The people of Yorkshire and the Humber are being asked to vote for the winning project of this year’s Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Centenary Award, the new Leeds Station South Entrance, which is in the running to become the UK’s most popular civil engineering project.
Voting opens online today for the ICE People’s Choice Award, allowing everyone that uses infrastructure choose the UK’s greatest civil engineering achievements of the year. The new South Entrance at Leeds Railway Station, is one of 12 nominated projects from across the UK and the public has until November 30 to decide its favourite. The winning infrastructure project will be announced in January 2017.
The innovative south entrance, which was designed to help the regeneration of the area south of the station by making it more accessible to people arriving in the city, presented a number of complex engineering challenges, such as working in a river and above a busy railway.
The project was designed by Carillion Rail Ltd, Mott MacDonald and AHR Architects, and constructed by Carillion Rail Ltd and William Hare Structural Engineers, for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Network Rail.
Working in local communities throughout the Yorkshire and the Humber and across the world, civil engineers are constantly finding new ways to provide practical solutions to society's everyday problems, and propel nations into the future with new, ever-improving infrastructure.
Penny Marshall, ICE Yorkshire & Humber Regional Director, said: “The new Leeds Station South Entrance is a great example of how civil engineering projects can benefit the community and the economy, and how creative solutions can be applied to fix real-world problems.
“Civil engineers create, maintain and operate almost everything between and under our homes. The infrastructure they build connects, nourishes and improves the lives of everyone it serves.
“Because of this vital work, civil engineers are as indispensable to society as doctors, teachers, police and social workers. Without civil engineering billions of people around the world would be poorer, disparate and isolated - no train stations, airports, clean water, waste treatment, roads, internet or electricity. Farms would wither and businesses would go bust.
“This is a chance to celebrate civil engineers, who design and build infrastructure for the public and make a world of difference to local communities. Vote now for your favourite infrastructure project and help promote the overwhelmingly positive contribution of civil engineering to everyday life.”