The South Wales Branch covers all of southern Wales from south Powys and Ceredigion down to the coast and includes the industrial heartlands of the valleys north of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. With their huge reserves of iron ore and coal, these were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, and well into the twentieth century supplied the world with its coal and iron. Getting the iron and coal to the ports on the south coast for export led to the development of an extensive transport infrastructure, firstly of canals and later, with the advent of the steam age, railways.

As recent as just over thirty years ago, a trip up most of the valleys would find several active mines. But in the years since then, all this has altered dramatically. The change in the economic climate and competition from cheaper sources and forms of fuel have led to the collapse of the mining industry in south Wales and a reduction in steel production. No mines now exist and steelworks are considerably fewer. To replace them, new more modern industries have been brought to the valleys to make use of the pool of labour freed from the traditional industries and of the industrial sites created from the reinstatement of the colliery sites and the waste tips that once blotted the landscape.

To serve these new industries, and in order to bring in the raw materials and take the manufactured products to new ports, a new modern transport infrastructure was needed. As a result, over the last thirty years or so, a new highway system has transformed the face of south Wales. The M4 Motorway provides an arterial connection with the rest of the United Kingdom, crossing the Severn originally on the Severn Suspension Bridge, a structure at the forefront of suspension bridge technology at its time, and more recently, on the cable stayed Second Severn Crossing – an example of the technology of today. The M4 serves to link up and provide access into the valleys, where particularly difficult mountainous terrain and mining subsidence challenged the skills of the road designers and builders. Further westwards, the M4 has been extended as the A48 deep into the west Wales heartland, where the natural beauty of the countryside and the coast are a major tourist attraction. In Cardiff, the capital of the principality, a peripheral distributor and the pedestrianisation of the town centre and the redevelopment of the docks have created a vibrant city with a much-improved environment for its citizens.

In all of this construction programme, members of the Institution, and particularly the members of the South Wales Branch, have played a vital role contributing to the wide range of skills and expertise that are called for in the planning, design and construction of major highway works. The Branch was formed in 1956 and from the then handful of members, has grown in strength until, today, its membership amounts to some 450, drawn from national and local government service, consultancies and contracting companies.

The Branch programme consists of six or seven meetings held in the winter months mainly in Cardiff and Swansea, at which invited speakers present papers on a wide variety of topics in transportation and highways, and bridge construction and maintenance. Many of these are held jointly with the local branches of kindred institutions, such as the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Chartered Institute of Logistics. In this way, there is a cross-fertilisation of ideas and a sharing of expertise and experience in providing the transportation needs of the community. These meetings also provide opportunities for the continuing professional development (CPD) of young and mature engineers alike. As a further contribution to CPD, the Branch runs a one-day seminar each year on a topic of current interest or importance.

The social highlight of the year’s programme is the Annual Branch Dinner, which for more than forty years has been held in the Park Hotel, now the Thistle, in Cardiff. The dinner is graced by the presence of the President and Executive Secretary of the Institution and Chairs of the kindred institutions. Whilst formal in dress and some proceedings, the evening is quite informal and convivial and is acknowledged to be the best of each years round of dinners. The Branch thinks so anyway.

Anyone wishing further information on the activities of the South Wales Branch should contact the Branch Secretary
Paul Warner e: P.D.Warner@southwales-tra.gov.uk
t: +44 (0)1792 325950

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