PIANC UK working group seminar

Vincenzo Albanese

Vincenzo Albanese is a technical director at HR Wallingford with over 20 years of international experience in port, maritime and coastal engineering. He has led the delivery of major port and marine terminal projects worldwide, specialising in marine operations, vessel mooring, navigation studies, metocean assessments and maritime infrastructure design. Vincenzo is a member of PIANC working groups WG180 and WG187 and actively contributes to the development of international guidance and industry best practice. His professional interests include risk-based design, operational optimisation and the use of numerical modelling to improve the performance and resilience of maritime infrastructure.

John Knapton

John is a civil engineer specialising in container handling terminal pavements and other categories of pavements. He graduated from Newcastle University with a First Class Honours degree in Civil Engineering in 1970 and with a PhD in Structural Engineering in 1973. Since then, he has pursued a career in civil engineering in both consulting engineering and academia.

He was Professor of Civil Engineering at Newcastle University from 1990 to 2001, since when he has continued to practise in design and as an expert witness. He has provided oral evidence in trials, arbitrations and mediations in the UK, in district and federal courts in the US, and in Queensland, New South Wales, Canada, Uganda, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland.

He has published many papers in this field, including the five editions of the British Ports Association/Interpave guide, The Structural Design of Heavy Duty Pavements for Ports and Other Industries, which comprises the industry standard design guidance for pavements serving container handling operations.

He has chaired two PIANC international working groups: WG165, which produced PIANC report no.169 (2015), Design and Maintenance of Container Terminal Pavements, and WG243 (2026), which produced PIANC Report No. 243, Sustainability of Container Terminal Pavements: From Design to End-of-Life.

Jo Evans

Jo Evans is a technical director at WSP and chair of PIANC working group 269, which is developing guidance for the design of ports for offshore wind. Jo specialises in maritime infrastructure and offshore renewables, with a particular interest in the evolving requirements for ports supporting the offshore wind industry.

Mark McBride

Dr Mark McBride is an experienced naval architect who has spent over 36 years at HR Wallingford managing the ships and dredging group.

He will present on WG 171, which shares knowledge and guidance on using real-time ship handling simulation for the practical design, assessment and optimisation of nautical approach channels, ports and harbour layouts.