OPINION Award for Amy well deserved

Apart from playing a pivotal role in the construction of the city’s landmark Northern Spire crossing, Amy Wright has also been helping women bridge the gender gap into a career in engineering.

Amy, from Houghton, is a Senior Site Engineer at Farrans Construction,

Now working in Belfast for Farrans, she was a member of the core team working on the construction of Northern Spire for three years before it opened to traffic at the end of August last year.

She has also worked tirelessly to promote engineering to thousands of students in the region, running workshops, giving lectures, organising site visits to Northern Spire and creating the Inspire competition, amongst other initiatives.

She said: “Women are hugely underrepresented in engineering and on building sites, in particular,

“The more we make ourselves visible, the more normal it becomes to see women in these roles and every little helps to try and redress the lack of diversity within the industry.”

So it’s nice to see that the 28-year-old has been rewarded for her work on the bridge and for her efforts to attract more women into the industry.

Amy has been named as a finalist in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Young Woman of the Year Awards 2018.

And she was one of six British female engineers in the final.

“Although I didn’t win, I was still delighted with the honour to stand beside the other amazing finalists,” she said.

“My award application focussed very much on working on the bridge and the impact this will have on my home town and they produced a brilliant video to reflect this.”

We’d also like to say well done to Amy for her part in creating a magnificent Wearside landmark and for helping break down barriers for women in the engineering sector.