Author Archives: Hugh Ferguson

NCE at 50 | Why the ICE needed NCE

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Why the ICE took the radical step of setting up a magazine for its members and how New Civil Engineer was born.

In the late 1960s ICE secretary Garth Watson was beset with two connected problems: the first was communicating with members and the second was cost. Communications at that time were…

NCE at 50 | Editors’ key moments: Hugh Ferguson 1976-1989*

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On 23 May 1984, an explosion tore apart the Abbeystead valve house at the recently-completed Lune-Wyre water transfer scheme in Lancashire, killing 16 of a party of visitors and leaving many more seriously injured. It is the only incident I can recall of a civil (or structural) engineering failure in…

First win for Costain in Merit competition

Costain team

A team from Costain has scooped the 2011 Merit prize at Loughborough University, as six international teams competed in the finals of the construction management computer simulation game.

For the first time in the competition’s 23-year history, two teams from outside the British Isles were in Loughborough for the final -…