ICE Local - Jan 2015

The members’ newsletter of ICE Yorkshire and Humber January 2015

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ICE Local

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In this issue Gearing for Growth at Junction 5 of the M18 John Bowes on one of a number of similar schemes currently being implemented in the region to support the government's "Gearing for Growth" initiative

Regional Achievers ICE Director General Nick Baveystock visits the new facilities at Leeds College of Building L-R: Nick Baveystock, Penny Marshall (Regional Director, ICE Yorkshire and Humber), Ian Billyard and Mark Wright (Leeds College of Building)

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ICE Yorkshire and Humber Region group

Your ICE Committee Happy New Year. I'm sure that 2015 will be an exciting year for civil engineers in the Yorkshire and Humber region, and with the general election looming, infrastructure in the North is in the spotlight.

We are driving forward the Infrastructure Alliance with our colleagues from CECA, CIHT, ACE, Constructing Excellence, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the CITB, developing an Infrastructure Manifesto ahead of a flagship debate at Leeds Town Hall on Friday 27 February.

Please look out for further details.

I am delighted to report that we shortlisted 26 projects for the new look Centenary, Smeaton and Sir John Fowler awards. I was especially pleased by the number and quality of submissions for

the Sir John Fowler award, for the first time specifically showcasing the high quality engineering of small projects and studies to be recognised.

This was my second year as a judge, and I continue to be impressed by the range of skills and professionalism within our region. I do hope you can join me on Friday 6 March at the Gala Dinner Dance at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, when we will announce the winners.

All the best for 2015.

Damian Kilburn CEng MICE

ICE Y&H Chair 2014-15

QUEST scholarship winners Elsie Brewster, Anthony Harrigan and Nathan Richmond, and Heather Sales, winner of the Geotechnical Group Presentation Competition

Celebrating Yorkshire and Humber civil engineers and civil engineering Have you got your ticket for the Gala Dinner Dance and Awards?

Friday 6 March in Harrogate.

See you there!

Smart Cities Renos Karamanis on the challenges large urban environments will be facing in the future, and how technology could help

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Gearing for Growth - M18, Junction 5 The M18 J5 scheme is one of a number of similar schemes currently being implemented in the region to support the government's ‘Gearing for Growth’ initiative, and utilises the value engineering process to reduce costs.

The purpose of the improvement is to increase capacity at the junction in order to facilitate the development of the adjacent DN7 site, which is one of several put forward by the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as part of their Sheffield City Region Investment Fund (SCRIF) application.

The initial site investigation, survey and preliminary design was developed by the Area Maintenance Team (AOne+) before being delivered by the Highways Agency (soon to be Highways England) through the project support framework for design and supervision and the asset support framework for delivery on site.

The design was undertaken by the Mott MacDonald Grontmij joint venture (MMG JV) and Costain are undertaking the construction works which are due to be completed in March 2015. The two sketches below show the works to be undertaken at preliminary design, and developed during the detail design stage.

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This project demonstrates how civil engineers are able to use their wide ranging skills to review a proposed solution, and deliver the project brief requirements with a more cost effective and easier to construct scheme. This was achieved by changing the alignment to allow the widening works required to be undertaken with minimal closures. The scheme cost estimate was also reduced by 40% during the detail design period by re-aligning only one side of an existing carriageway, thereby retaining the existing safety barrier and drainage and negating the need to widen a significant embankment.

In addition to the engineering challenges the team was also faced with the presence of water voles within the adjacent ditches. Once found, a strategy was needed to temporarily translocate the voles during the construction period. A suitable habitat was not available locally due to the presence of other water vole families within the local area. The solution was to employ a water vole expert to safely catch the voles and take them to Cornwall for a temporary holiday during the construction phase before being brought back.

John Bowes CEng FICE

Clockwise from left: Nick Baveystock with QUEST scholars Elsie Brewster and Anthony Harrigan; Tata Steel Projects Associate Director Phil Vince with QUEST scholar Nathan Richmond; Yorkshire Geotechnical Group Presentation Competition winner Heather Sales

Regional Achievers QUEST Technician Scholarship Three civil engineers in the Yorkshire and Humber region have received this year's ICE QUEST Technician Scholarships.

The scholarships offer financial support of up to £1,500 to successful scholars and give recognition, from a highly respected international organisation, of their abilities and potential. This year's scholarships have been given to 28-year-old Elsie Brewster, from York, 36-yearold Anthony Harrigan, from Leeds, and 17-year-old Nathan Richmond, from York.

The trio are all part-time students at Leeds College of Building, and Elsie and Tony were fortunate to be presented with their awards by the Institution’s Director General, Nick Baveystock.

The QUEST Technician Scholarship provides support to students who are studying courses that could lead to a professional qualification as an Engineering Technician.

Elsie and Nathan are both employed as assistant technicians at Tata Steel Projects, in York. Tony is a transport planner at SCP in Leeds.

Mr Baveystock said: “Elsie, Tony and Nathan are very worthy recipients of the QUEST Technician Scholarships. It is vital that we recognise and support the efforts of those who have chosen to join our industry and enhance their skills through studies at such educational centres as the Leeds College of Building".

Yorkshire Geotechnical Group Presentation Competition The Yorkshire Geotechnical Group has named Graduate Engineer at Cementation Skanska, Heather Sales, as the winner of this year’s Presentation Competition.

The annual Yorkshire Geotechnical Group Presentation Competition is open to young geotechnical engineers (aged 30 or under), and encourages them to prepare and give a technical presentation. Presentations may be on any topic dealing with engineering behaviour of the ground, whether it is a construction/design project or research.

This year, five entrants reached the final, held at the University of Leeds, and first place was awarded to Heather Sales, a Graduate Engineer at Cementation Skanska based in Doncaster.

Heather presented the results of her university dissertation on “The Effect of Voids on Buried Water Distribution Pipes” which had involved using a geotechnical centrifuge to upscale the results of small model tests to real life conditions.

The judges commented that she made a complicated subject simple and accessible to the audience and had a clear grasp of not just the results but also the limitations of the technique. In recognition of her efforts, Heather received a certificate and £100 cash prize.

Gala Dinner Dance and Awards 2015 Friday 6 March, 19.30 The Majestic Hotel, Harrogate

A celebration of civil engineering in the region.

Individual places or tables of 10-12 are available, and tickets are priced at £65+VAT per person. To book your place online please click on the link below or contact: e: derryn.potter@ice.org.uk www.ice.org.uk/yorkshireandhumber/GDD2015

ICE Local - January 2015

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Smart Cities... what are they really?

The word 'smart' might lead us to think of the latest map application available on mobile phones, but 'Smart Cities' offer a new way of thinking for the future of sustainable urban city design. There is no agreed definition of what a Smart City is, but it could be described as: ‘’An urban environment designed and operated based on information connectivity from a wide variety of available sources, incorporating reliable urban resilience within sustainable infrastructure at all levels, tailored to the cultural identity of the location.’’

So, why are Smart Cities important? And what are the challenges large urban environments will be facing in the future? The answer lies in population statistics. According to the Global Health Observatory (GHO), the urban population for 2014 was close to 54%. It is predicted that the global urban population will grow approximately 1.84% per year between 2015 and 2020, 1.63% per year between 2020 and 2025, and 1.44% per year between 2025 and 2030. Hence by 2030 the urban population would be around 70% of the global population. In terms of the design and infrastructure of cities this highlights an enormous need in order to sustain such a large population.

The majority of the world's population growth to date is in developing countries, so it would be safe to assume that their largest cities will be suffering from the highest urban growth (and those most in need of smart sustainable urban design). A population increase in an environment which cannot sustain it could contribute to a number of negative implications - a rise in crime, reduced safety, inappropriate infrastructure and general chaos. The way to manage this significant population growth may be through the Smart Cities initiative.

The key to appropriate design, whether it is structural design or designing a car, is the appropriate use of available information. Where the urban environment has built its foundations, in what can be regarded as exponential technological progress, information lies everywhere. Data such as the flow of transport, property prices, the price of oil, the most popular local bars or even Facebook check-in’s, could be regarded as valuable information if used appropriately, in a Smart City grid.

Sustainable urban planning aims to utilise these large amounts of information - they could define engineering decisions such as the need for new transport links, where to position the

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new office development, or the next leisure centre or new city mall. Other conclusions could also be extracted, such as where a virus might spread to or even in detecting crime before it happens, based on current statistics.

One of the most critical areas in terms of information is to predict energy usage - to define the energy requirements of properties and choose the optimal energy source to feed certain locations within cities. Appropriate energy infrastructure could be the driver for excellence in all other areas. The backbone of such a system could be reliable urban resilience - the ability of a system to sustain extreme events. Urban resilience, currently an area of interest in many engineering companies and universities around the world, could be based on predicting those extreme events and having ready set actions to account for them.

One could say that Smart Cities are essentially Big Data brought in to city planning because of an extreme predicted need due to population growth. However to distinguish a Smart City from what could be described as a 'Robot City', cultural-human intervention is what defines the plasma of the information pool. The complexity of the system states that there is no model answer on how a future city should be or how decisions regarding planning and operation should be made. A smart sustainable urban environment should match the cultural requirements of that environment, in order to avoid a total collapse of the system.

Smart Cities could contribute to better transport links, better city environments, better safety, more investments, more jobs, higher GDP, better healthcare, art and cultural progress, better education, sustainable urban growth and importantly, a higher quality of life.

Renos Karamanis