Minutes of the meeting of Coleraine Probus Club

Attendance: 31 members were in attendance.

Apologies: Joe Alcorn, Jim Archer, Jim Gordon, John Graham, Graham Kane, Cecil Leitch, Norman Maxwell, John McGlade, John McHenry, James Nesbitt, Nigel Semple, John Tan and Gordon Ward. (13)

The Vice President Mike Turner welcomed members and guest William Rosborough to the meeting. This morning’s speaker, Billy Miller, was introduced, the topic of his talk being “The A 26 Road Upgrade”.

Billy is a Senior Civil Engineer with the Department for Infrastructure Transport N.I. (Formerly The Road Service).

The Upgrade of the A26 from Glarryford to the Drones Road Strategic Plan was published in 2005. Finance for the contract was made available in 2013. In October 2015 the tender of the Main Contractors, Bam/McCann was accepted in the sum of 55 million pounds. The contract is due for completion during the Summer of 2017.

Billy related in detail the management of the Project and described the various obstacles and solutions encountered along the way.

The aerial video illustrated the magnitude of the A26 road upgrade and the members certainly appreciated Billy’s expert analysis of the project from fruition in 2005 to anticipated completion in 2017.

A searching question and answer session followed the talk.

A brief summary of this talk is available in the speakers’ record book and here on the club website.

A vote of thanks proposed by Leo Dolan was passed to Billy by the Vice President. The members showed their appreciation.

Weekly Business:
Minutes: The minutes of 20th Sept. 2016 were read, approved by the members present and signed by the Vice President.

Matters arising: None not covered by the agenda.

Correspondence: None.

Social: The Vice President said that menus for the Probus lunch on 25th. October 2016 will be available at the next Probus meeting on 11th October 2016.

Welfare: Cecil Spotten said he had nothing new to report.
Treasurer: Nothing to report. An apology was received from Nigel Semple.

AOB : 1. No further business.
The Next Meeting: Will be on Tue.11th October 2016 when the speaker will be Dr. Jaweed Wali on the subject of “Introducing Islam.” On the proposal of the Vice President it was agreed that wives / partners would be invited to the next Club meeting.

The Vice President thanked members for attending and hoped to see everyone at the next meeting.
The meeting closed at 12:09 pm.

Signed: Mike Turner
Vice President
Date: 11th. October 2016.