Neil Davis

Neil Davis is a well-seasoned Consulting Engineer and Team Leader with over 50 years’ experience of actual “hands-on” International Consulting and Contracting at senior level associated with Asphalt Pavements and the Construction of Highways and Airfields.

Key specialisms include team-building, trouble-shooting, and the monitoring of problematic projects.

Neil is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Highway Engineers, and a Fellow of the Institute of Asphalt Technology, with extensive expertise in Civil Engineering and specialising in Asphalt & Bitumen Technology associated with Highways and Airfields.

Contracting

Neil started work in 1958 as a Trainee Contracts Supervisor with Val de Travers Asphalte in Manchester, Liverpool, and Northern Ireland – at that time one of only about six established specialist asphalt contractors in the UK capable of producing and paving high specification Hot Rolled Asphalt for a wide range of projects from rural roads to motorways and airfields. Later moving to Tarmac Roadstone on motorway projects, and then to Tilbury East Anglian Roadstone as Assistant Area Manager.

In 1969, Neil moved overseas in project management with the Limmer & Trinidad Lake Asphalt Co to East & Southern Africa working on a wide range of highway projects. This was followed by a major road project in Trinidad working for Wimpey Asphalt Overseas, then moving to Hong Kong to work with the Strabag-Wimpey-Bitumarine JV producing and installing an asphalt core in the High Island Reservoir Dam and placing hydraulic asphalt on the sea bed to control erosion.

After completion of the High Island Dam project in 1976, Neil remained in Hong Kong and formed Premix Asphalt to carry out the production and paving of asphalt for a major container terminal. On completion, Premix Asphalt was merged into Anderson Quarries and Anderson Asphalt was formed with Neil as Managing Director, and which quickly developed into a leading specialist contractor producing and paving almost 500,000 tonnes of asphalt in 1983, and involved in both minor and major infrastructure projects directly or indirectly for the Government of Hong Kong. In 1983, Neil retired from the company, which earlier in 1980 had become 100% owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd – a Hong Kong based multinational.

As a prelude to retirement, on assignment from Anderson Asphalt, Neil took over the project management of the Cross Harbour Tunnel project from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island – with a period of four months of night-closures, and involving the removal by milling of the existing asphalt, repairs to damaged areas and repaving with new asphalt pavement modified with Trinidad Lake Asphalt to increase mix stability. This successful innovative project was the subject of a paper “Resurfacing of the Kowloon to Hong Kong Island Cross Harbour Tunnel with modified Hot Rolled Asphalt” presented at the World Asphalt Conference in Trinidad, West indies in 1987.

After some 6 months of retirement, Neil decided to return to work and joined Wimpey Asphalt in the UK, and over the next six years managed projects on the M6 and M4 motorways in the UK, a World Bank funded Highway Maintenance project in Jamaica, and highway projects in Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Southern Africa.

Consulting

In 1990, Neil formed Pavement Engineering Consultants Ltd., a company specialising in pavements and construction materials, consulting and testing services, and project management associated with highway and airfield construction. The company was based in Florida USA and operated throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

A change of scene in 1997 brought Neil to Vietnam to provide construction supervision for the rehabilitation of 1,200 km of Highway 1A in Vietnam the main trunk road running from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to Hanoi in the north for a total distance of some 2,000 km. The project covering a period of nine years ran from Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Ha some 800 km from Hanoi.

The works were divided into three separate projects, each 400 km in length with a construction period of three years each, each supervised by three separate supervising consultants – Carl Bro A/S (Denmark), Hyder Consulting (UK), and Wilbur Smith Associates (USA). These projects were sub-divided into four separate contracts, each supervised by an expatriate Resident Engineer and inspection team.

For the majority of the works, Mr. Davis was the Team Leader, Project Manager & “Engineer” under the “FIDIC” Conditions of Contract. The Client was the Ministry of Transport – Project Management Unit No.1 (PMU.1) and financed in different sections by the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.

The rehabilitation works mainly consisted of new asphalt pavement following up-grading of the existing highway, adding a second lane in urban sections to dual carriageway standards, and widening to provide cycle lanes and pedestrian shoulders. Also included were the refurbishment and construction of culverts and drainage systems, the refurbishment of existing bridges and construction of new bridges, and the provision of road traffic safety measures. Additional components to the project included well in excess of 3,000 km of feeder roads and also flood damage measures.

Another change of scene in 2006, found Neil back in Africa after a long period away working as Team Leader for COWI A/S a leading Danish firm of consulting engineers providing construction supervision services for three projects financed by DANIDA and the European Union, and involving the major rehabilitation of strategic highways which included, amongst others, major earthworks to improve alignment and sight distances, recycling and cement stabilization of the existing pavement, widening by adding new shoulders, up-grading the drainage system by refurbishing and extending culverts and adding new culverts where necessary, construction of new bridges, and refurbishment of existing bridges.

Significant to these projects was the design of the asphalt pavement to comply with the “Superpave” design system incorporating Trinidad Lake Asphalt, which has proved to be far superior to traditional “Marshall” asphalt pavement.

ANGDavis Associates

After a lifetime of working on international highways, and the real need to spend more time with family, a decision was made for Neil Davis to be based in the UK, so in 2014 ANGDavis Associates was established to concentrate on short-term overseas contracts and assignments, and to offer professional services with a broad range of options working at senior level with and reporting directly to: Senior Government officials / CEO’s / MD’s / Owners / to deliver honest, impartial and discrete executive reporting.

Since that time, Neil is involved on short-term projects in Tanzania and Vietnam, and in feasibility studies and engineering consultancy works for a new road asset management system involving IRI Road Roughness measurements using smartphone technology.

Countries of Experience

Major Highway Works

• Supervision of 87 km of highway upgrade, East-West highway, Kanchanpur and Kamala in Saptari and Siraha districts in No.2 Province, Nepal – Kunwha Engineering & Consulting
• Project Management for 45 km of highway rehabilitation fors Highway 217 in Thanh Hoa Province, VIETNAM – Kunwha Engineering & Consulting
• Road Rehabilitation projects in East Africa – COWI A/S
• Konongo to Kumasi Highway Rehabilitation Project, Ghana – 47Km – Danida
• Tanzam Highway Rehabilitation Project – Iyovi to Mafinga, Tanzania – 219km – Danida
• Northern Corridor Route & Mbarara Bypass Project, Uganda – 41.5km –  EU / EIB
• ADB-3 Highway 1A Rehabilitation Project, Nha Trang to Quang Ngai, Vietnam – 400km – Asian Development Bank
• WB-2 Highway Rehabilitation Project, Dong Ha to Qui Nhon, Vietnam – 338km – World Bank
• ADB-2 Highway Rehabilitation Project, Ho Chi Minh City to Danang, Vietnam – 440km –  Asian Development Bank
• Highway Maintenance Project, Jamaica – 100+km – World Bank
• Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway Project, San Fernando to Port of Spain, Trinidad – 90km – World Bank
• Lilongwe to Dedza, Malawi – 85km – UK Government
• Zomba to Liwonde, Malawi – 49.5km – UK Government
• Chipata to Lusaka, Zambia – 140km – UK Government
• Ndola to Kitwe, Zambia – 70km – UK Government
• Lusaka to Kitwe, Zambia – 135km – UK Government

Major Airfield Works

• RAF Leeming, UK – Runway Resurfacing & Maintenance
• USAF Woodbridge, UK – Runway Resurfacing & Maintenance
• USAF Bentwaters , UK – Runway Resurfacing & Maintenance
• USAF Burtonwood, UK – Runway Resurfacing & Maintenance
• Point Salines International Airport, Grenada – Procurement / Runway Resurfacing and Maintenance
• Port Elizabeth, South Africa – Runway Resurfacing
• East London, South Africa – Runway Resurfacing
• Mtwara, Tanzania – Runway Resurfacing
• Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, USA – Fuel Resistant Pavement to Taxiways & Aprons
• CEPA Comalapa, El Salvador – Procurement / Maintenance to Runway & Taxiways / Fuel Resistance to Aprons

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