Quentin LeiperICE President 2006-7

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Canary Wharf Station and Green Park – both stations I’ve been involved in as a geotechnical engineer.

Day 2 (Thursday 9 November 2006) Carillion day. I spent some time responding to the well wishes I had received from friends and colleagues and also sent out a note to my Telford Apprentices to thank them for attending my address and to set them a first task. I will let you know how they get on.

Day 3 (Friday 10 November 2006)Up at 5.45am to catch a train to Paris to visit our Committee and members there. I took a call from our environmental helpline at 7am, and dealt with it just before we entered the Channel Tunnel. Tom Foulkes was delayed at Waterloo and taken to Tottenham Court Road Police Station because of his “credit card toolkit” which police had decided was an offensive weapon. I realise you can do a lot of damage with credit cards – up until now it has only been the bank balance which has suffered!

We were met at Gare du Nord, Paris by local association Vice Chairman William Powles, who drove us to our hotel, where we dropped off our bags before walking to a nearby restaurant, Le Bistrot Marius for a light lunch with the Local Association Committee. Next stop was the Musée Du Quai Branly (www.quaibranly.fr). There we were given a most excellent talk in French by Madame Danu Vanneyre, Chef de Programation Du Musée, and Monsieur Didier Braut, Chef du projet at L’atelier Jean Nouvel on the evolution of the project. Collection areas included an unpartitioned geographical itinerary, presenting 3,500 artefacts from the four corners of the world.

Local Association member Philip Garbutt provided a “whispering translation” for some sections where I was finding difficulty in understanding the technical presentations. Both presentations were excellent in describing the development of the fantastic design by international architect Jean Nouvel. The complexities of the design form had created real engineering challenges for geotechnical and structural engineers which of course were ably met by the civil engineers involved in the project. After the presentations we toured the museum – FANTASTIQUE!

Next I delivered my address in full, for a second time and presented local association Chairman Christian Grandjean with his Fellowship Certificate and also a Presidential gift – a memento of Telford, our first President. There followed about 30 minutes of questions and debate and I was on the receiving end of some tough questions! I thought my readers might like to try a few too!

Weeks one and two Off to a great start Day 0 (Tuesday 7 November 2006) The formal handover started at 6pm, and I started my address at 6.30pm on the chime of the clock, nervous, but excited and very proud. I delivered the address with the aid of an autocue – not an easy task for someone accustomed to speaking freely to slides – but the Presidential Address is special. I completed the final words as the clock chimed – a remarkable coincidence – and one which later raised comments about the accuracy of my prediction to the second! 111 Slides, 4 video clips and 7500 words is quite exhausting, I am so glad I trimmed it down from the previous word count of 9800 words!

The next task was to unveil my portrait assisted by Ben Wilson who in his final year at school. He is keen to become a civil engineer and had asked to attend my address. John Edwards (www.johnedwardsrp.com) was the artist. It is an amazing skill and I am delighted with the portrait After the unveiling, it was time to socialise and I spent the next two hours chatting briefly with as many people as possible, not easy when about 370 people attended the event. A fantastic event, a fantastic day and a great demonstration of the professionalism of the ICE events team, catering and house staff. Guests who had not visited OGGS before were seriously impressed by the building, its facilities and the service.

Day 1 (Wednesday 8 November 2006)Up at 7.15am to buy croissants, orange juice and fruit for breakfast for the family. I went to OGGS for a briefing with Oivind Grismo and Allyson Lewis from the Areas Team for my trip Paris on Friday. My second meeting at 10am was with David Lloyd Roach, Director of Membership who brought me up to speed on our qualifications and membership activities. At 11am I went on a tour to meet ICE staff members. I was struck by their positive and happy style. At lunch time I briefly joined the regional Chairman’s meeting and addressed them briefly. I am very much looking forward to visiting the regions during my year of office.

Following this brief encounter I went to the Thomas Telford offices and met their staff. On the tube I was asked for directions by someone and it turned out he is a civil engineer from the Czech Republic, so I suggested that he visited the ICE at One Great George Street, handing him a copy of the NCE magazine in the process. We were joined briefly in discussion by an ICE member working for Scott Wilson. What a coincidence that I should meet two civil engineers in this way on my first day! As well as a visit to

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industry who have fallen on hard times. It also supports impoverished students to study construction related subjects. Within minutes the 1250 attending the dinner had, between them raised approaching £20,000! The auction of a mini car raised another £10,000. I was a guest of Bill Francis, past president of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Lighthouse Club…. Thank you Bill and the Club for an excellent evening.

Day 7 (Tuesday 14 November 2006)Dealt with my post and some papers. Meeting at 9am with Mark Broadhurst, Chairman of the Environment and Sustainability Board, and Engineering Policy and Innovation team members Andrew Crudgington (Policy Manager) and Chrissie Pepper (Senior Policy Executive) to be briefed on the joint project we have to develop a sustainable development strategy and action plan for the civil engineering sector. This is a collaborative project with the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), and the Concrete Products Association. The objective of the strategy is to help all those working in our sector to understand what sustainability is all about and what (with simple guidance!) we can all do about it. Watch this space! I am delighted to be asked to sponsor the project. More meetings before lunch to discuss the developing plans for the Thomas Telford celebrations next year, the soon to be launched “down the drain” game for primary schools and my own diary activities for the next month.Following lunch I attended the first Executive Board meeting of the 2006/7 session. The substantive discussions were on the 2007 budget (in preparation for discussion at Council on 12 December 2006), the bylaw changes required to put the new governance structure into place (following the Council decision on this on 1 November) and a discussion on the feedback from Council on our discussions with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The protocol in these (indeed all) matters, is for the Executive Board to take soundings and prepare a discussion paper for Council to debate.

Return home in time to play a little clarinet and meet up with friends for a late drink. Day 8 (Wednesday 15 November 2006)Carillion day.

I receive an email to advise me that the East of Scotland has now appointed a Telford Apprentice, Doug Forbes, so now we have 13! Welcome! Doug graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2004 and last year started a PhD in Construction Management at the University of Dundee.

So please feel free to add your comments on the following, and I will pass them to our Engineering Policy team:

1) Should the Institution encourage the government to increase taxes on fuel, water and aggregates in order to reduce their consumption?

2) Should the Institution promote a £10,000 tax for detached houses to encourage people to live in blocks of flats - hence creating massive savings in energy and materials? 3) What is the Institution and its members doing about mentoring? Are we doing enough? Should we do more? If so – what should the Institution and its members do?

We returned to our hotel at 11pm Paris time – a long but “fantastique” day! Thanks to Robert Broatch for arranging my first and most memorable presidential visit. A real challenge to our other regions and countries to match!). Grateful thanks too for Christian as our excellent host, to William Powles for moving us to all the right places; to Philip for his whispering skills and his photography (and I am expecting to see some great photos!) My address starts with the words “good evening to the family of civil engineers” – I really felt the family atmosphere and friendship in Paris – Thank you everyone!

Day 4 (Saturday 11 November 2006)A public holiday in France to mark Armistice Day (11/11/45), Paris was full of people and Dorothy and I spent the day as tourists before catching our Eurostar train home. We arrived home tired, but still elated by the exciting week we had both had.

Day 5 (Sunday 12 November 2006)A day of rest and needed! Time to catch up on household jobs, play a little clarinet, see the children and relax.

Day 6 (Monday 13 November 2006)Carillion day back on the email system, so the 72 emails I had written on the various train journeys over the weekend sped off into the ether and I turned my mobile phone on for the first time since Saturday to find 12 messages – luckily not all required responses. The highlight of the day was a meeting with one of our young leadership groups to discuss and initiate a special project for them based on the Business in the Community (BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index.

Late pm train to London to attend the 50th Annual Lighthouse Club dinner. And what an event! The Lighthouse Club (www.lighthouseclub.org) is a benevolent charity which supports those in need in the construction

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infrastructure, then now is the time to consider entering them for an award next year. I am sure that help could be provided so that you can understand the format of the entries… mentoring by any other name!

My thanks and congratulations to the judges who have now judged the awards since their inception 9 years ago. They are:■ Professor Roland Paxton (PHEW)■ Terry Girdler (English Heritage)■ Andrew Leadbeater (County Surveyors’ Society)■ Mike Winney (Editor-Emeritus of NCE)

Thanks too to awards secretary David Greenfield who coordinated the judging and provided those present with an excellent summary of the entries and winners and ICE’s Val Lawless, who provides administrative support and organises the awards event and lunch in One Great George Street. Grateful thanks are also due for the event sponsors Network Rail, English Heritage and British Waterways and for the support and involvement of the County Surveyors’ Association.

This event was a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate our Institution’s involvement and support for such events.I conclude the day with a meeting with Tom Foulkes and a train journey home.

Day 10 (Friday 17 November 2006)Carillion day and a busy one. Two meetings (our Appeals and Sustainability committees) and time to catch up on the day job. I was able to thank Jonathon Porritt, one of the external advisors on our Board Sustainability Committee, for attending my address last week and handed him a full copy of the address and the accompanying slides (111).

Day 11 (Saturday 18 November 2006)Household, shopping, clarinet and hockey (we lost narrowly, but enjoyed it).

Day 12 (Sunday 19 November 2006)Cycle ride in the Wyre Forrest with the family and a music lesson with my “music mentor”/ teacher Brad Robert.

He is also going to co-ordinate the Scottish Demonstration Projects - an opportunity to showcase innovation within the construction industry.

In the evening I meet up with the Reverend Prebendary Andy Roberts, Team Rector of the Bridgnorth Churches and rector of St.Mary Magdelene Church in Bridgnorth to discuss Telford celebrations being planned in and around Telford’s first church.

I present him with a box of postcards of the Church as a thank you for giving his permission to me to use a photograph of the church in my “Presidential Postcard”. I am using these postcards to send a personal note to people I come in contact with over the year. So far I have written over 40. My handwriting is not improving yet!

Day 9 (Thursday 16 November 2006)Early train to London and just time to deal with some post before I meet with Ken Williams (Maintenance Supervisor) to discuss some alternative paintings and drawings for the President’s office. I go to places in One Great George Street I’ve never been to before to look at options! At 10am I meet with Roland Paxton, Vice Chairman of the ICE Panel for Historic Engineering Works (PHEW, remembered the name!). Roland briefs me on the “Historic bridge and Infrastructure” awards and this year’s winners.

Three excellent projects received commendations and two projects won awards.

The two award winners were:The Fossdyke Railway embankment protection scheme in Lincolnshire. This was an elegantly engineered “soft” and very environmental solution… brilliant and the kingfishers were saved too!

The Fritwell Railway Bridge assessment. This was a new and elegant method of analysing plate girder bridges. The method has saved client Network Rail millions of pounds.Both these projects and the commended “3” exemplified the value of engineering knowledge and the benefits of sustainable solutions…. two of the key Telford legacies I focused on in my Presidential address (have you read it yet?).

The Secretary to the awards, David Greenfield introduced the projects and I had the pleasure of meeting with and presenting the awards to the excellent teams responsible for their delivery. This was a fantastic event. We should do more to celebrate our work as civil engineers and our excellent civil engineers of today! If you are working on a project to refurbish or repair historic bridges or

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delighted by a lovely letter from Professor Robert Mair who had attended my address. I finally got round to sending my thanks to my new friends in the France Local Association.

At 9.30am I met with a visiting delegation from the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers led by their President, Martin Manuhwa. We discuss sustainability, the engineers’ response to the Millennium Goals, our cooperation agreement, the African Engineers’ Forum, the potential for construction in Africa, skills shortages and the ways in which we can create mutual benefits for both our memberships. We have 85 members in Zimbabwe and ZIE have about 100 members across all engineering disciplines.

My next meeting was a discussion with Deborah Seddon (Education and Learning Manager) on ideas for the next ACED/IStructE /ICE conference. ACED is the Association of Civil Engineering Departments. The conference gives the three bodies, plus other academics the opportunity to discuss education matters. Education does matter! I will of course be promoting the sustainability agenda and will be interested to find out how well it is becoming embedded in our education of civil engineers.

I sign my first membership certificate for David Richard Morgan, welcome David!More post and postcards and in the evening I am a guest of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at their annual dinner. I meet with lots of their young engineers, including 2 of their 4 “President’s apprentices”. The excellent after dinner speech by Mike Baunton of Caterpillar was a splendid analysis of the real benefits and opportunities of becoming an engineer.

Day 16 (Thursday 23 November)Early start for a train from London to Wolverhampton for a 10am meeting on sustainability. Carillion day.

Day 17 (Friday 24 November)Holiday, Dorothy and I go Christmas shopping in Shrewsbury. I fail to visit the castle and gaol… two of the projects, both refurbishments, which put Thomas Telford on the road to becoming the great civil engineer (pun not intended!).

Day 18 (Saturday 25 November)No hockey, our opposition had pulled out of the league. Went to a lunchtime jazz event at the Black Boy in Bridgnorth. Tried out the new “Bridgnorth Cheddar, cave cured” from the delicatessen…. It went down very well with the ale and jazz!

Week threeDowning Street Day 13 (Monday 20 November)Carillion day. Sent off my first 2 weeks weblog.

Day 14 (Tuesday 21 November)Carillion part day. Meeting with our graduate recruitment team.

Travel to London for an interview with Darell Smart from ICES (Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors) magazine.

This was followed by a visit to 10 Downing Street, at the invitation of Cherie Blair. The Institution and the Royal Institute of British Architects have initiated and supported The Green Wing project, working with a group of Year 11 students (aged 15-16) from Cedar Mount High School, an improving inner-city comprehensive in East Manchester. Cherie had visited their exhibition in Manchester in October and was much impressed by their ideas and the way they presented them. The students were invited by RIBA and ICE to take part in this unique project to design an environmentally friendly Prime Minister’s office and residence on Duck Island in St James’s Park, London. The resulting design gives politicians and the public a real insight into what young people believe represents a suitable contemporary and sustainable residence for the Prime Minister.

The school students’ proposal was exhibited at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester in October and again in St James Park this week. And what a fantastic project, with so many ideas! Their output was illustrated in drawings, models, photographs and a film - and included plans for an underwater cabinet room and a ‘panic room’, reflecting the students’ concern about security.

I returned to the Institution to catch up on post and signatures (certificates and some Christmas cards I am sending out in my capacity as Chairman of the Benevolent Fund).

My next appointment was a Carillion one at the Tate Modern, where I attended the launch of our new TPS consultancy. A great opportunity to meet up with great engineers, architects, clients, developers and promoters of construction.

Day 15 (Wednesday 22 November)Fruit for breakfast… I heard about Gordon’s 120 dinners! I did some reading and attended to more post. I was

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Day 19 (Sunday 26 November)More clarinet practice and, late pm a lesson… we are on some Mozart at the moment. I learn that Mozart wrote twinkle twinkle little star (at the age of 8!). Selected some good apples to replenish the bags we leave at the gate for walkers to collect. A friend comes to collect the last of the windfalls for his horses. he takes a dozen enormous (and heavy) bags! Dorothy and I then rake and collect up the last of the leaves.

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Thank you to Alastair Andrew, General Manager and Bridgemaster and Barry Crawford for an excellent presentation and discussion.

Our next visit was to meet with students and staff at Heriot Watt University. I summarised the main elements of my address (only one slide!) and showed a short video clip which shows why the sustainability agenda is so important and demonstrates the big responsibility and opportunity we, as civil engineers, have in delivering better and more sustainable solutions.

My Telford Apprentice, Doug Forbes, then delivered a splendid presentation on what young engineers can and should do and we then all discussed the issues. Contributions from James, Chris, Sophie, Peter, Alastair and George. I am impressed as to how switched on these students are. They were keen that sustainability targets were stretching and that the Institution and its membership (77,000) showed leadership and exerted their influence in this area. Need I say more!

The party then travelled into Edinburgh city to meet with Supervising Civil Engineers, the driving force of members helping our younger engineers to become professionally qualified. Our mentors, trainers and developers of the Telfords of tomorrow. I spoke about mentoring and Tom Foulkes briefed everyone on CPD, training and development and our exciting plans for delivering engineering knowledge to our members and society in the future (see my Address and Council minutes for more details).

Some tough questions and lively debate followed. We need more of these active and involved members! I was encouraged to learn that we could now reach 53% of our members by email… are you signed up yet?

In my final meeting of the day I joined the East of Scotland Regional Committee at their committee meeting. At its conclusion I was presented with a rivet from the Forth Bridge as a memento of my visit by Chairman Alasdair Macleod on behalf of the region and committee. Thank you East of Scotland… and we were only half way through the visit!

In the evening I was joined by Dorothy who had taken the train from Wolverhampton and we had an hour to meet up with Edinburgh University student son Edward for a few minutes before changing for the Annual Dinner.

Hosted by Chairman Alasdair Macleod and organised by Clive Kennedy, it was a splendid occasion. I present some awards, including the fourth Spirit of Telford Award

Week fourRegional visit to Scotland Day 20 (Monday 27 November)Carillion day. Travel to London pm for retirement dinner for new Council Member Peter Jefferies and took the opportunity to have a meeting about the sustainable procurement conference the Institution is holding in February and to catch up on my post and postcards. Fantastic dinner with 10 of us and we raised £260 and 50 Euros for charity in the process.

Night sleeper to Edinburgh to embark on my first visit to a region. An experience! Bumps and squeaks abounded for a while and at times we glided so smoothly through the countryside that I thought the train had stopped on one occasion when I woke.

Day 21 (Tuesday 28 November)I was delighted to find the water was piping hot in the morning and was able to make my breakfast meeting refreshed. I reached the meeting early and met up with Doug Forbes, the Telford Apprentice for the East of Scotland Region. We were then joined byAlasdair Macleod (East of Scotland Chairman) and Drew Hill (Edinburgh Branch Chairman) who briefed me on my visit and the civil engineering issues in the region.

Following a light breakfast (mainly fruit!) we set off for our first visit of the day to the Forth Road Bridge where we were given an excellent briefing on the case and urgency for a new crossing.

Initially carrying just a “handful” of million vehicles a year, the bridge now carries 24 million exceeding its congestion limit every day. In addition the bridge is now carrying twice its DESIGN live load of 2,880 tonnes (it’s OK, there is still a factor of safety of 2!).I was fascinated to hear that in a 100 mile an hour wind, the bridge deck moves over 23 feet (sideways!).

Maintenance is becoming an increasing problem in both cost and its severe impact on congestion. Two key issues are surfacing and the cables. Axle loads and traffic volume have reduced road surface life from 25 to 8 years…and like other major suspension bridges there are emerging corrosion problems (and strand failures), which need to be monitored carefully. It is evident that some rapid thought and rapid decisions are needed to deliver a new Forth crossing before lorry traffic is severely reduced and communities and commerce on the north side suffer as a consequence.

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weeks to enable the students to tackle a hurricane disaster recovery activity modelled on one in Honduras.

Great briefings, discussions, planning and training over two weeks enabled the students to take part in a one day multi activity day, building and testing shelters, restoring water supplies, foraging and cooking disaster food (I describe the circumstances here, not the taste!). For the students it was ”not like school”, “better than school” and “fantastic”, for the teachers as it was delivering the curriculum in a very different, yet very exciting way.

The teachers turned multidisciplinary. Great teams were built. Commitment was 100%. What an achievement… what influencing skills and drive Brian had shown to persuade his head teacher to take such a risk. What vision that head teacher had shown. And what a success it has all been! Great for the school, great for the teachers, great for the students and great for promoting engineering!

A geography teacher was speaking Spanish to students, who were enjoying maths without realising it! Funds were raised for one of the villages affected in Honduras (a commitment which is continuing) and above all else, everyone had FUN.

And it is spreading, as good news does. There was more. Angela Gardner explained how she took on the challenge to run the project at Pitlochry High School. She explained the hard work needed to prepare and run the event and the essential input from engineers. She explained with passion the excitement of the students and staff alike and the real and measurable benefits delivered. She could have been a star actress playing a part, but she was not, she was telling it from the heart. And 20 more schools are now in planning to take on the “Rapid Response Challenge”.

I was knocked out. It was humbling to see what had been achieved.

I immediately made a commitment to help spread the word and to help the challenge become national. Ideas from any readers would help and please do spread the word to other schools about this… well worth a look. I’ve dropped an email to NCE editor Antony Oliver about it too. I will also be getting together with Alasdair Macleod and his team to see how we can help more.

Mentoring delivers results! What an achievement!

The day was not over. Tired, but elated, we all went to Dundee to meet with members and students at Discovery Point.

to Ian Salisbury. Ann Faulds, Head of Transportation & Planning Law at Dundas & Wilson proposed the toast to the Institution, to which I replied (17 minutes, and yes, there was a sweepstake at one of the tables I later spoke with!).

I was of course promoting the value of engineering knowledge, the sustainability agenda and the need to energise, mentor and develop young members for the benefit of the profession AND society.

International footballer, sports commentator, writer and raconteur Gordon Smith responded to the toast to the guests, delivered by Drew Hill, Chairman of the Edinburgh Area branch.

Day 22 (Wednesday 29 November)We set off at 9am for Edinburgh Airport to see the new 57m high landmark control tower building. As exciting as the lighthouses of old and unsurprisingly, an award winner. In fact THE award winner in the Saltire Awards. The view from the top is just stunning. On the sunny and clear day we could see for miles and, with the two Forth crossings in the distance, looked down on the runways and taxiways. The right tool for the demanding job of safely directing the aircraft, and an elegant and well engineered building.

Late morning we set off for Carnoustie to meet with the Dundee Branch and be briefed on their schools initiatives. We were joined by representatives from local universities, Careers Scotland and local education authorities.

There was real WOW factor in the first two briefings from John McPartlin who explained how school children were enthused by building and dismantling a purpose built 15 metre suspension bridge, and walk over it all in a one hour lesson session!

David Kennedy from the Aberdeen Association of Engineers then briefed us on their “Engineering for Life” festivals, once again energising and enthusing young people about engineering. By now I was pretty impressed and would have left encouraged and amazed by the great mentoring skills and efforts of our members.

And then, and then… we went ballistic!

Brian McArtney presented the Rapid Response Engineering Challenge. An ICE and Carnoustie High School special! Teacher Brian McArtney, ICE members Alasdair Macleod and Ian Martin and John Smith (CIOB) have produced an educational experience. Brian, with young secondary school students Ciara, Samantha, Jack and Danny (the resident comedian!) explained how school was cancelled for two

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you (and I assume the Institution) doing?” I am asked. I suggest we all need to do something… lots of small bricks in the wall! Thanks to Ross, Kate, Martin, Edward and Natalie and Russell for your contributions to the discussion. I leave knowing that civil engineering has some future stars!

We drove to Ayr for our next appointment. The Glasgow and West of Scotland Region had noted that the famous road builder John Louden Macadam was born 250 years ago this year and wanted to celebrate this with a plaque on the house where he was born.

We met with Provost, Winifred Sloan, Chief Executive Tom Cairns and engineers from South Ayrshire Council and Institution members for lunch and some brief speeches prior to braving the rain to perform the unveiling ceremony.

Coincidently, the owner of the flat above the Tourist Information Office on the ground floor of the building arrived just as we had unveiled the plaque and invited the party to tour the building’s interior. I was most taken by the curved wooden doors on the circular staircase: real attention to detail in design! We returned to Glasgow to change for the biggest Institution dinner in the world, as it was claimed later in the evening.

Some 900 members and guests were in attendance. During the pre-dinner drinks I was delighted to have the opportunity to present Professor Hugh Sutherland with a ”President’s Gift” and a copy of my address (complete with slides). Well, he had given me plenty of notes to read over the years I was one of his students! Back to the dinner. It was a fantastic event and I admit to being slightly nervous about addressing an audience of this scale.

Our Regional Chairman Alan Simpson showed no such nerves despite having the daunting task of addressing the haggis, which he did with fire and emotion…. an awesome performance! He has a talent which will provide him with as many Burn’s night dinners as he could wish for (a new career Alan?). Perhaps that is the destiny of all the region’s chairmen. The Glasgow dinner expects every chairman to do his duty. Alan performed his magnificently.

Soon Dr. Malcolm Reed, Chief Executive of Transport for Scotland, was proposing the toast to the Institution. By now I was at ease and delivered the reply on behalf of the Institution. This time, in deference to the Glasgow audience’s preference for brevity, I spoke for probably only 10 minutes. I presented some awards, including the fourth Spirit of Telford Award to Ian Salisbury. After the meal I was able to relax and enjoy something stronger than the H2O which had sustained me all evening

We passed a full café as we approached the Point and I soon realised it was full of students (and members) enjoying tea and sandwiches before my presentation. Incredibly they all moved into and filled the lecture theatre.

I spoke for about 40 minutes (50 slides this time after a quick cut from the 111 in my address) and there followed another excellent presentation from Telford apprentice Doug and some lively discussion on training, mentoring and the sustainability agenda.

Thank you Neil for the link to innovation, and to Peter and Frances for your contributions. I enjoyed the event immensely and valued the contributions and the social and engineering chats afterwards as we took on more snacks and fluids.

The evening closed with a small group taking a light meal back at our hotel. An opportunity to thank Doug for joining the Presidential visit, Walter and Murray for the architectural tour they provided for Dorothy and Tom Foulkes’ wife Sally and the Dundee team for such an excellent and uplifting day.

Day 23 (Thursday 30 November)8.20am train to Glasgow. Tom Foulkes and I discuss Institution business. On arrival, we are met by Glasgow and West of Scotland Chairman Alan Simpson and drop our bags off at the hotel.

Dorothy and Sally head for the retail therapy apparently required and Tom and I go with Alan to the Rankine Building at the University of Glasgow. We are met by Professor Simon Wheeler, Head of Department and a fellow geotechnical engineer. I spent a great deal of my student days in this building, so it was a great pleasure to return to a place with so many memories.

This morning I was meeting with students and staff from Caledonian, Strathclyde, Paisley and Glasgow Universities and Stow College. I summarised my address in 10 minutes and show one slide and the two minute sustainability video clip. Next the region’s Telford Apprentice Alex Feretzakis stepped in to inspire the group with his enthusiasm about his experience and the career opportunities ahead.

The floor was then open to questions and discussion ranging across world poverty and development work, millennium goals, engineering course content, global warming, sustainability and the need to enthuse and motivate all young engineers.

The final point was becoming a regular theme. “What are

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Tired, but elated, Dorothy and I head for the train home.

I finish the day with a glass of Macallan, from a bottle kindly presented to me by Alex, and listening to jazz singer Melody Diachun (Lullaby of the Leaves). A fitting close to a fantastic trip to Scotland. Good luck with the bid everyone!

Day 25 (Saturday 2 December)Play clarinet and hockey. In the evening at the hockey club we celebrate one of our young players who has just been selected for the England Under 16 squad. A great achievement, well done David Devey!

Day 26 (Sunday 3 December)Play clarinet and some saxophone. I respond to blog feedback on the web and deal with some ICE and Company emails. Dorothy and I have a long and windy walk. Music lesson. Sorting shoes and shirts for next week (cleaning and ironing!).

while I toured the room with Dorothy chatting to friends old and new. As with the Edinburgh dinner, I felt a welcome and warmth that makes you appreciate the fellowship of our Institution. Another fantastic day.

Day 24 (Friday 1 December)The day started with yet another event I was privileged to attend. Together with committee members and members from the Region, I was invited to a presentation from the Glasgow team bidding for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Would I back the bid? Should the Institution? ABSOLUTELY!!

Yet again this week I experienced a real WOW factor. Our host was Ian Bruce (Member), Head of Policy, Planning and Projects at Glasgow City Council. He is leading a fantastic team (I note that I need to get a new dictionary with lots more superlatives in, everywhere I go as President I meet excellence).

We were treated to a series of polished, professional and comprehensive presentations which left me excited and enthused about the bid. What vision and clever thought had been given to developing existing facilities and the legacy issues. Athletes, media, spectators and Glasgow citizens have all been carefully considered… and the working lives and commerce of Glaswegians will be enhanced, not disrupted. My congratulations to the bid team.

Rob Shorthouse, George Vincent, Martin Waters and Eimear Kelt were the excellent presenters. They described the complexities of the logistics, the “green” and sustainable approach adopted, the incredible planning and indeed thinking and lateral thinking in delivering the facilities, transport, communications and accommodation (including food!). I was exhausted just by the thought of it all.

Following the presentations, we visited the proposed site for the athlete’s village. Again a great deal of thought has been put into the use of the facilities following the games, if the bid is successful (be positive…when successful!). A great opportunity to deliver regeneration in this city.

The (11,000) athletes accommodation (all bedrooms and en suite facilities) will be converted back to housing. So bedrooms become kitchens, bedrooms will become lounges and (the most fundamental statement I heard all day) bedrooms will be bedrooms!

In summary, the team is inspired. Those of us present were all inspired too. What an opportunity for civil engineers to help deliver a great games… so back the bid!www.glasgow2014.com

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Who are EWB? I hope by now you have diverted onto their website for a few minutes of inspiration. Student driven, 16 branches and 1,400 members. Note here a shortage of engineers… and here are some who stick their heads above the parapet and actually do something!! Employable or what! We discuss some ideas as to how the EWB awareness level could be raised and I challenge Robin to help me put some key people around a table to discuss these ideas further and to develop more. Thank you Robin for taking the initiative.

I just make it a little late to my dinner, a small group of constructors, planning experts and lawyers, hosted by Andrew Hibbert of lawyers Pinsent Mason. We discuss the construction market, the problems which arise in contracts and the importance of recognising and addressing technical and contractual problems early. Engineers need to be proactive! Andrew asked what lawyers could do to help address the climate change and sustainability agenda. A fundamental question, and one which will I believe lead to a business opportunity for the law companies who ask this and find the answer. Thank you Andrew.

Day 28 (Tuesday 5 December)Early start (6.30am) to respond to emails and then into the Institution before 9am for a series of meetings. First a briefing and discussion on the Council papers for our meeting of 12 December. Then a briefing on my trip to the Northern Ireland Region and a meeting to discuss invitations for the Annual Dinner. This will be hosted by the West Midlands Region this year on 1 March.

Then followed two more meetings. The first was one of my regular “update” meetings with Tom Foulkes and the second was a briefing on the Benevolent Fund from William Kemp. I was chairing their meeting in the afternoon and really appreciated William’s help in understanding the issues in more detail. It is good to talk and the briefing turned 2D minutes into a 3D picture for me. Excellent, thank you William!

I then joined the Benevolent Fund Committee for lunch and chaired the meeting. What excellent work it does distributing over £600,000 to members, former members and their dependants in need of our help. The beneficiaries are ALL ages… so don’t forget to let your family know there is a listening ear and some REAL support. So many moving stories. It was a humbling experience. Returned home too late and tired to blow clarinet.

Week fiveRegional visit to Northern IrelandPosted: 11/12/2006 Day 27 (Monday 4 December)Carillion & ICE mixed day. Train to London. Useful time to write thank you postcards and catch up on emails. At One Great George Street I sign certificates and attend to more post and emails.

Tom Foulkes and I then attend a Royal Academy of Engineering Luncheon with RAE President Lord Browne of Madingley and other Presidents and Chief Executives/Director Generals of the major engineering institutions. Lord Browne had called us together to discuss how we can make engineering more central to society.

He challenged us to ask why we should do this and how we engineers could become catalysts in areas of the economy where it is developing in the future. In addition, how could we attract the great engineers of tomorrow to join our engineering professions and deliver the challenges we face - the very security of the planet! We debated the priorities and set an action plan to start addressing them.

The first focus will be on climate change and energy. I do not want to steal the RAE’s thunder by writing too much detail just yet, so watch this space for further developments! I have a good feeling that progress will be made.

Returning to the Institution, Tom and I hold a brief meeting to update IMechE on the Council’s guidance on our closer working initiative and received some criticism about my address. This was followed by a visit to RedR’s offices to hand over the charity money raised last Monday. Note it was split between two charities.

Back to the day job and then a brief meeting with our communications team about the Rapid Response Engineering Challenge.

My final meeting of the day, at short notice, was with Robin Campbell. In the NCE Graduates Awards last week three of the six finalists had donated their prize money to Engineers Without Borders. That evening another six organisations “signed up” and a further £12,000 was pledged! Robin was bursting with enthusiasm and came in to the Institution to let me know. 15 minutes turned into 45 and I was getting late for my next event!

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Day 30 (Thursday 7 December)The day starts with a visit to the Parliament Buildings at Stormont. A fantastic building and terrific value for £1.7 million!

We then go to Harland and Wolff for a briefing by David McVeigh on the docks, the cranes, the regeneration and the reinvigorated Harland and Wolff business. Ship building has been carried out on the site since the 16th century. H&W can no longer compete in the “big ship” business, so they have turned to refurbishment, servicing and specialist design and build work. There are so many parallels with the construction industry. Design excellence, prefabrication, complexity is their core marketplace. So look out for the jetty link in Liverpool, the James Joyce Bridge in Dublin, the Foyle Bridge and lots of offshore windfarms!

The highlight of the visit was undoubtedly a trip up Goliath, one of their two giant cranes (the other one is Sampson. I guess you could have guessed that!). Lifting 840 tonnes and spanning 110 metres between rails it is indeed impressive and the view from the top was incredible. Even the 50m wide, 350m long dry dock looked small.

We thanked hosts Joris Minne and David McVeigh and dashed to our next meeting with Nigel Hamilton, Head of the Civil Service, and senior colleagues at Stormont Castle. We discussed the major (£16 billion) investment programme in Northern Ireland for the next 10 years and the opportunities and need for civil engineers and civil engineering in its delivery. We were all delighted to hear that sustainability will be a fundamental element of this programme. Northern Ireland is indeed a vibrant and confident region!

By now we were overrunning our programme and we arrived a little late to meet up with graduates and students at the Belfast Sewers project. I gave a short summary of my Presidential Address and then opened the floor to a discussion on the sustainability agenda and what we as engineers can and should do. We all then went into work group mode and were split into four groups to discuss four issues of concern to the graduate and student members in Northern Ireland. We discussed:

■ earlier qualifications/barriers to early qualification■ G&S expectations of the Institution■ ICE voting rights for G&S members■ governance of the Institution

A spokesperson summarised the thoughts of each group and there followed more discussion. Simon Wells, who chaired the meeting expertly, introduced David Spiers

Day 29 (Wednesday 6 December)Left home at 6am for a flight to Belfast with Dorothy to start our visit to the Northern Ireland Region. We were met by Regional Manager Wendy Blundell and whisked off to a meeting with members in senior positions and consultants, contractors and clients hosted by NI Region Chairman John McMillen.

We discussed students, skills, recruitment, attracting and retaining staff. This was all in the context of a booming economy and construction market in Northern Ireland. I was delighted to hear the importance everyone placed on mentoring, developing and motivating their staff. There was considerable discussion about qualifications and the need to encourage more contractors to promote the benefits of chartered status (AND HENCE PROMOTE THE INDIVIDUAL!!).

There were concerns about those graduating with BEng degrees who did not understand their route to Chartered Engineer status. This also was one of the issues the graduates and students were to raise the following day.

The next event was a trip to Maze/Long Kesh. We are joined for this and the rest of the presidential visit by Telford Apprentice Patricia McElduff. This of course was a place of internment and imprisonment for many decades. With prisoners and internees long gone, it was now a regeneration site. A massive 360 acres for development into a stadium, housing, a reconciliation centre and business. Kate McCulloch gave us a real insight into the living conditions, the development of the facility and the real stress everyone there was under. Staff, prison officers, the army and the “residents”. A moving experience. I cannot put into words my feelings.

The phrase which came to mind really refers to the violence and actions which brought so many to the Maze, “man’s inhumanity to man”. How can a sophisticated society breed so much hate and violence? Like many others, I do not condone violence of any sort. Like many others, I wonder how we can work together to avoid it. I feel helpless, but I guess we must all lead by example in our own lives and try to influence others to do the same.The regeneration of Maze/Long Kesh provides a great opportunity for civil engineers and for the whole Northern Ireland community. Thank you Kate.

In poignant mood, we all return to Belfast to attend the Regional Committee meeting. I say a few words and am struck by the energy, enthusiasm and bonding of the committee. The evening closes with an informal meal with members and committee. I meet a fellow kite enthusiast!

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dinner. I was the only one who did not know that we were all to dress as Father Christmas. Terrific evening; thank you Captain Simon for organising it. Despite the goal last week, I had been dropped a team (promotion I called it!) and enjoyed a 3-1 victory. Someone from the opposition purloined our three match balls, which left a sour taste.

Day 33 (Sunday 10 December)Clarinet, household stuff and late Christmas lunch with the Bridgnorth Wine Club. We are not members, but are great friends with several of the 12 members. Three of them (only one a member) had come to my address on 7 November. The President of the club noted that after 18 years there had only been a marginal improvement in their wine tasting skills. There is obviously a need for the club to continue its educational programme!

of Farrans who gave the group a presentation on the Belfast Sewers project. £91 million of tunnelling, shafts and pumping stations. All this talk of shaft sinking, ground conditions, diaphragm walls, tunnelling machines and settlement calculations was music to the ears of geotechnical engineers! I remembered well my own experience in all these activities over the years.

Thanks to the DRD Water Service for providing the venue for the meeting and for Roisin Stewart, the G&S chairman and her committee for organising the event and the visit.

I challenge Roisin and Patricia to produce a briefing note on the work group output and set Patricia the task of circulating this to the Telford Apprentices for them to consider and add their own thoughts. Patricia will then coordinate the production of a second 800 word briefing note giving the “Telford” view. This will be the “Telfords” second task.

The day concluded with the Annual Dinner at the Europa Hotel. A splendid occasion, organised by Nick Fletcher, which had over 760 applications for the 550 places! Yet again we see ”innovation Northern Ireland”. For this dinner, the initial speeches are after the starter course. Roisin gave the toast to the Institution; a very polished and confident performance. I responded to the toast and was then able to relax and enjoy the evening. An excellent dinner, and another opportunity to celebrate one of our most excellent civil engineers. I was particularly delighted to present my fifth “Spirit of Telford” Award to Alan Strong, he had no idea that he had been nominated and that the NI Region Committee and the Vice President’s Panel had made the award. The award met with acclaim from the 550 present.

Thank you Chairman John, Regional Manager Wendy and everyone for a splendid visit.

Day 31 (Friday 8 December)Carillion day. I receive news that the Telford Apprentices’ 800 word briefing note has been accepted for publication in the Institution’s proceedings. Congratulations Telfords!

This was Task One, set on day two, to produce 800 words on what young civil engineers can do to help deliver the sustainability agenda.

I set Task Three. Sally Waters from the South West Region is taking the lead on this one. More news on this later. As a hint, has anyone seen the film Flushed Away yet?

Day 32 (Saturday 9 December)Clarinet, hockey, writing blog and hockey team Christmas

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and Claire Tansley to submit an 800 word briefing note to our Institution proceedings. Unfortunately I only had time to stay for the first two presentations. Both excellent. The first was on engineering recruitment and development and the second on the assessment of sustainability within engineering projects.

Matt Humphrey and Alan McKay are producing a best practice guide on the first topic by April 2007. Does your company value sustainability knowledge and/or train and reward people in this area? Is it a part of the recruitment process? Does your sustainability reputation actually help you recruit graduates and other staff? If not WHY NOT?The second project looked at the tools available and asked if these actually do make choosing the sustainable option easier and cheaper. The message was that we need simple tools and guidance and we need to tune them to our own needs. Well done Alistair Geddes and Andrew Coen! This is great work and I look forward to the final output. I regretted not being able to stay for the presentation of the 2007 projects by Beccy Taylor, Liz Meddings and Peter Wilkie, but intend to invite them for a chat and discussion in the New Year.

A brisk walk back to the Institution for a meeting with Finance Committee Chairman David Hutchison, Senior Vice President David Orr and Director General Tom Foulkes. Following this I dashed out to Strutton Ground to arrange for a takeaway for later that evening. Back in OGGS I managed 10 minutes at the Council buffet lunch before we all assembled on the stairs for the Council photograph. Terry Chambers has been taking the Council photo for 30 years so he knew how to sort out 50 moving and chatting councillors, quieten them down and even get them to smile on queue.

Next we trouped into the Council room and I chaired my first council meeting. 50 councillors, directors, observers and the press. I had not chaired a committee this big before, but had chaired the Rankine lecture, an event with 750 present. The difference was that 50 councillors, as Trustees, form the decision making body of our great Institution. My job was to make sure we dealt with the business of the Institution within a reasonable timeframe, but also giving trustees the opportunity to express their views. With 50 people who are amongst the leaders and future leaders of our profession no mean task!!

Our first task was to elect the next President. No problem there. David Orr was elected with acclaim. You will recall that Council voted to change our governance arrangements at the last council meeting. The main changes being to reduce the size of Council from 25 to 15 general members,

Week sixSustainability and my first Council meeting Day 34 (Monday 11 December)Carillion day. pm travelled to London to host a dinner to discuss corporate responsibility and sustainability with leaders of contractors, consultants and academia. My special guests were Julia Cleverdon, Chief Executive of Business in the Community and Sir Neville Simms. Neville had not been able to attend my Presidential Address, so I presented him with a Spirit of Telford award in recognition of his significant contribution in delivering the sustainability agenda at a business and a national level.

Day 35 (Tuesday 12 December)Fruit for breakfast and the usual signing, postcards and emails before my first meeting at 9am with Kim Woolger to discuss a presentation sack (sustainable!) for the Spirit of Telford Awards and presidential gifts. We then went on to discuss the planning for a briefing and workshop day for the Telford Apprentices at the end of January.

These “Telfords” as I will now call the collective group are an enthusiastic lot. If any of them read this and send me 100 words, I’ll drop them into my blog next time! That will check if they actually have time to read this too! Kim is coordinating the Telfords from OGGS (One Great George Street). We also discuss ideas for a final report for next November and possible presentations to regional members and of course G&S members. My next meeting was with David Kerr, chairman of the Energy Board. Correctly titled, they are indeed energetic and very delivery and output focussed. I am seriously impressed. We also discuss the new Energy Journal for which David is the founder editor and Chairman of the editorial panel. We discuss the “challenges” of getting a new journal off the ground and I share some of my experiences from the Engineering Sustainability journal. The papers for the first issue sound terrific.

I dash from that meeting to Northumberland Avenue to attend the start of an “Engineers for the 21st Century” seminar. Here I meet Heidi Parkes who manages the programme, combining Forum for the Future’s (http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/) expertise with companies and some of their brightest and best to tackle the sustainability problems our industry faces. I had arrived in time for a 5 minute coffee before the event started and in that time received a commitment from Matt Humphrey, Peter Wilkie

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better by improving design and construction through learning from structural safety problems and failures. We discuss how more contractors could engage and how the scheme and its benefits can be better communicated. We have a plan!... watch this space… and if you have looked at the sites and can offer some ideas to address help promote CROSS and bring more case records in, then please let me know.

On the train home I write 20 postcards to thank those I have met up with this week and last week. There are more to write over the weekend!The Telfords are beginning to mentor me! …and Katerina sets Task 4 to keep them busy over the Christmas break.

Day 37 (Thursday 14 December)Carillion day. Fire alarm went off (set off by a contractor in the building I suspect) so the day’s exercise was to climb 7 flights back up to my office.

Day 38 (Friday 15 December)Carillion day. Today was a “double” joint role for me as I was jointly opening a new bridge over the River Severn with Shropshire County Council Cabinet Member, Barbara Craig, in my capacity as Institution President. I was also there as one of the supporting team from Carillion, who had built the bridge. And what an elegant structure! 89m between abutments, with a central span of 48m it replaces a previous bridge and is the main foot, equestrian and cycle link between the villages of Highley and Alveley. Some 80 local people, school children (including the winners of their own bridge building competition) and many of those involved in the bridge project were present. The weather was mild and our host Mark Blunt opened the proceedings, introducing Barbara and me to say a few words before the ribbon cutting. We were joined in this task by Sarah and Alex who represented the schools each side of the River.

A new bridge in Shropshire and a new bridge over the River Severn is a significant event locally, so we were joined by County Councillors, District Councillors, residents (who had a say in the bridge design.. voting for their preference!) and local MP Philip Dunne.

Returned the 8 miles to work from home for the rest of the day. Congratulations to Project Manager Ian Smith for delivering such a splendid project! Barbara takes a copy of “Flushed Away” to take into the primary school she is governor of. She promises to provide feedback from the teachers and children.

confirming one member from each region and providing representation for our international areas. The discussion on by-law changes exceeded my “estimate” by a factor of 2…. but was entirely justified. Thanks Gerry and others! The revisions sought by Council will give us a much improved revision. As members, you will all be given the opportunity to vote on them next year.. once the Council has approved the final wording. We also debated the budget, working with our neighbours and pre-19 educational initiatives, the “Flushed Away” game (I gave all Councillors a copy of the game, with a request to take it into a primary school and gain some feedback on it).

(http://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge/newsdetail_ice.asp?NewsID=732&NewsType=ICE&FacultyID=5)

With a little more “AOB” than I was expecting, the meeting closed at 5.50pm and we all moved into the Smeaton room for a celebratory drink to mark Patrick Griffin’s retirement. Patrick has been the Council officer for 10 years, running the DG/President’s offices and been a pillar of strength on all matters relating to the operations and processes of the Institution’s Council and Executive Board. With a clutch of Vice Presidents in London, I took the opportunity to invite them back to the presidential flat for a takeaway meal and gain some feedback on my performance. We also discuss Lord Browne’s initiative for the engineering institutions to get together to help Government to address and solve some of the climate change problems we are all facing.

Day 36 (Wednesday 13 December)Dealt with my post and some papers. Meeting at 9.30am with Rosanna Webb and John Green from McAlpine to discuss the corporate responsibility agenda. Next Allyson Lewis and Neil Bailey briefed Tom and I on our forthcoming trip to South Africa in January. At lunch David Orr and I meet John Baxter, Senior Vice President of IMechE to discuss perspectives on the role of a President of a major institution.

After lunch I meet with Alistair Soane who briefed me on the work of SCOSS and the scheme for Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety (www.scoss.org.uk/cross). Founder supporters include ICE and IStructE and it was aimed at members of these institutions who have concerns about all aspects of structural safety. It has also proved to be of interest to building control officers! The web site describes the scheme and incorporates the 4 newsletters that have so far been published. Procedures are based on those of CHIRP, the UK confidential reporting system for the aviation and maritime sectors, which in turn is derived from the NASA aviation reporting system. Both these initiatives will help our profession to help itself and serve society

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Day 39 (Saturday 16 December)Buy Christmas tree. Hockey cancelled, but on the plus side, I am able to drop into the Black Boy to listen to jazzmen Keith Nichols and Enrico Tomaso. I sup Shropshire Lad and type blog!. Late pm I go to the Hockey Club to draw the “200 Club” prizes for the year. 117 prizes and quite a lot of admin to look after it all… so I will have plenty to do over the Christmas break!

Day 40 (Sunday 17 December)Check progress on my barn repairs and bring the tree into the house now it is dry. Cook lunch and finish off the Christmas cards for those friends we do not see regularly. I prefer the charity donation alternative instead of sending cards to people I see regularly. Clarinet lesson… must get back on the saxophone over the Christmas break.

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Week seven and eight Christmas carols and last minute shopping Day 41 (Monday 18 December)Carillion day. Number one son returned from Edinburgh University for the Christmas holiday. Note term finished on 6 December!

Day 42 (Tuesday 19 December)Carillion day.

Day 43 (Wednesday 20 December)7am train to London and time to catch up on more postcards and some statistics. I am surprised to discover that so far I have met with, or spoken to over 3500 people! In addition, I have travelled over 4500 miles (mainly by train). I calculate my carbon footprint is equivalent to a quarter of a tree so far.

Meetings with Tom Foulkes and Anne Moir are followed by a presentation to and discussion with Deloitte and Touche about corporate responsibility.

Late pm there is a rehearsal and the annual Institution Carol Service at St Margaret’s Church., adjacent to Westminster Abbey. The church is popularly known as the parish church of the House of Commons. The front pew is reserved for the speaker, so today it is left empty. Conductor Adrian Davis and a small choir of ICE staff and members led the enthusiastic congregation through the nine carols and, as tradition dictates, as President, I read the last of the seven lessons. Following the service, the Institution provided mince pies and mulled wine for those in the congregation wishing to share in the fellowship and extend a perfect evening.

Day 44 (Thursday 21 December)Email, post and signing over 250 certificates for new Chartered members and technicians. I recognised some names, including two of the 2005/6 President’s Apprentices (Helen and Jonathon).

Met with Ruth Hopgood, chair of GSNet (the graduates and students national committee) to discuss what their plans are for the next year and we came up with a few ideas as to how they might “market” themselves better amongst the wider membership. GSNet (http://www.ice-gsnet.org.uk/contact/index.asp) comprises 18000 of our members… quite a force for change and an opportunity to deliver if it wants to be!

I next met with 4th year Nottingham University student who is doing a final year project on measuring sustainability for projects. Feeling unwell (food poisoning yesterday), I had already postponed my pm meeting with poverty charity boss Camilla Toulmin from IIED http://www.iied.org/aboutiied/index.html) It turned out she was caught up in the flight delays caused by fog and was probably not going to make the meeting anyway. I travel home feeling sorry for myself.

Day 45 (Friday 22 December)Carillion day. Early meeting followed by clearing the decks (and emails) before the Christmas break.

Day 46 (Saturday 23 December)Emergency Christmas shopping!

Day 47 (Sunday 24 December)Christmas preparation

Day 48 (Monday 25 December) to Day 54 (Sunday 31 December)Christmas Day, Boxing Day and holiday!New Year’s Eve party.

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report. It is a very open ended project, which the students tackle with considerable skill and energy! I hope they enjoyed it! By 11am I am elsewhere in the King’s Buildings delivering a lecture on sustainability to the third year which includes a dose of Telford and some comments about my focus for the year. At noon I return to the computer labs to answer questions on the 4th year project for the rest of the day. Great fun.

Day 63 (Tuesday 9 January)Carillion day. I return to the computer labs to be available to answer more questions and at 11am meet with Dr. Simon Smith to discuss the agenda for the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), which I chair (and have done since its inception). After finding time to start marking the forth year students first output, I then chair the IAB. Industrial input is so important to the universities. It is also very beneficial to companies and those giving their time to mentor and teach/coach the students (and staff!).

Day 64 (Wednesday 10 January)Carillion day. I take the train to London and catch up on emails. Late pm I meet with Engineering Policy and Innovation team member Chrissie Pepper (Dr.) to discuss an article on sustainable procurement we are jointly writing for the Irish Construction Times (I wonder if they will publish?). At 5.30 pm I join other British Geotechnical Association members for tea and a chat and then attend their evening meeting in the Telford Theatre. The meeting was a presentation on the new specification for piling and embedded walls, delivered by Tim Chapman, Tony Suckling and Alex Kidd to a packed theatre. The new specification is a fantastic example of collaboration and was delivered in only 18 months, an exceptional timeframe for such a comprehensive document. The presenters were part of a much larger team and gave due credit to those (some present) who had developed and written earlier specifications (standing on the shoulders of giants!). The speakers later promise a briefing note on the new specification will be submitted to the Institution’s proceedings panel and the possibilities of a full paper were discussed too. We enjoy a beer and lots of geotechnical discussions late into the evening.

Day 65 (Thursday 11 January)Carillion morning. Institution pm. I join the Regional Chairmen’s meeting for the afternoon. I sign 150 certificates and deal with post.

In the evening I meet up with Camilla Toulmin to discuss sustainability and poverty issues. Camilla works at a very strategic level internationally in this area. See weblink on day 44, week 7.

Week nine and tenNew Year and ECuk Day 55 (Monday 1 January)New Year’s day

Day 56 (Tuesday 2 January)Carillion day. Plus responding to emails for ICE

Day 57 (Wednesday 3 January)Carillion day.

Day 58 (Thursday 4 January)Carillion day.

Day 59 (Friday 5 January)Carillion day.

Day 60 (Saturday 6 January)Hockey, clarinet and life at home.

Day 61 (Sunday 7 January)Clarinet, packing, and quite a bit of the day travelling to Edinburgh by train. Engineering works make the journey over 6 hours (6.75 hours door to door)…longer than by air, but I feel better for it and got some work done. In addition, I tidied up my word and excel filing and my emails. I discovered I had filed 6000 emails in my various Carillion folders and 4700 emails in my ICE folder. Resolve to delete more as I go along this year. I had been deleting all the rubbish and (I thought) the emails I did not need to retain!

Day 62 (Monday 8 January)Carillion day. Lectures and design course at the University of Edinburgh. The day started with a briefing to forth year students for their 2 week geotechnical design project, which I have been running with Professor Mike Forde for about 8 years. The project is based on them developing a scheme for a casting basin for an immersed tube tunnel. I act as the client and the students start by identifying the sustainability and technical risks and then go on to develop some schematic options. An immersed tube tunnel is constructed by prefabricating tunnel units in a casting basin, floating them out into the river and then placing them in a dredged trough and joining them together. Simple! Not so simple in fact… these prefabricated units are over 100 metres in length, 35 metres wide, 12metres high and weigh over 30,000tonnes. The casting basin site is excavated through contaminated land, over 12m of very soft clay (Cu from 15 to 40KN/m2 for the technical amongst you), gravels and chalk (an aquifer). They have 4 hours to provide initial guidance to the client and two weeks to produce their full

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Day 66 (Friday 12 January)Arrive at One Great George Street entrance at the same time as Professor Barry Clarke, so we take a coffee in the café bar. I decline the full breakfast he suggested! Noting that he does not have one either! Barry has stepped in at short notice to represent the Joint Board of Moderators (who are they? you ask) at the ECuk review. More on this later. If you are a Chartered Engineer of any one of the 35 engineering institutions, then you will value that Chartered Engineer status. ECuk are the accreditation body which ensures that an appropriate standard is maintained by those institutions licensed to award chartered engineer status.

My first meeting of the day is a briefing from Membership Director David Lloyd Roach on the ECuk review visit. I am impressed by the thorough way David and his team have prepared for the review (essentially an audit). My next meeting is with Ellen Ryan, who looks after the Joint Board of Moderators. We discuss the forthcoming annual meeting between the 4 Institution Presidents and the JBM. The JBM is a joint body, comprising the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers which accredits university courses in civil engineering disciplines. Essentially, the JBM helps to ensure that university courses deliver an appropriate standard and range of education to enable graduates to become professionally qualified. This work creates real value for the Universities and society in establishing and maintaining standards and as a mechanism for exchanging best practice. The additional value to the ICE is that graduates from accredited programmes of study automatically meet the academic base for one of our professionally qualified grades of membership. Were you aware that your subscriptions are supporting this excellent work? It is one of the many ways in which the Institution supports and mentors education, educators and students.

At 11am I welcome the ECuk and Society for the Environment review teams and leave them to their work. Peter Hansford (vp) and David Lloyd Roach lead the Institution team, along with Barry Clarke (JBM), Raymond Coe (Professional Development Panel chairman), Paul Venn (Professional Reviews Panel chairman) , Andrew Roberts (Technical Reports Panel chairman), Sharon Geraghty-Bellingham (Senior Manager, Admissions and Processes) and Zoe Cunningham (Audits and Projects Manager).

Next I join the GSNet conference/committee. This is chaired by Ruth Hopgood and full of bright and enthusiastic people. They were having fun AND adding value. I was able to stay for a while and chat to most everyone over the light buffet lunch.

The day concluded with finalising the draft of the Irish Construction Times article and a meeting with Marketing and Comms Director Anne Moir.

The train home was diverted, so I arrived later than planned. A very full and interesting week!

Day 67 (Saturday 13 January)Clarinet, hockey (we won our first league game of the season with a winning goal in the final 2 minutes) and a birthday party.

Day 68 (Sunday 14 January)Long walk, packing for my Presidential visit to South Africa, more clarinet and some sax and dinner with friends.

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Watermeyer and Andrew Baird and their wives for dinner and to discuss the NEC (New Engineering Contract) events planned for the next two days.

Following some well attended NEC events in South Africa last November, it was felt that some briefings from “Mr. NEC” would help to promote a greater understanding of the NEC procurement route, especially after the launch of the new NEC suite of contracts last year. Martin’s first presentation was earlier in the day at the Development Bank of South Africa. We heard that it was very well received.

The weather was sunny and a very pleasant 24 degrees celsius. By 9pm it was dark and we sat in the restaurant listening to and watching a lightening storm and intense rain.

Day 72 (Thursday 18 January)6.30am start to drive to a “Captains of Industry Breakfast” hosted by the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) in Pretoria (60km away). Before the event starts we meet up with Martin Manuhwa, President of the Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers and Peter Morris, ICE country representative for Zimbabwe who had made a special visit to meet up with us and who were also attending several events with us. Avid reader(s) of this blog may recall that we met up with Martin in London on 22 November 2006.

The event, attended by about 60 invited guests, was splendidly chaired by Ronnie Khoza, Programme Manager: Procurement & Delivery Management for cidb. After Ronnie’s welcome Mr Ntopile Kganyago, the Deputy Minister of Public Works delivered an address reflecting on the very vibrant construction industry in South Africa, identifying the concerns about skills shortages and stressing the importance to the nation of successfully delivering the stadia for the 2010 Football World Cup, which is a massive opportunity to promote South Africa and its recent successes worldwide.

Dr Martin Barnes then spoke for some 45 minutes on “The UK experience in procuring large construction projects”. The talk started by describing the confrontational nature of construction contracts in the UK 10 to 20 years ago:■ Working with unreformed contracts, basically the same as

the Standard Civil Engineering Contract of 1860!■ Always choosing the lowest tender for the work (would

you do this with your heart surgeon?)■ Using bills of quantities■ Separating design from construction■ Paying engineers on fixed % fees (more cost, more fees).■ Ignoring risks, rather than managing/mitigating them and

ignoring the needs of stakeholders

Week eleven and twelveSouth Africa Day 69 (Monday 15 January)Carillion day.

Day 70 (Tuesday 16 January)Carillion day. Left office just before 3pm with Dorothy to drive to Heathrow Airport to catch the night flight to Johannesburg, with Tom Foulkes and his wife Sally. This is my first substantial Presidential Visit. A long overnight flight, slept badly.

South Africa has a population of 44 million (UK 60.6), a life expectancy of 42.7 years (UK 78.5), median age of 24.1 (UK 39.1) and an infant mortality rate per 1000 live births of 60.7 (UK 5).

Gross Domestic Product is $12,000 per capita (UK $30,300) and 30% of the whole African continent. Unemployment is 37% and 21.5% of the adult population have been estimated to be HIV positive (2004 figure).

The Institution has 437 members in South Africa.

Day 71 (Wednesday 17 January)Landed at Johannesburg’s Oliver T Tambo Airport at 10am (South Africa time, 2 hours ahead of the UK) and we were met by Country Representative Andrew Baird. Andrew dropped us at our hotel, where we rested for a short time, had lunch and then set off for our first activity. This was an afternoon cocktail party at the UK Trade Commissioners residence, in a district called Hyde Park.

We were welcomed by host and Trade Commissioner Brian Gallagher and I had an opportunity to respond and also took the opportunity to mention Telford, his birthday and our forthcoming celebrations, the reasons for our visit and my own focus areas for my Presidential year. Our third brief speaker was Neil McCloud, President of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE).

The assembled company included senior construction people from Government, consultants and contractors. The event provided an excellent opportunity to learn about South Africa, their booming construction industry, their skills shortages and some of the more disquieting statistics I have given above. It was also a great opportunity to establish contact with the Institution members and SAICE members present.

In the evening we met up with Dr. Martin Barnes, Ron

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■ And lots of other things which now seem silly (Martin’s words!).

This approach resulted in lots of conflicts, claims and disputes, great uncertainty of costs and time, an inefficient industry, unhappy clients and poor industry reputation. He then went on to describe the early development of the NEC suite of contracts (which he initiated, wrote and developed) and the findings and impact on the UK construction industry of the Latham and Egan reports.

He explained the benefits of the collaborative approach engendered by the NEC contracts which were designed to improve management of the design and construction process. He describes its benefits, such as its flexibility, its ability to manage problems and get rid of tensions and disputes and the way it rewards good management and collaboration.

A most excellent presentation! There followed some lively and informed discussion, which both Tom and I took part in. NEC has been used for some 15 years in South Africa, so many present were able to describe their own experiences.

A little later than planned, we set off for our next event, an informal gathering and luncheon with the JSD Committee at Johannesburg Country Club. JSD stands for Joint Structural Division and is a joint committee of the SAICE and the Institution of Structural Engineers. Following welcomes and a brief presentation by me, Tom and I signed a similar agreement with SAICE on behalf of the Institution, which will provide similar benefits to both our organisations and our members. Once again we gained an insight into the construction marketplace and its related issues (mainly associated with skills shortages, especially of civil engineers).

After an excellent lunch (I politely declined deserts and chocolates!) we travelled with Ron Watermeyer to the National War Museum in Saxonwold. We arrived in good time to wander around the museum for 40 minutes, dodging a couple of rain showers in the process.By 4pm ICE and SAICE members (some belonging to both) assembled for a tea and networking session. Here we met up with student Maxwell Vavana, who is a one man marketing enthusiast for civil engineering. Although we have not gone through a process to select a Telford Apprentice, the local committee were keen for Maxwell to get involved in Apprentice activities where it is appropriate…a suggestion I happily agreed to. At 4.30pm we all queued to get into the lecture theatre to hear Martin Barnes deliver his third presentation in 2 days! Ron Watermeyer chaired the lively question session and discussion.

Next it was my turn to say a few words, which started with Telford and then went on to close with the three issues I am focussing on in my presidential year. Mentoring and developing young engineers really struck a chord…. as it had in all our discussions so far this trip. Over 100 people were present, of which about 70% were Institution members…. a fantastic turn out. I really do feel a part of that family of civil engineers I referred to in my address. It is really great to meet so many people with such a passion for civil engineering!We returned to our hotel tired, but elated. I finally get to talk to Dorothy about her trip to Soweto.

Day 73 (Friday 19 January)Early start to avoid the traffic congestion and we go to the VW/Audi conference centre, where an NEC users group meeting is being held (in the auditorium, no kidding!). The venue had to be switched at the last minute to cater for the demand created by Martin Barnes’s presence… and of course the interest in NEC in South Africa. This is the first joint ICE/SAICE event, which I have the honour to open and welcome delegates. Tom and I then have to leave for our next event, leaving NEC panel member and another NEC guru, Andrew Baird to deliver the workshop with Martin Barnes. Andrew was focussing on recent developments and the NEC3 Supply Contract and Martin was looking at strengths and weaknesses of NEC3, “Dealing with compensation events” and the “Accepted Programme” (all NEC speak!).

Ron Watermeyer (again!) transported Tom and I to the SAICE headquarters for a meeting with SAICE President Neil McCloud and other senior members and officials to discuss our agreement and ways in which our organisations can best learn from each other and work together. A fruitful and friendly meeting. We were handed a copy of the SAICE Infrastructure Report card for South Africa: 2006, modelled on our own State of the Nation Report, and, like our report, well received by politicians and influencers. Sharing knowledge and mentoring were again core to our discussions. Much was made of Professor Jowitt’s after dinner speech at their annual dinner in November. In particular his singing (true Boer accent apparently, not bad for a “Scot” someone said. Not bad for a Yorkshireman I thought quietly!) AND his guitar playing. No one mentioned his Brunel lecture!!... but fortunately we had received high praise for that already. Well done Paul…. You have created a great impression. A real demonstration of how we can serve engineers and society in the international arena.

Discussions and sandwich lunch over, the ever dependable Ron took us to the airport, just in time to catch our flight to Durban.

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We had been in Johannesburg for less than 48 hours. A fast moving and exhilarating experience. Many thanks to Country representative Andrew Baird and Ron Watermeyer for their great organisation, their friendship and company…and of course, all those lifts!

Short flight to Durban. We settled into our hotel and prepared to meet SAICE and ICE committee members in the early evening. Rob Young (surfer extraordinaire) was our host and welcomed Tom, our wives and me to the gathering. He then invited me to speak, so speak I did, for probably 20 minutes, drifting at one point into “tube a manchette” grouting and compensation grouting. This diversion was caused by member Jim Metcalfe, who in earlier times had been a young engineer on the Backwater Dam. As all you geotechnical engineers know, this was the first use of tube a manchette (TAM) grouting in the UK. Soletanche (Bert Godden I think) had designed the grouting scheme to repair a leaking clay core in the earth dam. I had read up on this project in the late 1970s since I was the agent for NGS (Nuttall Geotechnical Services) on the second occasion TAM was used (at Coulter Dam, Lanarkshire). We were a small contractor, so I set out, kept records and charts, worked out bonuses, made tea, drilled and manufactured many of the TAMs and repaired many of the packers myself. Great experience. Yet another splendid evening to talk about civil engineering. I wonder if we get like fishermen with the jobs expanding as the drink flows! I think not! The talk and the buffet kept us going until bedtime.

Day 74 (Saturday 20 January)A geotechnical day! Our hosts, consulting engineers Goba provided us with technical briefings and a site visit to the new Durban Harbour Tunnel project. Nearing completion, this project is the first use of a slurry boring machine in South Africa. We went across the harbour channel to visit the south shaft and walk down the tunnel. A fantastic experience to see the diaphragm wall shaft and the tunnel, which is now completed. The temporary works alone would have provided any engineer with sufficient challenges and an experience of a lifetime. Durban is one of the busiest ports in the world, with a boat entering the harbour every 20 minutes… so any project to widen and deepen the port entrance was bound to challenge civil engineers and give them the opportunity to demonstrate engineering excellence.

The new dredged channel goes below the existing tunnel, which takes all the Durban sewage under the port entrance to disposal. Ground conditions were a mix of granular materials and clays, causing problems with the tunnelling machine and slurry cleansing. All in a day’s work

for engineers to solve! Following the site visit, we toured the vast harbour which is one of the great commercial portals for southern Africa, not just South Africa. In the evening Tom and I are joined for dinner by Rob Young, Neil McCloud (president of SAICE) and our wives. A splendid conclusion to the Durban visit and a great opportunity to further cement relations with SAICE and one of our key members.

Day 75 (Sunday 21 January)Travelled to Capetown, where we were met by local member Keith MacHutcheon. We went to our hotel on Capetown’s magnificent waterfront development. We reached the hotel early afternoon and were about to take a quick look at the shops before taking a late afternoon trip to Table Mountain. Lucky or what?... after queuing for 40 minutes we caught the last cable car up the mountain before it was closed due to high winds. The cloud rolled over the tabletop like a carpet… spectacular. We were told to stay close to the cable car and after some 20 minutes the siren sounded for us all to go straight back down, while the cable car could still operate. It was indeed windy at the top and the views were absolutely SPECTACULAR. A 360 degree view of the city and its environs. Well worth the 20 minute we were able to spend up there.

Managed 130 minutes on the clarinet during the week, 80 minutes down on my usual target!

Day 76 (Monday 22 January)Another geotechnical day. Keith introduced us to Shirwell Kipps who was to be our “engineer of the day”. Shirwell took on a tour of the Cape, picked us up at 9am and drove us to Chapman’s Peak Drive. This was the location of another great geotechnical challenge (we geotechnical engineers do not have problems!). Following one very serious injury and a death from rock falls, the road had been closed for two years while potential solutions were explored. At one end of the spectrum was the “do-nothing” solution… either keep 5km of the road permanently closed or accept the risk of further fatalities (accepted as an unacceptable option). Closing the road would considerably impact on the tourist trade and a spectacular vista for those taking that route from Capetown to the Cape of Good Hope. At the other end of the spectrum a protective concrete box was proposed. A much safer option, but one which cast thousands of tonnes of concrete into the hillside and wrecked the views.

Shirwell and his team had other ideas. It was recognised that catch fences were used in alpine regions to protect against rock falls and avalanches (of snow!), so it was asked if such measures could be effective in this location.

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6. ICE shares knowledge, though meetings (10,000 a year, have you organised one yet?), conferences (next one on sustainability, which I chair), special named lectures (for example the Brunel Lecture, delivered by Professor Jowitt in some 20 locations worldwide)

7. ICE provides a training and development framework, especially for the younger members. Mentoring, mentoring, mentoring!! We must all do it.

8. ICE influences government and business (for example, the State of the Nation Report).

9. ICE recognises engineering excellence, through its awards. Promoting people will promote and enhance our reputations as civil engineers. Raising our profile in society is one of our members’ demands! We have asked them.

10. ICE and all its members have a pivotal role and opportunity to help deliver the sustainability agenda (which includes climate change in my book). This is a terrific opportunity for civil engineers to lead! We cannot achieve this as individuals, but through our institution, we can, and I quote Ghandi: “make that change we want to see in the world “.

Can you add more?

My closing remark to some of the presentations I have given this past week is the relevant one here:

If ALL our 77,000 members did just ONE thing every day to help deliver the sustainability agenda, to promote the value of engineering knowledge and to mentor others (at home too!), then collectively we would deliver over 84 million actions every year!

I suggest we just get on and do it!

The pessimist says the cup is half empty, the optimist says it is half full. The visionary says that we are halfway to the next cup.

Which one of these people do you want to be?

Day 77 (Tuesday 23 January)The end of our visit. What an interesting and amazing experience. We have met some wonderful people and wonderful engineers. A tiring but exhilarating experience, with added geotechnical too.

We have all had a fantastic visit. Tom and Sally travel home, while Dorothy and I stay on in Capetown for a few extra days.

Day 78 (Wednesday 24 January) to day 82 (Sunday 28 January)Writing blog, being a tourist, playing clarinet and travelling home.

The team developed an elegant engineering and risk based approach. A sophisticated GIS model of the slopes was developed and 40,000 “virtual rocks” were thrown down the slopes to identify trajectory, bounce, gully routes and the forces which needed to be restrained by the fences. This data enabled the fence position, orientation and size (3m or 6m) to be designed. In all, 1500m of fencing was designed and installed and in one area of very high risk it was necessary to construct 50m of covered concrete protection. All this was designed and constructed in 15 months… with the project being completed in 2003. To hear the design story first hand from Shirwell was a privilege. A week later Dorothy is still talking about the jointed restraint posts and the coil sprung netting…. All designed to absorb the energy of falling debris and rocks. Those interested in learning more about this award winning project should refer to the Institution Proceedings!

Buoyed by my second injection of geotechnical excellence in three days, we travelled on to say hello to the penguins at Boulder, Simonstown, on our way to one of the most significant points on earth…the Cape of Good Hope, the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Another remarkable location.

In the evening we met with committee members of the Western Cape SAICE and further discussed joint activities. One point was raised about subscriptions, since South Africa no longer enjoys a significant discount following harmonisation of the 600 plus rates we used to apply worldwide… an administrative nightmare, even with computers. A good point for both the Institution and SAICE. Our members often do not understand where their subscriptions go and what real value their support helps to deliver in schools and universities. It is patently not just the NCE magazine. I would like to have had the time to debate this further. My quick ten Institution benefits are:

1. MICE is a valued qualification and competence standard recognised across the globe.

2. ICE helps set and monitor educational standards in universities and colleges.

3. ICE promotes the profession in schools (e.g. the Flushed Away game just launched)… our future engineers!

4. ICE promotes the profession in universities and colleges and supports undergraduates (who get free membership)

5. ICE helps to develop engineering knowledge, through research funding, creating networks and through its publications. Note this and other points in this list are society benefits too! I hope all our members feel that they also have a responsibility to society.

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Week thirteenApprentice Day and North West regional visit Day 83 (Monday 29 January)Carillion day

Day 84 (Tuesday 30 January)Early start for the train to London. Arrived in One Great George Street in time to see off some post and sign a few certificates before a brief meeting with Anne Moir and Kim Woolger to discuss the Telford Apprentices’ Day. The ‘Telfords’ were spending a day finding out about the Institution and working on another task. I kicked off their day at 10.15am with a brief introduction to the programme and some comments about my trip to South Africa. I then briefed them on the task for the afternoon (Task 7 on mentoring) and left them to their presentations and discussions on three key Institution issues:

■ engineering strategy ■ membership and ■ UK regional organisation

Following a brief meeting with my PA Clare Gray to catch up on post, actions and diary, I met with Malcolm Shirley, Secretary to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Malcolm had kindly offered to brief me on the excellent work of the Commission. Why, you might ask? In fact, as President, I have the honour to be one of its Commissioners. The Commission was set up to plan and promote the Great Exhibition, which was a resounding success. When its affairs were wound up, there was a surplus of £186,000. A Supplementary Charter established that these considerable funds (can someone work out a present day value?) be used to “increase to means of industrial education and extend the influence of science and art upon productive industry”. The commission purchased 87 acres in South Kensington. The land included the sites of the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Imperial College. Much of this land has subsequently been passed to the Government. The income generated, which is about £1million per year supports industrial fellowships, industrial design studentships and research fellowships in science, engineering and the built environment. If you or a friend might benefit from some of these awards, then visit their website at www.royalcommission1851.org.uk

My next meeting was one of my regular updates with Tom Foulkes and this was followed by the most important meeting of the year, the Presidential Selection Panel. The

Panel meets to review nominations for vice presidents and to make recommendations to Council… the decision making body for our Institution. I’m afraid you will have to wait for a Council decision on this before I can reveal more.

I was able to return to the Apprentices event in time for the feedback session on their task, which had progressed well. The two teams (supported by our two Mentor of the Year winners, Steve Everton and Isabel Coman) generated ideas and have a plan to deliver two 800 word briefing notes designed to help members understand how to be mentors and what to look for as a mentee.

At 5.15pm we all go to the library for the launch of the Telford 250 website. Head of Knowledge, Mike Chrimes entertained us with some anecdotes from Telford’s engineering and personal life and gave a demonstration of this splendid site. If you want to know more about Telford and all the activities planned to celebrate his 250th birthday, then go to www.thomastelford250.org/

The day closed with a small Telford Apprentices dinner and more discussion on the involvement and contribution young engineers can make in society, mentoring, the tasks and many other things.

Day 85 (Wednesday 31 January)Early walk into OGGS and cleared my post and some actions for a couple of hours. 9.30am meeting with Keith Logan (Head of MIS) to talk about the contribution digitisation has made to the efficiency of the Institution and in the way it helps us on the sustainability front. I had not realised that over £7million of subscriptions have now been collected “on line” in the past 4 years. Do you pay yours on line? Over 10% of us do. Did you know that you can now get a receipt (essential if you are one of the lucky 40% of members whose company recognises the benefits of supporting their staff in this way). This is much more efficient in terms of paper… no sacks of subscription cheques! 57% of members are now in electronic contact with us (or could be!) and in 3 years over 30,000 address changes have been processed electronically! Just imaging the staff time this used to take!

I next have a meeting with Anne Moir to discuss activities and events over the next month and this is followed by a briefing on my Presidential visit to the North West Region. Finance Director Brian Murkin is joining Dorothy and I on the visit. I have a few presentations and chairing duties!

At 11.30 am Tom and I meet with Engineers Ireland President John McGowan and Director General, Kevin Kernan. We discuss skills shortages, best practice,

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sustainability was being integrated into civil engineering courses and then we went on to discuss the Bologna Agreement and its impact on engineering qualification across Europe. This is a big issue. We are at risk of being left behind in a European system which potentially sees our educational process as lacking. The education system leading to a Masters’ degree is currently “3+1” (3 years for bachelor degree and a one year top up to masters), or the integrated 4-year MEng. In Europe the education base is a “3+2” approach. A “structured year in industry” could be used to fill the gap, but this would need university support and assessment. This appears to be a solution favoured by some academics and would, I suspect suit some employers too. But, and there is a big but! This cannot be achieved without extra resources to enable the universities to support and deliver!

Those extra resources need to be funded.In an age of skills shortages, should we be trying to raise the skills and engineering excellence of our graduates?Will UK plc benefit? Will employers and graduate engineers benefit? A resounding YES to all three! ICE has recently responded to the House of Commons Education & Skills Select Committee on this very subject.

Should we as ICE be doing more? What are the other institutions doing? If anyone is reading this, perhaps you might like to comment! Thank you to Prof Graham Thompson, who is head of U of Man School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, for making such an impassioned case.

We were then taken on a tour of the facilities and workshops in the department by Paul Nedwell. Thanks Paul.

We next had some free time, so Finance Director Brian Murkin and I explored the city centre, seeing the mix of new and old and recognising that Manchester had indeed been a major city for hundreds of years.

At 6.15pm we had a briefing meeting on the next day’s events and we then walked to the CUBE for the Graduates and Students “surprise evening of entertainment and refreshment”.

And what an evening of fun it was. We had a big quiz run in a most professional manner by Chairman’s Apprentice Ben Hodgkin. One element of the quiz was a match between me and Telford Apprentice James Wallace. Let’s just say I came second! The teams all had colours, so I was in the purple team. As it turned out this was appropriate…. We started well and then had a purple patch, coming in amongst the teams lower down! The event would make

knowledge sharing, registration and benchmarking. It was an excellent meeting and yet another opportunity to build on our existing relationship with Engineers Ireland. My next meeting is at Whitby Bird, with some young engineers and former president Mark Whitby. We discuss the Institution, institutions generally (shapes and sizes, volunteer involvement and serving society), sustainability (what the Institution is doing, what the marketplace is doing) and energy (from nuclear, wind and dynamic demand to light bulbs). Mark remains as forthright as he was when our President back in 2001-2. Part of the reason for my visit was to gain a better understanding of the sustainability issues of the nuclear debate…so I was in listening mode. It is so easy to bandy about dramatic figures, and I do not have sufficient knowledge in this area to weigh in for a discussion. So I prefer to have some information which will allow my analytical mind to gain understanding and to balance the various issues. I am promised some technical papers and information which will help me to do this!

I do some Carillion stuff, then take a train back to Wolves. I met Professor David Anderson (Civil Engineering, Warwick University) on the train, so we swapped notes and chatted before applying ourselves to trains (in his case) and emails and the computer (in mine).

Day 86 (Thursday 1 February)Presidential visit to the North West Region. I train to Manchester to be met by regional chairman Peter Hallsworth, Ian Whyte and others. Ian is our host for the “Meet the President” event at the University of Manchester. Telford Apprentice James Wallace has also joined the group and will be with me (in a working capacity!) for the two day visit. We walk to the university and I kick off the session with a short video and a presentation before opening up the debate on sustainability, education and other questions. James too gave a short insight into his role as a Telford Apprentice. The debate with the students as usual, was the best bit of the session. Thank you Dan for the timekeeping, Colin for the question about promoting civil engineers and civil engineering in society. Colin was appointed Marketing Director for all our 77,000 members during the course of the discussion! There were also notable contributions by Thomas, Lisa, Richard and Gavin. It was a fun event and a lively group comprising students from all 4 years of the course. Jade Hundziak kindly gave a vote of thanks and presented me with a Manchester University 1824 clock… a fantastic memento of the visit and something which will continue to remind me of the session and the visit.

Next we adjourned for a sandwich lunch and debate with university staff. Initially the discussion focussed on how

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a great team building activity for any company. We all made new friends, there was a friendly, but competitive edge, we all learnt something and we all had a great laugh (not always at my expense!). What an energetic and vibrant group of young engineers… as I recounted to the 440 at the dinner the following night. The future of civil engineering, our Institution and quiz show hosts is safe in their hands! A long, but exhilarating day.

Day 87 (Friday 2 February)Time to meet up with some graduate engineers and SCEs. Our day started at Laing O’Rourke’s Birley Fields offices. After a brief introduction to the session by our host Andy Crompton, LOR’s NW Business Leader, I spoke on the subject of engineering excellence and the value of professional qualifications. James also gave his perspective on professional qualification and told them a bit about being a Telford Apprentice. I naturally also covered the value of Institution involvement and the value of ICE membership (BOTH are just as important!) and the corporate responsibility/sustainability agenda. I was already aware that LOR are amongst the leaders in promoting engineering excellence (the value of engineering knowledge) and the development of their engineers. We all agreed that more competent engineers were better for our companies, our clients and society… and better for the engineers themselves too since they will deliver more and their competence and skills are more highly recognised. Following this bigger “meet the president” session, I was able to chat individually to small groups of engineers about their own experiences.

I could have stayed for hours, but we were due at Beetham Tower for a quick tour hosted by the Hilton Hotel, which occupies the first 24 stories of this 48 story building. The views from the 23rd floor were fantastic. We looked down over city buildings, the Coronation Street set and all the Manchester road, rail and canal links. In the distance was the airport and we just make out Jodrell Bank in the mist. For safety reasons, we were not able to take such a big party to the top floor of what is apparently the tallest residential block in Europe. A pity, since on a clear day you can apparently see Snowdon, some 80 miles away!

We returned to the first floor where I was chairing a Presidential Forum on sustainability. Four speakers set the scene:■ Dave Colbert, Regional Transport Advisor for the

Northwest Regional Authority spoke on demand management and land use in the context of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

■ Dr. Pauleen Lane, Board Member of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, university lecturer and

also a former mayor of Trafford covered the political dimension in securing delivery of sustainable urban regeneration.

■ Roy Newton, Team Leader for the Greater Manchester Joint Transport Team described the JMJTT strategy for benefiting Manchester (business and communities) through a package of integrated transport measures, which included road user charging. This is the sort of topic where engineering solutions and politics interface!

■ Walter Menzies, CEO of the Mersey Basin Campaign looked at the role of water and waterside location in economic and social regeneration.

Four excellent presentations! Walter also managed to cover water usage, sustainability and the real benefits of the Institution in his presentation too. Lots of tough questions followed for the speakers’ panel, with a fair amount of discussion on integrating transport properly and the mechanisms which would best deliver this. Thank you Jon, Eric, John C, John Mc, and Andrew for your contributions. “Time to put our foot down and do something” said Chairman’s Apprentice Stephen Whitham whose question rightly challenged the panel to suggest what we should all do now to make a real change. This brought out real passion from the panel which left us all in no doubt that we could all do much to follow the advice of Nicholas Stern, whose report recommended us all to “take action, and to take action now” on the climate change agenda.

The discussions continued over lunch, after which we were whisked away by Michael Bailey. It was a lovely day for a walk and Michael, ICE member and Trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry at Castlefield. Michael first took us to see the site of the first cast iron beam span in the world. He then showed us the Stephenson Bridge over the River Irwell (1830, red sandstone arch bridge) and then took us into first railway station in the world. It was built for the Manchester-Liverpool line and provided separate facilities and entrances for first class and second class passengers. There followed a rapid walk through some of the 17 galleries of the museum (the restored timber frame warehouse was the highlight for me), a short stop for tea and then what I can only describe as a bridges extravaganza.. I have never seen so many bridges in such close proximity. They all took either pedestrians, roads or railways over what must have been the most complex transport interchange of its day. I can remember neither date nor designers, for which I apologise. If any readers are interested about the details, then Michael, the master of his subject, will provide all these as well as the development history which goes with it all. One bridge is for sale for a pound, should you be interested in owning one. A fantastic

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We are a big and strong family with a real sense of purpose and service.

Day 88 (Saturday 3 February)Train back to Bridgnorth. Tired but exhilarated. I unpack, rest awhile, play clarinet and go down to the hockey club for a beer.I discover that my team had won 11-0 last week! We had either lost or drawn all our games before Christmas, despite a young and energetic team (except me). The passion was there, but the goals just did not come. After Christmas we won our first league game. This week, with me absent, they win by 11 goals! Is this telling me something?

Day 89 (Sunday 4 February)Blogging, clarinet, a long walk with Dorothy and a friend and my first trip to my local for 3 weeks. All my batteries recharged!

structure, but one I fear which is likely to need millions of pounds to put back into use. Thanks to the museum managers and staff (principally Robin Holgate and Sean Gaffeney) and special thanks to Michael for such a splendid tour.

In the evening Dorothy and I attended the North West Dinner. Another splendid event. While we dined, we listened to the lovely sound of jazz saxophone and piano. North West Graduates and Students Committee Vice-Chairman Chris Middlebrook gave the toast to the Institution. Peter Hallsworth, the NW Chairman gave an excellent speech and I was presenting prizes and certificates in recognition of the great mentoring and projects in the North West. See the ICE NW website for the details of all the winners. The Merit Award was awarded to the Leven Viaduct project at Ulverston in Cumbria. An elegant and innovative solution for a 460m viaduct deck replacement completed in half the time set out in the tender. A great demonstration of teamwork and civil engineering skills. The Award, the top award for the NW, recognises and encourages excellence and imaginative concepts in civil engineering practice in the NW… just the thing we should be doing to promote our excellent civil engineers and civil engineering.

James Wallace continued to contribute to the presidential visit by reading the citations for some of the awards. It really has been fun having him on the visit, so I hope he feels that he has benefited from the experience. It is not everyone who can stand in front of 100 students, 60 graduates and students, 60 more engineers and 440 members at a dinner to make speeches and engage in discussions (and quizzes!). James did a great job. I hope that his involvement will have encouraged many young engineers to compete for the role next year. The NW had such fantastic candidates that Peter Hallsworth decided to take on 4 of them as Chairman’s Apprentices (Stephen Whitham of Gifford, Ben Hodgkin of Faber Maunsell, Jenny Smith of Mott MacDonald & Jon Yates)

Well done Peter. All 4 and James have big personalities and are obviously names to look out for in the future in engineering AND in the Institution.Following dinner I was able to relax and enjoyed the opportunity to meet with and chat to friends old and new. Late to bed!

The end of the visit. I did not see Peter again that evening to say how much I had appreciated and enjoyed it. I will speak to him and drop him a note of thanks. Like all my presidential visits so far I remain just so impressed by the energy, actions and friendliness of all the members I meet.

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(Marketing and Communications Director) I return to my office to sign even more certificates and prepare for the conference.

The conference was indeed a full and fantastic day. There were 11 presentations interwoven with questions and discussion and the usual breaks for coffee, lunch and tea. The presentations were excellent as you might expect with such an illustrious group of speakers and we debated procurement challenges, strategy, tools, guidance and sustainability in practice. See the link to the flyer for more details of the presentations. We are hoping to publish some of them. If you want to see where to start, you could do no better than read “Procuring the Future” (http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/publications/procurement-action-plan/index.htm), published by the Sustainable Procurement Task Force. If you want to start making the change to becoming more sustainable in your procurement, then start using the flexible framework (page 68 of Procuring the Future).

Thank you Neville, Ian, Jonathon, Barry, Sally, David, Lorraine, David F, Geoff, George, Simon, David R, Allan and lastly, but by no means least Nick Raynsford. It was a conference not to be missed. The final round table sessions produced some excellent feedback, which Environment and Sustainability Board members Roger Venables and Jonathan Essex will be consolidating into a short report for the Board.

After the end of conference goodbyes, I join the British Geotechnical Association members for a cup of tea before their evening meeting entitled “What constitutes contaminated land”. It was a lively meeting (I confess I had to miss the first part of it) followed by the usual post meeting debate and geotechnical banter in the bar. I crunched back to the presidential flat through the sand and salt mix on the pavements.

Day 93 (Thursday 8 February)Snow! So I carried my case as I walked through the slush on the pavement. Great fruit salad for breakfast in the café bar as I watched the TV monitor telling me of all the transport problems and delays. Schools cancelled in lots of places and the radio programmes making a big fuss over it. I spend my first hour on the phone, upsetting one individual who I should have called back rather more quickly than I did. I apologise and then that call makes me late for my first meeting of the day! The meeting was the

ICE (www.ice.org.uk/homepage/index.asp)

CECA (www.ceca.co.uk/homepage/index.asp)

Week fourteenSustainable procurement Day 90 (Monday 5 February)Carillion day. I note that a quarter of my presidency has now passed.

Day 91 (Tuesday 6 February)Early train to London. Once at One Great George Street I cleared some post and signed yet more certificates (for new members and company training schemes). At 11am I hosted a meeting about CROSS, the Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety scheme inaugurated by SCOSS (the Standing Committee on Structural Safety). See my blog (week 6 day 36) for more details. The meeting today was to discuss how more contractors might contribute to this confidential reporting scheme.

Alastair Soane, Director of CROSS, Jon Prichard, Director of Engineering Policy and Innovation and I were joined by Chris Watson of Carillion, Richard Rook of Laing O’Rourke and Kevin Ward of Sir Robert McAlpine. We had a very useful discussion resulting in a number of actions which should help deliver our objective for the meeting. I will report back on the 5 specific actions as we progress!

Following lunch I then joined the Executive Board meeting for the rest of the afternoon. There was a very full agenda and the meeting was expertly chaired by Senior Vice president David Orr. The substantive discussion was on the recommendations of the working group on our discussions about closer working with IMechE.

In the evening I hosted a dinner with the ICE directors and vice presidents. My objective was to discuss issues pertaining to the presidency and broader Institution issues. There was expressly no discussion on any Executive or Council matters. We debated the Telford Apprentices and scheme, university links and how they might be strengthened and presidential tours (feedback from my South Africa trip and objectives for future tours).

Day 92 (Wednesday 7 February)Breakfast in the café bar, where I meet up with John Findlay, a frequent visiting member who likes to drop in for a coffee on his way to early morning meetings. John is a fellow geotechnical engineer, who like me, has held a very much broader engineering role for some years. Sir Neville Simms and Dr Barbara Morton were also in for a coffee and discussion prior to the Sustainable Procurement conference I am chairing today. Following coffee and a short meeting with Senior Vice President David Orr and Anne Moir

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CPA (www.constprod.org.uk/pages/index.asp)

CIRIA (www.ciria.org/)

ACE (www.acenet.co.uk/index.cfm?page=1)

Strategy and Action Plan steering group meeting. Chairman Mark Broadhurst had been a victim of the weather and had not been able to get the train up from Cornwall, so Ian Nicholson stepped in to lead the meeting. Telford Apprentice Paula Farshim also attended as a guest and, as you would expect of a Telford Apprentice, made good contributions to the discussion.

Following the meeting I took the train to Wolverhampton. We had to divert via Northampton, so arrived some 40 minutes later than planned. On the train I met George Martin of Wilmott Dixon, who had been one of the presenters in the Sustainable Procurement conference. We chatted for a while, then both turned to our computers for the rest of the journey.

Day 94 (Friday 9 February)Carillion day. Snowing again during the day, so I left the office at 4pm. Like many others, I found myself stuck in traffic and the trip home took four and a half hours. At one point it took two hours to go two miles. Dorothy and I were dining with neighbours. Despite the snow and my late arrival, we had a great evening.

Day 95 (Saturday 10 February)Lazy start to the day, clarinet, then a walk to town with Dorothy to do the shopping. A heavy load to carry up the hill home! I am upset to find that three branches have broken off my cedar tree…. snow load. One branch had cracked noisily last night as another of my neighbours parked in the drive… he could not get up the lane to his house and had slid gently into my gate post. Worry not, the gate post is fine! I do more clarinet practice in the evening to catch up on my target for the week. I am still trying to get a grip of the two Mozart pieces I started a month ago.

Day 96 (Sunday 11 February)Clarinet, great walk in the warm sun for 3 hours.

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Week fifteenICE Forum Day 97 (Monday 12 February)Carillion day.

Day 98 (Tuesday 13 February)Carillion day, but my first meeting this morning was at St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth to discuss our bid to put a commemorative plaque on the church to Thomas Telford. Local member John Brownlee has kindly taken on the coordination role for this. We discuss materials, size, text and location as well as the formal element of obtaining the necessary approval and permissions (ICE PHEW committee and from the church, it will require a “faculty” from the diocese). The rest of the day was Carillion, except a few emails and phone calls.

Day 99 (Wednesday 14 February)This was going to be a Carillion day, but I have an invite to the second meeting called by Lord Browne, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, to discuss progress on his coordinated Institution initiative (see week 5, day 27). An impressive meeting, things are progressing well! I take the opportunity to clear emails and correspondence on the train. Back at OGGS (One Great George Street) I catch up on arrangements for the Telford Celebration Dinner arrangements for 17 July following the AGM and Smeaton lecture on Thomas Telford. I suggest those wishing to attend might like to get their applications in early! This is just the sort of event we should be encouraging graduates and students to attend (and helping them out by buying them a dinner ticket!). After going back to some Carillion stuff, I pop in to see the Geotechnique Advisory Panel and later share a drink and a chat with Chairman John Atkinson (professor and erstwhile talented dinghy sailor. 35 years ago he crewed for Chris Edwards in the National 12 Fleet and wiped the board in all competition for most of the years they sailed together). Geotechnique is a remarkable journal, publishing some 50 papers of the 250 or so submitted to them every year. It is THE geotechnical journal worldwide and its success depends on the fantastic volunteer time put in by the 12 panel members, who themselves are amongst the cream of today’s geotechnical engineers. I return to my desk to clear more paperwork and decide to leave at about 8pm, only to find I was locked in.

It was of course Valentine’s Night and for once, there were no evening events or meetings in the building. All the staff had gone home and the security man was on his rounds… I returned to my desk and escaped 30 minutes later! This was not the best of days to be away from home! Worry not, I

had presented my wife with flowers, card and gift and we will be celebrating at a Chinese New Year party on Sunday night. I return to the president’s flat, play a little clarinet and pop out for a light supper at 10pm.

Day 100 (Thursday 15 February)Another milestone for me… 100 days! Fruit bowl for breakfast. At the weekend I had found that I have lost a few pounds (in weight!) since becoming President! I have more post and signing to do (than anyone else I think to myself) and then meetings with Clare to catch up on diary and correspondence and Anne Moir to discuss future speeches and presentations.

At lunchtime I had a meeting with Ernst and Young partner and ICE member Gerard Gallagher. Gerard is a former Council member and probably, at 33, amongst the youngest of Ernst & Young’s partners.

At 10am - 2pm I have a Carillion meeting about our 2006 sustainability targets and this was followed by the big event of the day at 3pm, an ICE Forum meeting on procurement. The seminar debate was informed and led by Martin Barnes (NEC originator and guru and also President of the Association for Project Management) and Bob McGowan (Chairman of the NEC Strategy Group and another expert in this and many other issues). The debate focussed on 3 questions:

■ What will be the next big thing in procurement?■ How can sustainability be best embraced in

procurement?■ How can sustainability be best embraced in

procurement in developing countries?

The contribution from our senior industry forum members was impressive and the ICE team have a number of fantastic ideas to develop. It was pleasing to see the genuine industry support for the NEC suite of contracts. Apparently it is in use on 30% of building contracts and 70% of infrastructure projects in the UK…. A remarkable achievement in demonstrating the benefits of collaborative contracts.

The meeting closed on time at 5.45pm, allowing me to meet briefly with the London region team who were discussing my presidential visit in October. I then slip into the Telford Theatre by the back door (OK, so it squeaked a bit!) to sit in on the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) meeting. 100+ people attended the lecture given by Ashley Poulter on Combe Down Stone Mines Project. The meeting was chaired by BTS Chairman Bill Grose from Arup. Bill closed the meeting by congratulating the speaker on not only his presentation, but also for the confident and expert way

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he handled the questions. Worthy praise for an excellent speaker. As is tradition for tunnellers, we adjourned to the bar to recount all our previous successes and eat Cornish pasty or sausage and chips. The good old days on the Jubilee Line construction were well remembered! The tunnellers are a mix of professions from civil engineers, mechanical, electrical, ventilation, machine and plant manufacturers and experts, precast lining manufacturers, fibre concrete specialists, instrumentation experts and piling and diaphragm walling contractors. In fact, there are many more professions, manufacturers and trades than I can list here… a true cross disciplinary group. A fantastic network and knowledge bank! One BTS member lambasted me because the sausages ran out… more were in transit, but not before the member had left. I understand that the matter will be raised at the AGM! I hope I will be able to attend future meetings, they are a fantastic bunch… and so many old friends, in both senses of the word.

Day 101 (Friday 16 February)Carillion day, in London. Another fruit bowl breakfast in the café bar. An hour on the phone on a combination of ICE and Carillion business and yet more post. I then have a Carillion meeting and spend the rest of the day on Carillion stuff.

Day 102 (Saturday 17 February)Household, clarinet and hockey. With me back in the team, and 6 regulars missing, we lose very badly (9-0). Everyone runs so much faster than me! In the evening Dorothy and I enjoy a performance of High Society by the local amateur operatic society. A full house for their final performance of the week. A great show, as always. A lot of our friends and acquaintances are in the 45 strong (in both senses!) cast. I especially appreciate the music at these events and, as always, check out the clarinet and saxophone makes (Le Blanc and Selmer).

Day 103 (Sunday 18 February)Short morning walk and popped in to say hello to our new neighbours across the lane who moved in during the week. Trip to the tip with cardboard, plastics and paper then blog writing. Clarinet/sax lesson. Chinese New Year meal with a dozen friends at the China Diner. Fantastic food.

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Week sixteenICE North West seminar Day 104 (Monday 19 February)Train to London for a Carillion meeting followed by a brief meeting with Joe Noakes, a young graduate member from the Environment Agency in Yorkshire. Joe had made contact via a mutual friend, so I took the opportunity to check out his progress to chartered status.

To fit in with my diary, he agreed to visit me on the day of the communication competition and certificate presentations. I left Joe to join one of the tours of the building laid on for the successful candidates and sat in on a judges’ briefing for the communication competition. Today was the final and three teams had already battled through preliminary rounds to face a “public meeting” audience to set out their reasons for building a wind farm in their community.

Each team had to make a presentation to a public meeting, outlining their wind farm proposal, explaining why this location had been chosen and how the design and construction team were intending to minimise the impact on the community and the local environment.

All the teams displayed a great understanding of the brief and delivered their presentations very well. In addition to the pressure of presenting the case in front of the judges, the audience were invited to take their role as residents, seriously interrupting the presentations and later asking some tough questions of the team members. We heard of concerns with house prices, bird disruption, visual intrusion, location and other issues which the teams all handled with great patience.

By the end of the three presentations the audience was well versed in the technical and social issues of wind farm construction and voted to support the scheme (with only two or three against the proposal!). The judges, Lionel Zetter, President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Anne Moir, ICE’s Director of Marketing and Communications and me retired to come to a decision on a winner. A difficult task when all the teams had done so well. The winning team was Arup, from Wales, who were invited to the Awards night to collect their £500 prize. My congratulations to the teams and indeed all the teams who took part in the competition…. A fantastic demonstration of the skills of our engineers of tomorrow.

Forgetting lunch, I dashed to the next event, the certificate presentation ceremony, where 150 new members and

their guests were present to celebrate their becoming incorporated or chartered members of the Institution and a small number of more senior engineers were celebrating becoming Fellows. The ceremony was organised with the precision of a military parade. Following the introductions by Membership Director, David Lloyd Roach, I shook 150 hands, smiled and handed over 150 certificates!

The candidates were all called by name, crossed the podium and pausing briefly for a handshake and a photo before the next name was called out. Following a brief congratulatory speech from me, we adjourned for a celebratory drink and a chat. By 6pm the last of the successful candidates had left and I returned to the President’s office to catch up on mail and reading for a couple of hours before retiring for the night.

Day 105 (Tuesday 20 February)My first task today was to deliver a presentation on sustainability and some perspectives on my ICE role at Alfred McAlpine’s offices. By 10am I was on foot to One Great George Street to join the meeting of the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) with the presidents and director generals of its four constituent bodies which started at 10.30am.

The four constituent bodies are: ICE, IStructE, IHT and IHIE.

John Hill, Chairman of the JBM chaired the meeting, which is an annual event. I cannot praise the JBM highly enough. The work it does to establish and maintain the standards of civil engineering education in the UK and some overseas educational establishments is immense and of course predominately carried out by volunteers. The JBM audits provide best practice exchange as well as providing an assessment and guidance role to ensure the various university courses deliver to engineers needed by society. Unsung heroes all!

John is shortly stepping down as its chairman, so it is a great pleasure for me to add my thanks and congratulations on this blog to those expressed by us all at the meeting.

My next meeting is with Zeena Farook of Arup Leeds. Zeena is the NCE Graduate of the Year Winner this year and clearly showed why she was the winner of the competition. It is rare to meet such an enthusiast and Tom Foulkes and I were impressed by her sheer energy and achievements. She has a passion for promoting engineering and has contributed to Robin Campbell’s campaign on the Prime Minister’s website to promote the creation of a Government Chief Engineer. There has obviously been a great deal of interest in PM petitions with the road pricing campaign recently!

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Judge’s House, an impressive Georgian residence adjacent to the courts now used for hospitality by WCC, where we discuses broader issues.

We then set off for a tour of the Barford Bypass. A WCC project constructed by Galliford Try. This was a £5.7million, NEC contract bypass, with a bridge over the River Avon which the local community had been hoping for, for some 20 or 30 years.

Agent and ICE Member Danny Brown proudly (and rightly so) showed us round the site, explaining all the challenges of building over the soft soils in the flood plain and planning and placing the bridge beams. Plenty of interest too for geotechnical engineers with vibropiles, bridge piles and flood protection and storage works. The project was well ahead of schedule and will be opened to traffic four months early by the time you read this blog. I noted that there are not many of us who are able to build a bridge over a major UK river! The congestion relief for the villagers will enable them to live a much better quality of life… all part of the sustainability agenda.

Our final visit of the day was to Coleshill Parkway and Transport Interchange. This project will provide bus links and parking to enable commuters and travellers to hop on a train and be in the middle of Birmingham in 15 minutes. Some joined up thinking at last. The construction has caused no train delays, despite working 52 weekends with possessions and there has been zero RIDDOR accidents. A testament to the client, designers and constructors. More geotechnical here too in the form of a reinforced earth wall, designed of course to BS8006, of which I was a member when it was published back in 1996.

Thank you Chris and the WCC team for such a fantastic visit!

Day 109 (Saturday 24 February)Joined the Alveley Band as a new member to help learn how to play with others and, frankly to improve my timing. A friendly group of people and I find I already knew some of them. I am deputy to the second clarinet!

In the afternoon played hockey, scoring a goal before suffering a severe blow to my head and shoulder. Ambulance called, but nothing broken fortunately. The lads let in a couple of goals and we draw yet again.

Day 110 (Sunday 25 February)Suffered all day, but received some sympathy. Short walk pm to watch the hockey team play the game which was snowed off a couple of weeks ago. Without me, they win yet again!

Two more meetings follow and then I take a train back home.

Day 106 (Wednesday 21 February)Carillion day.

Day 107 (Thursday 22 February)Carillion morning, then a train to Wigan to participate in ICE North West’s seminar “What does Sustainability Really Mean” at the JJB stadium. Some 60 members attended this excellent event, which was expertly chaired by vice president Richard Coackley.

Presentations were delivered by Jon Lovell, Sustainable Development Manager for the North West Regional Assembly; Jo Bradley, Principal Officer, Strategic Planning Team with the Environment Agency; Bruce Blaine, Senior Environmental Manager with Peter Brett Associates; Catherine Turner, Senior Regeneration Manager for English Partnerships and Eunan Higgins, Development Director with Birse Civils; and me. For some reason I was given two presentations.

Those present will judge the value of the event. I was seriously impressed by all the (other) speakers. Their drive and enthusiasm was self evident and everyone will have left with a multitude of ideas as to how they and their organisations can do their bit to help deliver on the sustainability agenda. A splendid event! My congratulations to the organising team led by regional manager Alan Bulter.

Visit www.carbonconnection-nw.info and www.sdchecklist-northwest.org.uk for some ideas! (Note the second site diverts you elsewhere at the moment).

Richard gave Bruce and I a lift to the station, suggesting that due to traffic, it might be quicker for us to hop out and walk the last 400 yards. He was probably right, but the torrential rain started with 100 yards to go! I discover that Bruce is faster than me! On to plus side, we both make our respective trains with four and six minutes to spare!

Day 108 (Friday 23 February)I am invited to Warwickshire County Council (WCC) for a Presidential Visit. Chris Nason was my host and he had organised a full and interesting day.

I first met with John Deegan, President of the County Surveyor’s Society and WCC’s Director Environment and Economy and a number of his colleagues. I was then taken to their Council Chamber, where I was delivering an insight into ICE and the Presidency and discussing sustainability in a civil engineering context. Some 40 members of staff were present and we engaged in some interesting discussion following my 20 minute piece. I was then entertained for lunch in the

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that so few members were aware of SCOSS or understood its benefits. Encouragingly, work is in hand to address this and we are both keen to contribute.

In the afternoon I joined Anne Moir and Vice President Jean Venables on the train from Euston to Birmingham. The 95 minute journey gives us time to work on the train.

Birmingham was the venue for the Annual Institution Dinner, this year hosted by the West Midlands and its chairman Ed Gardiner. And what a splendid event it was! 380 members and their guests enjoyed a splendid meal followed by speeches from Ed, me and then Gordon Smith. Ed summarised the achievements of the region and set the scene for the year ahead. I celebrated Telford, promoted the value of engineering, made the case for the sustainability agenda and encouraged everyone present to mentor our engineers of the future. Our final speaker, Gordon, provided the humour, usually in a self deprecating style and finished off by proposing the toast to the Institution.

Special thanks to Steve Morgan for organising the event (for the sixth year!) and to our national guests for making the trip to Birmingham.

Day 115 (Friday 2 March)Carillion day. Still struggling with a painful shoulder.

Day 116 (Saturday 3 March)Alveley Band from 9am. Only able to hold my clarinet for short periods. Met our conductor Ian for the first time. What a remarkable skill it is to control, guide and coach 30 players, all of different skill levels and playing some 14 different instruments. I am the rookie. Congratulations to the young drummer who has just passed grade 5 with distinction! I do some paperwork at home then pop out late pm to watch my hockey team. In the evening Dorothy and I go out to the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton to see the Agatha Christie play “An unexpected guest”.

Day 117 (Sunday 4 March)Quiet day at home. Clarinet lesson and wrote blog one handed.

Week seventeenSCOSS and West Midlands Dinner Day 111 (Monday 26 February)Carillion day. Shoulder still painful. Typed with one hand. Dorothy drove me to work.

Day 112 (Tuesday 27 February)Carillion day.

Day 113 (Wednesday 28 February)Mainly Carillion day. Train to London. My first meeting was the Carillion Sustainability Committee, which includes external advisors Jonathan Porritt (founder director of Forum for the Future) and Julia Cleverdon (Chief Executive of Business in the Community).

This was followed by another Carillion meeting on sustainability for a project before participating in a telephone survey and then meeting up with John Hawkins. John is Group Manager for Contracts and Disputes at the Institution. The purpose of the meeting was for him to update me on progress with developing the ICE/Engineers Against Poverty work on promoting better procurement practice to enhance social progress in developing countries. This is fantastically important work which your subscriptions help the Institution to initiate and progress.

I hope you all feel we are spending your subscriptions wisely. In fact, I would hope you take pride in the fact that your subscriptions are used in this strategic way to help contribute to addressing world poverty in this way. Day 114 (Thursday 1 March)Early meeting about sustainability for a schools bid and dealing with post before setting off just after 10am to IStructE for the annual President’s meeting with SCOSS and the HSE. SCOSS is the Standing Committee on Structural Safety. See previous references on day 36 (week 6) and day 91 (week 14). This too is an example of how members’ subscriptions, in conjunction with IStructE members’ subs provide a service to professionals, the industry and society.

It was a lively meeting, chaired by Kate Priestley. SCOSS members present are all familiar names and indeed well known in and beyond our industry: Stuart Alexander; Allan Mann, Alan Powderham and John Carpenter. You will recall that Alan Powderham was awarded the Institution Gold medal in 2006. Both David Harvey, IStructE’s President, and I were impressed by the work of SCOSS, but were concerned

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Week eighteenCouncil & Regional visits Day 118 (Monday 5 March)Carillion Day.

Dorothy and I went the National Gallery for the Renoir Landscapes 1865-1883 Exhibition - a wonderful event!

Day 119 (Tuesday 6 March)Meeting with ICEfloe chair Caroline Cleland and Teresa Frost to discuss equal opportunities and diversity. The committee are reviewing how the Institution is addressing these issues and will be making recommendations for improvements.

Council starts at 11.30am. Chairing Council is one of my more challenging roles. There is a delicate balance between facilitating discussion and dealing with all the agendas items in a professional, timely manner.

Vice presidents were elected for the next session (2007/8). Scott Steedman was nominated as future candidate for the Presidency 2010/11. Two new vice presidents were elected, David Hutchison, currently Chair of the Finance Committee and Professor Barry Clarke, who is CIC chair for the North East and a member of the Joint Board of Moderators. Both have served the Institution for many years regionally and nationally. All vice presidents are subject to annual election by Council.

The substantive debate was the IMechE discussion. Council voted strongly in favour of closer and more proactive working with all other institutions, the correct decision in my view. It was a healthy debate and one which demonstrated the strength of a large Trustee body.

Once Council finished I rushed to the Telford Theatre to run through the programme for the Dugald Clerk lecture. The lecture was delivered by David Kerr on Marine Energy. Professor Chris Binnie chaired the lecture. The Civils Dining Society dinner followed. Congratulations and thank you David for all the good work you are doing for the Institution and for society.

Day 120 (Wednesday 7 March)Carillion day. I travel to the Midlands to attend their Senior Management Conference. The topic is sustainability. Jonathon Porritt delivered an inspiring speech at the dinner.

Day 121 (Thursday 8 March)Presidential Visit to Yorkshire and Humberside - I am met by

Regional Manager David Tattersall who drives Dorothy and me to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a briefing lunch. We meet up with Chairman Marian Hogg, Les Goddard (vice chairman) and Apprentice Chris Jones.

First up is a meeting with Supervising Civil Engineers. What a positive and fantastic group of people! Do SCEs feel valued for what they do? I hope so! Mentors are so important, not only for the mentee, but also for the benefit of our profession and society. The Telford Apprentices are currently doing some work on mentoring. Their output is due at the end of May.

We are given a short walking tour of central Sheffield on our way to the University. Dorothy is particularly appreciative of the opportunity to see the city where she was an architecture student 30 years ago. We are met by 150 students for the evening debate ‘Can Civil Engineers save our Planet?’ The short answer is yes, but only by working in partnership. Also speaking were Stephen Brown from Yorkshire Forward and Ian Ball from Cambridge University, representing Engineers without Borders. Both were very impressive, it was a lively audience!

Special thanks to Joanna Pullicino and Rhianna Williams for organising the event and to all the students who came along. It was also good to see some of my colleagues and an old friend from university days Alastair, whose paper on Young’s Modulus is a must for real engineering enthusiasts.

Day 122 (Friday 9 March)We are at the University of Sheffield where Marian Hogg chaired a discussion with staff on the Bologna Agreement. Fortunately Membership Director (and expert in this area) David Lloyd Roach was able to talk us all through this educational minefield. The next Bologna meeting will be in May.

We drive to The Light in Leeds to observe progress on the construction of an 8m high tetrahedron. 50 children were orchestrated by a group of ambassadors led by Lyndon Cable. I was amazed by what can be done with hundreds of sticks and rubber bands!

The party watched the proceedings for a while before adjourning to Nu Bar for a Meet the President event with graduate members and even more of the 100 local Ambassadors. I gave a short presentation and then took a few questions.

We returned to check on progress on the tetrahedron. Lyndon had picked up a stick to use as a baton and like a conductor orchestrated the final lift of the massive

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tetrahedron to enable the bottom layer to be inserted. One of the upper tetrahedrons started to collapse. Everyone held their breath, the bottom layer was pulled away and the main construction carefully lowered to the ground for repairs. A second try and another section started to collapse. More repairs and finally the structure was lifted and the bottom layer inserted. Success! What an achievement and what an exciting task for the children.

On to Harrogate for the Y&H Gala Dinner and Dance.Gala it was and a great evening of celebration with the regional merit awards and Spirit of Telford Awards taking centre stage. My congratulations to all the winners, all projects are featured in a special NCE supplement, March 15 issue. It is so important to celebrate the excellent engineers of today. It was a great pleasure for me to join the dinner guests in celebrating three Spirit of Telford Award winners: Brian Dean, Colin Harris and Lyndon Cable. Chris Jones, the Y&H Telford Apprentice read out their citations. The dinner concluded with a disco dance, with much of the music from my younger days. What surprised me most was that all the younger engineers knew all the words to the songs from the seventies! Thank you to the team for a fantastic Presidential Visit.

Day 123 (Saturday 10 March)Dorothy and I met up with some old friends for coffee before taking the train home, arriving back tired but elated. It happens every time!

Day 124 (Sunday 11 March)Mad rush to get the usual jobs done, quick walk and play some clarinet before my evening lesson.

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Week nineteenEast Midlands Regional visit Day 125 (Monday 12 March)Carillion day

Day 126 (Tuesday 13 March)Carillion day

Day 127 (Wednesday 14 March)Early train to London to attend a Carillion meeting before joining a meeting of the Disputes and Arbitration Panel to discuss a complaint from a member. I leave the meeting satisfied that the processes Council approved are satisfactory and that they were being applied correctly. I sometimes think that members don’t realise that Council is the decision making body for the Institution.

Next Tom and I meet with ETB acting Chairman Mike Howse and Chief Executive John Morton. We have an excellent meeting and I hope to be able to provide some very positive news on the ETB’s strategy and governance soon.

Tom and I walk back to the Institution in time for our next meetings. I was being interviewed for Building Magazine by one of their young engineers panel Carolina Lameiras. Caroline had interviewed David Harvey, President of the Institution of Structural Engineers earlier in the afternoon and then over an hour following the photo shoot, asked me the same questions. An interesting experience! You can read the results of our hour long chat (interrogation!) in Building Magazine on 30 March. I shall read it with interest! I then took a train home.

Day 128 (Thursday 15 March)Dorothy and I took the train from Wolverhampton to Leicester for the East Midlands Presidential Visit. We were met off the train by Regional Chairman Nick Thompson, Regional Manager Malcolm Jackson and Telford Apprentice Joe Roberts. It was a lovely sunny day, so the planned walk through the city centre to Pick Everard’s offices was a real pleasure. Dorothy is an architect, so taught me years ago to always look up at the buildings, roofs and chimneys. At PE’s we had a coffee and met with staff and set up for a Meet the President event. I delivered a short presentation and then we had a period of discussion followed up by further email debate which I must get round to responding to soon! We then met with a couple of PE’s engineers who explained their projects. I was particularly impressed by William Savage’s Sherwood Energy Village project…. Some real teamwork and innovative ideas (can I mention William’s

innovative use of rainwater as thermal mass?). Mike Ward showed us how computer imaging was being used to assist in pipeline route design… a far cry from my outdated experience!

Next we went to the offices of the Leicester Regeneration Company for a briefing on their strategy, plans and achievements. Exciting and visionary while still very community and commercial focused. David Beale gave us an excellent presentation and I particularly appreciated the fact that Councillor Roman Scuplak had joined us at the meeting and was able to give us the benefit of his political perspective and reinforce the vision of the Council. We debated what contribution civil engineers could make and acknowledged the existing considerable contribution in planning, infrastructure and building delivery.

A 30 minute drive took us to the University of Nottingham, where we were met by Bill Askew, Director of Studies at the School of Civil Engineering. We headed for coffee and a meeting with senior staff. What is the collective term for professors? Pride might work with lions, but has a sense of arrogance which is not appropriate. An education would be too self evident, so I suggest an eminence. We debated university/institution issues, mainly around the Bologna Agreement (see last week!). Say no more!

My next task was to give a short presentation and take questions on the sustainability agenda. Some 80 students gathered to listen. Thanks to Liam, Dan, Katie, Andrew, Ali and Jim for your contributions and questions. Topics ranged from road pricing, influencing Government, world poverty, sustainability as a fad, waste, nuclear and problems with overseas students staying on in the UK to work after graduating. I really enjoy meeting with students, I hope the feeling was reciprocated.

There was time before the evening event, so I joined Mick Mawdesley and Bill Askew for a coffee and chat about students, research and France. We then set off for the Djanogly Arts Gallery for the evening event. In our discussions we had discussed Brompton bicycles, so Mick gave us a demonstration of the bike and how to unfold it and I took a short cycle ride (my first in an official capacity!). Council member William Kemp arrived at this moment and took a photograph of me.

The evening event was initiated and organised by Telford Apprentice Joe Roberts (with help from the Regional Team). It was a great idea. Supervising engineers were asked to bring along one of their graduates. There must have been 80+ people there. The topic was mentoring. I lead off and was followed by Bob McKittrick (Director of Scott

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Johnson, Major Projects Engineering Manager. I also took the opportunity to speak with regional secretary Adrian Maynard who had informed me about (and enthused about) the Mikron Theatre Group who are putting on a play about Thomas Telford. See their website at for more details.

Thank you Andy, Dave, Phil, Bryan and Matt for the tour and briefing. I learned a great deal about the process, ammonia, power generation from the process and digesters. All now faithfully recorded as CPD!

We returned to the hotel to prepare for the evening and I was able to catch up with Dorothy, who had toured Nottingham, taken the tram (it is a great tram) and taken tea with the Sheriff of Nottingham. I put the finishing touches on my speech and presentations for later in the evening and then changed for the pre dinner reception.

We were at the Nottingham Belfry and were joined by about 220 members and guests. Telford Apprentice Joe Roberts was the MC…. And what an excellent job he did!!!! The highlight for me was to present two Spirit of Telford Awards to Bill Askew and Professor Stephen Brown. Two excellent nominations. See the link for more details:

Tram to station, then train home. Dorothy and I were both tired, but exhilarated after yet another fantastic Presidential Visit. Thank you to Nick, Malcolm and team, Bill, Debbie, Bob, Isabel, Andy and especially Joe.

Day 130 (Saturday 17 March)Quiet day at home.

Day 131 (Sunday 18 March)Cut grass and had a clarinet lesson. Time and a bad shoulder prevented me from doing much practice during the week.

Wilson and a past President of the Institution of Structural Engineers) and Isabel Coman (Costain and ICE Mentor of the year 2006). Isabel had brought along a “sample” graduate… so Chairman for the event, “Telford Joe” asked him to say a few words too. Bob, Isabel and Jonathan were terrific. We had a great debate. Some key points:■ All successful people have had a mentor■ Firms rely too much on their HR departments■ Isabel still uses her two mentors… and she always

moves forward after a discussion with them!■ Mentors help you think more broadly■ Mentees are not clones of their mentors!■ Confidential and trustworthy were two words which

came out frequently.

The evening closed with a drink and some canapés.

Day 129 (Friday 16 March)Real ‘wow’ factor this morning. Our first visit was to the Archbishop Cranmer Primary School in Ashlockton. We were greeted and briefed by head teacher Debbie Yates-Linnell and science coordinator Sue Jackson. This was the last day of Science and Engineering Week 2007 and the whole school had a full programme every day. Debbie and Sue described the excitement and interest, and we then toured the school to see the energy and enthusiasm for ourselves. ICE Ambassadors Rachael and Tim King were in the thick of it coaching the year 5s to build a tetrahedron. Well done to Harvey, Toni, Natalie and Daniel who chatted to me as they were building. The whole school was buzzing with enthusiasm. What, I asked, could ICE do to help? The answer was that one of the most important things was to provide the ambassadors. Our young engineers coaching even the youngest of students! A sure way to encourage young minds to take up engineering as a profession.

By 10.30am we were off to Nottingham University, where the faculty of Engineering with SETPOINT and ICE were hosting a fun design and build competition. The year 8 and 9 student teams were tasked with building a structure from paper, cardboard, tape and straws to hold a set weight. A fantastic team effort from all saw a mix of the weird and the wonderful. I was able to meet with students and the volunteer ICE Quest Scholars as they were starting out on the day’s task before leaving them for a meeting with the University’s Vice Chancellor David Greenway. The debate centred on accreditation and other mutual issues. Both organisations serve each other in many ways, so an open and good relationship is essential!

Next we drive to Derby for a Meet the President session and a site visit with Severn Trent. I met with Keith Richards amongst others. A famous name! Our host was Andy

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I ask for a briefing note from Lorna and the 4 ICE graduate members. A quiet reminder to Matt and Peter that I had elicited a promise of a briefing note at our previous meeting!!

My next meeting was with Peter Matthews, Executive Director of charity Engineers Against Poverty. ICE and IMechE helped to establish EAP in 1998/9 and former President Doug Oakervee is its Chairman. EAP works with the engineering industry to help reduce and eventually eliminate global poverty. More specifically, they are working on influencing corporate and public policy, pushing to get sustainability into higher education and working (with John Hawkins and his team) on improving procurement in developing countries and through aid bodies. We debated some ideas as to how EAP could raise its profile amongst Institution members and beyond.In between all these meetings I worked at my pile of post and started to catch up on postcards.

I then joined the ICE London graduates and students construction competition. Chris Joyce and Owen Jones had organised the event which required teams to design and construct a model road bridge and thereby demonstrate (and be judged on):

■ Project planning■ Structural design■ Aesthetic design■ Time management■ Budget management■ Awareness of health and safety

The bridge had to span 1m, carry 1kg at mid span and 0.5kg at 1/3 and 2/3 span and not deflect more than 50mm.

It was amazing to see what was achieved in 90 minutes. You will have seen the results in the NCE magazine by the time this blog is published, so suffice to say that everyone had a great deal of fun and probably quite a bit of stress (well, some of the bridges were under stress and the factor of safety in one case was just over one! Designed to spec!!). Congratulations to Chris and Owen, their band of graduate helpers, the judges (led by bridge engineer Robert Wheatley) and all the students who participated. It was a great night.

Day 136 (Friday 23 March)More fruit for breakfast, followed by more post and postcard writing. I then attended the Sustainability Forum. The Forum, which reports to the Strategic Forum for Construction (SFfC) was formed in 2004 under the

Week twenty Sustainability Day 132 (Monday 19 March)Carillion day

Day 133 (Tuesday 20 March)Carillion day. Train to London pm to attend Thomas Telford board dinner. The first Chairman, Bill Barr was in attendance, so I presented him with one of my President’s Gifts in recognition of his sterling work as the TTL chairman for its first 10 years. Bill got the foundations right and added real commercial acumen in his time in this voluntary role. You may recall that Scott Steedman is the current chairman.

Day 134 (Wednesday 21 March)Fruit for breakfast followed by a couple of brief meetings and lots of post. I met with member Mike Butcher over lunch to debate some issues he had raised before yet more meetings until 4.30pm, when I went to Imperial College for ‘The Geotechnical Experience of the Year’, it was of course the Rankine Lecture and Dinner. Professor Antonio Gens from the Technical University of Catelonia was the lecturer this year. A brilliant lecture. I sat alongside the first Spirit of Telford Award winner, David Hight and last year’s lecturer Professor Robert Mair. It was a late, but very enjoyable night.

Day 135 (Thursday 22 March)More fruit for breakfast, followed by a meeting with Scott Ward, Head of Food and Beverage and Head Chef David Wilkinson to discuss the dinner menu for a forthcoming event. At 10am I was joined by Telford Apprentice Paula Farshim and some colleagues for a discussion about sustainability.

More sustainability was to follow with a meeting of the young Institution members who are Forum (for the Future) Scholars. I was impressed by a Forum Scholars seminar back in December (week 6, day 35) and had invited them to a follow up meeting. The “Engineers for the 21st Century” project they are on is now managed by Lorna Pelly, who reports to Forum’s lead on the built environment Martin Hunt. The engineers I met are all working on the following:

1. Simon Blake, procurement2. Peter Wilkie, sustainable initiation of projects3. Matt Humphrey, embedding sustainability into

business practice4. Tim Thorne, sustainability in undergraduate courses.

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chairmanship of Ian Coull, Chief Executive of Slough Estates. The Forum’s role is to provide strategic advice on sustainable construction issues to Government and the SFfC. The meeting’s primary business was to discuss the draft sustainable construction strategy. Jeremy Sumeray and Matt Janssen, both seconded from industry to DTI have done an excellent job to bring the draft thus far. Following consultation, which they will facilitate, the final strategy will certainly achieve its aim to raise the bar and establish real focus on what our industry should do to deliver on the sustainability agenda. Ian now steps down as chair, so I hope members will join me in congratulating him and his Forum on the terrific progress to date and wish them well for the successful finalisation, launch and delivery of the strategy.

I train to Birmingham International for my last meeting of the day with Arup’s Chairman for Infrastructure David Singleton. We debate industry and institution issues and I take away some actions! I return to the station grasping a precious and quite remarkable “drivers of change 2006” document which looks at what the world will be like in 2050. Chris Luebkeman, Arup’s Global Foresight and Innovation guru (guru is my word, his job title is GF and I Director!) and his team have produced this incredible fact and insight document.

I arrive home in time to change and go straight out to our Hockey Club ladies’ night. A great evening with the warmest bunch of people you could find anywhere. I do NOT intend to comment on their hockey skills. I’ve only been in the club for 13 years, so may have missed them!

Day 137 (Saturday 24 March)Alveley Band. They all go too fast for me. I am assured I’ll be OK soon. I then went home to do some jobs before going to the jazz session at the Black Boy. I was a week early, so stayed anyway and wrote 30 postcards and ate a rather large roll. No hockey because of my still sore shoulder. In the evening Dorothy and I go to see Becoming Jane at the local cinema.

Day 138 (Sunday 25 March)I play some clarinet, have my lesson (a real injection of enthusiasm, which was needed since my practice has fallen well behind with this bad shoulder). I write blog and catch up on the usual household jobs. Finally get to cut grass at 6pm. Finish blog at 10pm.

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sourcing; abstraction policy and the link (or lack of it) with sustainable consumption; the Engineers for the 21st century programme and next steps; Institution strategy and the role of our esteemed Companions. In transit to my next appointment I meet and chat briefly with Martin McCann the new Chief Executive of RedR . See their new strategy here shortly: www.redr.org

My next meeting is with Alan McGill, project director for the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability and Geoff Lane, director PWC, who is leading on the construction section of the research and report. The objectives of the project are to develop systems to help organisations to measure more effectively the environmental and social costs of their actions. I pledge support from the Institution (it is just the sort of high profile/influence project we should be supporting) and offer some ideas to assist. The launch event for this ambitious project is in December 2007.

I have time to sign yet more certificates for companies who have a training scheme. Does your company have one? If not, why not? Do you need help? If so please ask. Following a couple more brief meetings I meet Major General Chris Elliot, President, Institution of Royal Engineers. We discuss the programme for the evening meeting and then join 200 members of both our organisations in the Telford Theatre to hear how we should be “Protecting from the effect of explosions – are engineers doing enough?” We had three terrific presentations from Chris Veale, Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Quinn and David Haddon which were followed by some engaging debate. The meeting was expertly chaired by my fellow President Chris, so my role was just to welcome everyone and provide a summary at the end of the meeting. I was surprised and delighted to see past president Sir William Francis (1987/88) catching up on his CPD! We adjourned for drinks and canapés and I enjoyed the opportunity to chat to lots of people.

By 8.30pm I set off to meet up with about 20 reviewers who were staying overnight prior to their day’s work helping more members to become qualified. Everywhere I go I meet fantastic people, and this was no exception. Thank you Ray, Stephen, Chris, Alastair, Paul, John, Gerry and all the others I met that night.

Day 141 (Wednesday 28 March)Yet more fruit! So far I have lost 3 pounds in weight since becoming President. I cannot understand why! I deal with Carillion and Institution emails and then meet with the British Geotechnical Association and the Thomas Telford publishing team to discuss some ideas about developing stronger links and developing the journals in this topic

Week twenty one‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Day 139 (Monday 26 March)Carillion day. Travelled to London on the train…. a great place to catch up on emails. I attend an Environment Forum Lunch hosted by MP Joan Walley. Ian Pearson, Minister of state for DEFRA is the guest. We debate climate change, environmental issues and the sustainability agenda. Chatham House rules apply, but I can say it was a most engaging discussion and a great opportunity to listen to and hopefully influence Government. Following the lunch I dropped into the Institution to “hot desk” for a while before catching a train to Cambridge to attend THE event of a really great week.

I had been invited to attend an incredible lecture. I was privileged to sit in the front row of 1000 seated in the Corn Exchange to listen to Al Gore delivering his “An Inconvenient Truth”. A stunning performance and a stunning lecture. The film was fantastic, the lecture on another plane! I was lucky enough to also be invited to the post lecture reception and managed a few words with Al as he worked the room. If you have not seen the film and/or read the book then you must do it NOW. Those of you who have read my Presidential Address, will remember that the first of my suggested actions is to understand WHY we have to become more sustainable. Al explains it all.

I get back to London after midnight.

Day 140 (Tuesday 27 March)Fruit for breakfast and time to attend to post and some post cards. This week is professional review week in London so I have a quick word with some of the reviewers, some of whom I have known and worked with over many years. They are volunteers and do a great job supporting our Institution and helping young engineers. This too is mentoring…. yet another way our members serve society so well. Steve Everton, Mentor of the Year in 2005 was one of them. Thank you to all 400 reviewers across the Institution’s regions. I then sit in on one of the professional reviews as an observer. I took two tightly written pages of notes. I was impressed by the candidate and the review team. I hope I did not have an adverse effect on the candidate! Peer review is an excellent way to qualify members.

My next meeting was with Institution Companion Sara Parkin. Sarah is one of the founding directors of Forum for the Future. We discuss, and Sara questions, the demand from companies for people with skills in and knowledge of sustainability; the science of materials

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Lloyd Roach (Director of Membership) to meet with Paddy O’Rourke, Mike Robbins, and Caroline Blackman all of Laing O’Rourke, to discuss their ambition to promote engineering excellence and to value professional qualification and competence of their engineering staff. LO’R already share much of this work (see their website)… which is to be commended and we discuss how we can develop some of their great ideas further for the benefit of all members.

Day 142 (Thursday 29 March)Carillion day. Train back to Wolves. I meet Sir William Francis again on the concourse at Euston. He kindly offers me a lift to my office when we both meet up again at Wolverhampton station. A knight and former president as a taxi driver! Can it get any better!

I note it is day 142. I am the 142nd president.

Day 143 (Friday 30 March)Carillion day. Dorothy and I went to the theatre in the evening in Wolverhampton to see a Noel Coward play.

Day 144 (Saturday 31 March)Aveley Band from 9am to 10.30am. I am beginning to join in much more now and remain in awe of conductor Ian for the way he coaches, cajoles and creates such great music from 25 players. At lunchtime I go to the Black Boy for the jazz session. Singer Brenda Scott (from Edgbaston) was just fantastic! She was ably supported by Paul Sawtell (Stourbridge) who also gave us some splendid keyboard solos. I spend the whole session writing this week’s blog. Early evening I catch up with my hockey crowd before going home to cook supper.

Day 145 (Sunday 1 April)Quiet day at home catching up on domestics and emails. I cut grass, which always makes it a successful weekend. It is so dry it cuts easily. Dorothy has been walking with friends, so I pick them up and bring them all back for lunch.

area. Present were Professor Mike Davies, Chairman of BGA and shortly leaving to become Dean of Engineering at Auckland University in New Zealand, Hilary Skinner, Vice Chair and soon to become the first lady chairman of BGA (well done and very well deserved Hillary!), Tim Fitch, Chairman of Geotechnical Engineering journal and Taylor Woodrow (just the man if you have a piling problem), Chris Raison (consultant geo par excellence plus the initiator of this meeting because of something he said to me!), Leon Heward Mills (Head of Publishing) and Ben Ramster (Journals Editorial Manager) . We had a good discussion and I think have come up with some great ideas, particularly to involve and interest younger engineers in our fantastic journals for the benefit of ALL parties! You may not know that I was chairman of the BGA when it was formed by the “merger” between the ICE Ground Board and the British Geotechnical Society back in 2000, so I am particularly keen to see strong links between our two organisations.

My next meeting is with Kris Barnett, Director of the Benevolent Fund who briefed me on the trustee meeting in the afternoon. I am pleased to have such a comprehensive set of papers which I was able to read over the weekend. Before joining the Ben Fund trustees for lunch I pop into the Regional Managers meeting for a few minutes. Lunch in the Brasserie was excellent. The presentation and the food! This is the place to bring your clients.

I meet briefly with member John Cochrane who is just about to retire from his role as regeneration director for British Waterways.

The Benevolent Fund meeting is a difficult one for me. The trustees are fantastic and the meeting proceeds well, but I find it difficult to discuss and decide on where best we can help as a benevolent fund in some of the cases which come before us. A very humbling experience. None of us realise how well off we are! Some of our members and their dependants fall or drift into impossible situations. Sometimes the Benevolent Fund is the ONLY source of help. Thank you to ALL members who contribute the £3 per year to support those who have fallen into difficult circumstances,,.., £193,000 was collected from our 77,000 members last year and many members gave additional donations and legacies. Funds are such that the Ben Fund is able to dispense over £600,000 every year to those in need. Beneficiaries range from young to old, members and/or their dependants. The work the Trustees and staff do is a REAL contribution to society. I feel humbled by the experience. Thank you to each and every member who supports this great cause.

I return to my post and then (at 7pm) join with David

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class education sector to provide the skills to deliver it. We ranged from California to China as the case was made for innovation, productivity and risk management. He finished off with a quote by Harold R. McAlindon: “World leaders in innovation and creativity will also be world leaders in everything else!”. As you might expect, John’s underlying theme was that engineers were the people who could tackle problems and deliver solutions. A splendid address, and a real demonstration or the value of engineering knowledge and the engineer’s capacity to analyse and solve problems and to deliver solutions. The meeting was splendidly chaired by Patrick Mulvihill and followed by a celebratory dinner. Our relationship with Engineers Ireland is strong!

Feedback from the full Great Hall CDM event was very positive. Thank you to Keith Clarke and Stephen Williams for their fantastic work in this area and to Jon Prichard for chairing and summarising the evening.

Day 149 (Thursday 5 April)Carillion day

Day 150 (Friday 6 April) to Day 152 (Sunday 8 April)Good Friday through to Easter Day. Great weekend!

Week twenty two Engineers Ireland, CDM and RICS

Day 146 (Monday 2 April)Carillion day

Day 147 (Tuesday 3 April)Carillion day. I play hockey in the evening against Old Wulfs. My first game for a month or more. Great fun. We draw 2-2.

Day 148 (Wednesday 4 April)Early train to London for a Carillion meeting before my first Institution engagement of the day. This was a discussion with David Barker on his bio-engineering activities and research project which has been partially supported from the Institution’s research and development fund. I next had a diary and actions meeting with president’s PA and then dealt with correspondence and signed another 60 certificates. On this occasion the certificates were for members who had transferred to Fellow. I recognised some of the names!

At lunch I briefly joined the International Policy Committee, chaired by Vice President Richard Coackley before walking 100 yards down the road with Tom Foulkes to meet with the RICS incoming President David Tuffin and Chief Executive Louis Armstrong. We debated our respective views on professional bodies, international strategy, disaster management and many other issues over a lively 2 hours. Their work on a disaster management process is impressive and we agree to share some of this emerging work with our own fine work on the Millennium Goals and procurement in developing countries. An excellent meeting with this sister institution!

A meeting with Tom on ICE issues followed and then I popped into the Great Hall to meet up with Stephen Williams who was preparing for the CDM event in the evening. I was very disappointed that I was not able to attend this launch event, but equally delighted to host the president of Engineers Ireland (EI) who was presenting his presidential address to EI and Institution members. John McGowan indeed delivered an impressive address and analysis entitled “Engineering, Ireland and the World: The competitive challenge”. He demonstrated the need for good infrastructure and made the essential link to its promoting commerce, social cohesion and political stability. More specifically, he emphasised the real benefits of efficient infrastructure and the importance of a world

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This has proved to be another great example of the contribution our younger members can make! Is it worth being a Telford Apprentice? I cannot answer this, but, if any of the apprentices are reading this, they might like to comment. I digress, so back to John Baxter. It was a great meeting and he kindly shared with me some of his ideas which form the core of his forthcoming presidential address. I very much look forward to the event.

I enjoyed the lovely walk back to the Institution…and check out who is in the Café Bar. I meet briefly with members of the Geotechnique advisory panel and the British Geotechnical Association before my meeting with the Highways Term Maintenance Association. We discuss HTMA’s strategy to address key environmental issues and the sustainability agenda. Naturally they wish to align their strategy with industry and sector strategies. The meeting was initiated by a chance encounter with John Findlay in the Café Bar about 6 weeks ago! John chairs the carbon footprint group for HTMA.

I return briefly to the president’s flat to drop my case off and prepare for a meal I am hosting with the vice presidents next week. Back in my office I deal with post and sign yet more certificates. I then join the BGA evening meeting on “A Discussion on the Quality of Site Investigations”. A splendid evening meeting with excellent presentations (and challenges from!) professors Chris Clayton and Barry Clarke and FPS representative Derek Egan.

Day 156 (Thursday 12 April)Carillion day. I join in with and give a presentation to our company SCE/graduates meeting and hear two excellent presentations from the graduates. Helen Whitmore (one of Gordon’s president’s apprentices) was there too to give advice… she became a chartered engineer at the last session and I was able to sign and present her with her membership certificate.

Day 157 (Friday 13 April)Carillion day. In the evening we went to a play by the Goldthorn Players in Wolverhampton, an excellent comedy by Bill Naughton called All in Good Time

Day 158 (Saturday 14 April)Clarinet, followed by a long walk with Dorothy down the Severn Valley. The sound of the Severn Valley Railway train pulling out of Highly station up the hill towards Bridgnorth reverberated all over the valley, competing with the song of the birds and the water rushing over the rapids in the river.

Day 159 (Sunday 15 April)Clarinet, blog and gardening.

Week twenty threeHighways and GeotechnicalDay 153 (Monday 9 April)Easter Monday

Day 154 (Tuesday 10 April)Carillion dayIn the evening I hosted a meeting and meal to discuss some Telford activities in Shropshire at Thomas Telford School (www.ttsonline.net), St Mary Magdalene Church and Wolverhampton Grammar School. Ed Gardiner, Chairman for the West Midlands and Ben Maltby, Telford Apprentice, who are both actively involved in the planning and delivery of events were present too. We tested some of the brand new Bridgnorth Bitter, which was excellent. Plans are well in hand for the Church and the schools to host the Telford play being delivered by the Mikron Theatre Company. We also discussed progress with permissions and design for a plaque to commemorate Telford on the church which will be unveiled in the summer.

Day 155 (Wednesday 11 April)Early train to London. My first meeting was with Mike Geffin, member and MD of Norwest Holst Civil Engineering. I was delighted that he had taken the initiative to set up a meeting. We discussed the Institution, skills, training and qualification. I am expecting to see more NWH visibility in the institution in the future! I loaned him a copy of An Inconvenient Truth.

My next meeting was at BP’s headquarters with their Director of Engineering, John Baxter. John becomes the President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in May. We discussed our respective relationships with other Institutions and industry bodies and he was particularly keen to learn more about how our Telford Apprentices scheme was working. This gave me the opportunity to wax lyrical about this excellent team of enthusiasts and the 8 tasks they have completed or are near to completion. Task 2 was completed just over a week ago and the "Telfords" and Northern Ireland input has received an enthusiastic response from the membership team and its vice president Peter Hansford. The issues they collaborated to provide a briefing note on were:

■ Graduate & Student Expectations of the ICE■ Earlier Qualification and Barriers to Earlier

Qualification■ Governance of ICE and voting rights for the

Graduates and Students

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presidents at the president’s flat. £32.50 for a meal for all 6 of us was really good value!

Day 162 (Wednesday 18 April)Train from London to Newcastle with Andy Gooding who is accompanying me on the presidential visit to the North East Region. Regional Manager Stephen Larkin met us at the station and we set off for the University of Newcastle for the first event. This was a challenge for the six teams from three schools to produce a two minute weather forecast style presentation to show what climate change is and how it will affect us all. What great ideas the 15 year old students came up with! It was a fun afternoon and we all learnt from the experience. The President’s team came sixth… nevermind! Thank you to the graduates who came along to help and mentor the student teams (perhaps my team would have done better if we had had one!). Special congratulations to GSNet chairman Kate Palmer and her committee for initiating and delivering this excellent event. Katerina, the NE Region Telford Apprentice had sourced some excellent (and sustainable) prizes. I think the one which caused the most amusement was the notepad block made from elephant dung!

We next went to the sustainable Devonshire building for a guided tour by Professor Paul Younger. The building is remarkably energy efficient and panels in the reception area kept us informed on the energy generated and grey water use.

A 10 minute walk took us to Northumbria University where we had a meeting with RIBA’s JonJo MacNamarra. The NE Region is shortly to join forces with RIBA and share facilities adjacent to the RICS offices in the university. JonJo gave us a tour of the architects’ studios where we met and chatted with a number of the students who were making good use of their holiday time to work on their projects.

Our last event of the day was to join the Fortuna on the Tyne in preparation for our boat trip and President’s Question Time session. We had arrived early so that I could have a practice with the band. And what a fantastic band it was! The New Century Ragtime Orchestra was a 10 piece jazz band with some 300 years of musical experience between them. I always check the clarinets and saxophones out and discovered that one sax was 88 years old and the other two (one a Selmer, the Rolls Royce of saxophones) were both over 60 years old. The sound quality from these older instruments is remarkable.

By 6.30pm the graduates and students began to arrive and I spent the next hour or so chatting and drinking water as the Tyne tour took us downstream to the sea. The orchestra

Week twenty fourExec., eco, people, plaques, pipes and port.Day 160 (Monday 16 April)Carillion day

Day 161 (Tuesday 17 April)Train to London. I bump into Pauleen Lane at Euston and we travel together to Westminster, chatting all the way. Pauleen is a Board Member of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, university lecturer and also a former mayor of Trafford as well as being a mum and an Institution member. She was in London to brief new members of RDAs. I was on my way to my first meeting of the day with Tom Foulkes.

Tom and I discuss some forward planning for events and the Royal Academy of Engineering and Institutions initiative on climate change. There will soon be something I can report on this.I next meet with Lucy Allen, who is on an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) at the University of Bristol looking at systems thinking, complexity and sustainable development in the construction context. I last met Lucy as one of the finalists in the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year Award in 2004. This is a competition for final year students for which I have been a judge for the civil engineering sector since the Awards began 10 years ago. Lucy is very focussed, as she demonstrated a year or so ago when she gained funding to spend a year studying in Japan.

My next meeting was a brief one with David Lloyd Roach on membership matters and also some statistics about the North East Region in preparation for my visit there.

In the afternoon I attended the Executive Board meeting, which was held in my favourite meeting room, the Bazalgette. The room has a lovely barrel roof, a fine fireplace and a picture of the great man himself. Bazalgette was president in 1883 and was credited with adding 20 years to the life of EVERY Londoner through the works he initiated and completed. It was a lively meeting, with contributions from everyone…. As you might expect from your representatives! We debated initial thoughts about our relationships with other institutions; 2008 subscriptions (to recommend to Council), Equal opportunities and diversity, the RAE climate change project and a dozen other agenda items. Our next meeting is at the strategy weekend led by Senior Vice President David Orr next weekend. In the evening I hosted a takeaway supper for the vice

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adjacent to the Telford Bridge (built 1829 to 1831). The Telford Bridge was incredible. Wide and sturdy, built in local stone, it carried the heavy (in both senses) traffic of the A1 for decades before Morpeth was bypassed. The refurbishment too was a delight! The footbridge was supported by the stone piers of the original bridge. The Telford Bridge was built as part of Telford’s improvement plan for the Great North Road. The old bridge was narrower and had low parapets, leading to congestion (even in those days!) and accidents. Horses, carriages and travellers were often pitched into the river! Telford built a wider bridge, with higher parapets. To recover the costs, a toll was introduced and the old bridge was blown up in 1834 (the year Telford died) to stop traffic avoiding the tolls. We were serenaded by Ann Sessoms playing the Northumbrian Small Pipes both before and after the plaque unveiling ceremony. Following the photo shoot and an interview with the local press, we all went to the adjacent Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum a “must” for any visitor to the North East. I have not realised there were so many different designs of pipes and they came from all over Europe. Ann’s pipes were made by pipe master craftsman Robbie Greensitt. Thank you to our excellent host Anne Moore, the custodian of the museum and to plaque and event organiser Michael Taylor.

Following a chat and buffet lunch, we all set off for the Port of Blyth. There we were welcomed by Technical and Operations Director and Institution member Alan Todd. Alan and Chief Executive Martin Lawlor gave us a splendid presentation on the history of the port and its development and outlined its potential for the future. In particular, Alan described the recently completed development of Battleship Wharf. It was quite evident that the Port of Blyth is one of the significant drivers of the local economy and also that of the North East. The way Alan delivered the technical, community and environmental aspects of the project demonstrated excellence in all areas and to cap it all, the success of the project was underpinned by using the very best of contracts…. NEC!!! Attention to detail in addressing project planning and management and in particular in the way noise and dust impacts were minimised demonstrated the professional approach of the whole team.

Following the presentation, we were taken on a tour of the port and even had the chance to meet the brand new £1.6million, 400 tonne dock crane. Thanks you to Alan and the team and especially Harbour Master Mike Halley and crane driver Billy.

The final event of the day was the North East Annual Dinner. Yet another splendid occasion. Kate Palmer gave an excellent toast to the institution. As usual, as President I responded… my 10th black tie dinner and my 55th speech

played and occasionally one of its members broke into song. They were terrific. Following the buffet (no food for me before I play or I’ll be even worse) and a spell on deck, the musicians started their second “set” (get the jargon right Q!) and soon it was my turn to join in. I leave others to comment on the quality of what was my first (and possibly last!) public performance…. It was a privilege to play with this excellent group of musicians… and they were most generous in providing me with support and hiding my errors (well, they did go just a little faster than my fingers could manage at times!). This session was followed by the judging of Telford apprentice’s task 4, set by Katerina, which was for them to design a tee-shirt logo for an event she is planning to promote civil engineering later in the year. With help from the 70 people present (and the orchestra) we picked the winner. Well done Katerina. If I upset any of the apprentices whose designs were not the winner, I will share the blame with the NE GSNet team! This is called “working in partnership with others”!

It was a splendid evening and I enjoyed chatting to all of the young members. This is always a real highlight for me as President. Thank you Kate and the team for arranging such a great event! Thank you too to the Fortuna crew for such a great trip on the Tyne.

Day 163 (Thursday 19 April)8am and the day starts with a breakfast time session on environment and sustainability. Following a coffee and snack we all settled down to allow members and guests to interrogate the expert panel. And what an expert panel it was!

■ Greg Lutton, Environmental Director at Cundall■ Professor Paul Younger, University of Newcastle■ Adrian Hilton, Regional Climate Change Coordinator■ Dermott Roddy, CEO, Renew Tees Valley Ltd.

We had a lively discussion and the experts really showed the breadth and depth of their knowledge. We spent most of the session on climate change and energy issues before moving into resource use (includes waste!!), procurement, constraints and strategic issues. We finished off talking about practical measures and the need to identify business benefit and opportunity… for communities, clients and businesses. A special thank you to the panel and to Brian Reeve, Stephen Larkin, Rob Banyard, Seed Chordy and, Duncan Cox and Ian Gray for their contributions. An excellent initiative from Chairman John Jeffrey and his team!

By 10.30am we were speeding (not literally) off to Morpeth to unveil a plaque on a refurbished footbridge bridge

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or presentation. The great highlight of the evening was of course the opportunity to celebrate people and projects. First the GSNet papers competition winner and then the Stephenson Awards. The “S” awards are named after Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), son of George. Robert was born in Newcastle and was of course the designer of The Rocket, which was also built in Newcastle. Stephenson of course also was responsible for the High Level Bridge over the Tyne, the world’s first box girder spanning the Menai Straits and many other notable projects. He became MP for Whitby and President of the Institution in 1856. Details of the awards and winners are on the ICE NE website here:

Day 164 (Friday 20 April)A day of travel and a special visit. Following the Yorkshire and Humber Awards, City of York sustainability officer Kristina Peat had invited me to the ecoDepot. Since the train was taking us passed it, it seemed efficient to stop off to see this remarkable project. Read all about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2005/12/20/eco_depot_blog_1_feature.shtml

See also Christian Vassie’s blog and follow the development of the project! Christian is a local councillor and has been involved with York’s ecoDepot project from the start.

Thank you to Kristina, Daniel and Simon for the tour and discussion.

Day 165 (Saturday 21 April)Alveley Band in the morning. I am getting better slowly. Iain Masson has an amazing skill and ear…. Mentoring, coaching and enthusing 30 musicians of differing abilities (poor (that’s me) to fantastic (the other 29).

I dash home for a while and then am off again to play hockey in our over Supervets team (the super refers to the age rather than the skill level). We travel with 8 players to play local giants Barford Tigers.

Fortunately they lend us three players, Pav, Ali and Rupe. It was a fast and hard game. Fortunately Pav and Ali added much to the Bridgnorth midfield powerhouse of Robin, Steve and Martin. We won 4-1 and I was lucky enough to be hovering near to the goal and popped a couple in.

Day 166 (Sunday 22 April)Great cycle ride down the River Severn to the Severn Country Park with Dorothy and a friend. We have a picnic lunch and I puff back with tired legs. In the evening I have a saxophone lesson… my first for over two years. Although I have been playing it a bit, the clarinet has rather taken over since it is much lighter to take on my travels.

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kindly hosted a visit for us to the Silent Valley to see the Silent Valley and Ben Crom Reservoirs. This is a fantastic water supply scheme which supplies water for most of County Down and a large part of Belfast. It was a lovely sunny day with a fine breeze. The valley and the mountains were spectacular and the history of the construction fascinating. It was encouraging to hear that geotechnical engineering featured strongly. Hugh boulders 12ft in diameter had led the design team to believe that bedrock was at 60ft depth. But the cut off level proved elusive and was eventually found at 190 ft! I admired the optimism and perseverance of the construction team! The programme stretched from 6 to 10 years and the arbitration was held in the Slieve Donnard Hotel! The other thing which really struck me on our way to the Silent Valley was the dry stone walls… so incredibly chunky and so many of them surrounding small enclosures. Thank you Stuart for the tour and the technical details and to Bill for organising the tour (and, I think, the weather!)..Day 173 (Sunday 29 April)Travelled home, saxophone lesson and prepared for next week.

Week twenty fivePortrait, Exec study period and Watermark Day 167 (Monday 23 April)Carillion day

Day 168 (Tuesday 24 April)Carillion day, but also responded to lots of Institution emails and drafted my presentation and speech for the Think ’07 conference next week.

Day 169 (Wednesday 25 April)Carillion day, but was in London and had been invited to the opening of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Summer Exhibition. My presidential portrait, by John Edwards, is one of the exhibits. It is a fantastic exhibition and will be visited by around 5000 people over the next 4 weeks, after which my portrait will be returned to One Great George Street. I later held a brief meeting with Mike Chrimes to discuss some historical artefacts which are being presented to the Institution. More of this in a future blog.

Day 170 (Thursday 26 April) to day 172 (Saturday 28 April)Worked at home then travelled to Northern Ireland for the Executive Board study period. This year we reviewed the first Institution strategy and its delivery, which was initiated by Adrian Long in his senior vice presidential year back in 2002. The objective was to develop our Institution strategy for the next 5 years. As you appreciate, Council is the decision making body for our Institution and the Executive Board is charged with doing the ground work and bringing recommendations to Council. It was a very productive 2 days in terms of developing the strategy. The study period was held at the Slieve Donnard hotel in Newcastle, County Down… where the mountains of Mourne reach down to the sea. During the leisure breaks, we enjoyed walks along the beech and I managed 3 short sessions flying one of my traction kites. A number of the executive team members also enjoyed trying to control the four line, and quite powerful kite.

On the Friday evening we were treated to a musical delight with Irish airs and music from the shows sung and played by Watermark. Thank you Sharon (David Orr’s daughter, vocals and flute), Christine (vocals and keyboard) and Ken (Christine’s husband, narrator, link man and vocalist par excellence).

The study period finished at lunchtime and Bill Gowdy

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sessions were introduced by excellent presentations. Professor Colin Bailey (Uni Manchester) and Raymond Coe (Black and Veatch, the “customer” view) introduced the first session. Colin had some remarkable data and analysis. (I’ve asked him to submit it for publication in the proceedings. I later sadly discover our proceedings have rejected his previous paper on the subject.

Professor David Loveday (Loughborough), Peter Head (Arup, a remarkable story about Dongtan) and Professor Roger Venables (Crane Environmental, CEEQUAL and Queen’s University Belfast) were the presenters for this session. It was an interesting and useful debate in both sessions. We could have spent a day on each of these subjects, but academics pick things up quickly!... and we needed to get onto the afternoon topics of accreditation and the Bologna agreement. I left after lunch, having appreciated the opportunity to chat to friends old and new.

Two more short meetings before I host an Institution Forum meeting with employers and academics. These Forum meetings help the Institution gain strategic advice and support from senior members. Our topic today was industry/academic links. The key question was what could the Institution do to support and develop links to the benefit of all (universities, employers, students, researchers, academics, the Institution and of course society). I make 3 tightly written pages of notes and we gain a real insight as to the key issues and potential solutions. The membership team, led by vice president Peter Hansford and director David Lloyd Roach will take this valuable contribution back to their committee. All of us will benefit from the thoughts and guidance of the Forum members.

The Forum meeting closes just before 6pm and I rush to the Telford Theatre to run through the programme for the evening Prestige Lecture. This was a joint Institution and TRF Fellows lecture entitled “Sustainable bridges through innovative advances”. Transport Research Foundation Fellow Adrian Long delivered a brilliant lecture. Adrian was of course our President from 2002 to 2003. The lecture was followed by a prestige dinner in the Council Room. Two of my apprentices, Doug Forbes and James Wallace joined us for the lecture and the dinner. In the tradition of springing tasks on apprentices, James was invited to say grace. He did a good job!

Day 177 (Thursday 3 May)No breakfast! I went straight to Think ’07 to install and prepare for my presentation on driving sustainability into business practice and an industry perspective on the value built environment professionals can contribute to delivering on the sustainability agenda. I bump into a former

Week twenty sixJohn Cox and half way point

Day 174 (Monday 30 April)Carillion day. I squeeze in a chat to undergraduates and a President’s Question Time.

Day 175 (Tuesday 1 May)Mixed day. The Institution part of the day includes 3 brief meetings (one on forthcoming visits) and loads of post and certificate signing. Leave the Institution late for a geotechnical chat and meal. I have lots of correspondence about the Bellamy paper in the proceedings published last week. Note that the views published in our proceedings are not the views of the Institution! We publish papers to engender discussion and there will be the opportunity to read alternative views in the forthcoming issues of the proceedings.

I must commend the briefing note on page 51 of the proceedings to you all (reference: Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 2007, 160, No. CE02). Jointly authored by all the Telford Apprentices, lead by Alexandros Feretzakis and Doug Forbes, this is the first publication from this excellent group of young engineers. This is the output from task 1. They were given two and a half weeks to produce it in a collaborative way and delivered on time and to specification. I was so pleased with their work that I sent it down to the proceedings for the editor to consider its publication.

Day 176 (Wednesday 2 May)ffb. I am getting some comments about “fruit for breakfast”! It works for me. It is usually all I have, but in Newcastle last week I added porridge and a vegetarian cooked plate…. hence the “amusing” comments! I sign yet more certificates: on this occasion for companies who have approved training schemes. I then meet briefly with membership director David Lloyd Roach to discuss membership issues prior to my visits to Wales and the West Midlands. I am joined by West Midlands’ Telford Apprentice, Ben Maltby.

At 9.30am we all head for the Institution of Structural Engineers to join the ACED meeting with our two Institutions. ACED is the Association of Civil Engineering Departments. IStructE Senior Vice President Sarah Buck and I both have a few minutes to present an overview of our Institution activities and then each chair one of the two morning sessions. These were the quality of design in the built environment and meeting the challenges of embedding sustainability in design teaching. The two

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Open your eyes, love, and go on

300 people packed the church to pay their respects to a great man, the motorway man. John we celebrate your life and will remember you.

Day 179 (Saturday 5 May)Alveley Band. The practice was to prepare for the first concert of the year. I will be in Cardiff, then Wolverhampton and finally Shrewsbury with my Institution hat on, so will sadly miss the event. Blog and postcard writing.

Day 180 (Sunday 6 May)Cooked lunch, saxophone lesson and music practice.

Today marks 6 months as President. My key impressions at the halfway point:

1. Our members are fantastic! So many of them contribute so much to support schools, undergraduates and young engineers… and to sharing that all important engineering knowledge.

2. The graduates and students are energised and enthusiastic, but sadly quite a few seem to drop away following professional qualification. We must retain their important contribution to our Institution and society.

3. The Institution is held in high respect wherever I have been. Our contribution and involvement is important and valued.

4. Mentoring is happening all over the place, but some do not understand its benefits or what mentoring really is.

5. Our members have delivered some magnificent projects and sustainability is core to that delivery.

6. I cannot describe just how much fun this job is. It is a real honour and privilege to be President.

Statistics at the halfway point:

Meetings and events: 298People I have spoken directly to: 9,400Lunches and dinners 96, of which 10 were black tie, some were sandwiches!Presentations: 59Miles: 24,921, of which 11,666 long haul air, 1,150 short haul air, 9,501 rail, 1,891 by car (about half in mine), 9 on foot (probably underestimated!)Carbon footprint for travel and hotels: 1.51 trees,Blog: more than 35,000 words

employee who is now working at a strategic level on this for Government.

I return to the Institution to sign more certificates and have a diary meeting with President’s PA Clare. I next have a meeting to discuss some strategic research issues in highways.I travel back to Wolverhampton intending to attend a meeting in Shrewsbury on Telford. Time and tiredness leaves me deciding to go home rather than only catch the last quarter of the meeting.

Day 178 (Friday 4 May)Carillion day. In the afternoon I attend a service of celebration for John Cox in Wolverhampton. John was himself a colossus of roads. Agent for the first motorway in the UK, he had left school at 14 in 1934 (100 years after the death of Telford). He first joined a builders’ merchant and then joined Bernard Sunley. During this period he attended evening classes to develop his engineering knowledge. By 1939 he was building airfields all over the place and moved to Northern Ireland. He joined the Preston bypass project (later to become the M6) and managed the largest fleet of earth moving equipment ever seen. He then became “Mr. Motorway Man” and built motorways all over the UK… M1, M6, M9, M25, M74, M90 and many more. He rose up the Tarmac ranks to become a Tarmac Construction director. He contributed to our Institution and to the Institution of Highways and Transportation (as IHT President in 1982). Sir William Francis delivered the tribute to John… and moving it was.

Apart from all the remarkable achievements in our industry, two facts stood out. The first was that he proposed to his wife Rosemary within 24 hours of their meeting. The second showed his strength of character and compassion. Following the tragic death of his son of a brain tumour at the age of 24, he offered to donate his organs to help save the lives of others. Next, he initiated and established the NHS donor register. 14 million of us now carry these donor cards. My card says “I would like to help someone to live after my death”. All his life John helped and mentored others. Beyond it, he will still have an influence on millions who hold these cards and will continue to help many many thousands. I just feel humble. I shall always remember his jovial and positive style. My thoughts and prayers are with his lovely wife Rosemary and their daughter Christine. I will close this day by recounting two lines from the poem Christine read entitled “You can shed tears”: The poem helps us to realise we should celebrate John’s life and recognise the privilege of having met with him and enjoyed his company:Open your eyes and see all that he has left

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until 2010. This has meant that the 2006 students have seen their award rise to £2,000 per annum and the 2007 candidates can apply for an award worth £3,000 matching the annual fees of a course. A real incentive to apply to become a civil engineering undergraduate.

TV and radio presenter Kate Bellingham delivered an inspiring speech, recognising the importance of civil engineering and the opportunities the Quest scholarships provide to students. Kate is a real engineering enthusiast. She trained as an engineer with the BBC before being lured into ‘show-business’ presenting TV and radio programmes on science and technology, and is probably best known for her 4 years on ‘Tomorrow’s World’.

Until this year, she divided her time between presenting work and promoting engineering as a profession, most notably as President of Young Engineers (the network of engineering clubs in schools) and as Patron of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering). After talking of the importance of confident and competent teachers, she decided devote a year to train to be a secondary school maths teacher and is just 10 weeks away from Qualified Teacher Status - a qualification to join her MSc in Electronics and honorary degree from the University of Staffordshire. Thank you Kate for your contribution.

We also heard two excellent presentations from Quest scholars.First was graduate member Sam Stephens, who studied at Bristol University. In 2004 he received a Quest travel award to present a paper at a conference in Brazil. Next on was Owen Jones, a 2004 Quest scholar currently studying for an MEng at Imperial College. Both demonstrated the benefits of Quest funding eloquently.

The final presentation was from Natalie Curling, the Training and Development manager at Mott MacDonald Group who identified the business benefits gained through supporting the scheme and the students. Telford Apprentice Alex Feretzakis was present, so “volunteered” to coordinate a briefing note from the last three presenters. Thank you Alex, and thank you for stepping forward to help more members share the fantastic Quest story. Thank you too Adrian for all your sterling work… and to Brian Crossley, the previous chairman, who laid the foundations for much of the success we see today.

Thank you too to Tim, Mateus, Maria and Lisa who are the Nolde Quartet for the excellent chamber music that evening.

Week twenty sevenQuest, Wales and Telford Day 181 (Monday 7 May)Bank holiday day. Tidied barn after building works completed and played some saxophone.

Day 182 (Tuesday 8 May)Early train to London. Post and signing yet more certificates. I have meetings with Margaret Adey of the Cambridge Programme for Industry and then Professor Tim Broyd of Halcrow and the University of Dundee followed by a meeting with Senior Vice president David Orr. In the afternoon I meet with Tom Foulkes and have a briefing on the Presidential Visit to the West Midlands.

In the evening, I join the Quest 30th Anniversary event. Quest scholars from three decades were in attendance. Quest Chairman, past President, Adrian Long welcomed everyone and set the scene and laid down a challenge. From its start in 1977, the Quest scheme has been achieving its original objective – to support civil engineering undergraduates and members working towards their degree, developing their skills, or travelling, but most importantly – encouraging the brightest and the best to stay in the profession. This is really important for the future of civil engineering as we address the major issues facing the world today, particularly climate change and sustainability. It is evident that we need young engineers, and excellent engineers more than ever - making a major contribution to solving these problems.

Over the years it has been interesting to see how the Quest award has evolved. Since 1977, over 800 people have had the benefit of an award from the Quest scheme, and many of them are still in the civil engineering profession. That says we are doing something right.

The number of awards increased from 48 in 2004, to 80 in 2006. This year there will be about 90 awards. A tremendous growth. Adrian’s challenge is to increase this to 190 over the next two years.

A development over recent years has been Quest’s partnering with employers - a great idea suggested by Adrian. We have seen the number of companies grow from 9 in 2003 to more than 30 in 2007. At the same time, the value of the award has grown.

The most recent development is the major contribution by ConstructionSkills, the government-funded sector skills council. They have pledged to provide funds for Quest

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work of EFOD, the voluntary ICE Wales sub group, set up six years ago to support those less well off than ourselves. The current project is to raise funds, £20,000 to construct a medical centre in Soroti, Uganda. Tears welled in my eyes as John explained what they were doing and the needs they were addressing. The passion and enthusiasm was infectious. I immediately pledged my support for the fund raising cycle ride from Cardiff to One Great George Street to raise funds. If you too or your companies can provide some support for this worthy cause and to support these enthusiastic graduate members, then please get in touch with John via ICE Wales.

Finally, we heard of incoming chairman Mike Pearson’s plans for the next year. I never cease to be amazed by the energy and enthusiasm of our young members and yet again see a great future for them and the Institution.

The final “event” of the evening is to return to Cardiff Bay in the rain for a meal with ICE Wales members…. A great evening, despite my umbrella taking a walk from the restaurant.

Day 185 (Friday 11 May)The first meeting was with Melisa Kitson, Chief Executive of Constructing Excellence Wales. Melisa outlined the objectives and achievements of ICE Wales, which had been chaired by our very own excellent Denys Morgan until recently. Denys seems to know everyone in Wales! CE are doing great work, so please look at their website.

Our next meeting was with Bob Brierley and Colin Eades of SEWTA who provided more detail about the integration of transport plans in South East Wales. During this meeting, Bob Gilchrist arrived with the Wales Centenary Bridge and two G&S volunteers to build the 12.2m long, 6.22 m span suspension bridge. And what an impressive bridge it is! By the end of the summer over 2,500 school students will have been involved in building it. Incredible and such a fantastic way to promote civil engineering to the next generation. The second bridge I have had the privilege to open this year!

Our next meeting was with some 30 fellow built environment and academic institutions. We debated sustainability, the marketplace and skills over a leisurely sandwich lunch. I officially opened the bridge and carried out what was called a “Presidential test”.

In the evening was the Wales Region Annual Dinner. 330 enthusiastic civil engineers and their guests celebrating their awards and hearing the words of Chairman Bob Slorach. The guest speaker was Mai Davies, the TV presenter and

Day 183 (Wednesday 9 May)Carillion day. I was interviewed for our company magazine which is marking the mid point of my presidency.

Day 184 (Thursday 10 May)Early start to drive to Wales for my Presidential visit. Unfortunately the train times would not allow me to reach Cardiff in time to fulfil my first event. I was chairing the 9am session of the 7th Wales National Transport Conference. The conference was organised by ICE Wales in conjunction with IHT, CILT UK and supported by Constructing Excellence in Wales and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Institution member (fellow) Robin Shaw, Director of Transport for the Welsh Assembly Government, gave the first keynote speech covering minister Andrew Davies’ slot as well as his own.

Andrew has been a great supporter and regular speaker at the conference in previous years, but was understandably diverted by coalition talks for the Welsh Assembly following the elections on 3 May. We heard about the joined up thinking and initiatives ( for example, Walk to Schools and Smarter choice Wales) which has enabled Wales to be justifiably proud of the way it has delivered for transport over recent years. Just dynamic!

Next on was Bob Brierley who described the work of SEWTA, a consortium of 10 local government bodies who were working together to deliver a strategy for the whole of South East Wales. The conference had started well! What a good example of Institutions working together for the benefit of society. I was able to stay until lunch and then was taken on a tour of some of the flagship buildings and projects completed in Cardiff in recent years: I was especially impressed by the Welsh Assembly building and the Cardiff Barrage (I had worked on an unsuccessful tender about 10 years ago!).

In the early evening I attended the Wales Region committee. The main business was to hear from the Graduates and Students about their activities over the past year. And what an active and energetic group they are! Chairman Katalin Andrasi outlined their objectives and achievements for the year and Adam Johnson gave a short presentation on their Scotland trip. I wish I had been invited! They visited the Forth Bridge, Edinburgh, the Falkirk Wheel and the Forth and Clyde canal. Past president, Gordon Masterton had joined the trip at Falkirk and joined in with the serious ale trail investigations and analysis. Special thanks to Mrs Sandra Purves of PHEW who had provided the Edinburgh engineering tour.

We then all heard from John Farrow who described the

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journalist who had kindly stepped in at 24 hours notice. Mai and Bob kindly coached me on the pronunciation of the Pont Cysyllte Aqueduct. It was a great event and I really enjoyed to opportunity to meet up with friends old and new.

Thank you Bob, Katalin, Telford Apprentice Tim O’Brian, Denys and the committee for such a fantastic visit to Wales.

Day 186 (Saturday 12 May)Returned to Wolverhampton to join the Mayor, the City of Wolverhampton Buildings Preservation Trust and 30 others at the 12 George Street open day. A splendid refurbishment of a building which had previously been “at risk”. I then drove to Telford’s first major bridge, the Montford Bridge, where I caught up with the West Midlands “Telford Tour” being led by Roger Cragg. The tour then went on to the Longton Aqueduct, the first use of cast iron for an aqueduct. Arrived home tired at 6pm.

Day 187 (Sunday 13 May)Rainy day for Dorothy and friends to walk 12 miles in preparation for a charity walk, the Bridgnorth Walk, on Bank Holiday Monday. I played clarinet and saxophone and prepared lunch and for the next week. Late pm train back to London.

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measurement.

The afternoon is taken up by a 4 hour Council meeting. We debate and vote on subscriptions for next year; discuss our annual report and some 16 other agenda items. This is followed by a presentation by VP Scott Steedman on the engineering of Hurricane Katrina. A fascinating story and a real demonstration of how engineering analysis can provide solutions in disaster scenarios.

Day 190 (Wednesday 16 May)Train to Coventry to be met by West Midlands Chairman Ed Gardiner, Telford Apprentice Ben Maltby and Regional Manager Steve Feeley.

Our first meeting is at Coventry University with university department representatives from Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Warwick. We discuss the different entry cohorts and teaching methods of the universities and the need for more practical experience for university lecturers and more practical input in the teaching of civil engineering.

It was a very informative meeting. I was struck by the passion to deliver educated graduates (from HND, HNC through to degree level) for society. Budget and other restraints do not make this easy. The balance of research and teaching was one of the main problems identified. It was noted that experienced practitioners could not possibly become university lecturers and professors. This was because the funding “system” demands that university lecturers have doctorates and can produce regular published papers of their research work. Thank you Dr. John Davies and to Coventry University for hosting this event.

We next travelled to Kings Heath on the outskirts of Birmingham for a half day seminar with Sustainability West Midlands and the IMechE entitled “Engineering Solutions to Climate Change Adaption”. Ed Gardiner chaired the event and I gave the introductory keynote. We then heard from the York EcoDepot team and about Bilston Urban Village. Both were excellent examples of farsighted and visionary clients (York Council and Wolverhampton City Council) and both presented some great engineering design and delivery.

After the tea break we heard about solutions and in particular learnt how construction businesses were responding to the challenge of climate change with two great examples from Peter Braithwaite of Arup. The whole event was expertly summarised in 5 minutes by Sustainability West Midlands’ Director John Sharpe. Over 60 delegates went away with a multitude of ideas and sound evidence that being more sustainable is better for clients,

Week twenty eightCouncil and West Midlands Day 188 (Monday 14 May)Early start in the Institution after the 10 minute walk from the President’s flat. I cleared some post and signed more certificates… a training scheme for the Public Works Department in Brunei amongst others. I worked with them on some road projects some 12 years ago.

I spend the first half of the morning at the Geotechnique Symposium in Print event. I had the pleasure of welcoming the 200 delegates to the Institution and the symposium. The first keynote speech was by Professor Dick Chandler who spoke on geological origins and engineering properties of stiff sedimentary clays. This excellent start was followed up by two more presentations from Dr. Rameus Gallois and Mike De Freitas. Two more real experts, both providing energetic presentations with a real WOW factor. I was able to chat to fellow geotechnical engineers over tea and then had to leave for other meetings. I suggest members read the report of the symposium.

I next had a diary and correspondence catch up meeting with Clare Gray followed by a council briefing with Tom Foulkes and a briefing on my forthcoming presidential visit to Poland.

In the afternoon I met briefly with Jonathan Jong. Jonathan had missed the presentation event for his membership certificate and wanted a photo and a brief chat. Next Tom and I went to the Institution of Structural Engineers with SVP David Orr for one of our regular meetings. The meeting was hosted by the IStructE President David Harvey, who has become a friend as well as an Institution colleague. David is also a fellow of our Institution. We discussed registration, the Royal Academy of Engineers climate change initiative, the ETB, the Bologna agreement, university funding, training schemes, SCOSS and CROSS.

Day 189 (Tuesday 15 May)Busy day, so I get into the Institution early. I find Tom is there too… at 6.30am! We both have busy days and much to do. I catch up with post and am then interviewed by Emma Crates for Construction News on sustainability. I hope the printed version turns out well!

I have meetings with Tom and then Anne Moir (Director of Communications and Marketing). I next meet with Gemma Roberts a policy advisor with the Local Government Policy Group… we discuss integration of sustainability into working practices and ideas about carbon footprint

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engineers and both have made such great contributions to both engineering knowledge and mentoring and developing young engineers. Keep checking Spirit of Telford website for more information! Thank you to all the sponsors, entrants and award winners… and thank you too to Steve Feeley and his team for putting on such a fantastic event.

Dorothy and I then headed off for the train to London to attend an “at home” in Kensington Palace, hosted by Sir Michael and Lady Peat. Sir Michael chairs the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability project and was hosting a get together for steering group members. It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss issues across all UK business sectors.

Day 192 (Friday 18 May)Ffb and met British Tunnelling Society Chairman Bill Gross in the café bar. I then cleared some post and spent the rest of the morning judging the first round of the British Construction Industry Awards (BCIA).

Following this I dropped in at the tail end of the Associated Societies meeting and had a couple of brief meetings before catching the train home.

The Institution has 14 associated societies. The British Geotechnical Association (BGA), with 1,400 members is one of them. You may recall I chaired the BGA for two years about 6 years ago. The Institution provides £250k support for these associated societies, essentially subsidising the individual member subscriptions. In return, they assist us in delivering our learned society function. The BGA for example, has fulfilled the role of the Institution Ground Board since 2001. The Institution collects subscriptions, provides administration support and provides rooms for meetings and events. I hope you appreciate your subscriptions are well spent… I think so! All members have the benefit of a wider selection of meetings to attend. The BGA for example contributes to codes and standards and has recently, with others produced a new specification for piling and diaphragm walling. Their most popular meeting, the Rankine Lecture attracts over 750 attendees every year…as it has done for the past 10 years.

Day 193 (Saturday 19 May)Band, work and Institution emails all day. In the evening Dorothy and I attend a concert entitled “Elgar – the Music Maker”. A choral and orchestral concert. Absolutely magnificent!

Day 194 (Sunday 20 May)Emails, blog, eventually sax and clarinet practice.

business, communities and the planet!

Our final event of the day was a meal in the Bank Restaurant in Brindley Place with committee members and some IMechE guests, including Vice President David Greenway. We had some great discussions around the table. By coffee time it was time to put the Telford Apprentice on the spot and give his view on how the apprentice scheme was working this year. David Orr is considering how best to develop the scheme for next year, so comments and analysis will be listened to! Ben identified the benefits to him personally and to his company and also emphasised how much it had helped him to understand better how the Institution works and how it represents its 80,000 members. We had an open debate with the clear message that we should not bypass the GSNet… in other words those young members who had already shown commitment and were making such great contributions to our Institution and society. Message understood! If anyone else has views on how the Telford Apprentice scheme is working please send in a comment or two. Their task list on the website (via my page) will be updated shortly. A great evening!

Day 191 (Thursday 17 May)Breakfast canal boat trip and question time with graduates and students. Chairman Phil is reporting what I said on the web apparently. I did not see much of the canal, but enjoyed the meeting! We started with coffee and a chat and then I responded to the questions, some of which graduate members had emailed in. Thank you Simon, Tim, Chris, Michael, Efren, Colin and Kate for the questions and discussion.

We then braved the rain and took a short taxi ride to the Thinktank at Millenium Point where the ICE West Midlands Awards 2007 were taking place. The guest presenter was TV and radio presenter and personality Adrian Goldburg. Adrian and I toured the project stands and exhibition and joined the 150 members and guests for a buffet lunch (my 109th lunch or dinner!). There were all fantastic projects. We were treated to a short briefing by each team, which turned them from two to three dimensional. Nothing beats passionate engineers talking about their work!

The awards ceremony was held in the lecture theatre. Adrian introduced the event and summarised each of the projects before the winners were announced. I made a short speech and then had the honour of handing out most of the awards, taking time for a brief chat as the photographs were taken. See the ICE West Midlands website for all the details! I also presented two Spirit of Telford awards to Neil Dancer and Chris Nason. Neil and Chris are truly excellent

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members. The formal part of our proceedings was to sign a cooperation agreement and a declaration supporting the existing recognition agreements we have with the Colegio. In Spain it is compulsory to be a member of the Colegio in order to practise as a professional engineer. The signatures, opening friendship and photographs were followed by an excellent lunch. I am tempted by too many spicy sausages.

At 4.30pm, with lunch just completed, we then had an open session with Institution members, Colegio members and representatives from a number of key Spanish contractors and Techniberia-Asince (the Spanish organisation of civil engineering consultants). There were a number of short presentations followed by a question and discussion session which took us to 7pm. There was considerable interest in the UK construction market, the PFI process and yet more debate about the training and qualification of engineers. There was some considerable debate about the skills shortage and real interest in our Quest sponsorship scheme. To close the evening, we adjourned to a restaurant for more wonderful Spanish cuisine.

Day 198 (Thursday 24 May)Ffb and we were collected by Jose to visit Torre Espacio, a 57 story building being constructed by OHL. This is a project with some real engineering challenges, not least the impressive 4m thick post tensioned slab. Project Director Jose Luis Martinez described the engineering detail and the planning and logistics required to construct such a signature building.

We leave in the pouring rain for a meeting at the British Consulate with members of the Trade and Investment Team before saying our “good byes” to Jose and taking a taxi to the airport to travel to Barcelona for the second part of out Spain visit.

Jose, if you are reading this, thank you so much for being such an excellent host and for fulfilling your role as our Country Representative so well. My best wishes to you and your wife for the birth of your son in 4 weeks time.

Tom and I met up with our wives at the airport and flew to Barcelona. Our bags, along with those of some 20 other passengers were left in Madrid. Two hours after landing, Tom and I finally made it to the front of the “baggage handling” queue (perhaps baggage miss-handling might be a better expression) and were processed. We were assured that our bags would catch us up within 24 hours. We were not that confident! No-one knew where our bags were. There was some small hope that they had been placed on the next flight… and imagine our relief when

Week twenty nine Madrid and Barcelona Day 195 (Monday 21 May)Carillion day

Day 196 (Tuesday 22 May)Travel to Madrid. Rather dangerous and circuitous route taxi ride to the hotel and then to our first meeting.

Country representative Jose Cordovilla met with Tom and I and we were taken to the offices of the Asociacion de Ingenieros de Caminos Canales y Puertos to discuss the training, development and qualification of engineers in Spain and sign a cooperation agreement with them. We met with President Miguel Aguilo, Secretary General Rosario Martinez Vazquez de Parga and other members of their Board. Also present was Miguel Santos, who is the Asociacion’s representative in the UK. Miguel Santos works in Lichfield and I had met him the previous week at the West Midlands Awards event.

The Asociacion then kindly took Tom and me and our wives out to dinner. We had a most entertaining and convivial evening, despite having to dodge the heaviest rain Madrid had seen for years! The highlights on the menu were two of the desserts: curdled lady and bacon of sky!

Day 197 (Wednesday 23 May)Excellent breakfast (including the fruit!). Jose collected Tom and me from the hotel for our first meeting which was with Institution members. We have just over 100 members in Spain and 9 of them had come from as far away as Bilbao to meet with us and join in with the days events. Once we all introduced ourselves Tom and I briefed them on our current Institution activities and aspirations, Telford 250 celebration activities and changes in the learned society knowledge delivery. We then all discussed qualification processes and complications with direct debit payments from the local banks. Susana was particularly interested in contributing to the diversity debate, so look out for her name in the future!

Of our members in Spain, split evenly were those whose jobs or family connections had taken them to Spain and local Spaniards who had travelled to the UK for jobs or to attend university.

By lunchtime (1.30pm) we were joined by members of the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos Canales y Puertos, the qualifying body for engineers in Spain. We met with President Edelmiro Rua Alvarez and other senior

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our bags suddenly appeared! We had lost our “free time” in Barcelona, but at least we could change out of our suits, which had become well drenched during the day.

Day 199 (Friday 25 May)Ffb! Our last formal meeting of the visit was at the Technical University of Catalunya. Our host was Antonio Huerta, Director of the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Enginyers de Camins, Canals I Ports de Barcelona. We met with members of the school of engineering (3000 students!) and once again debated the training and qualification of engineers. Once again, there was considerable interested in our processes and especially the ability to transfer across membership grades. We held a short meeting with Institution members and then toured the structures and geotechnical laboratories.

The visit closed with a buffet lunch with departmental staff. Tom then headed for the airport. I was staying an extra night and took the opportunity to take Professor Antonio Gens out to dinner. Antonio had delivered the British Geotechnical Association’s 47th Rankine Lecture in March of this year to 800 geotechnical enthusiastic BGA members at Imperial College.

Day 200 (Saturday 26 May)Dorothy and I spend the day as tourists before going to the airport at 4.30pm. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by several hours and we did not arrive home until 1am UK time the following morning (2am Spain time!).

Day 201 (Sunday 27 May)Clarinet catch up and lesson.

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signing more certificates. I then had an up-date meeting with Tom Foulkes and yet more time to catch up on my post.

I hear a marching band and dash out into the street to watch 6 army bands march past practising for the Trouping the Colour on Saturday 16 June. I counted clarinets (8 in each band) and saxophones (2 to 4 in each band).

Train to Hatfield for an event organised by the Herts and Beds Graduates and Students. Chairman Richard Elliott welcomed us and kicked off the session with an introduction to the afternoon’s events and a briefing on our ICE engineering Ambassadors. Richard defined who could be ambassadors: anyone with enthusiasm who can inspire young people about engineering! Once again I hear about all the great work promoting engineering and mentoring our potential engineers of tomorrow. I have asked him to produce a briefing note based on his excellent presentation.

We then heard from Pauline Beszent about SETNET and SETPOINT and the benefits for businesses and organisations getting involved in these ambassadors schemes. The ICE Ambassador scheme is now fully aligned with SETNET.

Pauline was the employer sponsor for the next item on the agenda which was a presentation from the St Albans School team which took part in this year's Engineering Education Scheme . This is a national scheme which provides schools with some real engineering projects. The school teams are mentored by young engineers and supported by companies. In this case Terry, Jo and Richard set a challenge for Adam, Adam, Todd and Ben to design a sustainable transport solution for a park and ride scheme and the new football ground in St Albans. A, A, T & B did a great job and delivered a great presentation on their project.

Terry and Paul then followed this with a presentation to us all on the Graduates’ and Students’ activities and plans for the next session. I have now forgotten them all! The 12 strong GSNet committee serves almost 2000 G&S members in the East of England.

Kate Symons then spoke about her experience as a Telford Apprentice. Very timely as plans are developing for an apprentice scheme next year. Kate is organising one of my visit days to the East of England at the end of this month.

The event finished with a few words from me and a President’s Question Time session. A fun and informative afternoon for me. I hope everyone else enjoyed it! Yet again I see great energy, effort and enthusiasm amongst our young members. The Institution really values the input from

Week thirtyPontcysyllte, E of E G&S, something wise

Day 202 (Monday 28 May)Bank holiday Monday. Dorothy took part in the Bridgnorth Walk. 22 miles to the Brown Clee and back to Bridgnorth. She raised £150 for the Bridgnorth Africa Appeal.

Day 203 (Tuesday 29 May)Carillion day.Meeting with University of Wolverhampton PhD student I am mentoring who is working on the business case for sustainability from an accounting perspective.

Day 204 (Wednesday 30 May)Train to London. Caught up on post and signing certificates plus a few company emails. Diary meeting with President’s PA Clare, followed by a briefing on Interwise from Richard Armstrong. The Interwise system allows members across the globe to join in with lectures and meetings live… or playback meetings at a later date. I discover that I can listen to and view the slides of my Presidential Address!

My next meeting is with geotechnical engineers Sarah Stallebrass and Dave Richards who have come in for a discussion about helping academics become chartered engineers. Membership Director David Lloyd Roach also joined in the discussion, which I think has helped both sides improve their understanding of the issues. I hope to have more to report back on this later in the year. We need to encourage more academics to become chartered members and fellows. Thank you Sarah and David for giving your time to help on this.

I next meet with Professor Tim Broyd and colleagues from Halcrow to discuss driving sustainability into business practice. After this I found a few minutes to pop in to the Engineering Sustainability journal panel and also the Research and Innovation panel.

I returned to my post and then joined in with the SECED evening meeting. It was their prestigious Mallet-Milne Lecture, delivered this year by Professor Robin Spence. A MOST excellent lecture entitled “Saving lives in earthquakes: successes and failures in seismic protection since 1960”. A fascinating subject and a real demonstration of the benefit we engineers bring to society.

Day 205 (Thursday 31 May)Ffb. Writing letters and postcards (now up to 333) and

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this group of apprentices! And we must not forget those other young members who have devoted many many hours to supporting our Institution activities AND supporting society.Richard, thank you and your team for organising and delivering such an excellent session… and my very best wishes for your wedding day at the end of this month.

Day 206 (Friday 1 June)Carillion day. I take a few Institution telephone calls too.

Day 207 (Saturday 2 June)Dorothy and I went for a day out! I took her to the magnificent Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We travelled via Montford Bridge . It was a lovely sunny day although a little unnerving walking across the three foot wide aqueduct tow path, with the canal on one side and a 39 meter drop the other (it is OK, there was a handrail!). I wish I had visited it before. It is well deserving of the World Heritage Site status it applied for in 2005, the 200th anniversary of its opening. 1,007 feet long and typically innovative, it is indeed one of Telford’s greatest achievements. We lunched in the Telford Arms (where else?) and returned home via the Longton upon Tern Aqueduct (hence keeping off the main roads as I told Dorothy!).I recommend a visit to all members. Please also add your support to British Waterways in maintaining it and in their World Heritage status application. Returned home to cut grass and cook a late (10pm) supper.

Day 208 (Sunday 3 June)Blog, clarinet and some sax and more grass cutting.

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communications, the site work had started in July 2006. Chris described the project:

■ 9.5km with 2 massive structures and 36km of drainage, SUDS and 14 attenuation ponds, embankments, soft clays and 4million tonnes of imported fill.

■ The River Esk Crossing (reportedly the water can rise 1.5m in 20 minutes) with its 4 spans and 1500 tonnes of steel to launch across the river, 600 tonnes of reinforcement and 2000 tonnes of concrete.

■ The Mossband Rail Bridge. An incredible planning and logistics challenge next to the West Coast Main Line which, apart from possessions has a train every 9 minutes. 144 1.5m diameter piles, 1050 sectional flight auger piles, 4500 VCCs and thousands of band drains.

■ The continuous improvement team led by Shane which has shaved an amazing 21 weeks off an 81 week programme.

■ Many environmental (watercourses, light and noise) and biodiversity challenges: otters, reptiles, herons, newts, salmon and planting.

James, Steve and Chris then took us on a site visit and we could see the scale and the pace of the project ourselves. James was responsible for the Esk Crossing, due for the second bridge jack next week. He also showed us the footings from Telford’s original bridge... what a great link! I am full of admiration for GF Paul Pemberton, James and the team, led by structures agent John McNiffe.

We then met with Malcolm Carter, another young graduate member who was responsible for the Mossband Bridge. Piling expert and old friend Phil Derbyshire explained the piling “challenges”… it was great for me to talk geotechnical! And wonderful to see Phil, who I worked with over 17 years ago. I do not do requests, but I will say congratulations to John Freeman, Phil’s son in law, for passing his CPR review and becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer recently. A really great day. Arrived home late.

Day 210 (Tuesday 5 June)Early train to London. I was hosting a workshop for the Accounting for Sustainability project in the President’s office from 9.30am to 2pm. I next had a couple of short meetings about my visit to the South West region later in the week and to catch up with my post.

In mid afternoon I was joined by Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Ruth has been in post for about 6 months now and this was the first opportunity for us to meet and discuss our activities

Week thirty oneM6 Guards Mill, Benevolent Fund & SW Visit

Day 209 (Monday 4 June)Early train to Lancaster for a site visit to the Lower Lancaster Flood Alleviation Scheme. ICE NW Chairman’s Apprentice Jon Yates met me at the station and took me to the site. Once there I met with Graham Deakin, B&V’s senior manager on the project and the three other NW Chairman’s Apprentices, Ben Hodgkin, Jenny Smith and Stephen Whitham. We were also joined by the Environment Agency’s area sponsor, Phil Jones.

Jon gave a short presentation on the £5m scheme, which is to provide protection up to a 1 in 500 year flood to 800 homes, 112 industrial units and the local infrastructure. He noted that the three previous major floods had been in 1907, 1927 and 1977! To complete the project in 2007 seemed a good idea!

We then walked the project which comprised flood embankments and walls. What cannot be seen now are the metres and metres of soft clay beneath the defences which had presented both design and handling problems (solved by a combination of lime stabilisation and clever use of plant and handling techniques). I was impressed to learn of the following:

■ The site transport: mountain bikes!■ The site waste management plan■ The value engineering register ■ The collaborative approach

Even the landscaping planting was carefully thought out and local species adopted. This was a beautifully designed and executed project! Thank you Jon for initiating and organising the visit.

By lunchtime the apprentices and I headed for the station and took the train to Carlisle where we were met by Telford Apprentice James Wallace. James had organised a site visit to the M6 Guards Mill project… the missing motorway link between the M6 at junction 44 and the M74. Contracts Director Steve Kennedy and Project Manager Chris Hayton introduced us to this £174 million ECI project (Early Contractor Involvement). Steve had been the bid manager for the project and had been responsible for its delivery since the contract award in February 2003. Following the public inquiry, early design and considerable community

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(Edward Cullinan Architects), Keith Clarke (Atkins), Dr. Graham Owens (Steel Construction Institute) and Dr, Giles Atkinson (London School of Economics). Also present was Nick Raynsford MP and CIC Chairman (and, I learnt last weekend, the climber of tall towers in Cambridge!).

Earlier in the day Nick had become an Honorary Member of the IStructE. Well deserved, he is a great champion for our profession and our industry. Chatham House Rules applied, so I cannot report any detail. Michael Dickson will be pulling together a note about the meeting, which will be developed into an action plan. It was great to see Graham Watts, Chief Executive of CIC, who I had not seen for some years.

Day 212 (Thursday 7 June)Train to Swindon with Deputy Director General and Thomas Telford Managing Director Hugh Fergusson for the South West Region President’s Visit.

Hugh and I were met by regional Chairman Chris Taylor and Regional Manager Barry Griffiths. We were taken straight to the “Steam” Museum to join in a Rail Industry Group event with schools. The event was organised by David Coles and fellow members of the SW Leadership Group of the ICE with the aim to encourage young people into engineering and in particular rail engineering. The day was supported by STEMNET and Steam and many young engineers who had come along to set engineering problems for the children and the enthuse them about engineering. Also along were Widcombe Wrobotiers from Widcombe Primary School who represented the UK at the recent Lego Robotics European Finals in Norway. The school’s trip from the finals had been supported financially by the SW Leadership Group companies and ICE South West.

The children demonstrated the skills which enabled them to come away with 2 of the 10 awards at the final. It was great to see them and their enthusiasm for engineering. It was also great to see the way the 6 school teams present were enthused about engineering by our young members and their companies. Just the sort of activity we should be doing for society and our profession!

We then drove to the Westbury Park Primary School to meet up with headmaster Alan Rees and Telford Apprentice Sally Walters. Sally had visited the school two weeks previously to talk to them about what an engineer was (“a man who” suggested one child) and about designing drains and sewers (interesting for children!). She also set them a task: to build an aqueduct using recycled materials which could span 300mm and hold a litre of water. I was there to test the aqueducts and judge the competition. There were aqueducts of all shapes and sizes, some of which held

and aspirations in more detail. Ruth outlined the IMechE’s new strategy, which has been developing over the past few months.

With half an hour to spare (for once!) before my next meeting, I took the opportunity to get some fresh air and take my bags to the President’s flat. This would save me trawling them around with me later in the evening. I arrived back at OGGS just in time for my meeting with RedR’s New Chief Executive Martin McCann. Martin outlined RedR’s new strategy and highlighted the importance of and value RedR deliver to their corporate sponsors. In the evening I enjoyed a flight on the London Eye with business colleagues and customers.

Day 211 (Wednesday 6 June)Train to Haywards Heath for a Benevolent Fund meeting. As President, I am chairman of the Trustees… yet more wonderful members who give their excellent experience and considerable volunteer time to supporting this wonderful charity.

I was surprised to learn that 80% of the new support this year was to young members or partners and families of young members. We debate the needy cases, which is a most humbling experience. Many people experience tragic circumstances. We are joined at the meeting by Telford Apprentice Trina De Silva who has agreed to help in coming up with some ideas as to how we might reach more of the membership and more of the needy.

Following the meeting and a sandwich lunch (my 120th lunch or dinner as President!) we then went to Mill Close to see the properties (there are 32 of them). We were able to look inside no.22 called Malay House which was being upgraded and repainted. The houses had been designed and built by a local builder Harold G Turner, a quality job indeed. The oak floors were almost as good as new and the house was very light and airy. The grounds and setting make it a wonderful place to live. What a good job our maintenance (Don and others) and gardening (John and others) teams do!

I leave for London full of admiration for the work of the Benevolent Fund and its excellent staff and full of admiration for those members in the past who funded the development.

I walk from Victoria Station to the IStructE to attend an industry wide event to discuss “measuring the Sustainability of UK Construction”. The debate was chaired by past IStructE President Michael Dickson. The presenters were Professor David Fisk (Imperial College), Robin Nicholson

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and infrastructure for the project) and Kedrick Davies (responsible for the space planning and development). The project provides a new community for thousands in a safe, well planned marine environment.

Tony described the history of the site (power stations and refineries) and the environmental remediation and took us through the sustainability assessment and approach to the project. This was followed by Kedrick who explained the development of the site and the planning, which led to the current retail, leisure and housing layouts. We then had some time to walk around the “fishing village” and lock areas before setting off for our next visit at Genesis.

The 30 mile drive took us to an active demonstration of how renewable energy and sustainable construction materials and methods can be integrated into the mainstream construction environment. Genesis Director Ian Moore showed us the building and described the construction, which included timber frame, straw block walls, mud walls and many more features… take a look for yourselves!!

We then toured the finalists of the Genesis Young Environmentalist of the Year Award and saw the 5 finalist teams who had been charged with developing a sustainable future for Taunton. The teams came up with some great ideas about the space, building design, energy, traffic and even the products for the shops. I was invited to say a few words… easy when you see such impressive projects!

Off again. This time to visit Norton Fitzwarren Dam. This is a flood alleviation dam, and one of the very few dams to be built in the UK over the last 20 years.

We were greeted by Dave Morton, the engineer and Peter Marsh, the constructor. The dam is 450m long and has a clay core and a sheet pile cut off and is designed to retain 750000M3. Due to its size, it must comply with the 1973 Reservoirs Act and the design and construction have to be approved by an All Reservoirs “Panel Engineer”. The panel engineer is Institution Fellow Chris Binnie.In recognition of the standard of environmental design the project has been awarded a designers “Excellent” CEEQUAL Environmental Award. I had carried out site investigations and worked on many dams as a young engineer, so it was a great delight to me to learn about and walk the project with Dave, Peter, Chris and members.

We returned to Bristol to prepare for the Annual SW Dinner. This was held in Brunel’s Passenger Shed at Temple Meads Station. The biggest timber roof of its day I was told. It was a fantastic event and yet another great opportunity

several litres of water and some which held none. We had 30 different aqueducts and the winner was the one which looked like the Telford one at Pontcysyllte . I was struck by two things; the behaviour and courtesy of the children and the sheer excitement generated by the competition and the testing. Well done Sally and thank you Alan and Westbury Park Primary.

Our next event was a brief meeting with Professor Colin Taylor, Head of Department for Civil Engineering at Bristol University who then took us on a tour of the magnificent BLADE Laboratories, severely impressive! The laboratory intentionally provides facilities for several departments, enabling them to exchange ideas and techniques. The earthquake testing laboratory, with its 3m square shaking table was just one of the many highlights. A fantastic research and teaching facility!

This tour (including the geotechnical labs!) was followed by a display and two presentations of undergraduate research. We then moved onto a discussion with staff members, graduates and students, chaired by Alice Brook, Vice Chair of South West GSNet in the Knowledge Exchange Suite. I talked too much and spent too long answering questions. Alice however controlled the meeting well and kept exactly to programme!

Next was an open meeting to debate sustainability teaching and learn about some current research entitled “Sustainability – Building and Maintaining Local Competence”. This event was chaired and led by Professor Taylor, followed by a few words from me.

We then heard Professor Patrick Godfrey talking about a systems thinking approach followed by contributions from 3 of his EngD postgrads, Lucy Allen, Ollie Pearce and Celia Way showed us the value of the EngD doctorate, where research can be carried out in the workplace for the workplace… with the added advantage of academic guidance and rigour. They all had great diagrams! Quite the best way to explain complexity and concepts simply. I look forward to their output!

The evening ended with a fantastic dinner with the committee, speakers and members at the Bordeaux Quay Restaurant. The most sustainable restaurant I have been in…. and the food was delicious. We walked back to the hotel. Day 213 (Friday 8 June)Ffb. Colin collected Hugh and me from the hotel and took us to the New Community site at Portishead where we were greeted by Tony Kerr (responsible for planning, environment

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to celebrate excellent engineers (6 Spirit of Telford Awards) and projects. Telford Apprentice Sally stepped up to the mark yet again to read out the citations and introduced the excellent engineers and project awards. Our speaker was England star Graham Gooch, whose cricketing anecdotes and humour concluded the formal session before the band and the dancing started. Thank to Chris and the SW committee and regional team for organising a terrific visit for me.

Day 214 (Saturday 9 June)Arrived home at lunchtime. Cleared emails for Carillion and the Institution. It was a lovely warm day, so we had a BBQ in the evening. I was still sitting in the garden at 10.30pm sending emails over the “wireless” in the dark.

Day 215 (Sunday 10 June)Clarinet and sax. Drove to Cheltenham to introduce the speakers at a transport session at the Cheltenham Science Festival . The session was entitled Transport Revolutions – From Telford to Tomorrow. A lively event!

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one of our hosts, had attended lectures 2 decades ago. We met with members and students from the civil engineering school and I delivered a presentation on “Climate Change: Can Engineers Meet the Challenge?” which was followed by questions and a short debate. My presentation was translated into Polish (by Piotr Grabias), allowing me to pause between sentences.

Leaving our new friends at the Politechnika, we walked to Ujazdowski Castle for lunch in the Qchnia Artystyczna restaurant and then to the British Ambassador’s residence. Our walk through the enormous Lazienki Park (meaning bathrooms) and past the Chopin statue was yet another highlight in an incredible day.We took tea with the Ambassador and learnt a great deal about the development of and trade in Poland and the potential opportunities in the region.

Our final meeting of the day was at Nieborow, some 100 km west of Warsaw, where we met up with the Presidents of the Polish Chamber of Civil Engineers (PIIB) and the Polish Society of Civil Engineers and Technicians (PZITB).

PIIB President Victor Piwkowski welcomed us to the Nieborow Palace and we were treated to a tour of the building, which contained wonderful decorations, furniture, library and china. We were also given the honour of dining in this great splendour. An excellent meal. We toasted our two institutions and debated the forthcoming discussions about creating a mutual exemption agreement so that our qualifications can be recognised by our national bodies. Professor Zbigniew Grabowski is the first President of PIIB and of course, I took the opportunity to recall our own first President Thomas Telford. At the end of the evening we were treated to Zalgiris, a special Lithuanian vodka and given a book about the Palace. I resolve to return with Dorothy to show her the splendour of the museum and gardens. A long but fantastic day and so many new friends for the Institution and for me personally. What a privilege this role is!

Day 218 (Wednesday 13 June)Ffb and train to Krakow. I enjoy our dash through the countryside and take the opportunity on the 2 hour 45 minute journey to catch up on my statistics and blog. Our first visit is to the Plaszow Wastewater Treatment Plant. A splendid project which can process 160000m3 of sewage a day. The 36 million euro plant provides sufficient capacity for the next 40 years and is one of the biggest plants of its type in Poland.

We then travel to Krakow Old Town for lunch with the Honorary Consul Kazimierz Karasinski on the Pod Aniolami

Week thirty two Poland

Day 216 (Monday 11 June)Travel to Poland, via Copenhagen. Flew over the fantastic Oresund Crossing. Arrived late, so Country Representative Richard Burleigh and Tom Foulkes went on ahead to visit the Filtry Water Treatment Plant. We then met up in the early evening with local member Jerzy to take a walk around Warsaw’s Old Town and to eat.

The story of the old town is remarkable. It had been flattened in the second world war and rebuilt in its original form, using old plans, photographs and even Canaletto oil paintings. As we entered the old town we were greeted by to sweet sounds of two clarinets. A very happy coincidence!

Back at the hotel I bump into old friend Chris Jenner of Tensar, former British Geotechnical Society Chairman Professor Alan McGowan and Geosynthetics International journal editor and former President of the International Geotextile Society, Dr Giroud. They had been attending a conference and the first meeting of the Polish Chapter of the IGS.

Day 217 (Tuesday 12 June)Ffb. We spent the whole morning on foot… a great way to see the city. Our first event was at Zlote Tarasy. Project Director Richard Burleigh (Skanska) and structures designer Paul Geeson (Arup) briefed us on the multi use £180 million project. The project sits on a 3 hectare site and delivers 226000m2 of space including a 1 spectacular hectare undulating glass roof. The roof, designed by Paul, and I quote: “is a metaphor of the urban parks and it imitates the tree tops as seen by a flying bird” and comprises 4780 triangular glass panels. There was great emphasis on the sustainability impacts, which were carefully assessed and addressed in the design. The key management challenges were logisitics, planning, risk management, quality assurance and safety.

We were then taken on a tour of the 4 level shopping centre and I marvelled at the design of the roof and the use of form and space. The finish quality and thought which had gone into the detailing also impressed. The office, cinema and shopping complex has already become a “destination” in the heart of Warsaw. Yet another example of the excellence in planning engineering and logistics delivered by our great members!

Next we walked in the heat and sun to the Warsaw Politechnika, visiting the old university building where Jerzy,

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barge restaurant. We debated history, business and politics and I learnt that Krakow has a population of 750000 and 8 million visitors a year. I million of them British.

We then tour the Old Town briefing before catching our train back to Warsaw. Made it back to the hotel by 9pm.

Day 219 (Thursday 14 June)Up early to be at the airport by 6.30am for my plane to Edinburgh. I “hot desk” for the day in Edinburgh (mix of Carillion and Institution) and take a train to Glasgow where I meet up with David Orr and Gordon Masterton for dinner.

Day 220 (Friday 15 June)Ffb. Carillion day. I pop into the Regional Managers meeting which was being held in Glasgow for a short time in the afternoon before catching my train home. I arrived in time to join in the debate about President’s visits and the President’s Apprentice scheme.

Day 221 (Saturday 16 June)Band. Bit rusty as I have not played for almost a week.

Day 222 (Sunday 17 June)Band concert at Dudmaston Hall. I met with one Institution member there! In the evening I wrote 35 thank you postcards

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publishers EMAP. You may well recall that the magazine was “sold” to EMAP 10 years ago for a 60 year term when the Institution’s finances were rather less healthy than they are now. 90 minutes later I was joined by Allyson Lewis for a briefing on my presidential visit to the South East Region…. our biggest, with almost 11,000 members.

In the evening I met with John Armitt for a meal and we discussed civil engineers, the Institution, research and industry opportunities.

Day 224 (Tuesday 19 June)Ffb, post, signing certificates. At 9.30am I host an Accounting for Sustainability workshop for construction clients. The meeting finishes just in time for me to join the Executive Board meeting which started at 2pm.

Day 225 (Wednesday 20 June)Off to Clarence House for a “cross sectional” meeting of the Accounting for Sustainability project, for which I sit on the construction sector steering group. The food, finance and construction teams were meeting to discuss progress, share findings and to identify common issues. A fascinating meeting and, for me, a real insight into the way these other sectors view and are addressing the sustainability agenda. I am impressed by the team of secondees who are charged with delivering advice and guidance for industry by December of this year. This is an immense task and there will need to be a very concise and engaging outcome which clearly sets out the business benefit of adopting the more sustainable approach to all our activities. I am convinced it can be done and that the team has the capability to deliver.

After the meeting, I walk back to the Institution through St James’ Park, pausing to sit in the warmth and sun and answer emails on the way. I clear more post, certificates and emails and finalise my speech for the evening dinner. I then meet with member (and recently chartered) Nicole Nixon for a meeting to discuss the business case for corporate responsibility and sustainability. This is followed by a brief meeting to discuss menus for forthcoming events.

In the evening I attend the Railway Engineering Conference dinner at the East India Club in St James’ Square. I delivered an after dinner speech (my 83rd speech or presentation since becoming President!). The other speaker was Andy Savage, the Deputy Chief Inspector of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB). I have known conference Chairman Professor Mike Forde for many years and carry out some teaching in his school of civil engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Over 30 nationalities were attending the conference. … a splendid opportunity to share best practice across the globe. Remarkably, I have

Week thirty threeScience Museum, Clarence House and SE RegionDay 223 (Monday 18 June)Early train to London. I went straight to the Science Museum to join in with the judging for a schools event: The Telford 250 Institution of Civil Engineers and ConstructionSkills Schools Design Challenge. Over 30 schools had taken up the challenge to design a sports stadium within their own school grounds. The competition was also supported by Science and Engineering Ambassadors and CITB Ambassadors. The design had to be suitable for both disabled and non-disabled athletes and spectators with facilities for:100m and 800m races, shot put and high jump, 100m swim, BMX, 1Km cycle and at least 1000 spectators.And had to consider:Transport, disabled access, refreshment areas, changing and relaxation areas for athletes, toilets safety, environment and the legacy.A tall order indeed!

30 school teams took up the challenge and two teams from each category (key stages 1 & 2 and key stages 3 & 4) were selected to present their designs to the judges at the final. The judging panel were just bowled over by all the good ideas, the quality of submissions, presentations (verbal, powerpoint and handouts!) and the models. And then…. we were even more impressed by the enthusiasm and passion of the teams and their sheer energy. It was a delight to hear their ideas and the thinking behind them. I was joined in the judging by Senior Engineering Curator Jane Insley, London Telford apprentice Trina de Silva, CIC Area Coordinator Janette Welton-Pai and Council Member Angus McAvoy.

The key stage 4 winners were Ilford Ursuline team 1 and the key stage 2 winners were Highlands Primary School. Between the judging and the results we were treated to a tour of the Science Museum by Jane and were lucky enough to meet briefly with the National Museum of Science and Industry (to give it its full title) Director Martin Earwicker. I was surprised to see quite a lot of exhibits which were familiar household objects in my youth! My congratulations to Regional manager Jacki Bell and her team.

Back at the institution I dealt with some post, signed certificates and had a brief meeting with president’s PA Clare Gray. Then followed an NCE Supervisory Board meeting to discuss the delivery of NCE magazine with

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Telford was here too! He was the bridge engineer from 1821 to 1827, resigning in a pique when the Trust invited competitive designs for a new bridge. The Trust motto, “From the private to the public” exemplifies the great public service the trust has delivered over 6 centuries. We were treated to a splendid “bridge themed” lunch and I presented a plaque recognising Telford’s role to the Trust. My suggestion for a monthly meeting (with lunch!) was not taken up! Seriously now, it was a wonderful visit to the bridges and Trust offices. My thanks to Junior Warden, Dr. Anne Logan and Bridge Clerk, Sue (essentially the Trust Chief Executive as well as being presenter and story teller par excellence), for an absolutely fantastic experience and visit. Thanks too to PHEW (Panel for Historic Engineering Works) committee members Robert McWilliam and Richard Adam for all the behind the scene work initiating, managing and organising the plaques.

Our next visit was to Ebbsfleet International Station, a new £100million station and strategic link to the rail network. Due to open in November this year, “High Speed One” (at a cost of £6bn) as the line is called will take passengers to Stratford Station (for the Olympics in 7 minutes and onwards to St Pancras in only another 10 minutes. In the other direction ( at speeds of up to 186 mph) Paris will be just 2 hours and 5 minutes away… amazing and a fantastic feat of engineering, of which of course civil engineers have played a major part. Our host was David Hutchinson from Network Rail. David and I worked together in Abu Dhabi briefly in 1977 and had not met since!

Apparently the Ebbsfleet name is Anglo Saxon. The history of the area can be traced back to Neolithic times, but the little anecdote which interested me most was that in 1066 William and his Norman army invaded, and I quote: “the Men of Kent demanded and were given ancient laws and immunities, so that Kent’s proud motto Invicta (meaning unconquered) lives on from that day to this. ...”.We went from one super project to another. Adjacent to Ebbsfleet International is one of the biggest development and regeneration projects in the UK. Land Securities are developing an enormous chalk quarry area into a sustainable community with 9500 homes, 25000 new jobs and all the infrastructure, open landscaped space (2190 acres!), transport, facilities, schools and retail areas such a large community will need. The business core alone will be over 4.5 million square feet. You will note that developers still use the more traditional units, which may not be fully understood by all the young families who will undoubtedly flock to this utopia of fibre communications, sustainable and energy efficient homes and great public transport.

The President’s “word of the day” is WOW!..... everything

known Andy for about 48 years… we were at the same school briefly in Nottingham and shared the train ride home for two terms before I moved to the fourth of my 9 schools. The friendship was broken for over 40 years until we both discovered we were working in the same company 5 years ago! A fantastic evening and a great meal too!

Day 226 (Thursday 21 June)I met up with Tom Foulkes at Victoria Station and we take the train to Maidstone for the South East Region Presidential Visit. We were met by Regional Chairman Derek Butcher and regional manager John Laverty. Co-hosting the visit was Kent and East Sussex Branch Chairman Mike Summersgill. Before I forget…. thanks to you three and the other committee and regional team members who have worked so hard to organise the visit.

Our first visit was to the charming (and secret) village of Loose, where we were met by children from two primary schools, local parish councillors and residents and Institution members. Loose is probably the earliest example of a bypass in the UK. The stone and brick viaduct was designed and built by Thomas Telford across a narrow, but steep valley. The road out of the valley was too steep for horses pulling carts…. So ropes and manpower were needed, considerably slowing progress and presumably increasing manpower and cost. A special bridge had been built to allow me to reach and unveil the plaque to commemorate Telford’s achievement. Rhianna gave a short speech on behalf of the children … a brilliant and assured performance. I counted at least 10 engineers of the future amongst the children, who elected for my 5 minute speech in favour of the one hour speech that I had offered them!

We had time to enjoy a walk down the millrace and around the village before having to leave. Roy Hood of Loose Amenities and a Kent Man of the Trees was our guide and showed us an enormous yew tree, estimated to be 4000 years old with a 10 foot diameter trunk.

We then drove to Rochester where we met our host and Institution member, Sue Threader. Sue explained the history of the Rochester bridges over the River Medway and the Rochester Bridge Trust. I took copious notes about the Roman bridge, the big 1381 freeze and its collapse and the two great benefactors who funded a new bridge and left a legacy which to this day supports not only the bridge, but has part funded the Medway Immersed Tube Tunnel (great temporary works challenges by the way!), supported a local hospital and even Rochester Cathedral. The piles, piers, poet and scandal made a wonderful story of life in medieval times and showed just how much civil engineering serves communities and enables commerce. And, of course,

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The vote at the end of the debate was close, 12 people were in favour of the motion and 14 against. The key speakers and the chairman were not allowed to vote (by me!). It was a good debate which showed how important is it to for us to engage with as many interested parties as we can in the sustainability debate. My thanks to Richard Turner (Freight Transport Association), Tim Green (Road Users Alliance), Kris Beuret (Social Research Associates) who all spoke for the motion and Simon Pratt (SUSTRANS), Rebecca Lush (Transport 2000, please do not mention the custard pie and congratulations on your forthcoming wedding), and Prof. David Gray (Robert Gordon University). Thanks too to hosts Hyder, celebrating their 150 years this year and to Paula for her initiative and organisation.

A short journey took us to the University of Surrey where Professor Gerry Parke welcomed us to the civil engineering school and briefed us on their courses and student numbers (applications up 40% this year!). He then described how the University of Surrey/ICE Inspire Scholarships in Civil Engineering work.

These are truly 21st century apprenticeships where 90 students across the 5 years are currently supported by 22 companies to the tune of up to £30,000 in earnings and grants during their degree course (£7,600 as a bursary, the rest as earned income with their sponsor company). Ben and Matt showed us the quality of the students and the benefits of the scheme. Matt noted that he had gained experience in planning, time management and a variety of technical skills in design and construction which benefited his sponsor company AND ensured he will have completed one third of his core objectives before graduating… thus giving him a fast track to professional qualification. A win for the University, a win for the company, a win for the student and a win for the Institution!

We were then treated to a presentation from undergraduates Peter Brown, Kevin Bell, Chris Scott and Emma Grimsey who described their integrated design projects to design a new student union and access to the extended campus across the A3. If these students are not sponsored yet, then someone is missing a trick! We then toured the wind engineering laboratory (another potential page of writing… please forgive me for not describing this fantastic facility in more detail).

Our final appointment at the university was to attend the post graduation celebration and awards. Professor Mike Huxley was the master of ceremonies and I had the privilege to award the ICE Thames Valley Prizes to Natalie Webb and Lita Davis and Institution of Civil Engineers’ Prize to Nick

I did and saw had that real WOW factor which makes you realise just how civil engineers really do serve society.

We said our thanks and goodbyes to Project Director Andy Freeman and Development Director (and sustainability guru) Adam Cunningham and headed for our hotel for an evening meeting and meal with graduates and the committee. Splendid hotel, company and meal… after which I signed the Brassey Award certificates for the South East Region for the following evening. Rob James, James, Melanie, Jeremy, Anja and Anthony deserve a special mention for establishing a G&S Committee for the Kent and Sussex Branch. The twice cooked stilton soufflé was magnificent!

Day 227 (Friday 22 June)Ffb! Regional Manager John drives us to Hyder Consulting’s offices in Guildford for an event organised by Telford Apprentice Paula Farshim. Hugo Axel-Berg (Director) and John Spiers (Director) welcome us to their offices and we take a short walk to the Science park conference venue for a debate entitled “Is the expansion of the Motorway Network sustainable?”. John introduced the session and three speakers spoke for the event and three against. I was then given the task to control the debate and questions! I am hoping that John McKenna from NCE magazine will provide a report in this week’s issue… my notes extended to 4 tightly written pages! As Chairman, I am always ready with a question of my own in case the audience remain a little quiet… but no worries today… we had a lively debate, which on occasions contained common areas of agreement.

A few of the points I noted were:

■ Vision and a proper UK transport strategy is essential■ Freight transport is important for our economy AND

to provide the needs of our population■ Congestion costs business, UK plc and individuals

money, ■ We MUST reduce our CO2

■ Reliability of travel times is important to both freight and people

■ Motorways can help us to be more sustainable (one view)

■ Motorways cannot help us to be more sustainable (the other view!)

■ We must not forget the trains, bus, tram, cycling and walking options

■ We would all help if we just measured our carbon footprint and then did something to reduce it.

Contributors in the audience included planning officers, the CPRE, the WI and many other non engineers.

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Clarke. Nick swept up two of the university prizes too!

We then returned to our hotel to prepare for the SE Annual Dinner via the M25… and were able to assess the level of congestion and journey time reliability for ourselves.The dinner, as always was a fantastic event. The setting in Ashdown Park was quite magnificent. Brassey awards were presented to some great projects and some great teams and I presented two Spirit of Telford Awards (to John Done and Brian Harvey). A fantastic presidential visit… thank you all!

Day 228 (Saturday 23 June)Train home, half the blog written. Wine tasting with friends in the evening.

Day 229 (Sunday 24 June)Clarinet, sax lesson, writing blog and a walk around the garden in the wet!

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big big thank you to its volunteers…. The heart (and the head!) of our Institution. If you read our annual report you will see that our wonderful members gave over 11,000 days of their time to the Institution in 2006… this is estimated to be a whacking £5.5million contribution to the profession AND TO SOCIETY! All our members should be very proud of this service to society… I know I am.

Day 232 (Wednesday 27 June)Carillion day

Day 233 (Thursday 28 June)Carillion morning, then I go to Cambridge to start my East of England Presidential Visit. By mid afternoon I reach the Schofield Laboratory at Cambridge University. Telford Apprentice Katie Symons has organised this part of the visit and yet again I see the WOW factor. This facility leads the world in Geotechnical Engineering research. I am briefed on the posters of Masters degree and PhD subjects on display geotechnical and sustainability. Dick Fenner and Heather Cruickshank introduce me to the sustainability projects, which included Ian Ball’s excellent “snaking pipes” project to reduce risk of pipe failures in earthquake zones. Our host Professor Robert Mair (geotechnical engineer, professor, head of department and Master of Jesus College), introduced me to a number of his PhD students who explained their projects and potential future applications in practice.

We then went to Jesus College, Cambridge, where we met with members of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). This is an entirely student run body, with members in 15 universities in the UK. Chief Executive (and final year student) Steve Jones gave us all a splendid briefing on EWB’s strategy and action plan. This was followed by Priti Parith who explained how the graduate EWB members continued to make a contribution to society. We then enjoyed a magnificent buffet in the Master’s dining room. Once the young EWB members had left, Robert gave Dorothy and I a tour of the college… what a terrific place to be a student!

Day 234 (Friday 29 June)To Ipswich to meet up with Institution members at Jackson Civil Engineering’s offices overlooking the Orwell Bridge. We were met by Director and East of England Chairman Bob Hollis and a large number of members.

After meeting everyone we all set off in a coach through Ipswich town centre to the bridge, Pier 9 to be exact. I was there to unveil a plaque to celebrate the silver jubilee of the bridge. And what a magnificent bridge it is! The whole of East Anglia was taking an interest. Two TV stations, two radio stations and two newspapers (including the Evening

Week thirty fourVolunteers Conference, East of England Day 230 (Monday 25 June)Carillion day

Day 231 (Tuesday 26 June)Train to London. Post and certificates. My first event is to welcome everyone to the Volunteers Conference. This is an event where the Regional Council members, Chairmen, Secretaries and Treasurers meet up to be briefed on and engage in debate about Institution matters. The conference was chaired by senior vice president David Orr. In the afternoon the different groupings break off to get into more detail about the mechanics of their areas of responsibility.

I leave the meeting to meet up with Joanne Kentish and Jancy Mallins from the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability team. The project is still progressing well! This meeting is followed by a meeting with Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos, who is the country representative in the UK for the Asociacion de Ingenieros de Caminos Canales y Puertos of Spain. Recognising what an important role our own country representatives fulfil, I was delighted to meet with Miguel-Angel to share ideas as to how both our institutions can benefit by building on our excellent relationship. The Asociacion are particularly interested in our qualification processes and the way we assess competency as well as our peer review system for attaining incorporated and chartered engineer status.

I am able to join the volunteers’ conference briefly at lunchtime and gain some very positive feedback about the benefits of working and networking across our regional teams in this way....this is teambuilding and managing the Institution at its best! Telford Apprentices Patricia McElduff and Katerina Fytopoulou, also attend the full day and at the end of the conference gave me some very positive feedback. In the afternoon I meet with President’s PA Clare to sort out my complicated travel arrangements and diary for the next 6 weeks (2 of them holiday!), during which I will only be in the Institution building on 3 days!

I clear more post and certificates and write another 25 postcards (now up to 400!) before dashing to the President’s flat at 5.30pm to change for the Volunteers’ reception and dinner starting at 6pm. This was a “black tie” event in the Great Hall… what a splendid room for such a function and what a lovely way for the Institution to say a

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Star) were present to record the event and to interview the Institution members present who had worked on the bridge. See EADT24 Sussex & Essex online for story.

Lunch with members and a brief President’s Question Time. Drove to the Dunston Hall Hotel for the East of England Annual Dinner and Awards. Lovely location and lovely hotel. I had time to edit my speech and share a chat and a pint with members before changing for the dinner. ‘Thomas Telford’ read out the award citations. It was great to see him again! We met at Nottingham where he had been involved in the great debate with Faraday and Stephenson. E of E has taken the debate to over 2000 school students over the past year. Bob entertained us AND gave a brief account of the successful activities in the region over the past year. A great event…. as always, I make lots of new friends over the visit and the dinner.

Day 235 (Saturday 30 June)Up early and travel from Norwich to Ironbridge to join in a schools competition at Enginuity. The weather had prevented some school teams from attending and had also unfortunately flooded out the Enginuity Exhibition. I arrived at lunchtime and was able to see some of the students’ project work, which was being judged as I arrived. I handed out the prizes (certificates, pens and memory sticks). Thomas Telford School had brought 6 teams and walked away with all the prizes. How appropriate! Congratulations to those competing and the regional team, committee and ambassadors who had put in so much work to make the event a success.

Day 236 (Sunday 1 July)To Scotland to prepare for the Telford Conference and celebration tour. Long journey. Lots of rain and traffic.

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city and countryside (yes!) around it!Thank you Jamie and Colin… a fantastic visit.

Off now to Elgin to attend a reception and civic dinner with Moray Council and Convenor George Macintyre. George kindly presented me with a Quaich for the Institution and a bottle of malt whisky. The Quaich will reside in the president’s office should any member wish to inspect it or perhaps try it out. I can confirm it works!

Day 239 (Wednesday 4 July)Heavy rain and slope failures had caused a road closure the previous night, so we had a diversion to take us to our first visit of the day, which was to Speyside Cooperage. Here we learnt about how barrels were made and refurbished, the sources of timber and the importance of cooperage to the whisky industry. We watched the skilled coopers repairing some of the 5 million barrels which will need to be refurbished over the next 20 years. Fascinating. I was full of admiration. Not surprisingly, there is a waiting list to become an apprentice.

We then went on to the MacAllan Distillary, which was a most interesting learning and tasting experience. This is my favourite malt! Back to engineering! We then travelled to Craigellachie Bridge. Moray Council had laid on a marquee (just as well… it rained!), a lovely buffet lunch and entertainment from the very talented “Fochabers Fiddlers”.

The rain stopped. Craigellachie Bridge has been recognised by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers as an international civil engineering landmark so we went out to unveil the plaque donated by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Institution’s Panel for Historic Engineering Works, and in particular Roland Paxton had been instrumental in achieving recognition for this fantastic Telford bridge. Note, Professor Roland Paxton is English, not American! The event can be read in the ‘Northern Scot’ on Scotsman.com and on their local council website.

We stopped off at Burghead Granary on our way to the hotel for the night alongside Loch Ness. The excitement of the day was still only half over. Our evening event was a boat trip on the Caledonian Canal from the Head of Muirtown locks. Our hosts were Tony Hales, Chairman of British Waterways (BW) and Jim Stirling, Scotland Director of BW. Allen Beene and I presented a Landmark Plaque recognising Telford’s amazing Caledonian Canal on behalf of ASCE and the Institution and in return the Institution was presented with a bolt from the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. BW are going to mount it on a piece of wood for us and it will

Week thirty fiveTerrific Telford Tour of Scotland Day 237 (Monday 2 July)Telford Conference at the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Summer Soiree. The presentations and both events were fantastic! I chaired one of the morning sessions at the Royal Society of Edinburgh conference and at the soiree joined the Duke of Edinburgh to unveil a plaque to commemorate Telford’s anniversary at Telford College and delivered a short speech

Day 238 (Tuesday 3 July)We embarked on the “Terrific Telford Tour of Scotland” organised by Professor Roland Paxton and Sandra Purvis.

65 of us travelled via the Forth and Tay bridges to Dundee to see the Telford Dock, which now houses the Discovery exploratory polar ship. We met and were hosted by Dundee Branch members. This was a short stop… thanks Chairman Alastair Mackenzie and Branch Secretary Walter Scott for the coffees and the chat!By 11.30am we were off again to Aberdeen to meet up with the Aberdeen Association then to visit and do lunch at the fantastic Maritime Museum. The canapés were absolutely magnificent…thank you Pauline and the catering team.

We were welcomed by our host Jamie Christie, President of the Aberdeen Association and Aberdeen Harbour Board Engineering Director who then took us all down to the harbour to inspect Telford’s extension to the harbour’s North Pier. Aberdeen Harbour Board, Chief Executive, Colin Parker presented all of us with a long long limited edition and signed print of the harbour (600mm by 170mm) which showed the Smeaton, Telford and Cay sections of the pier. My print is number 65 of 150. Telford’s extension consists of granite blocks laid to a 45 degree slope and bonded internally for added rigidity. The unusual sloping arrangement was to facilitate both construction and strength. The “farr” (mist) made the visit a strange yet wonderful experience. See the pier on their website. One minute we were in full sunlight, the next we could not see 50 metres! A minute or two later we were swathed in sun again!

I was also presented with a print of New York by ASCE representative Allen Beene dated 1904. The tallest structure by quite a bit was the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge. What an incredible structure it must have appeared as it dwarfed the

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take pride of place in the President’s office until such time as we have some display cabinets in the Institution for such important engineering artefacts (which I understand is in hand). What a magnificent day. The only slight blemish in this most memorable of days was that the coach back to the hotel left without the President! I had obviously spent too long saying my thank yous and goodbyes to our hosts! Jim kindly drove us to the hotel.

Day 240 (Thursday 5 July)The tour took us to Telford sites at Dingwall, Easterfearn, and Bonar Bridges, the impressive Fleet Mound, Fortrose Harbour (I see that member Richard Evans, who I sailed with in the Glasgow University team back in the mid 1970s is still winning most of his races!)

By late pm we reached the Caledonian Canal visitor centre and locks at Fort Augustus. We met with members of the Inverness branch and enjoyed some fantastic canapés at the Lovat Arms (thank you Geraldine, service, setting and canapés were equally magnificent!). As each day passes I became more and more impressed by Telford’s engineering feats and vision!

Day 241 (Friday 6 July)Another feast of a Telford day! The tour took us to Fort William via Laggen Cutting, Loch Oich and Neptune’s Staircase (see the Caledonian Canal website!! 8 enormous locks). Our tour concluded with a drive across Glencoe and Rannoch Moor (yes, Telford roads) and a short visit to Dunkeld Bridge.We then set off to return to our starting point at Heriot Watt University, but were caught in a huge traffic jam for 4 hours on the M90. We finally reached our hotel for the night, exhilarated, but tired at 12.02am!

Congratulations to Sandra Purves and Professor Roland Paxton for organising, managing and guiding us on a truly magnificent and memorable Terrific Tour of Scotland.

Day 242 (Saturday 7 July)Checked out of the Cornhill House Hotel, designed by a certain William Leiper and returned home, arriving pm. In the evening I joined in the Alveley Band Summer Concert and picnic at Severn Valley Park.

Day 243 (Sunday 8 July)Lawn cutting followed by saxophone and clarinet practice.

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Day 248 (Friday 13 July)Carillion Day

Day 249 (Saturday 14 July)Cut grass and played sax and clarinet. BBQ in the evening sun and sat back and admired my lawn!

Day 250 (Sunday 15 July)Blog, saxophone and relaxationI note that my blog has now passed 50000 words. I do wonder if anyone is actually reading it! I make a note to ask the Institution comms team to see how many hit(s) it gets. Irrespective of how many readers there are (or are not), it remains an excellent record for me!

I have now also passed the 8 month mark, so am now 2/3rds of the way through my presidency….. and probably well over 80% of the way through the activities.

Here are the latest statistics:14000 members and members of the public that I have spoken directly to100 CPD days446 meetings and events (362 meetings)15 black tie dinners139 other lunches and dinners (includes sandwiches!).34462 miles travelled (13861 by rail, 4506 by car (half in mine)46 nights in an hotel

A month ago I was 3lb in weight lower that when I started. After the Telford Tour of Scotland I am back to my weight on 7 November 2006! Oh dear! I was doing so well!

My carbon footprint is now equivalent to 2.51 trees.

I remain very honoured to hold the role, even more now that I have seen and learnt so much about Thomas Telford. Am I still enjoying it? Absolutely! It is so much fun! And so humbling to see all the great things our members are doing for the benefit of society.

Week thirty sixTelford’s Wales legacy and BCIA Awards judging

Day 244 (Monday 9 July)Carillion day

Day 245 (Tuesday 10 July)5.30am start to get to Bangor to attend the Telford legacy in North Wales Conference and dinner. A long and interesting day. I drove along Telford’s A5, briefly sighting the Montford Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, mileposts and some toll houses. A brilliant road when there is no traffic on it. I chaired the two morning sessions. The star of the day was Sir Neil Cossons, Chairman of English Heritage (but only for the next two weeks!) He gave a fantastic insight into heritage funding and challenged the Institution to ensure that there were more civil engineering based “World Heritage sites” in the UK.

The A5 and Menai Bridge must surely be candidates! Brian Crossley of PHEW and I will take up the challenge on behalf of the Institution! Peter Birch (British Waterways), Rick Turner (CADW), Dr. Ron Cox (Chairman of Institution of Engineers Ireland Heritage Committee, Brian Crossley (Chairman of the Institution’s Panel for Historic Engineering Works) and William Day, (Hyder and Menai Bridge Community Heritage Trust) all gave excellent presentations. Thanks too to Robert of Transport Wales for chairing a session. Debbie Scott, geotechnical engineer and chair of ICE North Wales chaired the final session with presentations from Dewi Williams, Andy Phillips, Andy Cochrane and the brilliant Bob Diamond. Bob was the driving force and major organiser of the event. Yet again, I learn more and more about this great first President of our Institution. We finish off the event with the new institution Telford video… brilliant. As before, it results in an enormous round of applause. In the evening there was a lovely dinner at the University of Bangor.. a great way to close a magnificent conference. Most of the delegates were spending the next two days visiting the works of the great man. I returned home to put in a bit of time on the day job for the rest of the week!Thanks and congratulations everyone.

Day 246 (Wednesday 11 July)Carillion day

Day 247 (Thursday 12 July)BCIA Judging day… sorry no comment!

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Apprentice Joe Roberts won the opportunity to present a young engineers view of Telford at the dinner… and delivered a magnificent analysis of the man and his inspiration.

There were two award presentations at the dinner. The first was a Spirit of Telford award to Dr. Martin Barnes in recognition of his initiative, intellect and inspiration in initiating, delivering and developing the NEC suite of contracts.

The second presentation was a President’s lapel badge to Past Presidents, who, as I am sure you will all appreciate, have been dedicated servants and brilliant leaders of our Institution. 12 Past Presidents were present… fantastic. We all owe so much to them and all the many thousands of volunteers who have built the reputation, credibility and authority of our Institution over the 188 years since we were founded.Two Vice Presidents also received a Vice President badge.My congratulations to organisers Tracy, Abby and Kim and the catering team of Executive Chef David Wilkinson and his fantastic team, and Shelley and her fantastic team. The setting and quality of service and food matches the best in London. We should be rightly proud of this staff team. I enjoyed seeing so many people and meeting so many friends and supporters of the Institution.

Day 253 (Wednesday 18 July)Carillion day.

I visit the Heathrow Terminal 5 project. A project with a real WOW factor! The new main terminal building (there are two other satellite buildings) has a 150m span and is 400m long. This must be one of the biggest, if not the biggest roof span in the UK. The whole project is an incredible feat of engineering and logistics. What impressed me most was that it was clearly an engineered building…. The structure, building shape and elegance shout at you… and will be a great advert for civil engineering and civil engineers when 30 million passengers pass through it every year.

Phil Wilbraham (T5 head of Engineering and Design), Matt Palmer (T5 Infrastructure Project leader) and Caroline Lang T5 Airfield Project Leader) were our hosts. My congratulations to you and the many thousands of skilled construction professionals who have delivered this star project!

My next appointment is back at the Institution, where we toast Head of Knowledge Transfer Mike Chrimes who has completed 30 years working for the Institution. Mike has an immense knowledge of all things historic about civil

Week thirty sevenCouncil, Thomas Telford 250 dinner and Guildhall exhibition

Day 251 (Monday 16 July)Carillion day. Train to London for meetings including a brief one with American student Charles McClure. Brief pm meetings with Anne Moir, Tom Foulkes and Eunice Wardell to discuss future speeches (Anne) and the Council meeting (Tom and Eunice). At close of play Tom and I meet with the Chairman Peter Andrews and Chief Executive Rosemary Beales from the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA). We discuss a number of our joint activities (for example the Sustainable Development Strategy and Action Plan for Civil Engineering published last week.

My last task is to complete a letter to the MPs who signed the Early Day Motion recognising Thomas Telford’s 250th anniversary. In the evening I am joined for a takeaway in the President’s flat by some Vice Presidents.

Day 252 (Tuesday 17 July)Ffb. An Early Day Motion was laid in the House of Commons by David Wright MP (Telford) and signed by 100 MPs. I sign letters thanking them for recognising our first president in Parliament in this way. I also write to thank David Mundell (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland) who led an adjournment debate on the great man!

Four meetings later I grab a 10 minute buffet lunch with Council members and then chair the 4th Council meeting of the 188th session. It was a good meeting and only overran my timetable by 30 minutes! At the end of the meeting our auditors provided a briefing/training session on the responsibilities and liabilities of charity trustees. No worries, we all have just 15 minutes to move to the Godfrey Mitchell lecture theatre for the Annual General Meeting. This too ran over by 15 minutes, thus benefiting by giving time for discussion and providing members the opportunity to ask questions.

This is a really busy day! We all go straight to the Telford Theatre for the excellent Smeaton Lecture delivered by engineering historian par excellence Dr. Bill Addis. With no time for a break I dash to the President’s office to pick up my notes for the celebratory Telford 250 Dinner. I welcome everyone and start the dinner only 15 minutes after the lecture finished! As befitting to our first President, the whole day is timetabled with military precision. Telford

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she was able to get to an hotel at midnight.

Day 256 (Saturday 21 July)Blog and holiday preparation. In the evening Dorothy and I attend an anniversary concert by the St Mary Magdalene Chamber Choir in Telford’s first church. A fantastic event.

Day 257 (Sunday 22 July)Clarinet and saxophone!

engineers and civil engineering. He has been a tremendous asset to the Institution and has made a significant contribution to our archives, library and knowledge provision and delivery. I was delighted to find the time to join in the celebrations.

A short tube trip later I reach the East London Line project office where project Director Mike Casebourne and Jonathan Wheeler, Interface and Systems Integration Manager brief me on this £380million project. I then meet with Construction Manager – Northern Section, Colin Brady. Colin has a really challenging and complex section of the works to deliver. I have worked with Colin on various projects over the years.. he is just the engineer to deliver on this!

This is a day to travel the tube! My tube to South Kensington from Liverpool Street costs 10p on my Oyster card! It must know that I have already made several trips today. I meet with Newcomen Society President Julie Elton, mainly to learn more about this society. Its members are drawn from all those with an interest in engineering… and of course civil engineering is one of their main passions. No surprise there! There is so much of interest and so much history.

Day 254 (Thursday 19 July)British Construction Industry Awards judging. I visited four finalist projects and travelled 250 miles (half by car, half by train). I can say no more… you will have to buy a ticket for the BCIA dinner on 10th of October.

In the evening I reach the Guildhall to join the launch reception of the Thomas Telford exhibition entitled ‘TELFORD 250 Continuing Thomas Telford’s vision’. I knew that I would be late, but arrived just in time to catch the final few minutes of Mike Chrimes’ presentation and then delivered my own speech before toasting the great man and declaring the exhibition open. Amongst the 150 present were our newest Spirit of Telford Award winner, Vice Presidents, Council members, committee chairmen, journal chairmen and panel members, Institution members, contractors, consultants, clients, academics and many other interested Telford enthusiasts. It was a splendid evening. My thanks to sponsors Thomas Telford Ltd and hosts the City of London Corporation.

Day 255 (Friday 20 July)Carillion day

In the evening, daughter Alice became stuck in Herefordshire, some 60 miles away due to the heavy rain and floods, preventing her from getting home. Fortunately

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In the face of all the problems and the pressures on all parties, I was impressed by the mutual support and collaboration displayed by everyone I met. The long term solutions will need good civil and geotechnical engineering and will need to address some of the stability and run off problems caused by adjacent development (in most cased quite innocently and certainly without an understanding of the engineering implications).SVR have a long and hard task to get back to normal running by the spring of next year. I wish them, and particularly Phil, Jonathan and new General Manager Nick Ralls every good fortune in their task.

In the evening Dorothy and I joined in celebrations of the marriage of Helen Whitmore to Neil Jones. A lovely evening amongst a great group of folk. You will recall that Helen was one of Gordon Masterton’s Apprentices last year.

Day 270 (Saturday 4 August) to Day 271 (Sunday 5 August)Quiet weekend at home.

Weeks thirty eight and thirty nine Holiday and Severn Valley railway Day 258 (Monday 23 July) to Day 268 (Thursday 2 August)Family holiday in the Lake District. Mainly rain! One and a half days in the dry and with some sun. We enjoyed walking, cycling, a visit to Hadrian’s Wall, Edinburgh and Carlisle Castle. The cultural highlights were seeing TJ Johnson and his magnificent band in the Kirkgate Theatre in Cokermouth (absolutely brilliant! TJ, Adrian and Sky are remarkable musicians) and Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps at Keswick (we laughed and laughed until we had tears in our eyes!) Very clever and simple set, brilliant direction and terrific acting.

Day 269 (Friday 3 August)We returned early from our holiday to allow me to visit the Severn Valley Railway (SVR). I had heard about the devastation (45 landslips in one 8 mile section and many other problems with structures and track and signalling) and wanted to see if there was any way I could help. SVR is a charity and a fantastic part of the railway heritage. It can only currently run trains (mainly steam!) between Kidderminster and Bewdley, reducing its passenger capacity to 20% of their normal volume. It is also a fundamental contributor to the economy of the area and of Bridgnorth, my home town.I was given a tour of some of the damaged track and embankment areas by their Chief Engineer Phil Sowden and engineering consultant Jonathan Symonds. The team are faced with a colossal reinstatement project (£2.5 million at the last count). In some areas, slips are still live and susceptible to more movement. In one area 5 dwellings have been evacuated for safety reasons. The visit attracted considerable media coverage and the SVR team and I gave interviews to the local press and two radio stations and I was also interviewed “on air” by a third radio station later that day.The team, working with their excellent contractor George Law moved remarkably quickly following the severe rainfall in the Severn Valley on 19 June and had already completed much investigation work and reinstated a number of embankments (thank goodness for reinforced soil!). SVR only own the track and embankments, so have had to rely on the great support from local landowners and farmers to gain access for the works and to address the global nature of many of the slope failures.

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in attendance… the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Shrewsbury and Atcham, the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Telford and Wrekin , Lord Grocott of Telford and the Chairman of Shropshire County Council to name just a few of the local dignitaries.

Ed welcomed the guests and introduced the event and I gave a short speech and unveiled the plaque. Roger Cragg was acknowledged with some special thanks for his significant contribution to the whole event. He initiated the plaque, followed through the planning requirements, designed and gained agreement for the wording and contributed the plaque. Quite typical of Roger’s enthusiastic engagement and contribution which demonstrated yet again to us all the qualities of a worthy Spirit of Telford Award winner.

We were treated to a magnificent buffet lunch at the Old Swan adjacent to the bridge. Thanks to the Old Swan team and particularly to the excellent master chef Dai (or Dai the Chef as we should call him). I had an hour to spare before my next event so was able to stem the tide of emails and make a few telephone calls.My last event of the day was appropriately a big birthday party. Telford and Wrekin Council had invited children and others with the same birthday as Thomas Telford to share in the celebrations. The Wrekin Housing Trust kindly hosted the whole event and Director Jane Brooks welcomed us all, including 65 with birthdays (from 5 to 85!). I was ready for the summer (non alcoholic) punch and enjoyed seeing the excitement of the young children as they gathered round the stilt man and clowns. Once we had all settled in Lord Grocott introduced the proceedings and Richard Bifield gave an excellent talk on Telford in Shropshire, giving the Institution due credit too.

We then had a cake cutting ceremony and then enjoyed the rest of the party. It was a lovely celebration. I met and chatted to lots of people including Housing Trust Trustee and Institution member John Sercombe. The Trust maintains and manages 10000 houses, so it is good to see a civil engineer involved!

What a proud day to be President!

Day 276 (Friday 10 August)Carillion day

Day 277 (Saturday 11 August)Blog, walk and a farewell party with some friends leaving the area and also getting married.Lawn mower died.

Week forty Telford’s 250th BirthdayDay 272 (Monday 6 August) and 273 (Tuesday 7 August)Carillion days

I noted that I had now completed 9 calendar months in the presidency.

Day 274 (Wednesday 8 August)Early train for a briefing meeting on my forthcoming Australia and New Zealand visit. I then joined the BCIA judges for the final judging at 10am for a very interesting session. I had three brief meetings in the afternoon, including one with GSNet chair Ruth Hopgood. Ruth outlined the GSNet strategy and future plans which she will be presenting to Executive and Council later this year.

Day 275 (Thursday 9 August) Thomas’s Telford’s birthday

My first appointment was an interview in Shrewsbury on BBC Shropshire’s Jim Hawkins in the Morning programme. I first met with the show’s director Elaine Muir and was then taken into the live studio to meet with presenter Jim Hawkins.

Jim was an hour and 20 minutes into his 3 hour show. The topic was of course Thomas Telford, his legacy, his Shropshire works and his involvement with the Institution… BBC Shropshire and Jim did him proud! I was impressed by the skill with which Jim steered the show, introduced his various topics, engaged with his listeners by phone and email and still had time to watch two more screens (including News 24) to make sure he immediately relayed any breaking news. At the same time he was asking me questions about TT, some of which he took from listeners. After my “slot” he interviewed the person who developed the BBC Shropshire Thomas Telford website. I recommend a look.

I felt the whole event was an excellent way to promote civil engineering and civil engineers. Thank you Jim, Elaine and BBC Shropshire for the opportunity to talk about the great man, his achievements and the profession. Jim gave us a great plug for the big event of the day… a plaque unveiling at Montford Bridge, just outside Shrewsbury.

I arrived in time to meet with West Midlands Chairman Ed Gardiner for the briefing with the team. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day. A host of distinguished guests were

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Day 278 (Sunday 12 August)Celebratory service in St Mary Magdalene, Telford’s first church. With others, I had tried to gain permission to have a plaque erected, similar to those the Panel for Historic Engineering Works has been erecting all over the country. Unfortunately this was not possible, unless we just wanted one which just said Thomas Telford 1757 – 1834. I guess not everyone is as excited about Thomas Telford and about celebrating his works and his first church as I was. This has been one of the very few disappointments in my presidency. It was nevertheless a lovely service and I was delighted to be involved by reading the lesson.

Institution Fellow and member John Brownlie kindly invited a number of us, including the Rector, the Reverend Prebendary Andy Roberts and the Bishop of Ludlow Michael to a celebratory lunch at the King’s Head in Bridgnorth. A splendid occasion and a lovely way to conclude the week’s Telford celebrations.

John had saved me some press cuttings from the Shropshire Star and presented me with a Telford 250 T shirt.

Saxophone practice and a walk in the evening sun completed a great day (in my new T shirt!).A memorable week!

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(the previous chair of GSNet Wales), Stephen Ollier, James Croston, Simon Chauvin, Rupert Taylor, Mike Pearson, Peter Davies and Adam Johnson had volunteered to drive the mini bus and van (for equipment and bikes) so they too had a long and tiring weekend. Dan Flower, architect of the medical centre (and son of Council Member Ian Flower) also came to the Institution to meet the riders.

Congratulations to you all!

Week forty one Clarence House and EFOD 200 mile cycleDay 279 (Monday 13 August) to Day 281 (Wednesday 15 August)Carillion days

Day 282 (Thursday 16 August)Early train to London to attend the construction steering group for the Accounting for Sustainability project. The meeting was at Clarence House and the six of us in the group discusses the progress of the project to date and in particular the developing tool kit which will complement the main report. The launch date for the project output is in December, so the professional writing editor and tool kit development team are about to start putting the completed document together in a format which will enable businesses of all sizes to understand better how to embed sustainability into their business practices. I walked to the Institution in the sun and spent the rest of the day in a number of short meetings. The day finished with two hours from 5.30pm signing certificates for new members and fellows!

Day 283 (Friday 17 August)Carillion day, but I managed to squeeze in a number of short meetings for the Institution.

Day 284 (Saturday 18 August)Family day, travelled to London pm for Sunday activity

Day 285 (Sunday 19 August)For the first time since I became president I spent some time being a tourist in London.

In the afternoon I was at the Institution to greet John Farrow and 12 fellow GSNet members who had cycled from Cardiff to Great George Street to raise funds for Engineers for Overseas Development (EFOD) who are based in Wales. EFOD are raising funds for the Soroti medical centre in Uganda. The Sustrans route took them along canal towpaths and down back lanes, turning the 140 mile route as the crow flies to a 200 mile one! The ride started at 6.30am on Saturday and they cycled for about 12 hours before their overnight stop. Sunday was an early start too. What an achievement!... and for such a worthy cause. Congratulations to the whole team, led by John Farrow, GSnet chairman for ICE Wales. The other riders were Pierre-Louis Morcos, Jonathan Robinson, Robin Campbell, David Evans, Clare Wilding, Matthew Bloodworth, Katalin Andrasi

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lunchtime. Short visit in the afternoon to the Bridgnorth Children’s Festival and to see the Stirin’ Stuff a cookery demonstration by Fiona Bird and son Alastair from Angus in Fife, who we were hosting for the Festival. The festival is run entirely by volunteers and supported by lots of local businesses which enabled all the entertainment to be free for the thousands of people who attended (except for just a few of the activities).

Day 292 (Sunday 26 August)Another trip to the Children’s Festival, a 5 minute walk from home and then to the Bridgnorth Music Fest, where friends Steve Downs and Sarah Ibberson, as Whalebone, were one of the musicians playing all day in the High Street. I tried the award winning CAMRA beer of the year, which was fantastic…. A mild brew from Hobsons Brewery, just a few miles down the road from us at Cleobury Mortimer. I make a note to try it again!

Just caught storyteller and poet John Row and the circus team back at the Children’s Festival who were closing the event at 7pm. Both brilliant.

Week forty two Japanese Society of Civil EngineersDay 286 (Monday 20 August)Walked to the Institution and signed certificates and dealt with post before my first meeting to discuss potential sustainability training courses with Kieran Dineen of Thomas Telford Ltd. We were joined briefly by Chrissie Pepper from the Engineering policy team.

I then joined some colleagues for a tour of the building. Our guide was archivist Carol Morgan, who explained the development of the building and the stories behind all the portraits of distinguished former presidents and members. I wish I had done the tour before! All new Council members are given a tour of the building as part of their induction… a great idea, so if you fancy a tour, become a Council member!... or just ask!

I next had a meeting with former British Geotechnical Society Chairmen Hugh St John and this was followed by a meeting with graduate member Dr Hanadi Almubaraki.

The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on diary arrangements, signing more certificates and writing postcards (now over 500!).

In the evening I was joined by Anne Moir (Marcomms Director) and Andy Gooding (Engineering Policy and Innovation Director) for a meeting and dinner with the Japanese Society of Engineers. Our guests were JSCE President Dr Yunio Ishii and his wife and colleague Matsuda Mitsuhiro. Also present was JSCE’s country representative in the UK Professor Kenichi Soga. Dr Ishii and I signed the renewed Agreement of Cooperation and we discussed matters of joint interest. JSCE were impressed by the way the Institution created influence through the State of the Nation and other key topic based reports over recent years and the volunteer involvement of our members (just in case you have not read our Annual report for last year, estimated at £5million in 2006. They were also interested in our Little Book of Civilisation that is aimed at the public. We evidently share many common issues and it was beneficial to discuss institution matters with a sister organisation. It was a really interesting and valuable meeting and a fantastic opportunity to learn from and build relationships.

Day 287 (Tuesday 21 August) to Day 291 (Saturday 25 August)Carillion days. A brief overseas trip arriving home Saturday

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decisions from the vp committee for judgement on the nominations for Australia and New Zealand.

The evening event to handover some Mowlem archives including the mallet used to lay the foundation stone for One Great George Street had had to be cancelled at a late hour, so I set off for a private dinner in the midlands for the evening.

Day 297 (Friday 31 August)Carillion day. I was interviewed on the telephone by another Telegraph reporter doing a piece on sustainability and the impact of civil engineering (positive and negative) on flooding. I could talk for hours on both topics, so hope I have given David some key messages which will help him with his article. I followed up the conversation with an email with some links and information.

Day 298 (Saturday 1 September)Band practice. I really enjoyed it and am beginning to get a little better. I am of course still holding the accolade of being the worst musician in the band… an important role and one that evidently none of the others can aspire to while I am there!

I walk into Bridgnorth with Dorothy in the afternoon for a haircut and to do some shopping. On my return I stop on the Severn Valley Railway platform to watch the train, which can only go about half a mile towards the viaduct before it has to return. You will recall that the SVR has suffered very badly from the recent flooding. A friend, civil engineer and vicar Mike Kneen was the fireman! As the train returned he sped down the platform to me and invited me onto the footplate… whereupon I had a little ride down the track and back… amazing! Miles of the track are currently under repair (£2.5 million bill), so these little trips had been initiated to help raise funds for the disaster appeal. What magnificent beasts they are. This one had been built in 1940 for the War Office and had seen service in Iran and Russia before returning to British Rail after the Second World War. It can take you 12 to 15 years to become a fireman and more to become a driver. In British Rail days you could become a driver in about 7 years! I tasted some ale in the Railwayman’s Arms before returning home to cook supper.

Day 299 (Sunday 2 September)Saxophone practice and neighbour’s birthday party.

Week forty three CIRIA experience and train rideDay 293 (Monday 27 August)Bank holiday. Blog and saxophone.

Day 294 (Tuesday 28 August)Carillion day

Day 295 (Wednesday 29 August)Carillion day

Day 296 (Thursday 30 August)Train to London. Dealt with post and signed a few certificates before my first meeting. This was an interview with Daily Telegraph reporter Paul Bray for a supplement on civil engineering due out in a few weeks. The topic was career opportunities and skills shortages. He also wanted me to name a few great civil engineers of today… no problem… we have plenty in our Institution. I will not name any here, but want to wait and see which of my examples Paul uses!

I then met with Clare to clear some correspondence and discuss my diary.

My next meeting was with CIRIA, the Construction Industry Research and Information Association’s Chief Executive Bill Healy. Bill and the CIRIA Council are looking at their future strategy. The Institution is of course a core member of this excellent organisation and I personally have had the privilege of serving on several research steering groups, committees and as a Director over the past 16 years. CIRIA will leverage your subscription enormously, helping your organisation to influence and gain the benefit from £4million per annum in best practice guidance, network groups and construction wide contacts with designers, practitioners and clients. It is a fabulous organisation and one which serves our industry and society in great measure. Their publications give the reader a real insight into issues and guidance which is comprehensive, clear and easy to follow. I suggested a few ideas which might come to something… I hope so. I have a great fondness for the organisation and my own organisation has benefited greatly over the years from involvement and from its guidance documents.

More paperwork then a meeting with Marcoms Director Anne Moir and Kim Woolger to discuss future events, speeches and the Spirit of Telford Awards. We are chasing

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Very sustainable, but the tube strike has made life and work very difficult for millions of people and will have a negative impact on the economy. In the evening, I enjoyed a chat, beer and pizza with SVP David Orr.

Day 301 (Tuesday 4 September)Carillion Day.

ftb (first for a while!) and signed even more certificates and made a few telephone calls before heading off for a Carillion meeting. Late pm I was back in the Institution for a meeting with Eunice Waddell to discuss the agenda and timings for the next Council meeting – my last! In the evening Deputy Director General Hugh Ferguson and I were invited to a party to celebrate the handover of the (2 year) RIBA Presidency from Jack Pringle to Sunand Prasad. A splendid event and one where I bumped into lots of people I knew. Sunand is very impressive and will be a great President for the Architects.

Day 302 (Wednesday 5 September)Ftb. Post and blog writing (the first time I have done this during the week!). My first meeting at 9am was with Director UK regions and International Stuart Crichton. We discuss the UK regions and our international activities and focus on the Asia Conference in New Zealand at the end of this month.

I next meet with Anne Moir to run through the remaining speeches for this year (28) and discuss the ones in Brunei, Australia and New Zealand (11 in total) in more detail. The first thing to do is to check the audience, speech time and topic. In truth, most of my speeches derive from my Presidential Address, but they also need local focus, which I will complete just before the event.

My third meeting of the morning was with Mark Cutler – MD of Morgan Est and a former Civil Engineering Manager of the Year Award winner. We debated the skills shortage, benefits of Institution involvement and the market place generally.

My next meeting was with David Lloyd Roach, Director of Membership, to discuss the RIBA/ICE McAslan award in preparation for a meeting with Sponsor John McAslan next week. After lunch I chair the Benevolent Fund AGM and then its Management Committee (http://www.bfice.org.uk/). An early finish means I can just get back to Wolverhampton with minutes to spare to join Dorothy and friends at a Harold Pinter play. The play was serious stuff and called the Caretaker.

Week forty four Certificates, Reviewers and High Speed 1Day 300 (Monday 3 September)Early train to London. Signed certificates and dealt with some correspondence before my first meeting which was with the Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) Chairman Professor Chengde Chen, Director and Head of Projects Xia Jun and directors Oliver Li and Leo Yu met with Stuart Crichton (Director, UK Regions and International) and me. We discussed the blooming construction market in China and worldwide and then focussed on the need for more civil engineers. In particular, there is a demand in China for engineers with refurbishment skills. Xia Jun presented the Institution with a model of the 88 storey Jin Mao Tower (built by SCG) – it was evident that there was considerable research input and innovation in its construction. In return I presented our visitors with copies of my Presidential address and the excellent Telford proceedings issue.

The big event of the day (and my 500th meeting or event!) was the Certificate Presentation Ceremony. After the meeting with SCG I joined the rehearsal team in the Great Hall to make sure the sound and short DVD clips worked well. I then joined newly Chartered Members and Fellow for a sandwich lunch in the Council, Brunel and Smeaton rooms. The ceremony is one of the highlights of the year and a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our excellent civil engineers. Family and friends were also invited, so they too could join in the celebration and also tour our fantastic building. I met a number of people I knew who were collecting their certificates and was delighted to bump into two Bridgnorth folk too!

Following presentations to 143 CEng MICE, 11 IEng MICE, 3 Eng Tech TMICE and 14 new Fellows and one new Companion, there were then 2 Spirit of Telford Awards. These were to former Vice President Brian Crossley and to Doug Allenby Link http://www.ice.org.uk/about_ice/aboutice_awards.asp to read more about them and the other 21 Spirit of Telford Awards I have presented so far this year. Both Brian and Doug have achieved so much in the way they have supported young engineers as well as their roles in developing and promoting the value of engineering knowledge.

After the ceremony I enjoyed being able to spend more time chatting to members. At the end of the day I had a meeting with Clare Gray to catch up on my diary and some correspondence before she left for a 4 mile walk home!

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Day 303 (Thursday 6 September)Carillion Day. Late pm I met with CIOB President Martin Chambers. A great opportunity to swap stories!

Day 304 (Friday 7 September)Early train to London, post and more certificate signing. I have time to pop in and speak to the GSNet meeting before briefly meeting with and addressing the Annual Reviewers Conference (event/meeting number 510!). I regret not spending more time with these groups. GSNet is our future – and what an enthusiastic and talented group of engineers they are – we will all be seeing many of them as future Council and Committee members. The Reviewers as a collective group of volunteers are one of THE most important of our members. They give their time and assess the competency of and qualify all our Technician, Incorporated and Chartered members. It is they who maintain the standards and international reputation of our qualifying role as a professional body. They discharge this responsibility with diligence, modesty and great efficiency and dedication. Telford would be proud of each and every one – in fact all members should be proud of the service and fantastic contribution they provide to the profession AND society.

By lunchtime I am heading for St Pancras station to attend the launch of High Speed 1 http://www.highspeed1.com/. What a fantastic civil (and other!) engineering project – see weblink for more details. On time, on budget and a real demonstration of engineering excellence.

Day 305 (Saturday 8 September)Friends' wedding in deepest Shropshire. Lovely occasion held in the highest church in England, right next to Offa’s Dyke. In the evening Dorothy and I joined a book launch celebration for the ‘The Shropshire Cakes and Ale Trail’ by local author Bob Bibby.

Day 306 (Sunday 9 September)Family Party.

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John is an enthusiast with a passion to deliver better professionals and meaningful projects. We debate the scheme and John explains some of the recent projects. I hope I have left him with a few good ideas to revise the profile of the bursary – we need more engineers to apply! EWB and EFOD – have you tapped into this source of funding yet?

My next meeting is with the SCOSS Committee, a great organisation, delivering real value to society and our industry. David Orr (SVP) and I were joined in the meeting by David Harvey (President IStructE and Sarah Buck (SVP IStructE). We then moved onto an IStructE / ICE meeting with our Director Generals. The Institution has an excellent relationship with IStructE. My final meeting of the day, again with David Orr and Tom Foulkes was with the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors. Another excellent fellow institution relationship.

Day 309 (Wednesday 12 September) Carillion Day.

Day 310 (Thursday 13 September)Travel to Brunei.

Day 311 (Friday 14 September)Overnight flight from London to Singapore. One hour stop-over at Changi Airport and then a short two hour flight to Bandar Seri Begawan, the Brunei capital. We were met at the airport by Country Representative Dr Pengiran Damit and colleagues. We dropped bags off at our hotel and were joined by Norhamtihan Haji Abdul Razak, Assistant Director, Water Services Department, Public Works Department, Brunei Darussalam, who escorted us on a tour of the Mengkabau Dam and the recently completed and very impressive water treatment works. Dr Damit then took us on a visit to a Kampong Ayer – a water village, which mainly consisted of timber houses on piles in the river, connected by raised walkways. Here we saw several local children and adults flying “fighting” kites – small single line kites. The kite experts, as we saw, could fly the kites in patterns across the sky – a real skill, especially when you realise that they are on lines hundreds of feet long. We also came across someone making one of these fantastic kites – an intricate balance of wood, string and paper, in this case about three feet across – much bigger than the small fighting kites I own. On the return trip we visited a new housing project and also passed along Tungku Link Road, a project I had worked upon some twelve years ago.

In the evening Dr Damit and the Honourable Minister for Development, Pehin Dato Haji Abdullah, hosted a

Week forty five English Heritage, Bursary and SCOSSDay 307 (Monday 10 September) Carillion Day.

Travelled to London in the afternoon for a meeting and then to attend a Forum event where members of our Employers, Academic and Client Forum joined together for an informed discussion and dinner. The speaker was Sir Neil Cossons who has just retired as Chairman of English Heritage. Neil was previously Director of the Science Museum and many years ago was the first Director of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

Sir Neil is a great enthusiast of our engineers heritage and gave a great demonstration of this knowledge, passion and enthusiasm for all things Telford at the recent conference in Bangor (reference week 36). Neil reminded the Forum about the outstanding pedigree of civil engineering heritage we have in the UK and challenged us as a profession to reposition engineering so that it is more widely understood, respected and valued. He reminded us that a civil engineer's role is a job worth doing, a great career and a service to society.

He went on to suggest that we should make more use of our heritage to inspire the young. In particular, we should help identify, nominate and promote civil engineering projects as World Heritage Sites. These sites, of which there are 140 worldwide, should be significant in human history. Examples are Stonehenge, Durham Cathedral and the Ironbridge Gorge (birth of industrial revolution!) in the UK. Pont-Cysyllte Aqueduct and its surrounds are currently a nomination for consideration in 2009 – so perhaps we should consider the A5 (including the Menan Bridge) and the Caledonian canal for the future. A tremendous and inspirational speech from a really passionate supporter of all things civil engineering! I will be taking up this challenge and great opportunity to influence others about our profession.

Day 308 (Tuesday 11 September)Cold shower – not my choice! Ftb and more certificates to sign and post to attend to. My first meeting was with John McAslan to discuss the RIBA / ICE / McAslan Bursary with Membership Director David Lloyd Roach. The bursary exists to support architectural and engineering students and the newly qualified to progress an environment or community project …..anywhere!

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celebratory meal with some 70 Institution members and guests. I was delighted to be able to present certificates to five new Institution members.

Day 312 (Saturday 15 September)In the morning, Tom and I met with the Minister, his deputy and senior colleagues. There was just time to visit the Jame’Asr Hassanal Bolkiah mosque before we had to leave for the airport. The mosque was just amazing – a wonderful piece of engineering (and architecture) with room for 4000 worshippers. Dr Damit had been its project director 20 years ago, before becoming Director of Public Works and then, six years ago, taking retirement. Our flight took us back to Changi, where we had six hours to wait for our overnight trip to Canberra via Sydney. We took the opportunity to pop into the Raffles Hotel for tea. What an amazing place – 14 green teas to pick from, out of a total of over 70 teas!

A wonderful visit and a great opportunity to see what enthusiasm there is for training and developing engineers in Brunei.

Day 313 (Sunday 16 September)Short stop-over in Sydney, with a transfer to the domestic terminal for the 45 minute flight to Canberra. Enjoyed looking at the countryside from 27,000 feet. We met accidentally with former New South Wales Country Representative Michael Polin and his wife at the hotel at lunchtime (we were due to meet in the evening) and spent a very pleasant afternoon visiting Floriade, the flower festival. In the evening we met up with NSW Country Representative Sarah Wheeler.

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Road Project. 88 bridges, 39 km of freeway plus 1.6 km of tunnel. Ken Mathers, Chief Executive Officer of SEITA, the Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority, briefed us on the project and then took us around the site to see this magnificent advertisement for partnering, excellent design and efficient construction. Fantastic.

In the evening Tom and I joined about 70 members and guests for dinner and, as with all the dinner meetings, a presentation. This one was by me – on sustainability. Tom also gave members a quick update on the Institution and its current strategy and achievements. I was delighted to present three Spirit of Telford Awards (see the Spirit of Telford website for details (www.ice.org.uk/about_ice/aboutice_awards.asp.) A particular thank you to Alan Chuck for providing a special tour for Dorothy. Grateful thanks also to Frank Bishop, Victoria Local Association Chairman Tony Bennett and to Vice Chair and excellent MC for the evening, Robin Miles.

Day 316 (Wednesday 19 September) VERY early flight to Sydney. After dropping our bags off at the hotel we walked to Arup’s Sydney office for a light lunch and a briefing on the Sydney Opera House and its CAD 3D model. $60 million have been spent on improvements and upgrades of the Opera House in the past five years. We were joined again by New South Wales Country Representative Sarah Wheeler and members of the local committee. Our host, Richard Hough, then escorted us to the Opera House for a tour with Ralph Butt, Director of Protocol for the Opera House, and Dr John Nutt (Arup, retired). John had been part of Ove Arup’s engineering team from the time Ove became involved in the project in 1961, and gave us a remarkable insight into the building, its design and the great engineer. Ralph was the perfect foil – 28 years with the Opera House and so knowledgeable about the building, its performances, the artists and all things musical and operatic. It was a real privilege to be hosted by these two experts – an outstanding highlight of my year! It is estimated that the building has 4 million tourists visiting every year and its 1590 performances a year touch 1.2 million more people.

In the evening Dorothy and I attended a NSW ICE dinner meeting, at which Sarah had purposefully left an empty seat at every table to allow me to spend a little time with all our members and guests – a brilliant idea! I said a few words, as I usually do, and Sarah captured some more enthusiastic members for her committee (from the “Glasgow table”, if I recall correctly).

Day 317 (Thursday 20 September)Early start for a flight to Auckland in New Zealand (two hour

Week forty sixAustralia and New ZealandDay 314 (Monday 17 September)Our first meeting of the day was with Engineers Australia. We met with President Rolfe Hartley and Chief Executive Peter Taylor (both civil engineers). It was a most convivial meeting and we were able to discuss issues common to both our Institutions (EA has 87,000 members across all engineering disciplines). Influence, skills shortages and delivering value to members were among the key issues. We also discussed collaborative working, joint events and presidents’ activities.

In the afternoon, we met with British High Commissioner, the Honourable Helen Liddell. Helen is a former Labour MP and UK Government Minister. The close relationship between the UK and Australia means this appointment is usually a senior politician rather than a career civil servant. Tom and I were delighted that Helen knew so much about our Institution and had regularly visited One Great George Street during her days of ministerial duties. She was also well aware of the Thomas Telford legacy and the TT250 celebrations. Helen described her extremely busy and responsible role and we were pleased to have had the opportunity to explain our own Institution role and aims, and to offer any help we could. The issues of skills shortages and the importance of engineering in society were amongst the many topics we chatted about. Later, we visited the Australian War memorial; it was identical to the amazing sand sculpture we had seen the previous day at the Floriade. The whole (enormous) building and its surroundings are a magnificent tribute and memorial to all those who have died serving their country over the past century in many wars. Sombre, peaceful and thought provoking.

In the evening we enjoyed a dinner with members and Engineers Australia guests.

Day 315 (Tuesday 18 September)Early start for the plane to Melbourne. Victoria Country Representative Frank Bishop met us at the airport. Our first visit was to GHD’s (www.ghd.com.au) office for a ‘Sustainability and business case for it’ lunchtime event with members, graduates and local engineers of all disciplines. I delivered one of the three presentations. Bill Grose, GHD’s sustainability guru, led off with a summary of their sustainability strategy and action plan and Rob Steen described his work for airline Jetstar, looking at their carbon footprint and reduction measures.

In the afternoon we visited the $2.5 Aus billion EastLink

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presentation of their activities and aspirations. Just brilliant, and yet again a massive demonstration of the energy and enthusiasm and QUALITY of our excellent CRs, their teams and members across the whole of the Asia Pacific Region. I learnt so much and really appreciated the magnificent contribution which our volunteer members make, not only for our members but for their communities and societies.

In the afternoon we had some free time – well, it was Saturday! Dorothy and I took a walk into the city and went round the Maritime Museum and booked some accommodation for our short holiday in Christchurch at the end of the visit. In the evening was a black tie Gala Dinner for 150 members and guests. I had the opportunity to speak again! I was also able to present a training certificate, papers competition certificates and four Spirit of Telford Awards - see web link (www.ice.org.uk/about_ice/aboutice_awards.asp.) for details of these excellent engineers AND the three excellent engineers to whom I also made presentations in Australia. Special thanks to Nicky Egyed for all her organisation of the dinner – yet another very special event on my special tour!

Day 320 (Sunday 23 September)CR site visit to the Northern Gateway Alliance’s Alpurt B2 project – 7.5 km of road, twin tunnels (10% of contract sum), eco-viaducts, 1 million plants. Our hosts, Andrew McRae (Project Director) and Noel Nancekivell (Design Manager), gave up their Sunday to show us this magnificent project – so much activity in such a small area! I particularly enjoyed seeing the tunnel and the rock formations and was also very impressed by the cantilever construction of the precast units for the Waiwera Viaduct. As with the project in Melbourne, it was another successful use of an alliance and partnering approach – we know it makes sense.

In the afternoon, Dorothy and I walked to the Auckland Museum. There was a fine drizzle, which had turned into torrential rain on our return walk. We reached the hotel like two drowned rats!

time change!) We drop off bags briefly in the hotel and then walk to the University of Auckland to meet with the Dean of Engineering, Professor Mike Davies, and prepare to meet students, staff and Institution members over a coffee and bun, prior to my presentation on sustainability. Presentation over, we then enjoy a social session before Dorothy and I join Mike and his wife Abby for a quiet dinner. Tom has Institution duties to perform, so returns to the hotel for dinner with the 16 Country Representatives from the Asia Pacific Region, who have assembled for their biannual conference. Country Representative Tim Warren is our host for the next six days AND has organised the CR conference plus a one day sustainability conference too – amazing!

Day 318 (Friday 21 September)The Country Representatives have already spent Thursday debating membership issues with Membership Director David Lloyd-Roach, and the ICE team also comprises Director of UK Regions and International Stuart Crichton and Asia Pacific Manager Debbie Kan.

The Sustainability conference has an impressive array of speakers (not including me!), these are:

■ Me, on first!■ Jeff Jones, President, Institution of Professional

Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ)■ John McShane (MICE), Environment and Planning

Manager with Auckland International Airport■ The Hon. David Caygill, ex NZ MP and NZ Minister of

Trade and Industry, Minister of Health and Minister of Finance

■ His Worship Dick Hubbard, Mayor of Auckland (which has almost 1/3rd of the New Zealand population

■ The Hon Clayton Cosgrove, Minister for Building and Construction

■ Alan Burden, Professor and Principal of Structured Environment Limited and our Country Representative for Japan

■ Jim Bentley, Chief Executive of Metrowater, Auckland’s bulkwater and wastewater provider

It was a fantastic event and I was also pleased to have the opportunity to meet and chat with our Country Representatives. In the evening I joined the CRs and the ICE New Zealand Committee for dinner in the hotel.

Day 319 (Saturday 22 September)The morning was a CR briefing day, led by Stuart and Tom who gave short presentations on the Institution’s activities, strategy and international strategy. This was followed by the best session of my whole visit – all 16 CRs gave a short

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Andy Buchanan, Professor of Timber Design, Athol Carr, Professor of Civil Engineering and Stefano Pampanin. After an excellent lunch in the Staff Club, Tom and I then met Pro Vice Chancellor (Engineering), Peter Jackson. Late in the afternoon, Alan Nicholson gave us a tour of the civil engineering department. Tom and I then had two hours to ourselves, so we went to the department library and both spent time catching up on our emails.

At 6pm, having set up the video, sound and presentation, I delivered the presentation ‘Climate Change – Can Engineers Meet the Challenge’ to students. university staff and Institution members. This was followed by our final event of the whole Presidential Tour – a social event with everyone and a time to start relaxing and winding down.

It has been an extremely hectic two weeks – so much so that I have not found the time to write my blog until a week after the end of the tour. BIG MISTAKE. I’m afraid this has meant that I cannot recall all the details, all the excitement, all the great times, places and people I have met and enjoyed. An exhausting but exhilarating experience and so many good memories that I can do justice to none of them in this blog.

Special thanks to Dr Pengiran Damit in Brunei, Michael Polin, Frank Bishop and Sarah Wheeler in Australia and Tim Warren in New Zealand. Special thanks to Tom Foulkes too, who has been alongside me, liaising with everyone, giving presentations and listening to members and others throughout. As President, I can put my feet up after 6 November – as Director General, Tom lives and works at this hectic pace continually.

I have learnt too what a wonderful organisation we are and that many other organisations respect us for our work and for the efficient way we do things and discharge our responsibilities to our members, our stakeholders and society.

Day 323 (Wednesday 26) to Day 325 (Friday 28 September)Holiday in Christchurch and catching up on some emails. Time to spend with Dorothy, which I really appreciated. Akaroa was a fantastic day and Sammy’s was a great jazz bar! Museum and Botanic Gardens were both wonderful.

Day 326 (Saturday 29 September) and Day 327 (Sunday 30 September)Flight home via Singapore, seven hour stop-over. Arrived home tired at 10am Sunday morning. In the afternoon I took my daughter Alice to Leicester to start her university career. Put head on pillow at 8pm and slept solidly for seven hours!

Week forty sevenNew Zealand (cont.) and home Day 321 (Monday 24 September)Early start for a plane to Wellington, arriving at 9.20am at the airport. By 9.45am we were in town at an NCE Seminar. Richard Patterson provided the welcome and an introduction to the NEC3 family of contracts and I then gave a short keynote speech of 20 minutes giving my perspective (and the Institution’s) on the merits of the NEC approach. Following coffee Tom and I, with CR Tim Warren, left for our meeting with IPENZ. NEC has not been used in New Zealand a great deal yet, but there seemed considerable enthusiasm amongst the delegates I spoke with. One of the most interesting presentations was from Siân Nash who spoke on her experience of the NEC contract in an extreme environment – a new Antarctic research station! Did you read about it in NCE magazine?

A short walk took us to the IPENZ offices where we met with Deputy President Bas Walker, Chief Executive Andrew Cleland and Engineering Director Charles Willmot. Tom and I learnt a great deal about IPENZ, which was formed in 2002, both to look after engineers’ registration and as a professional body. We shared experiences of our Institutions and discussed the issues which face us all – member satisfaction, membership and standards and skills shortages. Schools Director Angela Christie then joined us to discuss their Futureintech Project, which promotes engineering to school children of all ages and provides guidance documents and materials for students, parents, etc.

We next walked to Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington’s museum, for an Urban Sustainability Seminar, hosted by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Wellington City Council and the Institution. Dave Hansford, a photographer, cameraman and writer, as well as an environmental and conservation journalist, was my co-presenter. Following our two presentations John McGrath, Policy Manager for Wellington City Council, chaired a lively discussion session. This event was followed by a social session which followed directly into a members’ event, when Tom and I had the opportunity to chat with a dozen of our Institution members.

Day 322 (Tuesday 25 September) Another early flight, this time to Christchurch, our final destination. Tom and I spent the day with members of the University of Canterbury. We met and chatted with Ian Shaw, Pro Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, then

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starts to get tougher next week. Special thanks to Andrew McNamara for organising the trip and inviting me along. On my return to the Institution I had time for a brief Carillion meeting before heading for a Hazards Forum Event on “Organisational Change- the Hidden Risk”. Presenters of this excellent event were:

■ Professor Denis Smith of the University of Glasgow (my university!)

■ Mike Weightman, HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations

■ Jeremy Harrison, Head of Project Risk and Value Management at Network Rail

An excellent event. Unfortunately I had to leave before the discussion to meet up with David Orr and Anne Moir for a communications & presidential activities discussion.

Day 331 (Thursday 4 October 2007)Still waking very early following my return from New Zealand. Ffb (see typo from last week which says Ftb!), then dealt with post, signed 100 Awards certificates and responded to a few emails.

At 9.30am I was joined by David Lloyd- Roach, Director of Membership to take part in a Stakeholder Engagement Interview for Manchester University. A fascinating discussion on the University’s vision, mission and strategic goals. The University is aiming to be a world leading university by 2015- a daunting challenge in only 8 years! I hope our perspective, contribution and comments helped in their review and analysis.

More post then David Orr and I met with IMechE President John Baxter as part of our regular discussions. We compared notes and progress since last year and the close of our more focused debate at that time. We also shared experiences on membership, presidential visits, and apprentices. Like me, John is having enormous fun in his Presidential role, which he has held for 5 months now. The next meeting will be with David and Jean Venables as I move onto new pastures!

After lunch I met with Kelvin Hopkins (MP) who wanted to explain his ideas on the development (and delivery!) of a dedicated rail freight live form the Channel Tunnel to Glasgow- the Euro Rail Freight Route. He was joined by one of his proposal team, rail engineer Tim Brown and we fielded Graeme Monteith, Chairman of Rail Capacity Group and Nicola Bates from our Communications and Marketing team. It was a fascinating proposal which required some new tunnels and only 4 miles of new track to create a 100mph capacity line. Kelvin and his team are next speaking with RDAs (Regional Development Agencies) and preparing

Week forty eightICE Awards CeremonyDay 328 (Monday 1 October 2007)Carillion Day

Day 329 (Tuesday 2 October 2007) Carillion Day

Day 330 (Wednesday 3 October 2007)Early train to London, my first meeting with University of Surrey final year student Matt Gouldby who is writing a briefing note on his sponsorship funding and experience. I am hoping that it will be published in our proceedings in order to broaden members understanding of the student civil engineering practical and financial experience. Matt fully expects to earn or receive sponsorship to the sum of £30,000 during his degree. He will also have made some significant steps towards achieving some of his core objectives during his industrial experience- all helping him to become chartered and more employable!

After clearing some post and meeting briefly with the Director for Policy and Innovation Andy Gooding I have one of my regular catch-up meetings with Director General and Secretary Tom Foulkes. We review the excellent trip to the Asia Pacific Region and to discuss some of the forthcoming Institution activities. At 11.15am I walk to Lambeth Pier to join 125 first year students from City University on their ‘civil engineering river trip’ along the River Thames down to the Thames Barrier. Four engineers gave up their time to provide an engineering commentary:

■ John Baxter from Alan Baxter Associates■ Glyn Trippick from Buro Happold■ David Trelease from Arup■ Andrew McKay from Port of London

It was indeed a fantastic trip and a great way to see all the civil engineering projects from the last 200 years from Bazalgette’s sewage systems to Tate Modern; from the Thames Barrier to Billingsgate Markets (old and new!). I was pleasantly surprised to note many buildings and structures I had worked on!

I was given the opportunity to speak about career opportunities, the benefits of a civil engineering education and the Institution on the return trip and then enjoyed chatting to many of the students…enthusiasts one and all. The trip provided a great introduction to the range and scale of civil engineering and service civil engineers provide to society and the economy. I think the degree course

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Thursday 4th October.

Day 333 (Saturday 6 October 2007)Lovely day. We all took a trip to the Telford Inn and Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts, Montford Bridge and the Longdon-on-Tern aqueduct. A Telford Day! I noted the new plaque on the Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts spelt the ‘A’ word incorrectly- as one of my blog respondees had advised.

Day 334 (Sunday 7 October 2007)Trip to Bodenham Arboretum and a fantastic lunch. Clarinet lesson in the evening and a trip to the Railwayman’s Arms.

the business case for their proposal. I await the detail with interest!

My final event of the day was to give a presentation on sustainability to the construction team building and extending the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. I took the train from Waterloo and was met by Project Director Graham Aubury. The project has a “muster” once every 4 weeks which combines a presentation with a meal and social event. I was pleasantly surprised to meet with two people I had previously met in Dubai 18 months ago and on the GCHQ Project in Cheltenham 5 years ago! A splendid and most friendly evening and event. Late train back, so I caught up with some sleep!

Day 332 (Friday 5 October 2007)Ffb. Post, writing blog and a brief meeting with Kim Woolger about some future events and the Telford Apprentices. They are now about to complete their tenth task!

The event of the day, indeed, the whole year is the Institution’s Prestige Papers Awards Ceremony. The Awards event is a very special event in the Institution calendar and was a highlight of my Presidency too. I was delighted to meet many members I knew and others who I had met on my travels. It was a particular pleasure to meet and chat with Professor Chakroborty our Institution’s Gold Medal Winner, and I was especially delighted to present the President’s Medal to Dr Martin Barnes in recognition of his excellent work for the Institution, the industry and indeed for society in conceiving, developing, delivery and promoting the benefits of NEC. It is a contract which has changed industry culture and its reputation and helped us all to be collaborative not confrontational and to deliver better projects on time and on budget. High Speed 1, CTRL and the Eden project are just three of the many thousand great examples of NEC in practice.

I was delighted to present 8 more Spirit of Telford Awards - a catch-up session for the Wales Region nominations and also more excellent nominations from our engineering and membership committees.

The whole event ran with the efficiency of a Swiss clock, as all the events at One Great George Street do – another demonstration of the professionalism and quality of the Institution.

After the Awards event I was joined by David Harvey and his partner Cecilia who joined my wife Dorothy and me for the weekend. David handed over the Presidency of the Institution of Structural Engineers to Sarah Buck on

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and planning for population of the future. Our discussions were broad and, I am pleased to say, all vice presidents and directors engaged with and challenged Chris to the extent that the collective group emerged with some great ideas as to how we as an Institution can prepare ourselves better for the rest of this century. In particular how we can better engage with and involve our international members in looking at professional needs and delivery over the next 20- 40 years. A stimulating and interesting evening. Thank you Chris! - a real opportunity to discuss and develop ideas about sustainable development on a global scale.

Day 337 (Wednesday 10 October)Ffb. London Region Presidential Visit. I dealt with some post and certificate signing, had a couple of short meetings and then set off on tube and bus to Brunel University. We first met with staff from the School of Engineering. Head of the School of Engineering and Design, Professor Sawas Tasson hosted our first meeting with members of the new team delivering a NEW degree course in Civil Engineering with Sustainability. (MEng and BEng).

This must be the first university to introduce a civil engineering degree course for decades. Right decision!- and Brunel University should have a civil engineering course. The course director Dr Phil Collins explained their plans for the course and for its proper accreditation, for which the process has already commenced (with help from Professor Ben Barr, recently retired from the Cardiff University).We then all moved to the civil engineering laboratories for me to officially open them (as Joseph Bazalgette Laboratories) and officially launch the new degree courses. We were joined by many staff members from across the University, Institution staff and members and students.

Following lunch I returned to One Great George Street, meeting briefly with a number of geotechnical engineers arriving for an evening meeting on Eurocode 8 before heading for the Presidents flat to change for my evening event.

This was the BCIA (British Construction Industry Awards) Event. Almost 1000 people gathered at Grosvenor House Hotel to celebrate the best in civil engineering, building, environment and regeneration. Our compere was Kirsty Wark the broadcaster and presenter and the awards were presented by Rt Hon Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Culture, Media and Sport. It transpired that Kirsty’s mums cousin married a certain Ellie Leiper who in turn was closely related to the famous architect William Leiper. Conclusion- we are very distant cousins!

The President is vice chairman of the judging panel, so it

Week forty nineTelford, Vision, London Region and ICESDay 335 (Monday 8 October 2007) Carillion Day

Day 336 (Tuesday 9 October 2007)To Telford Town Park to open the Thomas Telford Twin Track. The Twin Track was initiated by Museum of Steel Sculpture Director Pam Brown and involved the Thomas Telford School, Hadley Learning Community Schools, 6 artists and the Telford & Wrekin Arts Team. The team won funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and has created an amazing pair of cast iron tracks representing a timeline of Thomas Telford’s life and work. 372 school children with 11 artists have each created a tribute and memorial to the great engineer by creating their own “plate”. Some “plates” were pieces of artwork, some had pictures of Thomas Telford and most had representations of his works- Toll Gates and Toll Houses, St Mary Magdalene Church, Buildwas Bridge, the Menai Straits Bridge and of course the incomparable Pontcysyllte Aqueduct … and many many more.

I had the honour to cut the ribbon and open this sculpture, lasting legacy and tribute to Telford. Voluntary research work carried out at Shropshire Archives and Coal brookdale Library provided many of the ideas for the excellent artwork and the children carved their designs into sand blocks prior to the casting operation. Artist in residence Gerry Masse with help from Amec laid the plates. I particularly enjoyed chatting to the children about their designs and was delighted to see their enthusiasm and knowledge for all things Telford. They should all be very proud of their achievement.

I then travelled to London for a meeting with University of Dundee PhD student Michael Simon who wanted to interview me about sustainability in construction (and construction companies) for his project. Great meeting with yet another enthusiast!

In the evening I hosted a dinner with vice presidents and directors. Our special guest was Dr Chris Luebkeman. Chris is an amazing character and personality. He is director for Global Foresight and Innovation at Arup. His CV suggests that he has constantly and consistently occupied the “spaces between” professions and that he refuses to be categorised! He is indeed someone of considerable intellect and vision for broad global issues- such as energy provision

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Masons, who not only supported the event, but also brought two tables of construction lawyers, all of whom, as far as I could see, really wanted to be civil engineers! I was delighted to present another Spirit of Telford Award, this time to Mike McConnell for his years of mentoring and developing our engineers of the future. Civil Engineer and former Whitby MP Lawrie Quinn gave an excellent toast to the Institution and the speaker was local MP Steve Pound- a candid and amusing speech! In his political role Lawrie has always been and remains a great friend of our institution as well as being a long standing fellow.

Day 339 (Friday 12 October)Ffb. More post to attend to and yet more certificates to sign. At 11am Antony Oliver, NCE’s editor came to see me to put me through my “exit interview”. The results are published in NCE dated 18th October 2007. A good chat. I leave you reader(s) to judge the article!

At 12 noon I then met with a small group of senior industry sustainability enthusiasts to talk about the need for and provision of training in “sustainability”. The emphasis being on the what to do rather than the business and strategic end of the training spectrum- which is already well served by a number of NGOs smalls and other bodies. The group left Kieran Dineen of Thomas Telford Ltd with some great ideas to develop and pursue. I deal with more correspondence, read some papers in preparation for the forthcoming Council meeting (23rd October) and then head to the flat to change for dinner.

My fourth dinner this week, and third black tie event is the Federation of Piling Specialists http://www.fps.org.uk/ Dinner. My opportunity to meet up with a fantastic group of predominantly geotechnical engineers with whom I worked (and competed with) in my piling, grouting, diaphragm walking and vibro days of the 1980’s. I was pleasantly surprised to find how many people I knew and how senior they had now become (in their roles, I could not possibly comment on their ages). I delivered a short speech and toast to the Federation and thoroughly enjoyed my geotechnical evening.

Day 340 (Saturday 13 October)Train home am. Hockey pm. Watched a nerve racking rugby game as England beat France in the World Cup Semi Final by a narrow margin, achieving a lead with only minutes to spare.

Day 341 (Sunday 14 October)Clarinet practice and lesson, household stuff and a trip to take another look at the Thomas Telford Twin Track with Dorothy and son John.

was my pleasant role to say Grace and to Toast the Queen. In addition, I said a few words about Mike Winney who died earlier this year. Mike had made a massive contribution to civil engineering through his mighty pen as a journalist and his knowledge and skills as a judge in many competitions. Mike had made a significant contribution to the BCIA awards as both judge, advisor, author and through his great network as a marketeer and promoter. Many of us had lost a good friend. We stood for a few moments private prayer in sadness, but also in celebration of a great life.

Day 338 (Thursday 11 October)Ffb. Various short meetings and lots of post and certificates. I had hoped to catch up on my blog and postcards, but failed to find time for either.

At 3pm I was collected by London Region Chairman Steve Miller and London Region Manager Jackie Bell and, with Director UK Regions and International Areas Stuart Crichton set off for St.Katerines Dock. The dock is yet another stunning example of Telford’s skills. In terms of water acreage the docks were a relatively modest scheme but in terms of engineering challenges, it was quite the opposite. Other well known engineers helped Telford – Henry Palmer, Joseph Mitchell and Alexander Gibb. The opening of the West St Katharine Docks took place in 1828. Due to Telford’s skilful design the docks operated independently via the basin so work could then focus on the Eastern dock. The lock was 180 feet long and could be filled in just over 5 minutes. A remarkable achievement. The walls were 33 feet high and 10 feet deep at the base. The whole scheme cost 2 million pounds, with the docks costing 250,000 pounds. Substantial sums in those days.

Our small party of Institution members joined me in unveiling a plaque to the great man. We were then privileged to visit another great London icon, Tower Bridge- and I had the honor of being allowed to press the appropriate buttons and then lift the bascule bridge. Another once in a lifetime experience and treat which the presidential post affords. London committee member Paul Monoghan had arranged the visit and timed it to ensure that it was an official opening of this great combination of civil engineering and mechanical engineering. A super afternoon! Just two hours to return to the flat to change for the (black tie) London dinner – on the way I popped into One Great George Street for a few minutes.

The dinner was splendid. We enjoyed an excellent meal (terrific lamb) and then moved onto the speeches and presentations. I always enjoy seeing the awards schemes and joining in our mutual celebration of the excellent project teams. The events main sponsor was Pinsent

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report such an excellent and mutually supportive relationship.

A grateful thanks to Don McEntee our County Representative and Trevor, for looking after me so well and to Ron Cox for initiating the plaque ceremony and providing me with Telford information for my presentation.

Day 344 (Wednesday 17 October)Ffb. Early plane back to London. Diversion for a Carillion meeting. In the afternoon I attended a Construction Industry Council meeting http://www.cic.org.uk/home/index.shtml, which included a presentation and question time with Minister of State for Pension Reforms, Stephen Timms. It was the first time I had attended a CIC Council meeting since I was Chairman of the Ground Forum 9 years ago. In the evening I hosted a meal for CIC Chairman Rt Hon Nick Raynsford, incoming CIC Chairman Keith Clarke (Atkins) and CIC Chief Executive Graham Watts. I was joined by Senior Vice- President David Orr and Director General Tom Foulkes. We has a splendid discussion on the industry, skills shortages and the political influence with and assistance to Government that CIC and the Institution can develop and provide.

Day 345 (Thursday 18 October)Carillion day. Ffb. In the morning I had the privilege to be one member of a small review panel for a major project.

Day 346 (Friday 19 October)Carillion day. Popped up to the University of Wolverhampton to deliver a lecture on sustainability.

In the evening I attended the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors Annual Dinner. This was being held at the Pump Room at the Roman Baths in Bath. Our host was ICES President Edwin Danson, whose term of office finished the following morning. It was a most hospitable and friendly event. The location was quite magnificent and Dorothy and I enjoyed looking around the baths and chatting to ICES members at the pre dinner reception. I commend the excellent choice of menu by Edwin’s wife Linda. I gave the toast to ICES and wished them well on their progress to achieving chartered status for their members.

Day 347 (Saturday 20 October)Ffb and a quick walk around Bath before returning home. In the afternoon I played hockey, scoring the first of our six goals. Rugby dominated the evening. You will know the result by now- a great performance to reach the final yet again.

Day 348 (Sunday 21 October)Institution correspondence and statistics. Clarinet practice. Hoping to get back to cutting the grass again soon- before it becomes too wet and wintery to do so.

Week fiftyDublin, CIC ICESDay 342 (Monday 15 October)Carillion day, with a quick trip in the middle of it to Ironbridge to open, with Telford & Wrekin Mayor Miles Hosken, the newly reinstated stabilisation scheme of Lloyds Road alongside the River Severn. The road was a live land slip, evidenced by Lloyds Cottage in the middle of the project. The slope had evidently been slipping gracefully towards the river for many years and the rear wall of the cottage was at least 1m lower than the front! The slip has now been restrained by two rows of piles and is fully instrumented. An excellent piece of civil and geotechnical engineering. I was delighted to hear that an EPSRC funded research grant was in place to support the Council in monitoring landslip with the University of Southampton (Professor William Powrie). Congratulations to Guy Biddul and his team for the design and delivery of a splendid project.

Day 343 (Tuesday 16 October)Early start for a flight to Dublin for my reciprocal visit to Engineers Ireland. I was met by Dublin Local Association Treasurer Trevor Wood, who took me, via M50 roadwork’s to University College Dublin to meet with academic staff and deliver a presentation to 4th year civil engineering students, I spoke on Climate Change, “Can Civil Engineers meet the challenge?” Our host Professor Eugene O’ Brian then very kindly invited us to lunch. As everywhere, UCD is increasing its student numbers fast. I particularly enjoyed our brief tour of new building and laboratories- all refurbished industry buildings- the sustainable solution! Well done UCD!

Our next visit was to the Howth Road to unveil a plaque to celebrate Thomas Telford’s involvement in the road which connects Dublin with Howth Port and thence the A5 from Hollyhead to London. I unveiled the plaque with Telford impersonator Bob Diamond. The plaque was just a few yards from one of Telford’s mile posts. We were joined at the ceremony by the President of Engineers Ireland- John McGowan, the Major of Dublin, local members and a large contingent of Institution members from Wales.

In the evening Engineers Ireland hosted a presentation by me on Thomas Telford. I also took the opportunity to show the DVD “Telford, the man, the works, the legacy”, 9 minutes of a very high impact story of Telford’s life.

Engineers Ireland President Jack Golden and colleagues made us most welcome and we enjoyed a very convivial evening of discussion and laughter. Engineers Ireland have around 20,000 members in all engineering disciplines. We share many of the same objectives and issues and I am delighted to

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badgering us all, for many years, about the inadequacies of our Princes’ Mews disabled access. It may have satisfied the letter of the law, but it did nothing for the dignity of our wheelchair visitors nor the reputation of the Institution. Thank you to Mike Stephens and his colleagues (and predecessors) on the Building Committee. They have guided this project through its many phases, juggling the feasibility of various options against the constraints of cost and potential damage to the architectural heritage of this splendid building. Thank you to David Bonnett of David Bonnett Associates for his early advice on the project – and to others who have helped with constructive advice at various stages, particularly Mark Broadhurst. Also to Alan Robson and his colleagues at our architects Fielden and Mawson, who introduced us to the Sesame lift solution and designed it, unobtrusively, into our fine entrance. And finally to the planning department at Westminster Council who helped smooth the way.

Having got that far, the construction itself presented a huge challenge and plenty of problems: very tight tolerances in three dimensions, with no previous experience of similar installations to draw on!

Our thanks go to our project management team at Gardiner and Theobald – particularly David Scotten, the construction team from Killby and Gayford – particularly site manager Paul Carrera, Andrew Dutton from our structural engineers Hurst Pierce and Malcolm who devised an ingenious solution to a problem, part way through the work. Charlie Lyons and his team from Sesame Access who put such a lot of effort into making sure everything worked perfectly.But this also needed the efforts of our ‘home team’ – particularly our Building Services Manager Phil Ackers and our reception team. Thank you all.

Another driver behind the scheme has been Environment and Sustainability Board Chairman Mark Broadhurst. Unfortunately Mark was not well, so could not travel up from Cornwall to participate. He was to be the first to use the access once it was officially opened. I would like to quote some words from Mark’s note to me:

“May I first offer my apologies for not being here to offer my thanks in person.

I cannot be the only ICE member with a disability as, lets face it, the industry within which we work could be safer, so I will not be the only one to benefit. I would presume, on behalf of myself, other ICE members and, indeed, members of the public, to say thank you very much to this Institution for what is a very public statement of its belief in equality and dignity. In this PC world of ours these are two very

Week fifty one“Retirement” loomsDay 349 (Monday 22 October)Carillion day, pm to London to attend a 5pm meeting with Tom Foulkes, Eunice Waddell and Angela Rodgers to run through agenda items and timing for Council meeting on Tuesday.

In the evening I hosted a “VP takeaway” meal with the vice presidents. On this occasion incoming vice presidents Professor Barry Clarke and David Hutchison were also invited. Previous “VP takeaways” had indeed been takeaway meals eaten in the President’s flat, but on this occasion I decided that we should have a restaurant meal. I used the opportunity to summarise some lessons learnt over the past year for the team and also some specific pointers for the incoming President, David Orr. I also wanted to thank the VPs for all their hard work on behalf of the Institution over the past year and for the support they have given me. The Institution has a strong and dedicated leadership team in place for the next year…which is very ably supported by thousands of voulenteers and our excellent Institution staff.

Day 350 (Tuesday 23 October)Ffb (fruit for breakfast). Post and more certificates to sign. I then have a Carillion meeting about the schools programme before returning to correspondence and a brief meeting about the arrangements for the evening’s event.

At 12.15 I join new Council members in their induction briefing. The Institution has realised how important it is for its Trustees to understand their responsibilities. So new Council members have been invited to the Council meeting as observers. I was delighted to renew friendships with so many that I had met on my regional visits during the year and known for some years as enthusiastic contributors and volunteers for our Institution.

My next task was to officially open our new wheelchair access at the front entrance in Great George Street. It is indeed an elegant engineering solution. To the passer-by, the entrance looks exactly as it has always done- 6 stone steps at the pavement edge and another flight of steps just inside the main door. When required for wheel chair access, the steps receed into the building and a sesame lift provides access which is simple and dignified. Much much better than sending wheel chair users round to the back alley to enter the building. There are many people to thank for developing this elegant solution.Starting with Caroline Cleland and the ICEFLOE committee. They were doggedly

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much enjoyed visits to Chapman’s Peak in South Africa, the personal tour of the Sydney Opera House, the great Cranes in Belfast and Blyth, the Northern Gateway Project in Auckland and the Kamping Ayer and Mosque in Brunei.

In terms of people, the graduates and students got my main mention….for their energy, enthusiasm and mentoring and contribution in schools. It was also a good opportunity to celebrate these excellent engineers nominated by members and committees and selected by the vice presidents panel for Spirit of Telford Awards. I was delighted to present two more. First to Mike Chrimes, Head of Knowledge Transfer for all his excellent work in the capture, promotion and delivery of engineering knowledge over the past 30 years. And Professor Robert Mair, world expert and mentor for excellence… and a geotechnical engineer too!

I was also able to thank the Telford Apprentices for spending time with me contributing to, organising and delivering Institution events AND the 10 tasks I had set them. I was particularly pleased to see two pieces of their work published in our proceedings as briefing notes and particularly upset that their research and analysis on mentoring (two or more briefing notes) was not published. Our members would have benefited from this excellent guidance and the Membership Committee was delighted to receive it! James Wallace said many kind words on behalf of the apprentices and we all then settled down to excellent food and company.

Day 351 (Wednesday 24 October)Ffb. Carillion day. I took the morning as holiday and Dorothy and I visited the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the paintings by Sisley and Constable. We met up with Sara from Suntrap a folk group, who had stayed with us 4 years ago when they played at the Bridgnorth Folk Festival. Sara works as an archivist and curator at the Gallery.

In the afternoon I dealt with some Carillion matters and then hosted a small Carillion event to hand over, on permanent loan to the Institution a number of items from the Mowlem archive. We were joined by former Mowlem Directors and Executives including Sir Philip Beck, Sir John Gains and John Hodgson. Two items were a portrait of John Mowlem (who had founded the company in 1822 and “Mowlem” mallet which was used by the President of the day Sir Charles Inglis to lay the foundation stone for One Great George Street on 25th October 1910 almost exactly 97 years ago!

In the evening I popped in briefly to the BGA meeting and joined members of both organisations in the bar afterwards.

abused words, but in the context of here, today, they are very appropriate.

The ICE was not legally compelled to do this work, but came to the decision because of the recognition that morally it was the right thing to do and it was also commercially appropriate. This last point needs to be acknowledged, given the status of One Great George Street as a quality venue”.

My next event was to chair my final session of Council as President. It was a long meeting as usual- and as usual we had a great deal of business to attend to and decisions to make. Two particular highlights were the presentations from the ICE Benevolent Fund by its director Kris and the GSnet presentation by Ruth Hopgood, its retiring chair and incoming Council member. (Both presentations were of very high quality and both demonstrated the forward thinking, energy and efficiency of both groups). The other exceptional thing was that on three occasions we had Council votes that were unanimous! In one of the discussions 20 Council members made a contribution! David Orr closed the meeting with a few kind words and thanks to me. Much appreciated.

Chairing Council meetings has been one of the toughest of my presidential roles. I have always tried to allow broad debate and of course tried to make sure that Council was able to complete the long agendas at every meeting.David pointed out that I had been “firm” on a number of occasions! I hope that I have also been fair. Council procedure has changed over the year to allow staged discussions- a first meeting to establish the strategic framework and gain feedback and discussion on the issue and then at the next meeting a refined paper prepared taking into account the broad views for the actual decision on a topic to be made. This is a much better approach, replacing the difficulties which naturally arise when Council were not given more options to debate.

I then spent a few minutes practicing a tune with the jazz quartet which was providing the entertainment for the dinner and dashed back to the flat to change into my black tie for the “President’s Retiring Supper”.

Council members, Presidents and others assembled for drinks at 7pm. I joined the quartet for a quick rendition of “Over the Rainbow” before David Orr took to the microphone to remind me of some of my presidency- in referring to my statistics he voiced that I was “a bit of a spreadsheet man” and recounted some thoughts from the assembled company of my past year. We then moved into dinner and I had the opportunity to re count some of the highlights of my year- mainly people related, but I also

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Day 352 (Thursday 25 October)Ffb. Post, reading and postcards (still probably 100 behind!). My first meeting this morning was the NCE Supervisory Board. This Board meets twice a year. Tom Foulkes, Anne Moir and I meet with senior EMAP directors to discuss high level issues relating to the editorial production and delivery of NCE magazine and future plans. Late morning I met with Gret and John Woodason. Gret chairs the communications committee for the Surrey WI and one of those attending and contributing to the Sustainable Motorways debate event we held during the South West Region Presidential Visit back in June (day 227). Gret was very keen to research into how organisations tackle the sustainability agenda. Her WI region is one of their trial areas for assessing and measuring energy use and waste- a great initiative from an organisation which really does have an opportunity to change the culture of our nation of all its 211,000 members in over 6000 branches start to influence all their friends and neighbourhoods. I had organised a tour of the building for them (by Carol Morgan our expert archivist) and then debated the issues over lunch.

In the afternoon I returned to Wolverhampton and got on with some work for the day job!

Day 353 (Friday 26 October)Carillion day.

Day 354 (Saturday 27 October)Finally managed to play my new clarinet. Played hockey. I was an unfit centre half and we lost to a team full of fit young and fast players!

Day 355 (Sunday 28 October)Clarinet, trip to the tip with cardboard and plastics from the last three months and household activities.

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chairing the Awards! I noted that the incoming Chairman is John Carmichael, a fellow University of Glasgow graduate. Senior meteorologist and presenter par excellence, Heather Reid from BBC Scotland was the presenter for the event, providing us with a summary of the projects and announcing the winners. As President, I presented the commendations and also gave a short address prior to the Rt Hon Lord Cullen of Whitekirk, President of the Saltire Society making the 2007 award. There followed a very pleasant social luncheon which gave me time to speak to many of the entrants and catch up with local members. Train home late evening.

Day 359 (Thursday 1 November)Early train to London. Post, more certificates to sign and writing postcards. A quick catch up with PA Clare Gray on my final week’s diary. At 11am, Hyder Chief Executive Tim Wade, their Head of Communications, Graham Whitehead and Telford Apprentice visit me and the Institution to present the Institution with a copy of the history of civil engineering delivered over the years by Hyder and its former incarnations; Freeman Fox (initiated in 1857), John Taylor & Sons (1869), Acer Consultants, Sir Bruce White, Wolfe Barry and Partners (1836 but joined the group in 1991) and Welsh Water. A fascinating read! Dating from its origins in 1857 and founder Charles Fox, the book catalogues the projects and stories of the development of our profession. At the age of 19 Charles Fox was selected to drive the engine Novelty in the Rainshill Steam Locomotive Trials, ultimately won by Stephenson’s Rocket to select a locomotive for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Fox went on to become a train driver, earning the handsome sum of £1 per week (this was 1829!) before earning his first engineers salary of £300 per year working for Robert Stephenson on the London and Birmingham Railway. Design work on Euston Station was a precursor for his subsequent design for the Crystal Palace (1851) for which he was knighted. There followed more railways and projects in Britain, India, Australia and Africa amongst others. Further development into tunnels (Mersea and Channel Tunnel!) and bridges (Sydney Harbour, Severn, Bosporus and Humber, the latter being the longest single span bridge in the world in its day, an accolade Telfold had held with the Menai Straits bridge). And so the book goes on with more fascinating stories about people and projects. On page 74 you will meet former President of the Institution and past Chairman of Acer, Gwilym Roberts. An excellent read, which I thoroughly recommend. Coincidentally Gwilym had attended my retiring supper and I received a letter from him on the same day as Tim presented the Institution with this magnificent volume. Thank you Tim, and a special thanks to Diane Hall (principle researcher, author and editor). I will read the remainder of the book with great interest.

Week fifty twoLast full week! Day 356 (Monday 29 October)Carillion Day

Day 357 (Tuesday 30 October)Carillion Day. In the afternoon, travelled to Edinburgh.

Day 358 (Wednesday 31 October)FFB and a cooked breakfast! Walked from my hotel to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (the first bespoke portrait gallery in the world apparently) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/page/2:298:3 to have a special viewing of ‘Telford, Father of Modern Engineering’ exhibition. The National Galleries of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and National Museums Scotland had worked together with the Institution to bring together and show a magnificent collection of paintings, the Telford bust, drawings, photos, diaries and writings on Telford and his age. They had even specially commissioned a model of the Craigellachie bridge. The Institution had loaned a number of the exhibits including the famous Reynolds portrait of Telford, his address book, letters, bust and his drawing instruments. Grateful thanks to NPG Director James Holloway for opening the exhibition early specially for our small Institution group and for Roland Paxton for arranging the visit. The exhibition closes on 25th November, so I recommend you make every effort to see this fantastic collection of presentation of Telford’s achievements – we will never see the like of it again!

By 10.20am our small group headed across town to the Museum of Scotland for the Saltire Awards. Now in its 27th year. This too was a splendid celebration of excellent civil engineers and excellent civil engineering. The Awards are selected by an adjudication panel consisting of members from both the ICE Scottish Local Associations, the Association of Consulting Engineers, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, Transport Scotland, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SPEA), the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. A truly collaborative event! Commendations were made in 5 categories: projects, design, construction, conservation and environment. The overall Saltire award this year was presented to the Finneston Bridge (or Clyde Arc as it is becoming known). My congratulations to all the 27 entrants – all great examples of what civil engineers can achieve and great demonstrations of our essential contribution to society and the economy. Congratulations too to John Carruthers who is stepping down after 4 years

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Some time to catch up on emails for the day job then I meet with geotechnical academic Dr Sarah Stallebrass and BGA Chairman Hilary Skinner to discuss how we can assist academics to become professionally qualified with the Institution.

At 5pm I host a drinks reception to say thank you to all those wonderful Institution staff who have coached, mentored and supported me during my year of office. All had departed by 7pm and I stayed until 10pm, finally catching up on my postcard writing. I’ve now written 707 postcards to thank the hosts of people I have met or who have been organising all the events I have been attending.

Day 360 (Friday 2 November)Carillion day. Some post and postcards cleared before I went off for my 10am meeting.

Day 361 (Saturday 3 November)My first band practice this term! 20 new pieces of music, so I was struggling. My new clarinet gives me greater confidence! In the afternoon I play hockey. A competitive game and great fun. I play on the wing in the first half and as a half back in the second half (following the substitution of our centre half). We win 4-1 and I score my second goal of the season (in 3 games) and sustain my third injury (yet another ball strike). In the evening Dorothy and I join friends at a fireworks party.

Day 362 (Sunday 4 November)Writing short speech for the Environment Agency Conference on Monday. Blog. Clarinet lesson.

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Day 364 (Tuesday 6 November)Final day!

Ffb. Final post, final postcards and final blog writing. I went around the building to say thank you and goodbyes to the staff. I then spent some time in the library researching some technical papers and answering emails (for the day job!).

At 5pm, I was joined for a chat and tea by a number of past presidents and at 6pm one of our major Institution events, the Presidential Address started.

I am aware that David Orr is going to write a blog, so I will leave him to describe HIS special event as well as one of our Institution’s special events. A fantastic address putting civil engineers and civil engineering at the heart of society. Congratulations David on becoming the 143rd President of the Institution of Civil Engineers!

Week fifty threeEnvironmental Agency, Presentation and handover to David Orr 143rd President Day 363 (Monday 5 November)Carillion Day.

Train to London. I attend the Environmental Agency (EA) conference and am a member of an ‘adaption panel’ which followed presentations by Secretary of State (DEFRA) the Rt.Hon.Hilary Benn, Minister of State for Energy, Malcolm Wicks, DEFRA’s Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Bob Watson and EA Chief Executive Baroness Barbara Young. All excellent presentations. Our panel task was to take questions and comment on adapting to the charge we urgently need to see to enable our society to prepare for and cope with the impending climate change situation. It was a good, if rather brief debate controlled by presenter and broadcaster Jon Snow.

Key points: We all need to contribute, strategy and targets are vital…plus being held to account! Government departments have too many KPIs (one contributor suggested 2 would suffice, 10 would suit me!). Barbara challenged us to all move more urgently, as if we were on a war footing. I agree- we MUST drive sustainability into our business (and organisation) strategy and culture AND we must do more to communicate the story SIMPLY in order to motivate people (60 million in the UK for starters!) and help them gain real ownership of this critical agenda. With ownership, people deliver!

I return to the Institution in the afternoon to present Guy Cottam with the Institution Garth Watson Medal, Guy was awarded the medal in recognition of his key role over the last quarter of a century in the development of the Institution’s dispute service and in developing the skills of civil engineers in this important field. Guy was also a Council member (1988-9, overlapping with my first term on Council) and a member of the Professional Conduct Panel and the Disciplinary Board. A fantastic contribution to our Institution and to society. This was my last formal duty before handing over the Presidency to David Orr.

I returned to some Carillion activities and then started to tidy up my desk and pack items to take home before leaving to attend the Environment Agency Dinner in the National History Museum (next to the diplodocus skeleton). I was pleasantly surprised to find that my predecessor Gordon Masterton was also a guest.

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Final Statistics609 Events/meetings

142 days CPD (wow, what a coincidence!!.. I am the 142nd President)

153 Presentations and speeches

217 Lunches and dinners (from snacks to the 21 Black Tie events)

71140 miles travelled (38578 air long haul, 8952 air short haul, 17540 by rail, 5970 by car, 100 miles on foot (at least!)

62 Hotel nights.

772 Postcards

46 Spirit of Telford Awards

10 Tasks for the Telford apprentices

24.72 trees (found an error in my previous (old) con-version rate!)

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