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News

This page is reserved for member's news and announcements. If you have news or information you would like to share with other PIANC members please e-mail the Chairman, Stephen Cork, at rsc@hrwallingford.co.uk.

Recent events and developments in Government and associated organisations having relevance for PIANC UK
September 2008

A short report on recent events and developments in Government and associated organisations having relevance for PIANC UK is presented at each meeting of the UK Committee.  This report is taken from the minutes of the last meeting held on 17 July 2008 and covers:

  • Relations with Government
  • Water Framework Directive
  • Merseyside Interests
  • Parliamentary Maritime Group
Click here to download full report (.doc).

PIANC Newsletter
August 2008

Welcome to the new look summer 2008 Edition of the PIANC UK Newsletter. This first electronic newsletter covers reports on earlier meetings and activities, feedback from the recent PIANC AGA in Beijing and an outline of our plans for future activities, as well as comments on maritime barge transport from a leading industry expert. Click here to download PIANC newsletter(.pdf, 700kb).

2009 De Paepe-Willems Award Contest - Call for papers
March 2008

The De Paepe-Willems Award is given by PIANC for the most outstanding technical paper prepared on an aspect of waterborne transport. Categories include policy, management, design, economics, integration with other transportation modes, technology, safety, public involvement, and the environment. The aim of the De Paepe-Willems Award is to encourage Young Professionals (YPs) to submit technical papers in the field of interest of PIANC. Candidates must not have reached the age of forty (40) on the 31st of December of the year of submission of the paper.

The PIANC USA award winner in 2009 receives a $1000 U.S. Savings Bond, an expense-paid trip to the 2009 PIANC USA Annual Meeting, and an individual membership in PIANC USA for five years. The PIANC USA award-winner will be invited to present his/her paper at the 2009 PIANC USA annual meeting, and an article summary will be published in the PIANC USA Quarterly Bulletin. The PIANC USA winner’s paper is forwarded for international competition in 2009. The international winner in 2009 receives a trip to the 2009 Annual General Assembly (AGA), which will be held in Helsinki, Finland. The international award-winner will be invited to present his/her paper at the 2009 AGA, and the paper will be published in the PIANC Magazine. The International award winner receives € 5000 and a five-year individual membership.

The deadline for submitting paper abstracts for the 2009 contest is May 1, 2008, with technical paper submittals required by August 1, 2008. Please visit the PIANC USA website for more details on current activities of the organization (http://www.pianc.iwr.usace.army.mil), and the International PIANC website for information on qualifying for and preparing DePaepe-Willems papers for competition (http://www.pianc-aipcn.org). For more details contact Edmond Russo, Chair, Publications Committee, PIANC USA, at Email edmond.j.russo@usace.army.mil, Phone (601) 634-2067.

New EurOtop goes live
February 2008

HR Wallingford and our EurOtop partners are pleased to announce the arrival of the EurOtop Calculation Tool. Developed to accompany the new European Overtopping Manual (EurOtop), published in August 2007. The Calculation Tools are freely available at http://www.overtopping-manual.com/calculation_tool.html. Funding for the development of both the Manual and Calculation tools was led by the UK’s Environment Agency, with additional substantial support from operational agencies in the Netherlands and Germany.

Seawalls range from simple earth banks through to vertical concrete walls and more complex composite structures. For each of these structures a different method is needed to assess overtopping. Now, by applying the latest understanding of overtopping processes acquired from recent European research projects, a team led by HR Wallingford with partners in the Netherlands and Germany has produced a set of web-based Calculation Tools to help users determine overtopping predictions for each of these structures.

This free to use tool lets users explore / establish overtopping predictions for embankments and dikes, rubble mound structures, vertical seawalls and breakwaters / structures. For further details contact:
Dr. Tim Pullen, Senior Engineer, HR Wallingford, Tel: +44 (0)1491 822231, Fax: +44 (0)1491 832233, t.pullen@hrwallingford.co.uk or visit http://www.overtopping-manual.com.

Mary Rose Appeal - restoring the glory, bringing history alive
November 2007

The Mary Rose Trust is planning to build a stunning new museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to house both Henry VIII's famous flagship and her priceless and unique collection of nearly 20,000 Tudor artefacts. The Mary Rose appeal has been launched to raise the £35 million required for the construction of this museum and to fund the final conservation phase of the ship and artefacts. Revenue costs will be met by ticket sales, trading and other services. Funding support of around £20 million is being sought from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other national and regional funding agencies which have supported the Mary Rose Trust in the past. The Mary Rose Appeal aims to raise the remaining £15 million through donations, sponsorship or loans from individuals, companies and trusts who are keen to be associated with this important maritime heritage. More details can be found on the Mary Rose website www.maryrose.org or by contacting Jo Cole on j.cole@maryrose.org.

Drogheda handles 500,000 Box
October 2007

Drogheda Port handled for the first time its 500,000 teu container in October 2007. The port currently operates regular container services to Rotterdam and Oslo from its Tom Roes Point facility, one of the most efficient and congestion free unitised terminals in the country.

The 500,000 milestone container was carrying nuts and dried fruits from Holland for a local company and was welcomed ashore by the port chairman Mr Patrick Traynor and the general manager of Europe Lines Mr Cameron McIntyre.

Due to its success the current terminal is currently operating at close to capacity but the port company is in the process of developing a new deepsea unitised terminal at Bremore within the greater Dublin area. The new terminal, one of the largest port infrastructural projects ever undertaken in Ireland, will have an annual capacity of 400,000 Ro-Ro units and 350,000teu Lo-Lo units. The new terminal is expected to be operational in 2012.

For further Information, contact Joan Wiseman, Drogheda Port Authority (joanwiseman@droghedaport.ie, tel +353 41 983 8378)

Coastal engineering 'bible' sets sail
July 2007
Published in 1991, the first edition of the rock manual is considered by many industry professionals as 'the bible' for the use of rock in coastal and shoreline engineering.
More than 15 years later, a comprehensive second edition The Rock Manual (C683) has been prepared with the help of a world-wide project team of experts including over 100 specialists. The new edition incorporates the significant advances in knowledge and technology that have occurred over the past 15 years and the scope of the manual has been widened to include all aspects of the use of rock in hydraulic engineering.
Click here to order or visit the CIRIA bookshop at www.ciria.org/bookshopentrance.htm.

British Waterways and Liverpool Canal Link ( LCL )
May 2007
British Waterways have started the main construction works on Liverpool Canal Link ( LCL ) and on the first phase of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal restoration in Salford. 
For further information on LCL, see the British Waterways website www.britishwaterways.co.uk/liverpoolcanallink

Working Group 29 Innovations in Navigation Lock Design
April 2007
The Working Group met in Grenoble in March and made significant advance with the Report, which is progressing well. The Group visited the Sogreah laboratories, where a model of the largest of the new locks for the proposed 106km Seine Nord Canal was being tested. The lock includes five water-saving basins, and will have a lift height of 30m. Most of the other six locks on this canal will have lift heights of about 15m. The Group also visited the River Rhone, where the locks were empty during their annual one-week closure for maintenance. This allowed a detailed inspection of the complex filling and emptying systems as well as the modern systems that have been installed to provide reliable operations and control, and the equipment that protects the gates against ship collisions.

Newsletter Spring 2007
April 2007
Spring 2007 Newsletter of PIANC UK has just been published.  This edition includes reports from the international working groups and recent technical seminars arranged by PIANC.
Click here to download the full version (pdf, 1Mb).

PIANC Task Group on the Impacts of Climate Change on Navigation
March 2007
Peter Hawkes of HR Wallingford joined the PIANC Task Group on the Impacts of Climate Change on Navigation, as Secretary and UK representative, at its first meeting in Brussels on 20-21 March. The Chairman is Hans Moser of the Federal Institute of Hydrology in Germany. The group's task is to review the drivers, potential impacts and possible responses to climate change for three categories of navigation: inland (rivers), non-polar (ocean) and polar (near Arctic). It will consider evidence of changes that have already happened, projections of changes from future climate modelling, operational changes, and will aim for a dispassionate review of the potential impacts, whether they might be seen as neutral, positive or negative.

The group will take a broad look at all potential issues associated with climate change and navigation, suggesting a number of separate PIANC working groups to take a more detailed look at particular issues. It aims for an interim discussion document by the time of the second meeting at Wallingford in August 2007, and a final report in Spring 2008.

The 7-10 core members of the Group have committed themselves to seeking evidence, views and concerns, at least within their own countries. Peter welcomes any information that members of PIANC and others involved in navigation care to send to him at pjh@hrwallingford.co.uk.

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© 2006 International Navigation Association (PIANC) UK Section