The Engineers Collective

This month’s guest is Civic Engineers associate director Sam Harland who talks to host Rob Hakimian about the Building Safety Act 2022 and how it is changing the way that engineers are working.

They talk about how it has introduced new processes, particularly for structural engineers like Harland, with the tightening of design competency requirements, the introduction of the gateway process and the creation of the Golden Thread for...

This month we’re discussing the Ofwat Innovation Fund and we’re joined by Ofwat director for environment and innovation Jo Jolly alongside representatives of two companies who have been part of innovations that have been boosted by the fund: Royal HaskoningDHV UK water sector director Paul Lavender and Changemaker 3D CEO and cofounder Natalie Wadley.

The chat starts with a focus on how ...

This month’s guest is Ronan O’Driscoll, an engineer who has worked in a variety of sectors in his storied career – often in temporary works, which is what he is doing in his current role working on the construction of Hinkley Point C.

Having amassed a wealth of knowledge over his time in the sector, O’Driscoll has put together a free-to-download guide called Construction Engineering – A...

Our innovation experts Samuel Stephens, director, head of digital, nuclear at AtkinsRéalis and Angela MacOscar, director of innovation at Northumbrian Water, grill two innovators about their technology. 

In this launch episode, recorded live at Techfest, they speak with FC Laboratories’ Matthew Norbury about their AI-powered wearable neurotech to support brain fitness, and Matt Barney, chief hydrogen officer at Geopura about their ...

This month’s guest is Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) trustee for policy and external affairs Jonathan Spruce, who joins host Rob Hakimian to discuss the trials of the UK’s megaproject High Speed 2 (HS2).

The ICE recently put out a report about what went wrong with the project and lessons that can be taken forward to other projects, compiled through interviews with people at all levels in the project.

Jonathan and Rob discuss ...

In the latest episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer, host Rob Hakimian welcomes Professor John Orr from the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and Cambridge University Department of Engineering.

They discuss the IStructE’s upcoming 2024 Structural Awards, which seeks to honour the outstanding structures from all over the globe that have been completed in the last year.

After discussing the history ...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your usual platform.

This month we’re joined by the International Hydropower Association (IHA) to discuss the “grandfather” of renewable energy. IHA senior energy policy manager Rebecca Ellis chats to NCE news editor Rob Hakimian about the history and importance of pumped storage hydro, covering how it works, its ability to “store” en...

The latest episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer is all about the development and construction of East West Rail (EWR), the brand new railway being built between Oxford and Cambridge. Our interviewee is former East West Rail Company innovation manager Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain, who was involved with all the future-facing elements of this exciting project. It should be noted that since this interview was record...

In the new episode the we meet the authors of new book The Regenerative Structural Engineer, Oliver Broadbent and James Norman. The book, published by the Institution of Structural Engineers, draws on the two authors’ years of experience of civil and structural engineering. Today, Oliver is founder and co-leader of regenerative engineering training Constructivist and James is professor of sustainable design at the University of Bri...

This month’s episode is dedicated to celebrating 40 years since Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Thames Barrier in London, the engineering marvel that protects London from disastrous flooding. We speak to two engineers who worked on its construction, which commenced nearly half a century ago.

Rory O’Grady was a section engineer for Costain on the project between 1975 and 1980 and has just published a book called We Gave A D...

In this episode of The Engineers Collective we speak to ICE president Anusha Shah about the importance of biodiversity net gain (BNG).

This year has seen BNG of 10% become mandatory for new developments. Shah has committed her year in office to pushing the agenda of nature-based solutions in civil engineering. The two themes are intertwined and she explains how they are essential for driving forward sustainability in the built envi...

In this month’s episode of The Engineers Collective podcast from New Civil Engineer we mark one year since the publication of the 2023 update to the PAS 2080 standard for carbon management in infrastructure.

We’ve gathered representatives from Mott MacDonald, the Department for Transport and Anglian Water to gain insight a series of roundtables held by Mott MacDonald where industry stakeholders discussed and debated how PAS 2080 ...

In this month’s episode of The Engineers Collective podcast from New Civil Engineer we speak to Julia Stevens, the chief executive of the Constructionarium, about how the facility is preparing budding construction workers and engineers for life on a work site.

Stevens tells us about the Constructionarium, a 7.5ha site at Bircharm Newton in Norfolk, which features a range of work areas including scaled down rivers, lakes, stabilised...

This month’s episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer focuses on the role that hydrogen could play in the global effort to transition to a zero-carbon world.

International management consultancy Arthur D. Little recently put out a report entitled Hydrogen: The electroshock to the energy transition and in this episode NCE acting news editor Rob Hakimian is joined by three experts from the consultancy to discuss ju...

The new episode of the Engineers Collective podcast is out now.

This month’s episode focuses on ‘transforming infrastructure performance’.

The UK’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) released two papers, in 2017 and 2021, called Transforming infrastructure performance in which it set out a vision for the future of infrastructure delivery. This process embeds the use of modern tools and greater project integration to make d...

This episode focuses on the value of place making within construction and engineering projects.

Place making is the practice of ensuring that a project goes beyond functionality and delivers something that benefits the society in which it is being constructed. It is ensuring that there is space above and around it for public use, which will bolster a community with new resources.

Fitting in the requirements of a client while also p...

Safety is paramount in construction. Safety of the people who work on constructing a scheme – and safety of those people who will eventually make use of the scheme.

On this month’s episode of the Engineers Collective, NCE assistant news editor Rob Hakimian is joined by CROSS scheme manager Paul Livesey to discuss the history of CROSS, how it has grown and its importance in today’s construction landscape.

In the conversation, Paul t...

Over recent years we have all seen our pictures, music and other prized documents migrate to the cloud, which has presented a new kind of convenience and accessibility.

The same is true in the construction industry, where some projects have seen vital documents, plans and information become stored on a shared cloud. This increases the ways that these documents can be accessed and also ensures that everyone is working from the same ...

Urban populations are growing while climate change means both droughts, as well as sudden intense rainfall events, are on the rise. However, existing urban infrastructure in UK has not caught up with the water management challenges presented by these scenarios. We need to be much smarter about the capture, usage and planned management of water going forward. This is critical to reduce flood risk and to be prepared for periods of dr...