Chairpersons

Graham Bowskill BEng, CEng, MICE

After a quarter of a century’s experience in pavement engineering and design, Graham is currently Regional Director for Network Operations in South West with the Highways Agency. His responsibilities include the management and operation of trunk road assets. More recently Graham has also taken responsibility on behalf of the Agency for regional land use and planning issues.

Following the changes in responsibilities for traffic operation, which came into force in April 2004, Graham’s Division was first to assume a frontline 24/7 operation. Traffic Officers are involved in directing traffic during incidents and working alongside the Police to manage the flow of information to road users, with priority given to journey reliability and safety.

Eur Eng Richard Wills BSc CEng FICE MIHT FRSA

Richard Wills was appointed as Director for Development of Lincolnshire County Council in December 2005, having previously held the post of Director of Highways and Planning for the Council.

Richard graduated from Leeds University in 1978 and trained under agreement with Cornwall County Council to become a chartered civil engineer in 1982. He had a range of posts in Cornwall with responsibilities for highway engineering, transport planning, waste services and general management.

Richard’s current responsibilities are for highway authority services, transport planning, strategic planning, mineral and waste development control, waste services and conservation, and economic regeneration. He is the County Council’s lead director for the Lincolnshire Two Tier Pathfinder.

He is also the President of the County Surveyors’ Society, the body representing local authority chief officers responsible for strategic transport, planning, waste management and economic development.

He is an advisor to the Local Government Association on Environmental Matters.

Simon van der Byl

Simon spent the first 31 years of his working life in the Royal Navy, retiring in 1995 as a senior Captain – equivalent to a Brigadier in the Army – in the Weapons and Electronics Engineering branch.  He has been Director General of QPA since its inception in July 1997 and, before that was DG of one of its predecessor Associations, BACMI.

He has been deeply involved in the asphalt aspects of the wider QPA product sectors throughout his time as DG, concentrating mostly on European and national political issues.

Jim Barton, C Eng M.I.C.E.

For the past seven years Jim has been Director of Trunk Road Network Management in Transport Scotland, responsible for the management and operation of the Scottish Trunk Road Network, some 3500km in total, with an annual budget of over £210m.

His direct responsibilities include trunk road safety; delivering the annual maintenance programme effectively; the implementation and development of the trunk road Intelligent Transport Systems strategy; the management of the trunk road bridges stock and commenting on proposals for development, which might impact on the trunk road network.

Jim is a Chartered Engineer with over 30 years experience in the design, construction and operation of roads. He has recently taken on the title of Chief Road Engineer, in which capacity, as Head of Profession, he is responsible for professional development and training.

Mark Owen

Mark is currently Transit New Zealand’s Operations Manager for the Central Zone, responsible for all operations and maintenance of approximately a quarter of the state highway network in New Zealand. Mark has held this role for nearly two years and, with his team of 17+ staff, has an annual budget of just over NZ$100milllion and nearly 3,000km of road network to manage.

Mark previously held the role of Asset Management - Team Leader for Transit for six years and was responsible for coordinating Transit’s annual planning process, procurement of funding and allocation, for all state highway maintenance activities. He was also responsible for Transit’s major thrust in developing skid resistance policies in the mid 1990’s.

Mark originally joined Transit in 1996 in a technical role as part of the Engineering Policy team, having migrated from Local Authority experience. He’s a Technical Member of IPENZ and has completed a Master of Technology (Pavements) through the Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria.

John Smart BSc CEng FIHT MICE

John is the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Technical affairs for the Institution of Highways and Transportation (IHT) a U.K. based institution for transportation professionals.

Prior to joining the IHT, John headed up the Safe Road Design team within the Safety, Standards and Research Division of the Highways Agency U.K. One of his main responsibilities was the development, implementation and management of the Agency’s road safety strategic plan. He was custodian of the Agency’s standards and advice notes that relate to motorway and trunk road geometric design. He was the Agency’s specialist for road safety and geometric layout.

He is an international associate member of the Transport Research Board committees AFB10 (Geometric Design) and AHB65 (Operational Effects of Road Geometry); an executive committee member of PACTS and Honorary Secretary of WRA – UK (PIARC national committee). He’s a member of the IHT’s Road Safety Panel and the IHT’s Urban Design Panel and a past member of the EuroRAP technical committee and SURVIVE executive steering group.

John is a Chartered Civil Engineer with a degree in civil engineering; a fellow of the Institution of Highways & Transportation and a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

Alison Jones

Alison has been a ‘hands-on’ practical road safety professional for a public sector consultancy, for local authorities and for a devolved government administration for most of her working life.

She is the Senior Road Safety Engineer with the Welsh Assembly Government and in this role can influence road safety and casualty reduction activities on the motorway and trunk road network and other roads in Wales. In addition, she represents the Assembly Government on a number of Welsh and UK-wide project boards and groups, including the IHT Road Safety Panel.

Alison’s work for local authorities and the public sector consultancy has covered Road Safety Engineering and Education, Training and Publicity (ETP) activities and has seen her establish successful, structured regimes that have enhanced road safety and reduced casualties.

In her spare time, Alison is a youth worker, has lectured in mathematics and has been a member of the Institute of Advanced Drivers for many years. She is currently learning Spanish and has an ambition to work with Spanish speaking countries to exchange ideas and promote good practice.

Stephen Child, C.Eng., MICE, MIHT, FIAT

As Highways Group Manager for Surrey County Council Stephen is responsible for all aspects of operational service delivery in the West of Surrey, ensuring that Surrey Highways provides a customer focused, accessible and cost efficient service. He works closely with Members, giving professional advice on highway matters and, through a Management Team, develops the strategy for highways in Surrey.

Stephen is part of an internal SCC Asset Management Task Group, where he acts as Supervising Civil Engineer for graduate training, and Chair of the CSS Soils and Materials Design and Specification Group. In addition, he sits on IHT Southern Branch Committee and IHT National Council, where he also serves on the Procurement Board.

Home | Print