Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation

Last updated
Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation
Established1930 (as the Institute of Highways Engineers)
TypeProfessional association
HeadquartersBritannia Walk, London, UK
Region served
Worldwide
Membership
13,000+
Key people
President: Karen McShane; Chief Executive: Sue Percy CBE
Website www.ciht.org.uk

The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT, formerly the Institution of Highways and Transportation) is a British learned society for the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of land-based transport systems and infrastructure.

Contents

The CIHT offers routes to qualifications such as Chartered and Incorporated Engineer status and also Chartered transport planning professional. Additionally, it has 12 regional UK branches and several overseas branches that all run local events and technical meetings.

The CIHT is a board-governed professional body. The main aims of the Council and Boards are to act as the decision-making bodies for the CIHT and deliver the strategy, business plans and outputs on behalf of the membership. The CIHT is a member of the Construction Industry Council.

History and chartered status

The history of the Institution of Highways and Transportation began in 1930 [1] when it was simply called the Institution of Highway Engineers and more a gentleman's club than a qualifying body. The addition of 'transportation' to the functions of highway engineers emerged from the Buchanan Report, Traffic in Towns . The Institution did not take the name on board until the 1980s, when the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, repealed local highway authorities' 40-year-old powers of direction over local planning authorities' powers to grant planning permission for property development, threatening the integrated land use, transport, and socio-economic development system that had been created after the Second World War.

Later (1992), the UK Government signed Agenda Item 21 of the Rio de Janeiro UN Summit Conference about integrating developmental and environmental considerations in planning, and a road traffic reduction private members bill attained Royal Assent in 1997. This was followed by a rehashing of the statutory development plan system in 2000 and the introduction of composite local service boards into the planning system in 2005 (including police, fire and rescue services, health and ambulance services, education and welfare services, and employment and housing services); planning applicants had to submit 'Access and Design Statements' with their planning applications demonstrating they had taken all highways and transportation considerations into account, and additional 'Transport Statements' if proposed developments exceeded particular thresholds. This spawned new interest in the design of public places to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, and for users of public transport and car-sharing clubs, to curtail carbon emissions.

The organization was granted a royal charter on 7 December 2009 and changed its name to "Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation". [2]

Activities

Transport Advice Portal

The Transport Advice Portal (TAP) website is a joint venture involving the Department for Transport (DfT) and the CIHT. TAP has been devised to direct members of the transportation profession and the general public to core documents in a range of subject areas that focus on the management of user groups on roads in the UK. The portal acts as a repository of web links to documents that are seen as key guides to the planning, design and operation of road networks.

CIHT Futures

CIHT FUTURES explores the implications of different scenarios for transport policy and practice. [3]

Campaign for Safe Road Design

In July 2008 the IHT, as it then was, became a partner in the Campaign for Safe Road Design which called on the UK government to make safe road design a national transport priority. [4]

Highways Sector Council

The Highways Sector Council, which includes the CIHT and several major highways contractors, was formed in late 2019, seeking to provide a single voice for the highways industry. In April 2020, the Institute of Highway Engineers, with six other organisations, formed the Highways Industry Alliance. [5]

Post-nominal letters

Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Highways and TransportationFCIHT
Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and TransportationMCIHT
Associate Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and TransportationAMCIHT
Graduate Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and TransportationGRADCIHT
Chartered Transport Planning ProfessionalCTPP

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil engineering</span> Engineering discipline focused on physical infrastructure

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in the United Kingdom</span>

Transport in the United Kingdom is facilitated by road, rail, air and water networks. Some aspects of transport are a devolved matter, with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation engineering</span> Academic discipline and occupational field

Transportation engineering or transport engineering is the application of technology and scientific principles to the planning, functional design, operation and management of facilities for any mode of transportation in order to provide for the safe, efficient, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical, and environmentally compatible movement of people and goods transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation planning</span> Process of planning for movement of people and goods

Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that incorporates the input of many stakeholders including various government agencies, the public and private businesses. Transportation planners apply a multi-modal and/or comprehensive approach to analyzing the wide range of alternatives and impacts on the transportation system to influence beneficial outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infrastructure</span> Facilities and systems serving society

Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and private physical structures such as roads, railways, bridges, airports, public transit systems, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunications. In general, infrastructure has been defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions" and maintain the surrounding environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traffic engineering (transportation)</span>

Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on roadways. It focuses mainly on research for safe and efficient traffic flow, such as road geometry, sidewalks and crosswalks, cycling infrastructure, traffic signs, road surface markings and traffic lights. Traffic engineering deals with the functional part of transportation system, except the infrastructures provided.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highway engineering</span> Civil engineering of roads, bridges, and tunnels

Highway engineering is a professional engineering discipline branching from the civil engineering subdiscipline of transportation engineering that involves the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of roads, highways, streets, bridges, and tunnels to ensure safe and effective transportation of people and goods. Highway engineering became prominent towards the latter half of the 20th century after World War II. Standards of highway engineering are continuously being improved. Highway engineers must take into account future traffic flows, design of highway intersections/interchanges, geometric alignment and design, highway pavement materials and design, structural design of pavement thickness, and pavement maintenance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Construction</span> Process of building or assembling a building or infrastructure

Construction is a general term meaning the art and science of forming objects, systems, or organizations. It comes from the Latin word constructio and Old French construction. To 'construct' is a verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built or the nature of its structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee Department of Transportation</span> Department of transportation for the U.S. state of Tennessee

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is the department of transportation for the State of Tennessee, with multimodal responsibilities in roadways, aviation, public transit, waterways, and railroads. It was established in 1915 as the Tennessee Department of Highways and Public Works, and renamed the Tennessee Department of Transportation in 1972. The core agency mission of TDOT is to provide a safe and reliable transportation system for people, goods, and services that supports economic prosperity in Tennessee. Since 1998, TDOT has been ranked amongst the top five in the nation for quality highway infrastructure. It is primarily headquartered in downtown Nashville and operates four regional offices in Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville, and Nashville.

Municipal or urban engineering applies the tools of science, art and engineering in an urban environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in England</span> Overview of transport in England

Transport in England includes road, rail, air, and water networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shared space</span> Roads unsegregated by travel mode

Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Construction Industry Council (United Kingdom)</span>

Construction Industry Council (CIC) is the representative forum for professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the United Kingdom construction industry.

In the United Kingdom, a Chartered Engineer (CEng) is an engineer registered with the UK's regulatory body for the engineering profession, the Engineering Council. Chartered Engineers are master's degree qualified or must demonstrate equivalent masters level, work-based learning. The appropriate professional competencies must be demonstrated through education, further training and work experience. Significant experience is required which invariably spans several years of postgraduate professional practice. Demonstration of competence is defined in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence, assessed through professional review of academic qualifications and professional development. Formal, non-formal and informal learning can be assessed. The title Chartered Engineer is protected in the UK under law by means of the Engineering Council’s Royal Charter and Bye-laws. As of 2019 there are approximately 180,000 engineers registered as a Chartered Engineer. Chartered Engineers are registered through Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) licensed by the Engineering Council which are relevant to their industry or specialism. The total process of formation of a Chartered Engineer including MEng typically spans at least 8-10 years, although 12+ years is not uncommon to satisfy all of the competency requirements.

In England and Wales, the Manual for Streets, published in March 2007, provides guidance for practitioners involved in the planning, design, provision and approval of new streets, and modifications to existing ones. It aims to increase the quality of life through good design which creates more people-oriented streets. Although the detailed guidance in the document applies mainly to residential streets, the overall design principles apply to all streets within urban areas.

Sir James Drake was a British chartered civil engineer who is regarded as the pioneer of the national motorway network in the United Kingdom. As the county surveyor and bridgemaster of Lancashire County Council from 1945 to 1972 he led teams that designed the first stretch of motorway opened to the public, the Preston By-pass on 5 December 1958. There then followed numerous contracts to extend the motorway in the north west of England, which, thanks to his role, probably still has the greatest density of motorways in the country. He was appointed a CBE in 1962 for his services as County Surveyor and Bridgemaster of Lancashire County Council and in 1973 he was knighted in recognition of his role as head of the North West Road Construction Unit and the Lancashire Sub-Unit, organisations that further extended his initial work.

Eric Ma Siu-cheung, GBS, JP is a Hong Kong engineer and a business executive. He served as Secretary for Development of the Hong Kong SAR government. He is currently an Executive Director of New World Development Company Ltd and CEO of NWS Holdings Ltd.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure is the provincial government department responsible for managing infrastructure in Manitoba. It is in charge of "the development of transportation policy and legislation, and [of] the management of the province’s vast infrastructure network."

Danielle Skelley OBE MBA BEng CEng MICE FCIHT, known as Dana, is Managing Director of Grain of Sand Consulting Ltd. Prior to setting up her own consultancy business she was Director of Strategy and Operational Excellence at Skanska. She is a Council Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. She was Director of Asset Management at Transport for London.

References

  1. "The History of CIHT". Archived from the original on 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  2. Murrell, Brian. "The History of CIHT". CIHT. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  3. Neish, Duncan. "CIHT FUTURES". Ciht.org.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  4. "SAFE ROAD DESIGN TO SAVE UK £6BN EVERY YEAR". Campaign for Safe Road Design. Archived from the original (Word DOC) on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  5. "New highways groups vie for attention". The Construction Index. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2021.