Les Louis
Engineers Australia - Queensland Division Past President 2003
LOUIS, Les,
FIEAust CPEng RPEQ
EDUCATION
BE (Civil) - University of Queensland 1962
MSCE (Purdue)
CAREER
Les graduated from the University of Queensland at the end of 1962 and began employment with the then Main Roads Department in January 1963. After working in Townsville until 1965, he went to Purdue University in Indiana, USA where he obtained his post graduate qualification. On returning to the Main Roads Department, he worked on the implementation of the Brisbane Freeway system and progressed through various roles in the Department culminating in his appointment to the position of Executive Director Southern Queensland, located in Toowoomba.
He resigned from this role to become the national Director Highways for Hyder Consulting in 1996, and began his own consulting practice in January 2000, which he has operated since. Much of his practice has been in writing technical manuals including the Road Planning and Design Manual for the Department of Main Roads (now Transport and Main Roads), and Austroads Design Guides on Freeways and Road Tunnel design. The Main Roads Road Planning and Design Manual (2000 - 2003) was awarded an Engineers Australia Excellence Award in 2002. Les has been the principal author of the Austroads Guide to Road Tunnels from its inception through various updates until 2022, working under the expert guidance of the Austroads Tunnel Task Force.
Presidents Highlights 2003
Les was the Queensland Division President in 2003. He adopted "Infrastructure" as a major theme for the year, continuing on from the good work done by Leeanne Bond and Dick Wharton in the previous two years. A major paper, "Advancing Queensland's Infrastructure - An Action Agenda" was developed to document the Division’s views on infrastructure planning, implementation and maintenance, and included a proposal for an Infrastructure Advisory Council. This was presented to the Government of the day.
The Queensland Engineering Hall of Fame was inaugurated in that year and the initial inductees, Professor R.W. Hawken, Mr. Don Fry and Dr. Ian Cameron were announced at the Hawken Address in Engineering Week.
A significant development in the year was the formation of an alliance between QUT and Engineers Australia, Queensland Division to provide stand-alone subjects for engineers in their CPD activities at a 10% discount.
A new Local Group was formed in Roma that year but unfortunately, the Mt Isa group closed.
The new Professional Engineers Act came into force in January 2003, with a revised Code of Conduct for Queensland Engineers.
The Division Committee was restructured that year to improve efficiency and responsiveness reducing the number of committee members to 12. This year also saw a change in the Executive Director after Richard Moore resigned and Paul Hummel was appointed.
Sources:
Biography supplied by Les Louis 2024