE President’s apprentices and the West Midlands Director/Head of English Regions Steve Feeley.
The G&S Chair, Gbenga Oludotun, spoke about the CPD events, competitions and how the committee has been working on
improving engagement with the graduates and students in the region. Geoff French gave a compact version of his presidential
address on Integrity, Communication and Engagement after which he responded to a few questions from graduates in the region.
Other activities included quizzes framed around integrity and a construction challenge. (27 delegates)
President’s visit 29 and 30 May
Integrity, Communication and Engagement - President’s visit to the West Midlands 30 May (Chairman’s Event)
Geoff French, ICE President 2013-14 visited the region on 30 May 2014 as part of his annual
tour of UK regions. His tour took in a visit to the £11.7m i54 site in Staffordshire which is
home to the new Jaguar Land Rover plant. He then travelled to Worcestershire for a Flooding
Forum and site visit to the Vale of Evesham Growers anaerobic digester (energy from plant
waste) installation.
At i54 Geoff met Staffordshire County Council and Balfour Beatty engineers who demonstrated the extent of the impressive infrastructure
project which will provide access to the new £500 million Jaguar Land Rover engine plant. This project opens up this major industrial site
helping to create and retain engineering jobs and skills in the West Midlands region. Also in attendance were invited representatives
from the Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Balfour Beatty graduates.
On the Worcestershire leg of his tour, which was organised in partnership with Worcestershire LEP, Geoff heard a presentation by
David Throup, Environment Agency Manager for Herefordshire & Worcestershire and discussed the effects of flooding with LEP
representatives and City and County Council Directors. (30 delegates)
You will have a chance to meet Geoff on 16 October where he’ll give the keynote speech at the new Chairman’s inaugural event
at Austin Court, Birmingham on 16 October (check ICE West Midlands website to book on-line).
The above reports are just a snapshot of the fifty-two
events which have taken place since the beginning
of my Chairmanship. They are an example of the
excellent CPD opportunities which are available to
our members. We hope to see you at an ICE West
Midlands event soon.
To find out about future ICE West Midlands events
visit the Combined Calendar web site:
http://www.cc-events-westmids.org.uk/
Institution of Civil Engineers
West Midlands Regional Office
Innovation Birmingham Campus
Faraday Wharf
Holt Street
Birmingham
@ICEWestMids
B7 4BB
t: 0121 2505737