Introducing Industry Insights

Industry Insights is a new innovation by Think Up.

Industry Insights is a collection of videos where Industry’s leading lights give unparalleled insight into how they approach their work, distilled from their many years in practice.

Bridge Engineering with Ian Firth

This is the first in the Industry Insights series of videos: World-leading bridge engineer Ian Firth, Director of Engineering firm Flint & Neill, gives a personal insight into how bridges are designed.

Learning outcomes

Part 1: What is a Bridge

  • What is a bridge and what make a great bridge.
  • Understanding the environmental, social and cultural context.
  • Learning from history and other bridge designs.
  • The importance of teamwork and engineering leadership.

Part 2: The Bridge in context

  • Understanding the environmental and physical factors.
  • The importance of cultural and society factors.
  • The practicalities of constructability and access.
  • Visualising and sketching.
  • Adapting to circumstances and over time.

Part 3: The Bridge as Structure.

  • Plan and cross section of the site.
  • Longitudinal section.
  • Functional cross section.
  • Structural options.
  • Horizontal loads.
  • The iterative design process.
  • Achieving refinement and elegance.

More videos are planned in this series!