2026 Agenda

• Established in 2015 to provide a nationally recognised benchmark for bridge inspection competence, helping asset owners, consultants and contractors demonstrate suitably qualified, experienced personnel.
• In 2025, BICS underwent its most significant transformation since inception - a revised certification pathway including a new Associate Bridge Inspector grade, an online knowledge-based assessment, and a streamlined, more accessible evidence portfolio.
• This presentation will provide an update on the implementation of the revised scheme, key changes, lessons learned, and the latest certification statistics and uptake trends since the 2025 relaunch.

• How SRRB and University of Strathclyde research is advancing scour monitoring, from direct probes and sonars to low-cost, non-contact techniques.
• Combining water level and flow measurements with hydraulic modelling to better understand the complex conditions around bridge piers.
• Moving beyond CS 469 to smarter, network-scale prioritisation - helping bridge owners target inspection and intervention where it matters most.

• Scour remains one of the biggest risks to bridge assets, but manual, portfolio-level assessment is time-intensive. This session sets out a practical digital approach, using GIS and Python to streamline CS 469 screening and prioritisation.
• Real case studies from local authority clients, showing how AtkinsRéalis has automated Level 1 screening and built repeatable prioritisation tools to flag which structures need investigating first
• The engineering context and delivery benefits of digital workflows - faster, more consistent scour assessment at scale.

• Management of immediate scour risks and maintaining network resilience.
• Maintaining asset confidence through multiple flood events.
• Delivering repairs and reactive works within a restricted area and ecologically sensitive locations.

• A post-25-year service Principal Inspection of Scalpay Bridge and its findings.
• Refurbishment criteria and analysis of the existing structure’s bearing loads.  
• The case for pendel bearing replacement over refurbishment, and the risks it addresses.
• Delivering the works while keeping the bridge open to traffic.
• Plans for future maintenance and re-coating.

• Due to concerns about the condition of a half joint on a bridge carrying the M8 motorway, complex strengthening works were required.
• Utilising BEAR Scotland’s supply chain, the detailed design, fabrication, and installation of strengthening steelwork was undertaken within very short timescales.

• Since opening in 1971, the Erskine Bridge has been a vital crossing of the River Clyde and one of Scotland's most recognisable structures, carrying millions of vehicle movements each year.
• This session explores the challenges of maintaining a major cable-stayed box girder asset at this scale, covering the current programme of inspection, maintenance and renewal, and key lessons from managing a nationally important structure in a live operational environment.
• Looking ahead, it examines the major interventions planned over the next ten years - from large-scale renewal projects to resilience improvements - and the long-term asset management strategies needed to keep ageing infrastructure safe, reliable, and fit for the decades ahead.

Building on last year's well-received panel discussion on the industry's skills challenge, this session brings together voices from across the profession to explore what's genuinely working, what isn't, and where things need to go next. Topics include:

• Mentoring and knowledge transfer between experienced and early-career engineers.
• The transition from education into industry - graduate and apprenticeship pathways.
• The skills future engineers will need as digital technologies and climate resilience reshape the profession.
• The role professional institutions play in supporting engineers throughout their careers.

• An update on the 2026 revision to the Well Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice, with a focus on Part C: Structures and a short overview of Part E: Tunnels, covering its relevance to authorities managing tunnel assets.
• Key changes affecting bridge and structures management, including implications for competence and asset management practice.

• Practical, scalable monitoring: The presentation will demonstrate how low-cost, non-contact radar systems can deliver reliable, real-time measurements of bridge vibrations and displacements, thus reducing the need for intrusive inspections, traffic disruption, and costly sensor installations.
• Better decisions for bridge owners: The presentation will show how radar-based data can support condition assessment, early damage detection, and prioritisation of maintenance, helping asset owners improve safety, resilience, and whole-life cost efficiency.

This presentation will provide an overview of the challenges, interventions and future strategy associated with Kirkcudbright Bridge, from its closure in March 2025 through to its re-opening and planning for the future replacement. Historical background and strategic significance of Kirkcudbright Bridge within the local transport network.

• Summary of the structural assessment and engineering evaluation activities that informed the decision to close the bridge in March 2025.
• Overview of the investigations, engineering interventions and risk management measures implemented to enable re-opening in June 2025.
• Current operational restrictions and the monitoring processes supporting the ongoing management of the structure.
• Overview of the development of the long-term replacement strategy.