WATSON Steel boss Joe Locke has been awarded one of the top honours in British engineering.

Mr Locke, who is corporate managing director of the Lostock-based AMEC subsidiary, has been made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

He was granted fellowship status - it is invitation only - for his services to the steelwork industry in more than 40 years since he joined Watson Steel as a student engineer in 1955.

Mr Locke, who received the MBE in 1990, is also a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Fellow of the Institute of Welding.

He is also a past president and the current vice president of the British Constructional Steelwork Association.

In recent years he has steered the company to notable engineering successes throughout the world.

These include the TGV Interchange at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Kansai International Airport in Japan and the new Hong Kong airport at Chek Lap Kok. His principal engineering interests are in the analysis and design of steel structures.

Mr Locke, who lives in Bolton, has sat on numerous national and international committees concerned with the drafting of design codes and is currently the UK member of the executive board of the European Convention of Constructional Steelwork.

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