Scaffolding record helps engineer win award

Costain engineer Eamonn Slevin has been awarded this year's James Rennie Medal Award by the UK's Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in recognition for his work on the M53 Bidston Moss Viaduct Strengthening Scheme.

The project, which completes at the end of this month, was notable for the use of 2800t of scaffolding and containment equipment, making it the largest scaffolding installation in the UK at the time.

Mr Slevin was construction manager on the Bidston Moss project, which involved strengthening the viaduct on The Wirral that carries the M53 motorway over a railway and roundabout. The necessary strengthening saw 60t of steel installed inside 3.7km of box girders.

The James Rennie Medal is open to all engineers who gain Chartered status over the preceding year. In 2011, some 1100 achieved this and the ICE initially picked a shortlist of 12 before narrowing that down to just three finalists, and then one winner.