Damian KilburnCEng MICE

ICE Y&H Chair2013-14

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ICE LocalIn this issue

A Reviewer writes

Ever wondered about the secret life of an ICE Reviewer? Find out what happens in the run up to the Reviews

RICE update

Andrew McLusky looks back on the recent activities of the retired members’ group

Regional Achievers

Yorkshire and Humber celebrates high numbers of QUEST Undergraduate scholars

Beers & Careers

Ben Midgley on the highly successful recent event in Leeds

Rivelin Water Treatment Works

John Greenwood reports on Mott MacDonald Bentley’s presentation of the Centenary Award winning scheme

Obituary

John Carter CEng FICE(1923-2013)

ice | yorkshireandhumber

The members’ newsletterof ICE Yorkshire and HumberNovember 2013

Bradford Living Street Connect 2 Project – Element 2 Bridge at Manchester Road Centenary Award Certifi cate of Excellence winner, 2013

ice.org.uk/yorkshireandhumber

Welcome to the November issue of ICE Local, the fi rst newsletter since I took over as Chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Region. In August we launched the ‘This is Civil Engineering’ campaign at Blackburn Meadows Waste Water Treatment Works, near Meadowhall in Sheffi eld. Please let us know if you are working on a project where we could promote our industry to the public with a ‘This is’ banner. Entries are now closed for the Centenary and Smeaton awards and I am looking forward to joining my fellow judges to hear about the civil engineering taking place in the region. The winners will be announced at our Gala Dinner Dance on 7 March in Harrogate. We will also be launching three new Ambassador awards, introduced by the Regional Education Team, which will also be presented at the Dinner. The closing date for nominations is 17 January. The Humber Branch was formally replaced this summer by the Humber Civils Network (HCN). I was delighted to join Manager, Mike Cargill, to launch the HCN at Drax power station ahead of a fascinating tour of the facilities. The

Network will aim to organise four meetings a year on both technical and managerial aspects of civil engineering. Following publication of the State of the Nation: Transport regional briefi ng note, the Regional Advisory Board (RAB) are now busy preparing input to 2014’s State of the Nation: Infrastructure report. A consultation workshop took place on 20 November and further meetings with Fellows and regional infl uencers are planned in advance of fi nalising our response in January. We would welcome comments and feedback from all members in the region, please let us have your views on the state of Yorkshire’s infrastructure. Finally, after a second AGM, we have now confi rmed the roles of the Committee for 2013-14. We have two vacancies and would be delighted to hear from anyone who wishes to join us, or alternatively to join either our Knowledge or Public Voice sub-groups.

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Your ICE Committee

2 ICE Local - November 2013

A Reviewer writes

It’s that time of year again where there is a frantic panic from the future professionally qualifi ed engineers as they realise Christmas is around the corner and they need to get their documents sorted for their spring Review.

For the Reviewer this is a nice calm period as I know the Review season will soon be upon me again. I’m sure candidates and others must wonder who the Reviewers are, and if we belong to a secret club with a special handshake – I assure you that Reviewers come in all shapes and sizes, ages, male and female and from lots of different backgrounds, but we all hold the designation of full membership of the ICE and are your peer reviewers.

What do we do to prepare? Our fi rst glance of the candidates comes in about a month before the Reviews. It gives us an opportunity to check that we don’t know you personally, and if we do, for the Reviews offi ce to have a reshuffl e and reassign you to another Reviewer. The fi rst information we get about a candidate is your application pack, and yes we do read it.

We are looking for clues to try and get an idea of what is coming our way. We read your sponsors’ questionnaires and make sure that they are all saying a similar thing, we get your synopses and are already deciding if it is going to be a good read or not. We also get your completion certifi cate or Career Appraisal pass letter, so we can see what you have been advised to brush up on ready for the Review.

About two weeks before the Review the packages start to arrive from the candidates – don’t forget the packages must be with your Reviewers at least 10 working days in advance of the Review. I initially check that they don’t weigh too much – the stamp tells you this now – and check they are complete packages.

I am usually the co-Reviewer, so have the challenge of writing the written exercise questions. I do this on the basis of what the candidates have said in their submission, bearing in mind the suggested topics in the Membership Guidance Notes (MGN). There will not be anything you don’t know unless you have not told the truth in your submission.

Just remember – your submissions took you a long time to prepare, and take a long time to be read and digested by your Reviewers, so getting them in as early as you can is important.

Elizabeth Thompson

RICE update

The Retired members’ section (RICE) met three times in the autumn session. The meeting in September heard a presentation by Geoffrey Hunter about the research, design and building of the ‘high’ section of the M62 motorway, where Geoffrey was the Chief Resident Engineer. The talk generated many memories with the audience of how civil engineering was practised in the 1960s and an energetic discussion followed the talk. ‘Hammersmith Flyover Repairs immediately prior to the 2012 Olympics’ were detailed in a talk by Alex Gilbert and Darren Bearwish. Alex and Darren were the Resident Engineers with particular responsibility as Project Manager and the Solutions Manager respectively. They outlined the extent of the defects identifi ed in the fl yover just before Christmas 2011. The innovative design, which was quickly developed and implemented in less than a third of the usual time for such work, allowed the viaduct to reopen before the start of the London Olympics. Lively audience participation followed and they have been asked to repeat the lecture for the ICE London region and at Imperial College London.

The Director General of ICE, Nick Baveystock, made a visit to the Yorkshire and Humber region on the same day as RICE were meeting and joined the group for an interesting overview of ICE after his fi rst year in the post. One highlight was the increasing

respect ICE has, within the political and business communities, for advice on many aspects in the civil engineering fi eld which have a major impact on our society.

A former Chair of ICE Yorkshire and Humber, David Balmforth was welcomed back to the region as Vice President of ICE. David refl ected on his time in Yorkshire and how it has helped him in his perspective of the Institution from its London base. He also shared with us the wide variety of work which Vice Presidents get involved with at the Institution, and of his role as ICE Spokesperson on Flooding, which produced much debate with RICE members.

In the New Year RICE meetings will be about ‘Expert Witness Experiences’ and ‘Flood Risk in Hull’, and two visits are planned – to the Biomass Plant works at Meadowhall and to the Ripon Flood Alleviation works.

Any recently retired or partly retired ICE members are welcome to join the group, which usually meets in the morning followed by lunch. Please contact Honorary Secretary Andrew McLusky for details: e ammclusky@talktalk.net

Beers & Careers

21 October 2013, The Pack Horse, Leeds

The Graduates and Students’ (G&S) Committee are pleased to report that October’s Beers & Careers event held in Leeds was a huge success! Over 60 attendees, made up of a mix of students and graduates, battled it out to win the (civil engineering-related) pub quiz. ‘Good in Tension’ were the eventual winners of the quiz, showcasing a wide range of knowledge of structural, fl uid and geotechnical engineering, as well as an uncanny familiarity with popular alcoholic drink brand logos.

As a G&S Committee member, I was pleasantly surprised not only at the overall turnout, but at the mix of graduates and students of all year groups who took part in the quiz and helped make the event a success. Unfortunately, and to my shock, my team did not fi nish in the top three (something I put down to our lack of beer logo knowledge and certainly not to forgotten structural mechanics lectures from years gone by…).

Despite only being in its second year, attendance at the event far exceeded expectations, as did its sister event, which was held at The Red Deer pub in Sheffield in November.

The committee would like to thank all those who came along and helped make the event such a success, with special thanks to The Pack Horse pub in Headingley for hosting.

ICE Local - November 2013 3

Left: Ambassadors run the ICE stand. Right: Students take part in STEM activities at Tapton School, Sheffi eld

We are always looking for new ideas to help develop our offering to schools and for new Ambassadors to join our team. If you would be interested in helping at any of our other events please contact us at:e iceyandh@ice.org.uk ice.org.uk/yorkshireandhumber/education

Regional AchieversQUEST Undergraduate Scholarship

Scholarships of up to £2,500 per year are offered to students about to start an ICE accredited civil engineering degree in the UK.

The majority of scholarships are sponsored by civil engineering and construction companies. In the case of a company sponsored scholarship, the company contributes to the annual scholarship payment, and provides a summer work placement, which may lead to graduate employment. QUEST only/CF Lunoe Trust scholarships are fully funded by QUEST or the Trust with no company link, and scholars must arrange their own placement each summer.

The QUEST Committee recently awarded 74 undergraduate scholarships to students starting degrees this autumn, taking the number of UK QUEST scholars to just over 250 students, 42 of

whom are studying in Yorkshire and Humber. This means that in this region we have about 17% overall, which is well above the average, and a

remarkable 20 (27%) of those newly-awarded this year.

One of the key obligations for QUEST scholars is to contact their ICE Regional

Support Team and participate in a minimum of three regional activities

during their studies to promote civil engineering and the scholarship. We

continue to welcome new QUEST scholars to our Ambassador scheme, and would like to thank

all those who have been in touch so far to sign up.

Regional Education Team

We have attended a lot of careers events recently, from individual schools to larger regional events. During the event we try and talk to as many students, teachers and parents as we can about careers in civil engineering, and use our Tower Building activity as a dynamic tool to help them understand about engineering principles. In the months of October and November alone we have had over 1,500 students come past our stands. Many thanks to all that have volunteered.

For the second year running we have provided an after school STEM club activity with Tapton School in Sheffi eld, using the Shelter and Water Challenges on three consecutive Mondays. We received positive feedback from the school despite the muddy clothes and boots!

Upcoming activities:

Skyscraper Challenge – Crofton Academy, Wakefi eld. Tuesday 17 December 2013 (timings TBC)

Careers Fair – Dixons Allerton Academy, Bradford. Thursday 13 February 2014 (14.00-19.30)

Bridge to Schools - Brinsworth Comprehensive School, Rotherham. Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 March (all day)

4 ICE Local - November 2013

John Carter CEng FICE

1923-2013

John Carter was Chairman of the then Yorkshire Association of ICE in 1978-79, following service as the Honorary Secretary from 1968-74. He became a Fellow in 1972 and was the Yorkshire representative of the Panel for Historic Engineering Works (PHEW) for many years.

John lived in Sheffi eld for all but two years of his life, attending King Edward VII Grammar School and the University of Sheffi eld. He had only one career in mind and that was to be a civil engineer.

University in wartime meant four terms a year and a degree in just over two years. John’s fi rst job, in 1943, was at Farnborough, working on the structural problems of airframes. but as the war ended, he saw a job advertised with Sheffi eld Council and thought “that’s the job for me”. He found bridges to be his passion and enjoyed working in, and then heading, that department before moving to South Yorkshire as reorganisation took place. Of his later projects, he was particularly proud of the Rother Valley development of an opencast site to become a nature reserve and watersports centre, particularly as he was able to incorporate a cable-stayed bridge into the development.

On his retirement, the very high regard in which he was held, not only as a professional civil engineer, but also as a manager of people, was obvious. He had enthusiasm and a gift for organisation and, throughout his life, simply found things interesting – sermons, talks and lectures, documentaries and the news he devoured daily. He brought his organisational skills, his leadership, his ability to get people working together and his wise delegation, to 60 years of service to St Andrew’s church.

Following his retirement, he continued with many of his interests, not least by being a founder member of ICE’s Retired Members’ section and continuing to attend and contribute at meetings. Alongside the church, the Caledonian Society had a special place in his social life, Probus became a regular Tuesday morning meeting (he managed to become Secretary and Events Organiser). He went to Ranmoor lunchtime lectures, U3A for talks and visits, took up bridge with his wife and, at 85, started crown-green bowling at Fulwood – having never previously found interest in anything sporty.

John’s wife, Sheila, died almost fi ve years ago but he is survived by his sons Neil, who became a teacher of maths and physics, and Andrew, a civil engineer working in Lancashire.

Over 100 people attended John’s funeral on 30 September, and civil engineers were well-represented. John would not have wanted people to be sad at his passing. He would be surprised, but pleased, that so many would want to celebrate his life. He had confi dence in his faith. For him, death was just one more step along the road.

Rivelin Water Treatment Works

The evening meeting at Wakefi eld Town Hall on 2 October was well attended, with around 60 people in the audience. The presentation covered the 2013 Centenary Award winning Rivelin Manganese Contactors scheme, and was presented by Angus Ridge, Chris Glover and Dan Sutcliffe of Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB). The presentation focussed on sustainability, safety, design and workmanship, innovation and engineering diffi culty.

The talk covered the project from investigation and outline design through to detailed design and construction, and highlighted some of the challenges which had been overcome. In particular the presentation showed how the use of precast concrete in a two-storey water retaining structure had made for a very effi cient and cost effective design, by reducing the footprint of the structure by one third.

A section of the presentation was dedicated to explaining the steps taken to develop an inclusive safety culture at Rivelin, building on JN Bentley’s safety strategy, and the excellent safety record which resulted from this. The project used Building

Information Modelling (BIM) to manage the design and coordination, and this was covered in some detail in the talk, including a video “fl ythrough” of the model.

The use of BIM was central to creating such a successful outcome for MMB, Yorkshire Water and local interest groups. The speakers also explained how BIM has been taken further on more recent MMB schemes for Yorkshire Water, incorporating 4D and 5D principles. Other innovations, such as the reuse of existing pipework and the 3D laser scanning of an existing pipework basement were also covered.

The audience asked several questions at the end of the talk, which formed a lively debate about the benefi ts of BIM. The consensus in the room was certainly that BIM was integral to the future of civil engineering. The success of the event was demonstrated by the number of people from the audience who took the time to personally speak to the presenters after the close of the event.