European Priorities in Bridge Design and the Implications of the Euro Growth Package

Aug. 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Construction IQ: Welcome to this podcast, our two speakers will first of all introduce themselves.

N Bidiga: Hi, morning, Helen, and thank you for inviting us to this interview. My name is Nicolae Bidiga. I’m the Bridge Engineering Group Manager for Atkins Rail Solutions Southeast. My main role is operational. I’m leading a group of about 35 bridge engineers with a main focus on the railway sector. Our jobs are varying from a small size to medium refurbish and renewals up to large project scales on the network rail sector. I’ve most recently completed the Borough Viaduct at London Bridge Station and Redding Viaduct, which is under development and probably one of the biggest bridge schemes procured by Net Rail at this point in time. Thank you.

Construction IQ: Thank you, Nicolae. And, David, if you’d like to introduce yourself.

D Smith: Hi, I’m Atkins’ Structures Service Director for our Highways and Transportation business. I’m responsible for setting and delivering strategy across our UK bridge businesses compromising over 180 engineers and technicians. In recent years, I’ve worked on the Dubai Metro Viaduct design, our input to King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia and I’m currently working on HS2 and the M25 DBFO commissions.

Construction IQ: Thank you very much. Well, I really appreciate you joining us today. Today’s interview is going to be divided into three sections, starting with design and then we’ll look at maintenance and asset management before finishing on the topic of the future. So, to begin with our first segment, design, let’s look at sustainable design, temporarily forgotten in the current economic climate, but soon to be back with a vengeance. How do you think that the current economic climate has affected sustainable design?

N Bidiga: Yes, you’re right, Helen. I think there is a feeling that sustainable design has been temporarily forgotten by the clients and suppliers. And this is mainly because their focus shifted towards cost savings and short-term cost effective processes mainly because of their cut budgets. On the other hand, from the same reason we can see a much smaller number of new structures at the level of industry and when we talk about sustainability, it’s much easier to quantify and measure a sustainable approach on the new structures rather than the actual focus on asset management and maintenance.

To download this interview in full please click here: bit.ly/PgwbWN