The BGA is sad to announce that Gerwyn Price, formerly of the BRE Geotechnics Division, and Founder and Director of the I&M firm, CMCS, has died at his home in Wales, aged 87.
Gerwyn was a great scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. He joined BRE (BRS at it was then) Geotechnics in 1968/9 from the Mining Research Establishment, aged just over 30, where he started in Bob Cooke’s section to work on pile behaviour and was soon introducing new instrumentation. The first record for him on the BRE Geotechnics literature database is a report on marine pile tests dated 1970. Over the years the database lists some 87 papers and reports for which he was an author.
Gerwyn worked at BRE for 23 years, becoming head of a dedicated Monitoring Section and pioneering geotechnical monitoring techniques, including taking the Electrolevel out of the lab and applying it to many different places and situations, realising the potential of its accuracy. In the early 1990s he installed monitoring systems for monitoring movement of the Mansion House in the City of London, which was being affected by tunnelling activity needed for the construction of the Docklands Light Railway.
In 1993, Gerwyn left BRE to set up his own I&M company, CMCS. Since its formation Gerwyn led CMCS to carry out a diverse range of projects from large infrastructure monitoring projects like the Jubilee Line Extension Project contracts 102 & 104, the Second Severn Crossing and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to historic buildings like the Leaning Tower of Piza and Castel del Ovo in Naples. While mainly operating in the UK, CMCS also carried out projects in Spain, Italy, The Czech Republic, Canada, The USA, Brazil, Malaysia and Thailand and also supplied equipment to The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for use in China including on the Tianshenqiao Dam, the largest rock filled dam in the world. Gerwyn was always determined to find a way, no matter how difficult the task seemed. He was always full of enthusiasm and energy. He had a great love for his home country Wales.
To the end he still had a lot of projects to do at his home from making bird hangers for the feeders, moulds for a shield he wanted to replicate, to designing a pulley system to stop the sun from coming in on the conservatory window. He was always designing something and coming up with ideas. He was one of a kind, an inspiration to all, and we will greatly miss him.
Statement prepared by Hilary Shields
