SYSTRA bolsters its Manchester team

SYSTRA has appointed four new associates to its Manchester-based team to reflect its growing workload in transport planning and engineering in the North of England.

Peter Black joins the environmental team as an associate. Black has 25 years of experience in development planning. He led the planning, environment and sustainability work streams for several rail franchise bids for Abellio and FirstGroup. Black has also worked for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), where he led the environmental, planning and civic design for the Manchester Metrolink extensions. He is a chartered member of the RTPI and a member of the Arboricultural Association.

David Weir joins as an associate director. He has over 25 years of experience of highway infrastructure projects. He is managing several projects across the region including Haydock Industrial Estate, a transport infrastructure project for the A580. Previously at Curtins Consulting, he spent 20 years in the US with construction and engineering firm URS, then Parsons Transportation Group. Weir is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers in the US and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Gabriella Sala has been appointed as an associate director. Sala has 18 years of experience of modelling, specifically its integration with geographic information systems. She is working on the Sheffield City Region Model project, as well as a peer review for TfGM’s tram-train project. Sala joins from MiC, Milan, and is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineering (Italy).

Carl Peers joins as an associate director. Ha has worked for 13 years on sustainable transport strategies, transport assessments, environmental statements and travel plans for development projects. He was previously at development planning consultancy i-Transport LLP and is a member of Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.