CIHT’s first technical event in the Middle East was held in Qatar last month and was attended by over 110 engineers and planners making it a resounding success.

The meeting of the Qatar chapter heard about road safety on the Qatar highway network from Aecom senior road safety auditor Jodie Mairs. Common issues include wide lane and corridor widths, absent and poorly designed crash barriers, geometrical issues, illegal hard shoulder running and poor or hazardous street lighting.

Qatar is investing billions in upgrading its road network ahead of the 2022 World Cup and large numbers of UK highway engineers are now based in the country helping deliver the work. Many of the safety issues will be addressed as part of remedial work to the network, Jodie said.

Creation of the CIHT chapter was the brainchild of Atkins senior highways design engineer Kate Bygrave with the help of The Accessibility Hub director Michelle Wood. Michelle is the former chair and current professional development officer for CIHT Greater London Branch.

“I first mooted the idea of a branch in August 2011 after moving to Qatar’s capital Doha and looking for CPD events,” Kate said. “I found that no appropriate technical events were being organised despite so much highways and transportation related work occurring in the country.

“So I decided to contact all the CIHT members I could find in Qatar and organised a meeting. We discussed the possibility of arranging technical and social events to maintain and enrich the working knowledge of highways and transportation professionals in Qatar.

“I accepted the role of chair and together with the new steering committee set about fixing a programme. Despite our efforts we were thwarted by the unavailability of a suitable venue.”

To the rescue came Michelle, Kate said. “She kept me focused on my objective and I persevered under her guidance. A brief discussion one morning with Atkins new Doha office director Rod Stewart led to him readily agreeing to make available a vacant room for our events and to fund the hire of sturdy chairs and light refreshments.

“Now we are working with CIHT chief executive Sue Percy to meet the Institution’s requirements for overseas branch status.”

Next meeting of the Qatar chapter is a seminar on 30 April on routes to membership and professional qualification.

To find out more contact Kate at kate.bygrave@yahoo.co.uk

Who’s who in CIHT Qatar

Chair: Kate Bygrave (Atkins)
Committee: Arshad Hussain (Arup); Asmaa Al Saffir (Hyder); Bill Pitcher (Atkins); David Holdway (Galliford Try), Haydar Al Rukabi (Muhel); Melani Subramany (Aecom)

Hyder is kindly allowing the committee to use its board room for meetings and supplying refreshments.

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