CIVIL engineers from Northern Ireland have played a part in breaking yet another world engineering record.
In conjunction with its other offices around the globe, engineers at the Atkins Belfast office have helped design and deliver what has been verified as the world’s largest drinking water storage reservoirs, located in Saudi Arabia.
The Briman facility in Jeddah stores six million cubic metres of water - that's the equivalent of 2,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or enough to supply the water needs of 15,000 Northern Ireland homes for a whole year.
Just last month civil engineering students from Queen’s University broke the Guinness World Record for the largest Meccano structure ever built, with more than 11,000 pieces of lightweight metal used in its construction
That project was part of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) national 'This is Civil Engineering' campaign, which tells the public what civil engineering is and how it benefits the local community.
And ICE has planned a free event for the Ulster Museum on Monday night at 5.30pm at which it will outline the sterling work of its Northern Ireland engineers.
"These are prime examples of how civil engineering inspires creative problem-solving, pushes boundaries and delivers incredible structures," ICE Northern Ireland regional director Richard Kirk said.
"The fact that budding civil engineers at Queen's broke a world record with the Mecanno bridge is a promising sign that the next generation is able to generate new ideas and impressive results.
“The scale of the Briman reservoirs cannot be overstated, and the 2014 Guinness award cements the site’s status as one of the most ambitious and innovative facilities in the world.
“Although funding for local projects is constrained, Northern Ireland civil engineers are exporting their world-class talent and expertise around the globe, making ground-breaking achievements like the Briman reservoirs possible.”
Together with Simon White of Atkins and Martin Carroll of Vinci, Atkins director and ICE NI chairman Alan Skates will deliver Monday evening's lecture about the Briman reservoirs, which is free and open to the public (for more information click on www.ice.org.uk/events/briman-strategic-storage-reservoirs).
