Speaker Faculty

Building on the international speaker profile of the conferences of previous years, Bridges Europe 2012 will offer a fuller range of public authority and government enterprise principals, ready to share their best practice and information about their upcoming projects.

Mr David Ward, Regional Manager, Redaelli Engineering
Takanori Shima, Izmit Bay Bridge, IHI
Jaap Bakker, Senior Specialist, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment
Christian Cremona, French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning
Asger Knudsen, Head of Department for Bridge and Tunnel Management, Asset Management, Ramboll Denmark
Kent Fuglsang, Project Manager on the Izmit, COWI
John Iliff, Senior Project Manager for Structures, Irish National Roads Authority
Jan Blazek, Technical Manager, Boegl & Krysl
Simon Fryer, Associate Director, Buro Happold Ltd
Thomas Petraschek, Senior Bridge Engineer, OBB Infrastructure
Jasper Schavemaker, Senior Consultant and Project Manager Life Cycle Cost, Rijkswaterstaat
Barry R. Colford, Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster, Forth Estuary Transport Authority
Urs Meier, EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
Emilie Luangkhot, Civil Engineer & Architect & Bridge Design, ARCADIS
Anders Finnås, Segment Business Manager, Building & Construction Outokumpu Stainless
Ian Davis, Senior Bridge Engineer, Arup

Jaap Bakker
Senior Specialist
Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment

Jaap Bakker is a senior specialist at Rijkswaterstaat since 1995.
At Rijkswaterstaat he has been a pioneer at the field of Asset Management.
During the past decades Rijkswaterstaat has changed from a technically orientated organisation to a public friendly government agency, a professional client towards industry, and an efficient infrastructure manager. Bakker was responsible for many innovations and new concepts within this transformation process, such as:

Transformation from condition-based to risk-based inspection and maintenance processes;
New and innovative maintenance contracts;
Life Cycle Cost Optimization in contracting, design, construction and maintenance processes;
Building Information Modelling for infrastructure

Bakker published many conference papers, both nationally and internationally. He takes part in both national and international committees and conferences.

John Iliff
Senior Project Manager for Structures
Irish National Roads Authority

John graduated from Edinburgh University in 1979 and commenced work with Cleveland Bridge. As an Engineer he worked at various grades within the UK, Bahrain, Oman and Dubai on numerous heavy steelwork projects including Kessock Bridge in Scotland and Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge at Dartford, London. He joined Mott MacDonald in 1992 to work in HongKong, initially as senior resident engineer, on the Tsing Ma Crossing and then on secondment working on the Ting Kau Bridge fabrication. He returned to Ireland in 1998 as Project Resident Engineer for the Boyne Bridge before taking up his current position with the National Roads Authority now as Senior Project Manager for Structures. Under John’s responsibilities falls technical approval of new build structures and the implementation of the Eirspan Bridge Management System for the national roads network which comprises approximately 2600 structures of all types

Asger Knudsen
Head of department Bridge and tunnel management, Asset Management
Ramboll dk

Apart from his experience as head of department for Infrastructure Asset Management in Ramboll Deanmark, Mr. Asger Knudsen has extensive project management experience in Denmark and abroad in inspection and rehabilitation of concrete and steel structures. The assignments have comprised all kinds of inspection, testing and reporting, and preparation of rehabilitation projects and specifications.

He has extensive knowledge and experience in development of specifications and implementation of Bridge, Tunnel and Port management systems in Denmark and abroad.

Simon Fryer
Associate Director
Buro Happold Ltd

Simon has over 20 years’ experience in the field of bridge and civil engineering. He has been involved in an extensive range of international projects both in scale and type within the bridge engineering sector. He has detailed knowledge of the analysis and design of reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete and steel structures. He has been responsible for project managing construction projects on site and has a particular interest in the structural design of aesthetically pleasing bridges. He has published a number of papers on the subject of the design and construction of bridges.

Christian Cremona
French Ministry of Ecology, Energy
Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning

Dr. Christian Cremona is currently deputy director of the Technical Centre for Bridge Engineering (CTOA) at the Technical Department of Transports, Roads, and Bridges (SETRA) in France. After spending more than 15 years in research in the French Central Laboratory of Roads and Bridges (LCPC, now IFSTTAR), he moved to the Direction of Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing where he administrated French and European research activities in the sector of civil engineering and construction. His fields of interest are the development of advanced methods for inspection, maintenance and monitoring of civil engineering structures. Consultant or expert in several major projects, contributor in national or international technical groups, Dr. C. Cremona is also in charge of teaching activities for master and doctoral courses. He received the 2004 IABSE prize and the 2003 AFGC prize (France).

Thomas Petraschek
Senior Bridge Engineer
OBB Infrastructure

Since 2008 I am part of the ÖBB-Infrastructure AG division Railway Infrastructure/Finance and there again part of the division management of tracks and stations.

In this division since 2011 I am head of the specialist division structural engineering. The defined responsibilities, goals and tasks of this specialist division are the provision of safe and high-quality civil engineering structures and installations, elaboration of medium-term maintenance programs for these civil engineering structures and installations, research and development for the rail network.

In addition since 2009 I am project manager in a leading position for maintenance and rebuilding projects. This comprises not only the planning of engineering structures and installations, but also the tendering process, the awarding of contracts, the supervision of construction sites, and it ends with the take over of finished projects.

I am also a technical expert for bridge-, steel- and steel-concrete-composite constructions in general in the entire ÖBB Infrastructure AG. I am involved in research and development projects for new and innovative civil engineering solutions. I take part in the process of defining standards and guidelines in bridge-, steel- and concrete-steel-construction not only in company platforms but also in national and international platforms.

In addition, I am involved in several education projects as a tutor.

Jasper Schavemaker
Senior Consultant and Project Manager Life Cycle Cost
Rijkswaterstaat

Jasper Schavemaker is Senior Consultant and Project Manager Life Cycle Cost at Rijkswaterstaat. At Rijkswaterstaat he has been working on the Asset Management Programme, in which he is responsible for Life Cycle Cost and Life Cycle Cost Management.

In the past he worked on risk management in national maintenance planning and technical management of infrastructure projects.

Schavemaker is involved in international committees, meetings and programmes regarding Asset Management such as PIARC, TRB and ERANET-ROAD.

Before Rijkswaterstaat he worked as program manager several years in the aerospace industry at Stork Fokker Aerostructructures, key technology supplier of Airbus and Boeing.

He has a Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology.

barry_coldford Barry R. Colford
Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster
Forth Estuary Transport Authority

A Chartered Civil Engineer by profession and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers since 1982.

After graduation, worked for the Babtie (now Jacobs) Group in Glasgow in the design office and then on sites both in the UK and overseas on a variety of industrial and bridges projects. Worked on site in Saudi Arabia before returning to the UK and worked in London on site on the major bridges forming part of the M11 motorway extension.

Returned to the design office with Strathclyde Regional Council and was involved in the design on bridges on the M80, M74 and M77 motorways in Glasgow as well as the maintenance of large steel bridges (Erskine, Connel and the M8 White Cart Viaduct).

Joined the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board (now Forth Estuary Transport Authority) as Depute General Manager in 1996 with responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the Forth Road Bridge.

In February 2008, Barry was promoted to the post of Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster. Barry is author of a number of technical papers on bridge engineering.

He is involved with Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Napier University in their M Eng and MSc courses. Also works with Strathclyde and Heriot Watt Universities in providing industrial experience to undergraduates.

urs_meier Urs Meier
EMPA
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

To say that Urs Meier has enjoyed an illustrious professional career is a definite understatement. Urs Meier has held various positions at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), an institute that has approximately 800 coworkers in Dubendorf-Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983, Urs Meier rose to the rank of the Managing Director of Empa in Dubendorf, a position that he held until his recent retirement. In addition, he has also been lecturer and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Over the years, Urs Meier’s accomplishments in the application of FRPs in civil engineering have had a tremendous impact on the field; indeed, he has received many accolades and worldwide recognition for his pioneering work. Especially noteworthy is his work on the post-strengthening of civil structures with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, which has been successfully implemented at a growing rate worldwide, and the application of CFRP stay-and post-tensioning cables. Urs Meier has been a prolific researcher and engineer with more than 250 publications to his credit. He has received numerous international best paper and technical innovation awards for excellence for his research and development contributions. He has also developed a number of worldwide recognized patents within the field. Other tributes to Urs Meier include the establishment by the ISIS Canada Research Network (Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures - an organization of the Canadian government) of a specially dedicated Urs Meier Scholarship and his being acclaimed Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa, by the Royal Military College of Canada in 2005.

Emilie-Luangkhot Emilie Luangkhot
Civil Engineer & Architect & Bridge Design
ARCADIS

Emilie LUANGKHOT is a civil engineer and architect, specialized in bridge design and urban planning. Formerly working for the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning at the Technical Department of Transports, Roads and Bridges (SETRA), she has been in charge of several projects including innovative structures with Fiber Reinforced Concrete and innovative design approaches such as Bridge Design and Quality of Life and Life Cycle Assessment for bridges. She joined ARCADIS in 2011 to develop those fields closer to clients expectations.

Ian Davis
Senior Bridge Engineer
Arup

Ian Davis is a Senior Engineer with Arup, based in their Solihull office in the United Kingdom. Ian has 12 years’ experience as a bridge designer and has worked on many projects; including the Forth Replacement Crossing, the London 2012 Olympic Park and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Ian is currently preparing preliminary designs for bridges on a new high-speed rail network.” “Arup offers expertise in all aspects of planning, design, construction and management of bridges. The breadth of our unique in-house skills and experience enables us to deliver pioneering solutions for bridges of all types and scales across the globe.

Anders Finnas
Segment Business Manager, Building & Construction
Outokumpu Stainless

Anders Finnas has university degrees in Production Engineering and in Marketing. After graduating A. F. has worked in various positions mainly within commercial or technical marketing and project management. The positions include designing pressure vessels, project management on mine clearing equipment projects and commercial manger naval guns and anti-aircraft artillery, the latter for the Bofors ordinance company. After joining the Outokumpu Group in 2000 A.F. has mainly worked in marketing and sales holding positions ranging from Area Sale Manager Middle East/India to Technical Marketing Manager and Project Manager Business Development. A.F. is currently working as Segment Business Development Manager – Building & Construction and based at the Outokumpu Stainless, Quarto Plate Europe unit in Sweden. He has been involved in bridge projects such as the first all-stainless bridge project, the Hammarby Sjostad bridge in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as various later projects such as the Stone Cutters Bridge in Hong Kong, The Cala Galdana bridge in Menorca, Spain and the Helix Bridge in Singapore.