Arup director leads BTS Young Member workshop in the Midlands

Twine, who is the project director for Arup projects up to GBP 900M has extensive experience managing complex projects. The workshop provided practical examples and case studies, and also highlighted the importance of material quality and design quality as the economy recovers.

Will Howlett, who coordinated the workshop and is a graduate geotechnical engineer at Arup, said: "The most important point I took down for David's talk is that you should not go for the cheapest option. You can save money in the long term by investing that little bit extra in material quality or design quality. Coming out of a recession it is important to maintain quality in all the designs as cost cutting on projects will cause more financial problems in the future as the designs or material become inadequate in the long term."

Howlett added that this is especially important for the young engineers beginning their careers in a recession. Howlett said: "They need to ensure that on site quality is controlled and that cost cutting techniques do not affect the end product for the client or end user, who is often the general public."

The workshop was oversubscribed, which highlights the appetite for workshops and talks in the Midlands.

Howlett added: "The Midlands is the home of engineering, with current financial restraints of working in London I feel that companies have a lot less overheads when they work outside of the capital," said Howlett. "The reduction in overheads allows more cost effective designs to be passed onto clients. Having just come through a global recession the world is looking for cost effective solutions to all major infrastructure projects. When you have a project worth several million or even billions of pounds if you can save a fraction of a percentage you are in real terms saving a lot of money."

Howlett explained that while another workshop is not yet in the pipeline, the BTS Young Members will plan another event in the near future: "I will organise another one next year. Having talks and workshops in the centre of the UK allows a lot more people to attend."