The People

Experience and expertise in this demanding work is essential. Jacked Structures has brought together a group of professional engineers who have  worked together on a wide range of projects. The combined experience of our consultants is more than 80 years and  we have worked on more than 70  projects.

James Thomson

James Thomson C.Eng. M.I.C.E has been involved with jacking methods for pipes and structures for over 40 years. Initially he pioneered pipe jacking methods of pipe installation in the late 1950's and went on develop the jacking of large box structures, multi- tier methods and friction reducing methods

For some 25 years he owned  and was the CEO of an   international consultancy which focused  in the underground infrastructure which including design and management of many jacked structures projects as well as  tunneling, micro-tunneling and  pipe jacking projects. After selling the company  in 2004  he  has continued as an independent consultant and in 2007 he formed the Jacked Structures Group with colleagues. He has developed a number of patents in the field including Jacked Arch and Jacked Deck methods which provide improved methods of installing non-disruptive underpasses.

Over a period of more than 40 years he has been involved internationally with the design and installation of many jacked structures. In addition he has been responsible for the design of 100s of kilometers of tunnels.  He has lectured, written books and presented more than 80 technical papers on all aspects of  non-disruptive installation of underground structures and has acted as Expert Witness in dispute cases.

Chris Howe

Chris Howe CEng MICE has over 40 years design and construction experience associated with infrastructure projects throughout UK and overseas. He has been instrumental in the successful completion of over 20 jacked structures for major new underbridges and tunnels beneath ‘live’ rail and highway networks. 

He has  worked with multi-discipline design teams both in UK and overseas dealing with planning, teamworking, civil/structural/geotechnical engineering, railway systems, mechanics/hydraulics/instrumentation/software systems, construction safety, predictability and R&D. Many accolades were awarded for these projects including;

• Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award Finalist 2002
• British Construction Industry Awards Winner International Award 2002
• ICE Proceedings Paper – joint author
• Winner National Rail Awards 2001
• Institution of Civil Engineers Winner North West Regional Award 1998

In addition he has presented papers on jacked structures and new rail underbridge construction techniques to learned societies and the construction industry

Andrew Robinson

Andy Robinson B.Sc.is a specialist tunnelling engineer with over 30 years practical, design and management experience in jacked  installations on the worldwide stage.

He has been at the forefront of developments and innovations in his field and has been a team member on two projects that have previously been recipients of the Trenchless Technology “Project of the Year” award. He has presented papers to international seminars and has conducted training and teaching seminars and workshops for Engineers and construction managers on tunnel and jacking projects around the globe. He has extensive experience in the development of the design and construction of jacked structures.

Professor Terry Ingold

Professor Terry Ingold BSc MSc PhD DIC Eur Ing CEng FICE FIHT FGS FASCE   is our Geotechnical specialist.He worked for eleven years with the John Laing Group where he was Chief Engineer of Ground Engineering Limited and was subsequently appointed Visiting Professor of Civil Engineering at the Queens University Belfast. 

In 1983 Dr Ingold set up in private practice. He is currently  Honorary Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering of The University of Birmingham. Professor Ingold has forty years practical experience in soil mechanics covering most aspects of geotechnical engineering including specialised applications such as jacked installations, trenchless technology, geosynthetics and reinforced soil. 

Professor Ingold is a practising member of the Academy of Experts and has served many times as expert witness, both in the United Kingdom and abroad, in High Court hearings, public inquiries and arbitrations. His work includes the publication of three books and over one hundred technical papers