John Ely (pictured) will compete against two other colleagues from Scotland and West Midlands to win the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) 2009 James Rennie Medal Award in the Final which takes place in London on 26 March.

The Award is the culmination of ICE’s 2008 Chartered Professional Review (CPR) process. It will be an evening of lively debate as each candidate battles it out; presenting and defending their projects in front of an audience at the Institution’s Westminster headquarters.

John graduated from the University of Surrey in 1993 with a BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering. Since graduating he has worked with Edmund Nuttall Ltd, Christian & Neilson Ltd and, currently, Bam Nuttall Ltd, on a wide range of projects that include major transport schemes, sewerage transfer networks and flood alleviation schemes.

Initially working as a site engineer, John has progressed to running his own projects and is now Construction Manager on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, the longest in the world. He has also taken a leading role in sourcing sustainable materials for the project and in doing so received a Chartered Institution of Wastes Management [CIWM] award for utilising 40,000m3 of shredded tyres as a drainage instead of processed aggregate.

John’s presentation at the final ‘How to build the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway’, details his role as Construction Manager and highlights the challenges and difficulties he overcame for this unique piece of transportation infrastructure.

What is the James Rennie Medal Award?
The aim of the James Rennie Medal Award is to promote general awareness of the role and achievements of newly qualified engineers. The competition was first held in 1996 and it is now awarded to the best Chartered Professional Review (CPR) candidate.Candidates are nominated by their Reviewers on the basis that their submitted Project reports and presentations at Review have to demonstrate outstanding qualities in all attributes and show a significant contribution in the promotion and development of civil engineering. Additionally, their submitted Project Reports and presentations at Review also have to show a meticulous, thorough and broad understanding of their subject matter. The award comprises of the James Rennie Medal and a £500 cash prize which are presented at the ICE Annual Awards Dinner.

Who is James Rennie?
James Rennie passionately believed that high quality civil engineering could only be carried out by civil engineers who had undertaken in-depth and thorough training. He was a stickler for detail, not only in design but also in the programming and planning of the construction of works. He spent much of his 70 year career carefully tutoring his pupils, with the aim of making them great civil engineers; included amongst his pupils is ex-President and Newmarket based Douglas Oakervee who is in charge of the London Crossrail project.

James Rennie undertook many projects which include the Rosyth Royal Naval Dockyard, Scotland, the Aswan Dam, Egypt, and the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, Belfast. After his death in 1994, this new award was created to celebrate Rennie´s commitment to training young engineers and encouraging their membership of ICE.




ICE is one of the pre-eminent engineering institutions in the world. Established as a learned society in 1818, it has over 80,000 members and provides a voice for civil engineering, continuing professional development and promoting best practice throughout the industry.

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Chris Dodson
Communications Executive

http://www.ice.org.uk