October 2010
Halcrow shared its experience in UK highway maintenance and contract development with students at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands recently.
Donald Bell, the project director for the Performance Audit Group (PAG) for Transport Scotland, gave two 45 minute lectures to construction management and engineering masters students on the subject of ‘Life beyond design and construction – maintaining the UK’s trunk roads.’
Held in the university’s faculty of engineering, the lectures explored Halcrow’s experience of working with the Highways Agency on AOne plus and the M25 public private partnership scheme and on behalf of Transport Scotland on the PAG commission.
The lectures were part of the growing relationship between Halcrow and its strategic partner DHV and their client Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch national body responsible for roads and waterways. Earlier this year, Halcrow delivered two workshops at a best practice conference run by Rijkswaterstaat.
Ben Sheppard, sales manager for Halcrow’s European transport business, said that the lectures would give engineering students an insight into the new style of contracts being introduced by Rijkswaterstaat.
“Sharing knowledge with TU Delft fits in with our strategy for providing advice to Rijkswaterstaat on PPP and performance-based contracts,” he said. “Understanding the new contracts will give young Dutch professionals the ability to immediately add value to their employer, whether it be with client, contractor or consultant.”
A senior adviser at Rijkswaterstaat, Leon Hombergen, said: “TU Delft is one of Europe’s leading technical universities. Donald Bell provided us with very informative guest lectures about forms of collaboration in the UK’s highways maintenance industry. The meetings were an excellent mixture of information and energy, which have inspired our students to look at overseas opportunities."