Welcome the February 2023 issue of Civil Engineering. We start with the inaugural address of Keith Howells (2023), who became the Institution of Civil Engineers’ 158th president in November 2022. He calls for all civil engineers to step up and engage with climate change and to focus on ensuring sustainable outcomes for projects in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
After a selection of topical briefing articles, our first paper, by Liao et al. (2023), describes the configuration of the non-axial-force connection arrangement of the composite girder and a new steel–concrete deck joint for Danjiangkou Reservoir Bridge in China. Completed in October 2022, it is the world’s longest earth-anchored composite cable-stayed bridge and connects the highway networks of Hubei and Henan provinces.
The structure’s 760 m main span uses a non-axial-force connection at mid-span and a steel with ultra-high performance concrete lightweight composite construction for the main-span girder. The authors explain how construction challenges were innovatively resolved by new closure and segmental precast erection methods. Furthermore, as the project is in a national nature reserve, environmental protection during design, construction and operation was critical.
The second paper, by Botelle et al. (2023), reports the positive results of collaboration in delivering the UK’s largest-ever new-build station at Old Oak Common in London, part of the first phase of the High Speed Two (HS2) railway between London and the West Midlands. This 14-platform structure will be completed between 2029 and 2033.
The authors attribute successful progress on the £1.7 billion project to collaboration between a fully integrated project team. This and the use of Breeam sustainability targets have enabled significant cost and emissions savings to be achieved so far.
The third paper, by Mak et al. (2023), describes the procurement and construction of a new helicopter base at Kai Tak in Hong Kong, China. All targets were achieved through collaboration and effective implementation of an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract. Notwithstanding the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project won an innovation award for site safety 2019 and was completed well before the planned completion time, within budget and with zero accidents.
In our fourth and final paper, Congress and Puppala (2023) report on a study into using drones to monitor the condition of transportation infrastructure. Two different types of drones were used for inspections, and machine-learning-based feature-identification techniques were used to extract information automatically for each asset.
The findings and results will help to optimise future transportation infrastructure health monitoring using drones, making it more robust and cost efficient. This in turn could lead to more proactive monitoring of infrastructure assets and facilitate their preventive maintenance.
I hope you enjoy and learn from reading the articles and papers in this issue, plus the more recent ‘ahead of print’ papers you can find in the online version of the journal at www.icevirtuallibrary.com/toc/jcien/0/0. Remember that reading this journal counts towards your continuing professional development. As Keith Howells (2023: p. 4) says in his address, ‘we need to continue to learn, share experience and work collaboratively if we are to provide the assurance society expects from its professionally qualified engineers’.
