It is with great sadness that the British Group of IABSE announces the sudden death of Angus Low. He was
a long time Fellow of IABSE and well-known stalwart of the UK bridge community, and he died last week
following an accident.
Angus was a Fellow of IABSE, later elected as Honorary Member, and was for many years Honorary
Secretary of the British Group. He studied Engineering at Cambridge University and joined Arup in London
in 1968. Initially he worked on the design of building structures, but after a spell working on site with
contractor Christiani & Nielsen he returned to Arup, joining the Bridge Group, working alongside the likes
of Robert Benaim, among others. He quickly made a name for himself and was well known for wanting to
really get to grips with the roots of an engineering design challenge, and to seek natural solutions
emerging from a deep understanding of the constraints. He worked on many of the iconic bridge designs
for which Arup became famous, often working alongside well-known bridge architects. Projects include
the including the River Medway crossing for the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel
Tunnel with Wilkinson Eyre, the Arstaviken railway viaduct in Stockholm with Foster and Partners,
Nesciobrug – a dramatic pedestrian and cycle suspension bridge in Amsterdam with Wilkinson Eyre and
the Drachten Ring in Holland, to name just a few. He also contributed to the concept design for the
Queensferry Crossing in Scotland.
Angus was awarded the Milne Medal by the British Group in 2007, in recognition of his outstanding skill
and design leadership over many years, and a paper arising from his Milne Medal address was published in
The Structural Engineer in 2008. A fascinating short video about his work designing bridges can be found
here.
Angus was a great advocate of traditional methods of design, including the vital importance of hand
sketches and drawings, and he continued to work with a drawing board long after they had generally been
replaced by CAD machines in the office.
Angus was a larger-than-life and recognisable character, with a fascination for all things connected with
bridges and bridge design. He enjoyed the Study Visit to Belgium in October 2022, organised by the British
Group of IABSE to go and see interesting bridges and structures by Ney & Partners, Greisch and Calatrava.
Never short of an interesting opinion or fascinating story, he was an inspiration to many and great
company wherever he went. He will be sorely missed by the whole bridge engineering community in the
UK and further afield.
Ian Firth
Chairman, British Group of IABSE