Civil Engineering Construction in the UK is a £multi-billion industry employing almost a quarter of a million people.

It is responsible for developing and maintaining the nation's infrastructure.

Without the industry there would quickly be no clean water, no sewage disposal, no transport system, no heat, light or power. Man would rapidly revert to being entirely at the mercy of the elements and natural forces which have shaped our planet for millions of years.

Although these elements will always affect the shape of our future, construction projects such as the Thames Barrier will help to control or diminish the effect of many of the more destructive aspects of weather and other natural forces.

In addition to the home construction market, many international civil engineering projects throughout the world are conceived, designed, developed, managed and often constructed from a UK base. Many foreign customers rely heavily upon the excellence of the skills, training and professional personnel turned out by our Universities and Institutions.

Within civil engineering, our members play key roles in all stages of the project, from initial concepts, through design, estimating, setting out and construction, to monitoring the condition and performance of the works thoughout its design life. They are the professionals on the construction team responsible for the essential commercial and contractual management and the dimensional control upon which the industry depends.

From £multi-billion pound projects such as the Channel Tunnel to the renewal of a few hundred metres of a service pipeline - all require the skills of our members.

THE ROLE OF THE INSTITUTION

The Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES) was formed in 1969 to support, encourage and regulate the professional aspirations of quantity surveyors and land surveyors working within the civil engineering sector and to increase the value of those services to the public. These surveyors had developed a distinctive expertise in and understanding of the special surveying requirements of the civil engineering industry which was not recognised at that time by any of the existing professional bodies. The need for such recognition is clearly manifest in the fact that since its conception the ICES has gone from strength to strength with an ever increasing membership, culminating in 1993 with two significant events - the signing of an agreement with the Institution of Civil Engineers whereby the ICES became its first formally associated Institution and the setting up with them of Joint Engineering Survey Board (JSEB).

ICES prides itself on its achievement as an internationally renowned centre of excellence 'in the art and science of civil engineering surveying to serve the public benefit and satisfy the needs of industry throughout the world'.

With the chainging nature of the industry, new legislation and working practices, and the continuing advances in survey instrumentation, professionals with other specialist skills have become increasingly involved with the various aspects of construction commercial management and with providing, managing and using geospatial data to facilitate construction projects.

As a result the Institution has widened its membership to include professionals of other specialisms which fall naturally within the aegis of its remit. It has formed two Practices Committees to regulate the broadly termed disciplines of Construction Commercial Management and Geospatial Engineering