About…

Heikki Lilja has 25 years of hands-on experience in the design of bridges from a wide variety of roles (design, proof-checking, steering, standard/design guide drafting, client, and national authority) and know-how in transferring research results into everyday practice for safe and sustainable design.

Possessing a deep knowledge of the CEN standardization, especially on the interconnections between different Eurocode parts, he has been involved in the drafting of 2nd generation Eurocodes; most notably Eurocode parts prEN1991-2 Traffic Loads (as a member of the Project Team) and prEN1990 Annex A.2 Design Basis for Bridges (as a Convenor for CEN/TC250/SC10/WG2 Bridges).

Heikki has developed the industry forward with 1st generation National Annexes and various Eurocode-compatible design guides and practices prepared for the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and other organizations, including special and one-off structures that sometimes may fall between different codes, thus lacking ready-made verification rules.

One of his main interests is to increase the reliability of bridge design with novel methods by participating in the development of new design and assessment methods for practice (and the next generations of design standards). Work towards this goal is currently ongoing in IABSE TG 1.10, which Heikki is co-chairing - click here for more info on IABSE TG

Memberships in CEN-standardization:

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 10/WG 02 ”Basis of Design/ Bridges" (Convenor 2017 - ongoing)

  • Project Team SC1.T9 ”Traffic Loads” (Member of PT for EN1991-2)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 1/WG 3 "Traffic loads" (member)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 1/WG 7 "Evolution of EN 1991-1-1, EN 1991-1-6, EN1991-1-7 and EN 1991-3" (member)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 3/WG 13 "Steel bridges” (member)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 3/WG 11 ”Tension elements” (member/Reference group member)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 5/WG 6 ”Timber bridges” (member)

  • TC250 HG Bridges - National Contact person

  • CEN/TC250 ”Structural eurocodes” (HoD Finland 2016-2020)

  • CEN/TC250/SC 1 ”Actions on structures” (HoD Finland 2016-2020)

  • CEN/TC 250/SC 10 ”Design basis” (HoD-Finland 2015-2020)

  • Various roles in most Finnish national mirror committees (e.g. TC250/SC10 ”Design basis” (Chairman))

  • Participation in other organizations:

    • NVF Nordic - Bridges

    • CEDR WG Road Freight Transport

    • IM-SAFE (Following)

    • RIL/TEK

    • IABSE WC1

      (Scientific committee Guimaraes/2019)

      (Scientific committee Ghent/2021)

      See LinkedIn page for more info