Reports from Cheshire Branch's meetings in 2010-2011.

Review of the Year

It has been a great year for ICE Cheshire Branch, we hope you have enjoyed the events we have run. We are always looking for new ideas which benefit our members, so please send our chairman an email with any suggestions using the contact details below. Some of the highlights of the last year are as follows:

• 160 people packing out the Structural Safety Talk. How they all managed to fit in is anybody’s guess.

• Working with Penketh High School. This was the venue of the second Engineering Careers Event and was also the school which Cheshire Branch supported through the Create Sport Challenge. Tom Coon led these initiatives and as a result was the deserving recipient of the North West Educational Volunteer of the Year Award.

• High Speed 2. This was a fascinating presentation about one of the most controversial projects of the moment. The speaker was fantastic in that he engaged with the audience and was willing to debate the issues involved. It was also another well attended event.

• Working with other Institutions. Through holding joint meetings, our members have had the opportunity to meet people from the IStructE, CIHT, APS and others. It was very interesting to get a different view point, and debate how best to tackle the challenges we all face.

• Having over 500 people attend ICE Cheshire events (up 50% over last year’s attendance). Hopefully this is as a result of the high quality events the committee are delivering, and the excellent topics being presented. Greater engagement with the membership is what ICE Cheshire branch are aiming to deliver.
   

For a more comprehensive review of the year, please read our annual report. Thanks for everybody’s support this year, and I wish the incoming chairman Mark Rees all the best for the next year.

David Rowlinson  

Site visit – to M53 Bidston Moss Viaduct (23 June 2011) 

On 23rd June, a full complement of 30 ICE Cheshire Branch members donned their PPE and took part in a fascinating site visit to M53 Bidston Moss Viaduct.

After a short presentation, the group split up to visit key areas of the site, including where the forthcoming railway blockade works were planned, the base station of the confined spaces rescue team, areas where slip roads were being resurfaced, entry points to box girders which have been repainted, and areas where significant strengthening works have been carried out to diaphragms and piers.

The party were left in no doubt that the Bidston Moss project was an excellent example of an integrated delivery team, proactive risk management and reassuring attention to detail. From the enthusiasm members showed during the short Q&A session which followed the visit, there is no doubt that the follow up presentation in September will be eagerly awaited, and extremely interesting.

Meeting Report – Alderley Edge Bypass and AGM (9 June 2011)

40 members of ICE Cheshire and the NW CIHT attended a fascinating talk about the construction of the Alderley Edge Bypass. Speakers from Birse Civils and Cheshire East Council explained the historic development of the project, and how the scheme has subsequently been delivered on the ground.

With the project finishing six months early, and to budget, while also being widely praised by the local community, it is no surprise that this project has
been the recipient of many awards and commendations. The presenters stressed how early contractor involvement (ECI), and the desire to run the project as a combined “Team Alderley Edge” rather than as conflicting client and contractor, played a significant role in the bypass’s successful delivery.

As the CGI fly through and subsequent photographs showed, the project had to overcome many obstacles. These included difficult alignment constraints, areas of peat bog, residents keen to minimise the visual impact of the works, sewer diversions, the installation of a 1km slurry wall to enable the road to pass under the railway very close to the water table, programming of a 102hr railway possession and bridge installation, and construction of new roundabouts while maintaining a traffic flow of 26,000 cars every day. Despite these challenges the contractor still had time to engage with the community – installing a new disabled access at a local church, teaching children about the dangers of site, and inspiring scouts to become engineers. A squirrel carving and rhino scratching pole were even donated from the few trees which were felled!

Overall this presentation demonstrated the success of an exemplary scheme and provided examples that many of the attendees will be able to implement in future projects. 
 

Meeting Report – Chester Walking Tour (19 May 2011) 
 

18 members of ICE Cheshire spent a fascinating evening being shown around the historic city of Chester by our knowledgeable speakers. Mark Wyatt, Kieran Collins, John Violet and Colin Stredder took great pride in unveiling some of the city’s engineering secrets and explaining how the work of engineers is closely linked with the city’s special charms. Highlights include:

• Maintenance of the famous Chester Walls.
• The building of the canals once vital for trade.
• The building of the railway, and the problems crossing the Dee.
• Why canal footbridges sometimes have spiral approaches.
• How Chester produced shot for battleship cannons.
• The future of Cathedral Square.
• The risks of changing pavement alignments in a Roman city.

Meeting Report – The Design of the Burj Khalifa Foundations (14 March 2011)  

80 members of the ICE and IStructE packed into the lecture theatre at the Chester College of Law to hear Grahame Bunce and Catherine Murrells’ presentation on designing the foundations for the tallest building in the world.  

This paper covered a range of topics which were of interest to all. These included describing the clients aspirations for the project (even if that meant the tower growing ever taller), undertaking GI including 150m deep boreholes and load tests up to 30MN, dealing with ground conditions which could get worse the deeper down the foundations went, and undertaking the foundation construction which included 900 piles, some 45m deep and each only taking a maximum of 15 hrs to build.

Aside from the staggering statistics there was also a great range of practical advice, the key point being that supervision is essential during investigation works and during construction of all projects. This was brought home by the comparison of two sets of GI results, both undertaken by good contractors, one with supervision, one without. 

During construction of the Burj’s foundations there were 2 supervisors and 7 inspectors. This was part of the reason that of the 900 piles constructed, not one failed the stringent quality checking procedures.

The project as a whole serves as testament to what engineers can achieve when we work together. However in the speakers' opinion, the Burj Khalifa’s records may not last for very long.

Meeting Report – The robustness of structures (3 March 2011)

John Carpenter gave a fascinating presentation about the issues of providing sufficient robustness for modern construction projects. 160 members of the ICE, IStructE and APS attended this lecture which focused on the recommendation of the IStructE’s new practical guide to “Structural Robustness and Disproportionate Collapse in Buildings.”

The talk covered the various facets of robustness which include Redundancy, Loadpaths, Sensitivity, Uncertainty, Failure Modes and Ductility, and also Progressive and Disproportionate Collapse. John also emphasised the need for consideration of Robustness at all stages in the project lifestyle including procurement, design, specification, materials sourcing, construction supervision, maintenance and demolition.

The key message was that all professionals must take responsibility for ensuring that not only does the structure have sufficient strength to meet codes of practise, but that it also has sufficient robustness to enable the structure to survive unanticipated events.

Meeting Report – Tidal Power: UK and Mersey (10 February 2011)

Prof. Richard Burrows of Liverpool University and Anthony Hatton of Peel Energy gave fascinating presentations to 120 members of ICE Cheshire and CIWEM. Prof. Burrows explained the theory behind modelling the output and effects of Tidal Barrages across estuaries in the North West. This included the pros and cons of ebb flow generation, flood flow generation and dual mode generation, the phasing characteristics of each estuary when considering output to the UK grid, and the negative feedback that was identified when carrying out 2D finite element analysis.

Anthony Hatton then discussed the issues with progressing such a scheme in the Mersey. This included all aspects of the project including technology choices, dealing with shipping lanes, the environmental impact of a barrage, making the scheme economically viable, and generating public support for the project.

A lively question and answer session then developed, which specifically focused on the cost effectiveness of sustainable energy. Between the two presentations members were left in no doubt that the North West is leading the way in making Tidal Power a realistic and achievable solution to the UK’s future energy requirements. 

Meeting Report – Manchester Waste PFI (13 January 2011)

Peter Scholfield and John Boyd delivered an excellent presentation on the Manchester Waste PFI project to 60 engineers. Those in attendance learnt a great deal about this world class £631 million construction project. Not only was it discovered that the smelliest place to be was the In-Vessel-Composting facility, but through varied presentations, videos and questions, it was explained how the challenge of constructing 43 different facilities on brownfield sites, while maintaining existing site waste operations was being met. Details of the complicated contract mechanism were explained, as was the risk analysis for bidding for a huge lump sum construction and £3.8 billion PFI contracts. It was even explained why we now have four different bins, and what happens to each of them once they are collected from our doorstep. In all this presentation gave an excellent overview about why the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority has commissioned this project, why it sets the standard for sustainable waste management and why the biggest PFI project in Europe is being considered a great success.

Meeting Report – Engineering Careers Event (9 December 2010)

In its second year, the ICE Cheshire / G&S Engineering Careers Event attracted over 50 children and parents to Penketh High School in order to find out what Civil Engineering is all about. Presentations from Tom Coon (the event organiser), David Rowlinson, Katie Goode and Nick Jones provided an in-depth explanation of the roles of Consultant, Contractor and Client from the perspective of both large and small businesses. Some inspiring videos from the ICE YouTube site (Search Civil Engineering TV) helped to consolidate the message, as did the takeaway pizza afterwards! There were lots of interesting questions at the end, so hopefully some of the children will be inspired to follow in the footsteps of Brunel and Telford. Those that don’t fancy an engineering career will at least now understand what we do and why we do it.

Meeting report - High Speed 2 (18 November 2010)

Prof. Andrew McNaughton, Chief Engineer of High Speed 2, gave a fascinating talkabout this major infrastructure project. Over 100 ICE members from Cheshire, North Wales and the NW Management Group packed in to the Queen Hotel to Chester to witness the Professor speak. The presentation was wide ranging, covering the business case for the project, development of rail capacity strategies, reasoning behind station locations, track formation and the evolution of the route in order to best serve the whole country. This was followed by an interesting question and answer session, in which the even wider issues of UK energy supply, sustainable transport and planning procedure were discussed. The overriding message from the presentation was that High Speed 2 is being developed, not as a copy of other high speed rail networks, but so as to suit the situation in the UK and meet our needs.

Meeting report - Mersey Gateway (7 October 2010)

Steve Nicholson, Project Director, gave an excellent presentation on the Mersey Gateway project to a packed meeting (more than 80 attended) at the Stobart Stadium in Widnes on Thursday 7th October. Steve's presentation covered the project objectives, key delivery issues and alternative funding arrangements.  This project is now at a critical stage in its development with much depending on the findings of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which are expected on 20th October.

UPDATE – The spending review gave this project the green light. Excellent news for this vital project in the North West.