Member Article

Ordsall Chord engineers from Manchester win prestigious national award

A team of Manchester engineers behind the innovative digital design of the Ordsall Chord railway link have been recognised with a high profile industry award.

Brian Duguid, Jason Hyde and Howard Pullan have been awarded by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) with the John Henry Garrood King medal for their paper detailing the innovative engineering on one of Manchester’s most significant pieces of transport infrastructure.

Construction of the Ordsall Chord bridge in Manchester has, for the first time, linked all of city’s central railways stations - Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria. It was a complex project involving the creation of 350 metres of new track over Britain’s first network arch rail bridge.

Working for the engineering firms behind the ambitious project, Brian, Jason and Howard used Building Information Modelling (BIM) to design the new bridge. In some cases this meant that drawings were dispensed with entirely allowing key structures to be built directly from the digital model.

Their expertise and best practice has now been recognised with this national award which the team collected in London this month.

Award winner, Brian Duguid, chartered engineer and ICE Fellow, said; “It is vitally important that civil engineers continue to share learnings and best practice which was why we produced this paper detailing our innovative use of digital design on an iconic piece of engineering in Manchester.

“The fact that it has been recognised as the best paper this year is a real honour and we hope that this will bring it to the attention of even more people in the industry.

“As a sector it is important that we harness the power of digital technology to enhance how we can shape the world around us and we are always working hard to develop new, innovative techniques.

“It has been a privilege to work on the Ordsall Chord and we are pleased that our experiences can inspire and influence how future global projects are designed.”

The Chord forms part of Network Rail’s multi-billion-pound Great North Rail Programme, incorporating various projects including Northern Hub, North West Electrification and Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade. For rail customers, improved connectivity delivers direct benefits, with an increase in the capacity of trains running and seats available, coupled with shorter, journey times.

Emma Antrobus, director of ICE North West, said; “Engineers like Brian, Jason and Howard make things happen. They are the quiet innovators who help us all live a more seamless life. In this case, people can now cross the city via the rail network meaning they have more choice and shorter journey times. Their win is well-deserved.”

The paper, Innovative digital design delivery for the Ordsall Chord in Manchester, will shortly be made free-to-all to read in perpetuity on the ICE Virtual Library and promoted to the wider community in a significant marketing campaign.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Antrobus .