An article in the Telegraph about the flooding problems faced by Paul Daniels and his wife Debbie inspired retired civil engineer John Forrest to invent a new dam.

Tilt-Dam, which is hidden away below ground level and can be pushed up into a vertical position by hand because of its clever design using gravity, has just won one of the CIOB's International Innovation and Research Awards 2005/06.

Forrest, together with Jim Barrack and David Smith MCIOB, who have been involved with the product's development, won the institute's Innovation Competition. "It has had an immediate impact," said Forrest. "We have had a lot more enquiries and it has given it a lot more credence."

Forrest started his working life as an apprentice bricklayer, working his way up to become a structural and civil engineer designing buildings. He went back to first principles having had the idea for Tilt-Dam and came up with a product that is unique: a world-wide patent search has shown this.

Forrest has had many visitors to view his prototype at Leamouth, east London, and is already looking at contracts. Roger Bullivant is working on the costing and manufacturing of the product.

Source

Construction Manager