Sir Douglas Edwin Oakervee FHKIE (born December 1940) is a British civil engineer who is a past chairman of both

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

and

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

, and was the 139th president of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

. He was awarded the CBE in 2010 for his contributions to civil engineering and appointed

Knight bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

in 2022 for services to transport and infrastructure delivery.

Early life and education

He was born in 1940 in northwest

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and attended

Willesden Technical College The College of North West London (CNWL) is a large further education college in north-west London, England. It was established in 1991 by the merger between Willesden Technical College and Kilburn Polytechnic in the London Borough of Brent. Toda ...

Civil engineering projects

In 1991, Oakervee was appointed as project director for the

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is Hong Kong's main airport, built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or ''Chek Lap Kok Airport'', to distinguish ...

project, built on a man-made island in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

. Before that he was the chief tunnel engineer on the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

mass transit railway project. From 2012 to 2014 he was chairman of the company constructing the

(HS2) railway in England.

HS2 review

In June 2019,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

, then a candidate for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

leadership, said he would ask Oakervee to lead a review of the plans for HS2. In August, with Johnson now

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, the review was announced and terms of reference were published by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

. Work was completed in November but its report – known as the Oakervee Review – was not published until February 2020. The report concluded that the original rationale for HS2 was still valid as "there is a need for greater capacity (both more trains on tracks and more seats on trains and reliability on the GB rail network).

Irish Sea tunnel

In October 2020, it was announced that

Sir Peter Hendy Peter Gerard Hendy, Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill (born 19 March 1953) is a British transport executive and politician. He is the current chairman of Network Rail and was formerly the Commissioner of Transport for London, Commissioner of Transp ...

would lead an independent review into the feasibility of various projects designed to improve the UK's infrastructure, among them a potential fixed link between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This could take the form of a bridge (referred to as the

Irish Sea Bridge The Irish Sea Bridge, sometimes called the Celtic Crossing by the media, is a hypothetical rail and road bridge that would span the Irish Sea and connect the island of Ireland to the island of Great Britain. It is one of a number of such proposed ...

) or a tunnel, and investigation of a potential rail tunnel will be undertaken by Oakervee. He observed that the collapse of

Flybe Flybe (pronounced ), styled as flybe, is a British airline based at Birmingham Airport, England. History The airline traces its history back to Jersey European Airways, which was set up in 1979 following the merger of Intra Airways and Expres ...

had reduced opportunities to fly into Northern Ireland.

Honours and awards

* 2000 Appointed OBE in the diplomatic list of the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

for services to civil engineering overseas * 2003 Elected president of the

* 2008 Awarded the Institution of Civil Engineers Gold Medal * 2010 Appointed CBE in the

Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are presen ...

for services to civil engineering * 2020 Elected president of the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

* 2022

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to transport and infrastructure delivery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakervee, Douglas Living people 1940 births Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire