Bridges 2020 - Annual Conference and Exhibition

Updated programme announced for the Bridges conference and workshop

We are pleased to announce that Bridges 2020 will incorporate a post event workshop on Friday 13th March.

Over 450 delegates attended Bridges 2019 - the leading event in the Bridges calendar. Click here to download the 2020 event brochure.

The Bridges exhibition is now SOLD OUT. A limited number of stands are still available however for the workshop exhibition. For 27 years, the Bridges conference has driven technical knowledge, debate and discussion at the heart of Europe's bridge community.

The conference programme for Bridges 2020 will serve a wide variety of challenging case studies, cutting-edge technologies and as the latest developments in bridge construction, inspection, maintenance and structural health monitoring. Highlights of the main conference programme include a presentation on the offshore mega project nearing completion on Reunion Island, 900km east of Madagascar. Also back on the conference agenda will be the popular Pecha Kucha-style series of quick-fire presentations focussed on bridge innovations.

Post event workshop

Bridges 2020: The Grand Challenges is a day of five workshops that has been organised in partnership with the Bridge Owners’ Forum.

A series of themed sessions will focus on some of the greatest challenges faced by bridge owners today, providing opportunities to discuss some of the priority areas for development.

Maintaining the country’s crossings in a safe and serviceable state is of paramount importance for the surrounding communities as well as for the economic prosperity of the country as a whole. However, local authorities, bridge owners and bridge engineers are facing significant challenges that range from evolving transport demands and increasingly adverse climatic events to economic and environmental pressures.

Exhibitors include:

Speakers and programme highlights include:

Sustainability and the carbon footprint: what can bridge engineers do?
Lee Franck, Realtyimpact
Bridge maintenance
John Collins, principal engineer, Roughan & O’Donovan
BD 54/15 Management of post-tensioned concrete bridges
Donald Pearson Kirk, WSP
The world’s first biobridge
Sjoerd Vrieswijk, Friesland Province, The Netherlands
3D-printed bridges, longevity and sustainability
Bart-Jan Van Der Graag, Royal HaskoningDHV
Introducing the Five Grand Challenges for bridge owners, including key facts and priority areas for development
Richard Fish, Bridge Owners’ Forum
Design for operation and maintenance of steel bridges: best practice and worst culprits
Andrew Hodgkinson, Hewson Consulting
Wool Old Bridge project: a model for historic reconstruction projects
David Clegg and Richard Parfitt, Dorset County Council