Joanne Saunders

Business & Structures Manager, Ringway Island Roads

Joanne Saunders is a Chartered Civil Engineer with Ringway for fifteen years. She has led the Structures Team on the IOW Highways PFI contract, focusing on BCI improvements, strengthening, and parapet upgrades. As an ICE President’s Apprentice in 2014/15, she

later became Innovation Manager at Eurovia, co-authoring a paper on bridge management and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2023, Jo was promoted to Business Manager for the IOW Highways PFI contract, overseeing highway improvement services, including managing a major landslip on the Isle of Wight.

My Sessions at Bridges 2026

Thursday 12 March 2026

11:30

Embracing Change in the Bridges Industry: Learning from the Past, Leading into the Future

11:30 - 11:50
  • The bridges industry must embrace change by learning from historical failures, adopting new technologies, and responding to climate, budget, and public pressures.
  • Local authorities should focus on smarter asset management, risk-based decisions, and public engagement to do more with less.
  • To enable change, we need to communicate effectively about what the problem is. This requires leadership, upskilling teams, data-driven decisions, and collaboration across departments.

Speakers

15:30

Panel: Introducing Change

15:30 - 16:15

  • Positive Change Stories – Panellists share a short example of meaningful change they’ve seen in practice (engineering, culture, procurement, digital, sustainability), focusing on what changed, why it happened, and what made it possible.

  • What’s Caught Your Imagination? – Reflections on the most inspiring or thought-provoking ideas from across the two days, connecting the panel directly to the conference content.

  • Priorities for Change – Where the sector must focus next, the systemic dependencies that matter, and the practical, low-cost actions organisations and individuals should take — informed by the Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure agenda.

Speakers

Moderator