Gatheral Solutions

Supporting the delivery of civil engineering projects

John Gatheral BSc CEng FICE

Chartered Civil Engineer based in the north west of England with 40 years experience of developing, designing and delivering civil engineering solutions for a wide range of clients, schemes and challenges

Leading the highway design team for a local authority based in the north west of England.

Developing NEC contracts and strategy for the successful delivery of engineering schemes.

Project management and financial management of engineering schemes and programmes.

Managing risk - financial, health and safety and similar - during the overall life of a project.

Delivery of highway schemes for commercial clients through bespoke agreement mechanisms.

Managing stakeholder engagement in advance of and during the execution of highway works.

Financial monitoring, reporting and corrective actions for complex schemes and programmes.

Design and construction supervision of a wide range of highway and public realm schemes.

If you wish to get in touch, then please contact me via the form at the foot of this page.

Current Commission

Levelling Up Fund (LUF) Bid

Technical lead for the contract preparation, including understanding and capturing design intent, and procurement stages of the various contracts that are part of a local authority LUF bid.

Principally NEC4 ECC Option A contracts for the conventional civil engineering projects but also preparing hybrid NEC4 contracts for specialist design works followed by an operational contract for a number of years. The role include dealing with tender queries, tender evaluation plus considering Client arrangements and administration of the contracts.

Also included is contributing to the Final Business Case, in particular the Commercial and Management dimensions. The Department for Transport propose to use the Business Case as an exemplar document for other projects.

NEC4 contracts
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Bloom

Accredited Supplier

I am an accredited supplier through the Bloom framework for the delivery of professional services to the public sector. Bloom specialises in bringing together the buyer and supplier communities through an OJEU compliant framework to help the public sector buy professional services better.

Pre-accredited suppliers have been vetted against strict criteria, verifying the capability to deliver in the chosen category. Bloom makes it easy for public sector organisations to buy and manage specialist professional services.

Highlights

M65 Growth Corridor

Management of a multi scheme programme of works over 3 districts in Lancashire - Hyndburn, Burnley, Pendle - to improve transport links and connectivity and help to optimise economic regeneration, included stakeholder, technical and financial management and reporting.

Highway works at Burnley pinch point
Flax Lane Bridge, Burscough, on completion

Flax Lane Bridge

Led the design and construction teams that delivered the reconstruction of Flax Lane Bridge scheme, the scheme went on to be the winner of the ICE NW Civil Engineering Small Project of the Year.

ICE NW Award Winner logo

Farington HWRC

Design and supervision of an upgrade to Farington Household Waste Recycling Centre to create a new two tier facility in a limited possession period, included the installation of 490 precast concrete retaining units to achieve the necessary increase in elevation.

Installing precast concrete units at Farington HWRC
NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract

NEC4 Contracts

Experienced in the consideration and preparation of NEC3 and NEC4 contracts, developed a NEC4 contract for both a design and build element and a term maintenance function, independent contracts but linked and combined to overcome difficulties and issues for the client and the contractor.

ICE Proceedings

Author of the paper ‘Reconstructed Arch Bridge Using A Proprietary System’ published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

ICE Proceedings - Flax Lane Bridge
Reconstruction of Old Lea Hall Bridge, A583 Blackpool Road, Preston

Preston Guild Wheel

Worked on the design and construction of a continuous 3 span composite overbridge constructed following major accident damage, the new bridge was an essential component of the Preston Guild Wheel route.

Professional Background

John Gatheral BSc CEng FICE

2014 - Admitted as a Fellow (CEng FICE) of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

1991 - Admitted as a Chartered Engineer (CEng MICE) with ICE

1983 - Graduate Member of ICE

1979 to 1983 - BSc in Civil Engineering, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh

Head and shoulders photo of John Gatheral

Career

June 2024 to date - Consultant, Gatheral Solutions Limited

Supporting the delivery of civil engineering projects, working on the delivery of a programme of civil engineering works.

NEC4 contract selection and development.

Technical lead for the procurement process.

Advice and feedback on the development of the design tender packs.

July 2021 to May 2024 - Independent consultant

Supported a contractor quality bid for a £100M plus project.

Advised on a landowner's slope stability issue including likely causes and suitable remedial treatment.

Continued to support ICE through undertaking a number of Professional Reviews.

October 2012 to June 2021 - Highway Design Manager, Lancashire County Council, Preston, Lancashire

Heading up the Highways design teams at LCC that carry out a range of tasks.

Developing and promoting local highway works, from small improvement schemes to projects that significantly improve or expand the highway network.

Developing and delivering local highway safety schemes.

Design and supervision of works associated with Section 278 Agreements.

Drainage works that reduce flood risk to highways and property.

Providing civil engineering design expertise on a wide range of County schemes.

July 2016 to July 2017 - Chair, Institution of Civil Engineers North West Region

Chaired ICE NW Regional Committee and Regional Executive Board Meetings each month. The former establishes and maintains two way communication between Branches, Special Interest Groups and Council Members whilst the latter considered policy, budget, planning and similar strategic issues.

Attended an ICE overseas trip where we had a packed couple of days looking at everything from heritage engineering to 21st century schemes to reconnect communities following extreme flood damage (yes, the Isle of Man is an overseas visit).

Led on a variety of events throughout my year in office; arrangements for the President's Visit and NW Awards Dinner; led project and individual engineer selection for NW entries in the ICE200 anniversary; judged ICE NW Awards entries as well as regional heats of competitions such as Emerging Engineers and the Graduates & Students Communications Competition.

Represented ICE NW at national meetings, at events in other Regions and attended events held with other regional professional institutions.

Worked with ICE NW Regional Support Team on the delivery of events, promotion of civil engineering, recognition of individuals and groups who were passionate in the protection or preservation of key civil engineering assets.

November 2010 to September 2012 - Principal Engineer, Drainage Team, Lancashire County Council, Preston, Lancashire

Moved to a newly created team within LCC formed in response to new roles and duties. Worked with the Public Realm, operational teams and partners to address flood risk issues. Carried out drainage improvements in coordination with major highway improvements.

Created the newly created Lead Local Flood Authority role within Lancashire County Council.

Reviewed flood incidents, rated them on a priority basis and developed schemes to reduce flood risk to highways and property.

Engaged with other authorities / bodies to develop solutions to multi agency problems.

Delivered drainage design; flood risk assessment; SuDS solutions; foul and surface water assessments for new works.

June 1991 to October 2010 - Senior Bridge Engineer, Lancashire County Council, Preston, Lancashire

Various works, including - refurbishment of a large diameter Armco culvert structure - assessment of loading from a working museum on a buried masonry arch ring - heat straightening and strengthening of a damaged 3 span continuous steel overbridge - assessment of structures over and under the M6 - strengthening work on sub-standard bridges - design work on a new FlexiArch structure.

Designing new highway structures and preparation of major maintenance schemes to keep the bridge stock in optimum condition.

Supervision of works on site, evaluating payments, resolving construction issues during execution of the works.

Assessing the load carrying capacity of highway bridges.

Preparation and implementation of strengthening schemes.

September 1987 to May 1991 - Bridge Engineer, Lancashire County Council, Preston, Lancashire

Carried out design, design checks and assessments on a wide variety of highway structures, often with reinforced or prestressed concrete components but also including steel and timber superstructures.

Worked on both stand alone bridge projects and on structures that formed part of larger schemes.

Working on the design of a variety of highway structures; from motorway overbridges to propped abutments on County roads.

Carrying out independent design checks of structures.

August 1983 to August 1987 - Graduate Engineer, Amber Valley Borough Council, Alfreton, Derbyshire

Working on a wide variety of schemes whilst under an ICE Training Agreement. Experience related to design of works; preparation of contract documents and tender documents; supervision of works on site; measurement and valuation of the works.

Developed schemes to remediate derelict sites within the Borough and leave them in a state for future, positive, development.

The work was varied and included the remediation of contaminated sites; the recovery of shallow coal measures through open cast excavation; construction of roads, sewers, retaining walls and river bank protection works.

Get in Touch

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