Mark Hansford

Mark is passionate about civil engineering. He is a civil engineer; he is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers; and throughout his 20-plus year career, he has sought roles that have allowed him to work with others to both promote the profession and provide professional engineers with the information to help them become better engineers.

That passion for the industry stems from his 20-plus-year association with it. He has an MEng in Civil Engineering (First class) from the University of Birmingham and spent three years as a practicing engineer with consultant Atkins before joining New Civil Engineer in 2000, a title he edited for five years before joining the ICE in February 2020.

As a practicing civil engineer, he carried out water supply and distribution analysis in the UK and overseas, spending several months in Ghana conducting a fixed asset condition and revaluation study of its 100 largest urban water schemes.

At New Civil Engineer he’s visited and written technical reports on some of the world’s most spectacular structures including the Burj Khalifa, the Brenner Base Tunnel and Vladivostok’s Russky Island bridge.

He’s also reported from the scene of a host of international engineering disasters including a bridge collapse in northern Portugal, a tunnel fire in Baltimore and tsunami-struck Sri Lanka. And in 2003 he was the first construction reporter in Iraq following the second Gulf War. Didn’t see Nick or Sean there.

Beyond the ICE Mark volunteers time to judge numerous industry awards and in recognition of his efforts to promote the profession was in 2016 invited to join the Worshipful Company of Paviors, a City of London Livery Company that works to promote the highways industry and provides opportunities for young people through its London Highway Academy.