The Bridge Engineering Technical Society (BETS) represents all those that contribute to the bridge engineering sector. BETS will work with SESOC, NZSEE, NZGS and other industry technical groups for the mutual benefit of bridge engineering.

What the society does

BETS is a unified voice for our sector, supports identification and resolution of industry wide issues, advances knowledge and best-practice. Our vision encompasses advancement of the sector at all levels, from education of students through to excellence in practice.

Key objectives

  • Identifying issues, technical or otherwise, of relevance and importance to the sector,
  • Identifying methods to address these issues,
  • Supporting and, where appropriate, providing input into the development of standards and guidance documents (e.g., Bridge Manual),
  • Dissemination of knowledge and best practice to enable consistency in excellence across the sector,
  • Encouraging and enabling appropriate representation of bridge engineering knowledge within the academic curriculum at NZ academic institutions,
  • Supporting the delivery of research or guidance work through technical oversight and quality control,
  • Providing a unified voice for engagement with other parts of the engineering industry and wider society, and
  • Harmonisation of New Zealand standards and practices with Australia and other countries wherever feasible and practicable.

The Bridge Engineering Technical Society (BETS) is a technical interest group of Engineering New Zealand.

Membership

The Society membership is open to designers and consultants, academics and researchers, asset managers, contractors, and anyone with an interest in the advancement of bridge engineering.

Become a member

Management committee

Rudolph Kotze FEngNZ, Chair

Rudolph has been involved in bridge and structures design and asset management for over 40 years, working in various technical and management roles in South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. His previous experience from his role with KiwiRail as their Professional Head Structures Engineering, gives him valuable insight in KiwiRail processes and standards. He is an expert in providing technical advice on structures asset management to the wider business and clients and is focused on ensuring that best-practice asset and risk management principles are developed and implemented.

Liam Coleman FEngNZ Vice-Chair

Liam is a Chartered and Fellow Structural Engineer with experience primarily in Bridge structures from inspection, design, assessment, site supervision and asset management. Liam has worked on the client, consultancy and contractor side of organizations in both Railways and Highways in Ireland, United Kingdom & New Zealand. For the past 10 years Liam’s experience has primarily been on the client side managing assets and developed policies and strategy for rail and road assets in New Zealand.

Moustafa Al-Ani

Moustafa is the Lead Advisor Structures at the New Zealand Transport Agency. He completed his PhD at the University of Auckland and his experience spans across design, assessment and research for bridges in particular and structures in general. He has experience working with codes from New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada and Europe. His research interests include the analysis and design of seismically-isolated bridge structures for earthquake resilience using a variety of earthquake protection systems, and the design of bridge structures to a variety of international design codes. Moustafa is also committed to contribution to advancement of the engineering industry, through presentation of industry seminars and involvement in professional organisations. He is the current President of the Concrete NZ – Learned Society, is NZ Head Delegate for fib, and has ongoing involvement in technical activities within Austroads, fib, IABSE, and the TRB.

Don McLaren-Smith FEngNZ

Don is the Managing Director of Novare Design. He has 31 years of post-graduate experience in civil engineering. This includes post graduate research into the seismic performance of structural walls, structural & seismic engineering; experience in civil and structural engineering of railway structures (mainly bridges & culverts); civil structures, e:g road & pedestrian bridges , retaining walls & wharves; commercial structures (high rise buildings; industrial structures (warehouses, power plants, etc); pressure vessels, cranes, process piping, vibration and finite element analysis.

Liam Wotherspoon

Liam is a Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland. He has held an academic position in the department since 2009 and has been involved in the teaching of a wide variety of geotechnical engineering courses. He has been involved a variety of bridge-engineering related research across multiple disciplines, including foundation performance, dynamic monitoring and performance of bridges under seismic, tsunami and flood loading. He has worked with a number of professional organisations to translate the outputs of his research into practice and support the evolution of good practice.

Jono Watkins

Jono is a Chartered Structural Engineer with extensive international experience in the design and construction of civil infrastructure. He has expertise in bridge design and assessment for road, rail bridges, retaining structures of many types from culverts to D-walls and audits. His PhD focused on seismic behaviour of concrete structures. Jono is committed to the advancement of the bridge engineering industry, demonstrated through organising conference and industry sessions, publishing research and guidance documentation.

Natalia Urban

Natalia is a Chartered Bridge Engineer with extensive work experience in the UK and New Zealand. Her expertise lies primarily in bridge asset management, risk management, long-term planning, strengthening designs, and live load bridge assessments for a diverse range of clients, including Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Local Authorities. Natalia is committed to bridge asset management and ensuring the long-term sustainability of New Zealand’s aging infrastructure assets through strategic planning, technical excellence, and collaborative leadership.


Nigel McCreight

Nigel is a Chartered Engineer (ICE) with over 35 years post-graduation experience as a contractor and bridge builder. Since moving to New Zealand in 2004, he has been heavily involved in the delivery of nearly 100 bridges, often in Alliance and D&C forms of contract. Having worked for HEB, Downer, Fulton Hogan and currently as Engineering Manager for Link Alliance delivering the City Rail link, he is well positioned to connect with contractors and designers to understand and develop solutions to issues and opportunities. He has extensive knowledge of precasting, fabrication, temporary works and heavy lifting and is ready to listen, learn and collaborate with the wider community for the betterment of bridge design and construction.


Rob Presland

Rob has over 25 years of experience specialising in technical design delivery of civil structures projects. His experience includes concept and detailed design, construction and seismic assessment of highway and railway bridges, civil and marine structures.  His experience also extends to design, construction and seismic assessment of building structures.

Rob has expert knowledge of New Zealand specific bridge design requirements and a good appreciation of local construction practices which has seen him invited to expert witness and industry leadership roles. His Technical Director role involves development of concept structural design solutions, provision of technical guidance and review across a range of projects as well as mentoring and guidance for development of junior staff.