News

The past year has continued to be very active for the Scottish Branch, with four interesting and informative technical evening meetings taking place. In November, the Branch held a joint evening meeting in Perth with the Institute of Asphalt Technology (IAT). The topic was the ‘A9 Dualling’ – a major road construction project in Scotland.

This was very well attended and members were given detailed presentations by speakers from Atkins, Fairhurst and Jacobs consultants. The evening focused on design constraints, project development, accessibility, ground investigation and considerations in terms of road dualling impacts on the existing environment, surrounding infrastructure and landscape. It also looked at how the different elements came together for the final design. The structural design elements and considerations along the route at two main structures were highlighted to determine the solutions put forward for construction. Finally, the geological and environmental considerations were highlighted and the use of LiDAR geological ground modelling was presented, detailing its use and the benefits of the modelling software on this project.

A second well-attended joint meeting was held with the IAT in Cumbernauld, where the topic presented was the proposed changes to the Design Manual
for Roads and Bridges (DMRB). A presentation was given from a colleague working on the DMRB at TRL. Changes to the standards were highlighted as well as the
effects these changes will have on practitioners and users of the suite of documents.

In March, Police Scotland provided a presentation based on how it gathers information when attending road collisions and the technology used at the site of incidents. The survey equipment and software was shown to the members and a very informative discussion and question/answer session took place. The most recent evening event was in April. Three presentations were given by colleagues from Aberdeenshire Council, Atkins and BAM on schemes being carried out by the authority. The interesting and informative talks were based on the Gardenstown landslip, the Stonehaven Flood Protection Scheme and the Local Climate Impacts Profile tool. These presentations were
followed by the Scottish Branch’s AGM.

The Branch is presently compiling a programme of events for 2019/20 and would welcome suggestions from members on topics that would be of interest. Any comments (or suggestions for improvement) should be emailed to ‘scotland@theihe.org’. Keep up to date with our branch events and news in the members’ area of the website or via our LinkedIn page.

Gordon Brown
Chairman, IHE Scottish Branch