One of his notable achievements includes the drafting of a new NEC clause on the application of ECC Secondary Option X20. This clause emphasizes key performance indicators, focusing on timely clearance of site portions and early completion of tree survey reports for a site formation contract with Hong Kong’s Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD).

Francis has also led several award-winning projects recognized for their sustainable, innovative and collaborative practices under NEC frameworks.

How did you come about integrating NEC practices into your professional work and projects?

NEC contracts are renowned for fostering collaborative relationships and effective communication between all parties involved, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget. My journey as an Approved NEC Expert by the CEDD of the HKSAR Government began on June 9, 2015. After that, I have been actively involved in advocating for NEC adoption in ArchTam projects, as well as training resident site staff and head office staff on the practice. In July 2021, we published ArchTam’s NEC Administration Handbook — a key milestone on best practice and internal knowledge sharing. This was followed by a series of training sessions over the subsequent years to ensure that our practitioners are well-versed in NEC practices.

What has been the most rewarding experience in your career?

There’re plenty that I could cite, but a more recent one is our work on the Kwu Tung North and Fanling North New Development Area (NDA) Phase 1 project. We delivered two innovative solutions for this project — Hong Kong’s first bridge rotation over live railway tracks, which set a new benchmark for efficiency and safety by saving three months of construction time; and the world’s first use of ultra-high strength S960 steel in footbridge construction that not only achieved a remarkable reduction in the superstructure’s weight but also enhanced safety for the community.

This project also received the Grand Award in the ‘Demonstrating carbon dioxide reduction initiatives towards net-zero category’ at NEC Martin Barnes Awards 2024, and we’re honored to have been part of this achievement.

You continuously engage with the community to promote NEC. How has this shaped your experience in incorporating NEC principles into your work?

Engaging with the NEC community has profoundly shaped my understanding of NEC and how I applied its principles. Through participation in conferences, webinars and workshops, I have exchanged ideas with industry thought leaders and stay at the forefront of NEC’s evolving best practices and innovations within its framework.

Some highlights from my earliest involvements:

• April 2019:  Panelist at Hong Kong Construction Industry Council in April 2019
• August 2021: Shared insights on the evolution of NEC in Hong Kong for Project Management Institute Singapore’s international webinar
• November 2024: Spoke on fostering collaboration (NEC’s core principle of NEC) at the NEC Asia Pacific Conference, where the focus was.

These experiences have broadened my perspective, and I translated my newly gained knowledge into my projects. For example, the Tung Chung New Town Extension – Reclamation and Advance Works project which won NEC Contract Innovation Award in 2020; the Fanling Bypass Eastern Section and the Kwu Tung North & Fanling North NDA projects which received commendations for their excellence in NEC implementation for transportation and sustainability.

These have been great achievements not only for ArchTam but also for Hong Kong’s engineering community. As NEC is an evolving practice, constant engagement and collaboration are crucial in advancing its application to enhance innovative and sustainable solutions in the construction industry.

Francis was named Runner-up for the Individual Excellence Award at the NEC Martin Barnes Awards 2025 among strong competition, in recognition of his continued leadership and innovation in NEC applications across Hong Kong.

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The driving rain of the hurricane and the falling ash and flames of the wildfire are putting our critical infrastructure to the test as the frequency and intensity of natural disasters increases around the world. When showtime arrives, nobody wants it to fail.

People want to be confident in the resiliency of their critical infrastructure – utilities, transport, emergency services – particularly during extreme weather events. To deliver this, we must spend the seemingly boring sunny days in between reimagining our critical infrastructure so that when extreme weather does arrive, we’re prepared.

At the VERGE 21 conference, a virtual COP26 climate tech event, I was asked to reflect on this in a panel focused on How to Build a Resilient Grid for the 21st Century. All three panelists agreed on the new modeling tools available; the seemingly sudden motivation to make our electricity grids more climate resilient following the onslaught of extreme weather disasters; the nearly overwhelming amount of work and collaboration required to get our critical infrastructure where we need to be; and the fact that we’re already late in doing so. One attendee commented on sea level rise, saying they hadn’t considered the slower, more insidious climate disasters and instead have been focusing on hurricanes, storms and wildfires.

I spoke on the Dumbarton Bridge West Approach + Adjacent Communities Resilience Case Study, a sea level rise vulnerability assessment we recently conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the initial aim of the project was to understand the potential for flooding across a critical transportation corridor, the purpose quickly shifted from protecting the bridge, to reimagining a holistically climate resilient Silicon Valley landscape, including electrical utilities, transportation (roadways, bridges), technology and the neighboring environmental justice community, East Palo Alto.

Our involvement in this project resulted in six key takeaways for resilient infrastructure implementation, which could be employed anywhere in the world, including in your community:

1: Critical infrastructure cannot be protected in silos. Looking to protect one component may weaken or strengthen neighboring infrastructure. Integrated and collaborative planning is key to climate resilience success.

2: Consider your neighbors – and collaborate. Critical infrastructure often sits adjacent to disadvantaged communities. What’s generally thought of as good from a planning-level exercise, may not work on the ground. Public outreach to neighboring and potentially impacted communities provides educational opportunities on both sides, resulting in more robust alternatives.

3: Employ Nature-based Solutions. Drawing on Nature-based Solutions for landscape-level climate resilience is a win-win for the landscape and the assets they are protecting. In East Palo Alto, the development of horizontal or living levees, which are gently sloping vegetated berms rather than traditional levees, would increase flood protection and allow the marshes do their job – accrete sediment and grow over time to absorb sea waters and dampen winter storm wave impacts, while providing wildlife and plants upslope runways to move as water levels rise.

4: Include redundancy for resiliency. Things break down, particularly during extreme weather. We cannot count on 100 percent resilience because so many factors are at play. Systems and people fail. It is imperative to incorporate redundancy and multiple layers of protection.

5: Acknowledge the huge efforts involved. The Dumbarton Bridge planning-level project took two years. It was a complicated puzzle to develop feasible alternatives solutions. Implementation will require massive capital investment, long lead times, and collaboration.

6: Climate change planning may not be flashy, but it’s essential. Advance planning for long-term impacts is not reactionary. Sunny day planning is critical for showtime success.

As the world looks to COP26, let’s take action now. Several new funding options are available, and the opportunities are endless.

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As part of our continued focus on safety, we’re demonstrating our commitment to road safety by supporting the 6th Annual United Nations Global Road Safety Week. Simply put, low speed streets save lives. This year’s U.N. program focuses on keeping the streets and roadways safe where we live, work and play. There is considerable focus and urgency on this issue because everyone deserves the safety of low-speed, livable streets, which can have an effect on public health through the reduction of injury causing vehicle accidents and impact climate change by reducing vehicle emissions. This focus can also promote social and racial equality as a large portion of speed-related incidents occur in underserved communities.

Speeding is one of the top causes of roadway incidents around the globe, and as a globally focused organization, ArchTam has signed the “Streets for Life: For People and Planet” open letter that calls on policymakers to act for low speed streets worldwide, limiting speeds to 20 mph (30 km/h) where people walk, live and play.

As the world’s premier infrastructure consulting firm, ArchTam has helped conceptualize, develop, construct and operate transportation and roadway infrastructure projects around the world — from Honolulu to Hong Kong, and from Mumbai to Memphis to Melbourne. We have always placed a strong focus on roadway safety both in design and execution.

To achieve this, we have developed procedures and systems that include driver safety training for our more frequent business drivers, journey management planning, and design and quality checks. We’ve brought in foremost industry experts — the best and brightest from around the world to ensure that we continue to provide the high-quality expertise and delivery our clients expect from us, with an unwavering focus on safety. Road and driving safety is of particular importance to our company due to our exposure to the risk associated with it. Specifically, despite our project and geographical diversity, driving is one of the few risks that everyone is exposed to regardless of business.

You can learn more about the U.N.’s Global Road Safety Week by visiting the program’s website and you can view the open letter here.

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Vehicle crashes consistently rank as one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, exacting heavy emotional and financial tolls on individuals, communities and society. Preventing these accidents is a top priority for decision makers around the country. We must recognize that our roadways, as they are, reinforce dangerous tendencies for drivers and pedestrians and that our fatal and severe crashes are a critical and preventable public health issue.

This is where future-looking initiatives like Vision Zero come in and change the way the transportation industry, communities and elected officials handle their roadways.

Vision Zero, already adopted by several major U.S. cities including Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington DC and throughout Europe, is based on a set of principles which declares that all actions should adhere to the following:

• Traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable
• No loss of life is acceptable
• Human life and health are prioritized
• Human error is inevitable and transportation systems should be forgiving
• People are vulnerable and speed is a fundamental predictor of crash survival
• Focus on systems-level changes above influencing individual behavior

The Citizens of Philadelphia were introduced to the initiative in December 2015 with the first Vision Zero conference and began to consider how it would be applied to their city. Mayor Jim Kenny hired the first Director of Complete Streets in 2016 and Philadelphia’s Vision Zero Action Plan released an overall goal of zero traffic deaths by 2030. The action plan laid out the following priorities, equitable to all citizens:

• Save lives by reducing the number of traffic-related deaths and severe injuries
• Improve overall performance of streets system and prioritize the safety of those using our streets who are most vulnerable
• Reduce Philadelphians’ risk for developing chronic diseases by promoting active transportation
• Shift trips from motorized to active modes of transportation to reduce congestion, improve air quality and improve health safety

This plan kicked off the current movement to make Philadelphia a safe and truly accessible city. In an effort to build for tomorrow, the data-driven approach has allowed the city to focus on its high injury network of roads. The corridors with the highest rates of fatalities and severe injuries cover 50 percent of all major incidents in just 12 percent of Philadelphia streets.1 Paired with focusing on the most dangerous roadways, instituting protected bike lanes, newly designed curbless intersections and aesthetically-pleasing designs have only increased the ability of Philadelphians to get around in a safe, sustainable manner.

In parallel with the City’s initiative, organized by the Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition, ArchTam has been an avid supporter and partner in the Vision Zero conference each year since its inception. In 2018, we were challenged to develop a way to help the different road users to be empathetic to each other’s experiences. We developed a 3D virtual reality experience that invoked emotional reactions from those who tried it. The VR allowed the viewer to experience a busy road as a pedestrian, bicyclist or driver with varying levels of sidewalk and bicycle lanes (protected and unprotected). The immersive experience gave attendees a glimpse into the perspective of other roadway users.

The project’s collaborative nature has allowed all stakeholders to have a say enforcing the notion that we’re all working together for safer streets. Community members from all walks of life are working together and empathizing with one another to better understand how we can transform our current environment and build safer ones in the future – together.

1: Vision Zero Philadelphia Three-Year Action Plan

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