By John Challen

Back in June 2026, the annual CIHT Awards gathered the world’s top transport and highways professionals together in London to celebrate the achievements of the industry over the past 12 months. One of the big winners on the night was John Paterson, technical director at AtkinsRéalis, who was named 2026 CIHT Transportation Professional of the Year.

Having joined the business more than 20 years ago, Paterson’s career has taken him on an interesting path. “I had previously studied engineering but didn’t have a feel for how I wanted to make a career in it. I joined in a business support role, really enjoyed the working environment and got on well with the people, and it wasn’t long before I moved into the company’s asset management group.

“Asset management has matured as a discipline and become critical to the industry,” he continues. “It’s not a case of filling potholes and collecting data. It’s more about understanding how we get value out of our infrastructure and deliver economic, social and environmental objectives.”

The asset management challenge

Paterson says the worlds of AtkinsRéalis, asset management and CIHT have contributed to his development both personally and professionally. “In the early days, I was encouraged to get involved with CIHT as an associate member,” he recalls. “I then became a full member not long after and a few years ago I was made a Fellow of CIHT, which was a proud moment.”

Fast forward to today and a lot of Paterson’s time is taken up with the challenges around asset management. “While the issues of infrastructure condition are clear, there are currently two major challenges for the sector: the workforce and investment,” he says. “We are always looking at whether we have enough people in the workforce, if we can retain them and how we recruit and develop them. Authorities are concerned that a large percentage of their workforce will be gone within a decade, so we have to figure out how to replace them.”

Some of that challenge goes hand-in-hand with the other hurdle of investment and the funding element. “In England, the DfT has done a great job in making the case to the Treasury to commit to a longer-term, multi-year agreement,” says Paterson. “Managing the issues related to ageing infrastructure will need sustained investment, especially with challenges such as public expectations and an increasing need for resilience. But we also need the workforce to deliver all this and the confidence to invest in people and capabilities, as well as infrastructure.”

Innovations excellence

Alongside his day job at AtkinsRéalis, Paterson is a CIHT Technical Champion and represents the UK through PIARC (the World Road Association). He says there’s plenty PIARC can offer the wider sector.

“There’s so much great work we’ve done as a sector in the UK and PIARC is a great platform to showcase that to the rest of the world,” he says. “We can also learn a lot from our international colleagues. To support this, we’ve been opening up the reach to more local authorities and demonstrate there is so much value that could benefit them, which can be achieved from remote participation rather than international travel. A colleague summed it up perfectly as a low-cost but high-value opportunity.”

Paterson has achieved a great deal in his career and jokes that having received his CIHT Transportation Professional of the Year award, he’s “made it in life” and there are no more goals to achieve. But he understands the value of lifelong learning in an industry that’s continuously changing.

“Every day I learn something new and work with colleagues, clients and stakeholders that make everything enjoyable,” he says. “My plan is to continue to do that and try my best to make a difference for the sector and the people I work with.”

To find out the full list of winners at the 2026 CIHT Awards, click below:

Click below for more information on the annual 2026 CIHT Awards: