Books: Reviews

This book is a very thought-provoking account of past ICE president Tony Ridley’s career, encompassing his roles leading some of the most challenging and successful transport projects of the last few decades.

It acts as a strong reminder that a successful civil engineer needs to combine a breadth and depth of technical engineering skills with a strong understanding of the needs of society. The description of Ridley’s career path will provide guidance and inspiration to engineers looking to develop their own careers, and highlights the range of roles civil engineers can take.

The book provides a detailed account of some of the successes in his career, but also sets out his approach to tackling some very difficult challenges. The clear lessons provided, both in creating success and in responding to difficulties, will no doubt give useful guidance to engineers at all stages of their profession.

In summary, this is a useful and interesting book for all civil engineers, and particularly for those involved in transportation.

Following the release of the NEC4 suite of contracts in June 2017, there is a need to bring those in the industry familiar with NEC3 forms up to speed on the changes to this widely used contract family. This new book provides a clause-by-clause practical interpretation of the solutions to issues on the NEC4 family of contracts.

The answers are full of a dry humour regarding the sort of mental tussles that many of us encounter every day. The issues and answers are succinct and broken down into the main clause areas. There is a clear and logical approach to the queries, enabling readers to model the answers to fit their own circumstances.

I found that the ‘Further thoughts and top tips’ are worth a read in addition to the questions. In summary, I found the book to be an easy-to-digest way of learning – well worth reading.

These two new books are part of the NEC roles and responsibilities series that provide practical guides to the key roles in the NEC4 suite of contracts.

The roles of project manager and supervisor are clearly described in the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) but areas such as communication and interaction are less well covered. One of the objectives of these books is therefore to describe in more detail the project manager’s and supervisor’s actions in these areas. The books are also designed to sit alongside ICE’s accreditation courses for NEC4 ECC project managers and supervisors.

The books are clearly set out in an easy-to-read style that takes project managers and supervisors through the various stages of the contract from prior award through to post-project evaluation and learning. As such, they will be very helpful tools to refer to on a daily basis.

They will be particularly useful to those new and inexperienced in the roles, but will also be useful for more experienced professionals as the books give timely reminders of factors to be considered, actions to be taken and possible implications.

This handy-sized book provides a good insight into the aspects of glass-fibre-reinforced concrete (GRC). It starts with the development, manufacture and properties of GRC and then outlines structural design criteria, specification and the compliance requirements.

Health and safety aspects of working with the material are identified and relevant applications described. Economic aspects of replacing cement content are also discussed along with the work being undertaken to provide the most economical percentage replacement. The use of photocatalytic GRC (eGRC) in active de-pollution of the environment is covered too.

The well-illustrated section on applications includes location, design engineer, contractor and material casting supplier. Calibration of testing equipment and determination of glass content, flexural properties, water content, density and apparent porosity are covered in appendices.

The ICE Library maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of civil engineering books in the world, including all titles from ICE Publishing (shown in bold below). New books received in the past 3 months include the following.

All books can be borrowed from the ICE Members’ Resource Hub on the second floor of 1 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AA, UK from 9.15 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. ICE Publishing titles can also be purchased from the ICE Members’ Resource Hub or ordered by calling +44 1892 832299, emailing orders@icepublishing.com or by visiting www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/books.