Sir Alan Muir Wood died

Alan Marshall Muir Wood was born in Hampstead, Lon-don/GB. His father was a civil servant in the Admiralty and the family was stationed for several years in Malta and Chatham Naval Dockyards where he probably received his first (subconscious) exposure to engineering. He was educated at Abbotsholme School, where he enjoyed the outdoors opportunities provided by the Peak District, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read Mechanical Sciences. He served as an Engineer Officer in the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1946.
From 1946 to 1950 as an Assistant Engineer with the Southern Region of British Railways he worked on remediation of landslips at Folkestone Warren, Kent: his first major exposure to geotechnical engineering. He joined Sir William Halcrow & Partners in 1952 and remained with the firm until his death, becoming a partner in 1964 and retiring in 1984 having been Senior Partner since 1979.
His two main areas of speciality were coastal engineering and tunnelling. He was responsible for coastal protection works at various sites around south east England, including schemes for stabilising the foreshore at Dungeness nuclear power station. His book “Coastal hydraulics” was first published in 1969.
Alan Muir Wood was Project Engineer for rail tunnels at Potters Bar and road tunnels through water-bearing sands and gravels under the Clyde. He wryly observed that a local Glasgow academic who strain gauged the lining was able to discern when the compressed air was turned on or off but not to reveal anything helpful about the stresses.
He led the team of engineers which prepared a feasibility report on the Channel Tunnel from 1958 to 1960 and was Project Engineer for further studies in 1964. When the Tunnel was eventually constructed he was a member of the Disputes Panel, gaining valuable experience for a similar role on the Øresund crossing.
Perhaps his most important tunnel design was for the Cargo Tunnel at Heathrow Airport, in the late 1960s. This 10  m diameter shallow tunnel in London clay was shield driven 7  m below an operating runway and was publicly stated by some engineers to be unbuildable – there would be a risk of face loss (in fact just 0.25  %) and high probability of unacceptable settlements (limited to 11  mm). The tunnel is still in daily use.
The 80  km Orange-Fish irrigation tunnel in South Africa, at about the same time, used an observational method to choose the detail of the primary support – using sprayed concrete with or without rock bolts depending on the measured tunnel convergence. He felt that Peck’s description of the Observational Method was unnecessarily detailed: “observational design” provides a better way of emphasising the central part that observation of the manner in which the ground is actually behaving must play not only in the design process but also in the way in which tunnelling projects are procured and managed. If the purpose of observation had been understood then the imminent collapse of the Heathrow Express tunnel would certainly have been evident. His views on the New Austrian Tunnelling Method were well known – it was certainly not new, not Austrian and not really a “method”.
In retirement Alan Muir wood remained an active consultant with Halcrow. He was an expert witness on the Abbey-stead, Lancashire, water treatment works explosion; advisor to the House of Commons and others on the route and likely structural damage from the Jubilee underground line in London; member of the Review Board for the extension of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit; member of the Review Board on Sydney Ocean Outfalls; expert witness on the Melbourne City Link; and an adviser on the collapse of the tunnel being constructed over a railway line at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
He published widely, maintaining a perpetual interest in the fundamental mechanics underpinning civil engineering design. If you could not explain the mode of operation on the back of an envelope then he would be suspicious: numerical analysis was never a substitute for engineering understanding. He was always interested in the history of engineering. His work on Brunel’s Thames Tunnel led him to work by Thomas Young on the line of thrust in arch bridges: a paper was published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers just before he died.
He had a healthy desire to keep engineering deliberations in the hands of engineers who were seeking after the truth rather than lawyers whose loyalty was only to their clients. One of his last conversations, with a grandson on the Tuesday before he died, was about whether or not arbitration had been improved through the introduction of lawyers-arbitrators ...
He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1977–78); founding President and Honorary Life President of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Associa-tion – ITA (1973–2009); Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engi-neering, the Royal Society, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering.
David Muir Wood,
Prof. of Civil Engineering, Bristol/UK
Adding a personal remark we would like to express our deep sadness about the loss of Sir Alan Muir Wood. We always held him in high esteem not only because of his remarkable professional skill but also as colleague and friend. We like to remember the various discussions with him in complex technical matters as well as strategic thoughts with regards to ITA. We will keep him an honourable memory.
February 2009, Cologne, Germany

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h.
Günter Girnau,
Former President of ITA
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alfred Haack, Former President of ITA
Dr.-Ing. Roland Leucker, Managing Director, STUVA e.V., Research Association for Underground Transportation Facilities
Dr.-Ing. Axel Städing,
Chairman of DAUB,
German Tunnelling Committee