Residents living in the Barns Elm area of Putney and Barns have been fighting for months against Thames Water’s plans to construct a waste transfer jetty and tunnelling compound on the Barns Elm site. The ‘Stop the Shaft’ committee, in conjunction with local councillors, has garnered much local support in their attempt to halt the controversial plans, but some interesting new research looks likely to tip the balance in their favour even more.

A survey carried out on visitor habits over the past twelve months has revealed that a huge number of people have taken advantage of the many recreational and sporting facilities the Barns Elm playing fields and beauty spot has to offer. Between April 2010 and March 2011, tens of thousands of children and adults used the Barns Elm playing fields, jogged, cycled and walked along the Barns Elm river towpath, and visited the Barns Elm jetty and boathouse. Some of these were visitors from outside of the area, but many were from local schools, colleges, and sporting clubs.

Given such findings, it is hardly surprising that local councillors and residents are fighting so hard to put a stop to Thames Water’s plans for a tunnelling drive at Barns Elm. Tunnelling and construction work over several years will inevitably have a negative impact on the local area for the next generation as well as local wildlife.

Sian Baxter, chairwoman of the Stop the Shaft Committee, made this statement to the local press: “Thames Water need to understand how many thousands of Londoners will be affected if they locate the main drive shaft at Barn Elms, not to mention the impact on wildlife,” she said before adding, “Playing fields and natural spaces are too scarce as it is and once lost they will be gone forever, we must fight to protect them now.”

A joint venture team are about to start work on a new water supply tunnel in Vancouver, Canada. The $150 million contract involves the construction of a 1 km water tunnel and two excavation shafts. The tunnel will be 3.2 metres in diameter and will have to be able to withstand an earthquake of at least 8 or 9 on the Richter scale.

After a previous earthquake in 1997, disruptions to the water supply in the Vancouver area caused by river bed scour meant that large numbers of people were without a reliable water supply for nearly twelve months—it took more than a year to repair the damaged section of water main.

The water supply pipeline is responsible for feeding water to many municipalities south of the Fraser River and the local authority is determined that the new water supply tunnel should be constructed to a standard that is capable of withstanding a mega earthquake within 300 miles of the Vancouver area.

Work is about to begin on the south shaft. Once this section has been completed by the summer of 2012, the tunnel boring machine will be moved in to the shaft to start excavation work on the water supply tunnel.

A specialist piece of tunnel boring equipment known as a Hydrofraise will be used to excavate the perimeter of the tunnel shaft. Tungsten carbide cutting blades break the soil up and it is pumped back up to the surface using a suction device. Concrete is poured in around the perimeter of the panels and once this has set, excavation work can begin on the central tunnel section.

The joint venture team, featuring the Aecon Group Inc., anticipate that the work on the water supply tunnel project will reach completion by the summer of 2014.

This year’s Infrastructure Show, organised in conjunction with ICE and NCE, will be taking place on October 19. The Infrastructure Show is a major date in the calendar for those who work in the UK civils sector and regular attracts a large number of industry players, but this year, Crossrail will also be represented at the event in a show of support.

Crossrail is going to be involved in two of the top attractions at the Infrastructure Show, the Rail and Airport Hubs, and the show’s event director, Rob Lozowski, has already expressed his delight in a statement made to the NCE:

“Their leadership, expertise and willingness to talk with the supply chain is incredibly significant and valuable. As the national forum for the civil engineering community, The Infrastructure Show is not just setting the agenda for the sector but is working with its major players to share knowledge, deal with the issues and drive it forward.”

Andy Mitchell, programme director for Crossrail, will be giving several talks in the Rail Hub discussing how the Crossrail project has been striving to reduce the damaging effects of cost overruns and delays. Other key Crossrail directors will also be present to answer any questions visitors to the Infrastructure might have.

BAA is also going to be well represented at this year’s show. Phil Wilbraham, project leader, will be taking a place in the Airport Hub and Chris Elliott, BAA infrastructure programme director, will be in the new keynote theatre discussing ways of reducing project costs through collaboration. Sean Horkan, master plan and capacity director, will be giving a talk on future innovation in UK infrastructure.

Another key figure planning on being present at the Infrastructure Show is Roger Plank, the president of the Institution of Structural Engineers.

A worker has tragically been killed following a large explosion in a tunnel in Onehunga in South Auckland, New Zealand. Contractors were working on the site of a water main on Saturday morning when the blast occurred. One man was killed and six more were injured as a result of the explosion.

Two teams of contractors were working on the site to connect a new water main to an existing section of water main. A section of water pipe had been removed from the tunnel and the contractors were inspecting the work when the blast happened.

“It is with deep sadness that I confirm there was a serious incident at the site. This is a very dark hour for us – many of the crew on site are like family to us, and my heart goes out to all of those affected by what has happened,” said Mark Ford, chief executive of Watercare Services shortly after news of the fatal explosion was released.

“We are not in a position to say at this stage what caused the explosion, however, we are working closely with the contractors and all the authorities, including the police, fire service and the Department of Labour,” he added.

Thankfully, by the end of the day, only one man remained in a critical condition in hospital. Two other men were said to be stable and the remaining three men had been released from hospital and sent home.

Rescue crews spent several hours ensuring that the site of the explosion was made as safe as possible. All services to the site were isolated, including electricity and gas supplies. Unfortunately, fire crews were unable to enter the tunnel after specialist equipment revealed dangerous amounts of highly flammable gasses. Although the gases were not thought to be toxic, it was considered safer not to venture down into the tunnel until the gases had been identified.

Work began on the Canary Wharf Crossrail station back in 2009 and is now almost at completion. It is the biggest of the Crossrail stations and is also the first one to reach this level of completion, although several other Crossrail stations are progressing well and the Royal Oak tunnel portal, one of five Crossrail tunnel portals, is well under way.

Rail Minister, Theresa Villiers, was present at the Canary Wharf station to see the final bit of soil being excavated and to mark the excellent progress of construction work. She said, “This anniversary represents a major milestone in the building of one of the most exciting transport projects in London today. Crossrail will create economically vital transport infrastructure set to transform the journeys of thousands of passengers.

“Since construction started on Crossrail two years ago, tremendous progress has been made – not only at Canary Wharf, where a station can now be seen to be taking shape – but right across the Crossrail route. Work is underway across all central London station sites – from Paddington to Whitechapel. Tunnelling preparations are expected to begin in late 2011 with full tunnelling commencing in spring 2012.”

Construction work on the Canary Wharf site has adopted an unconventional top down approach and workers are currently working at 28 metres below ground level. Although the ticket hall and platform levels have now been excavated, the station box has not yet been completed and this will have to be done before the tunnel boring machines break through from the east next year.

Some 300,000 tonnes of material has been excavated from the Canary Wharf site. A small percentage of the material has been re-used during the construction phase, but the majority was transported via river barrage to help with the construction of a nature reserve in a former landfill site.

Following the recent collapse of a section of Victorian sewerage infrastructure in Preston, Lancashire, engineers have been battling to repair the damage and restore traffic flow to the area. Contractors comprising of a joint venture team of J Murphy & Sons, Kier and Interserve Construction are excavating the section of sewer so that the damaged section can be replaced with new concrete pipe.

This is not the first time the sewers have caused problems in the Preston area. In April, another section of sewer collapsed and last year work was temporarily halted on the £144 million Preston Environmental Improvement Scheme when a tunnel lining failed.

Engineers have used mobile cameras to try and ascertain the extent of the damage on the latest sewer collapse, but so far the cause of the problems are not obvious, although the age of the sewer pipes is probably a major factor in this particular case.

Phase one of the sewer repair programme is already underway and contractors expect the repair work to last around six weeks as the damaged sewer is excavated and replaced with new concrete pipe. In the meantime, the repair work has caused some road closures in the local area.

Thankfully, the sewer collapse has not affected the KMI Water and United Utilities £114 million sewerage improvement project currently underway nearby. KMI and United Utilities are constructing a 3.5 km tunnel, a 5km rising tunnel, pumping station, river crossing to a waste water treatment plant, and several associated tunnels and shafts.

The sewerage improvement scheme began last year and is intended to prevent sewerage discharging into the River Ribble. Contractors have already had their share of problems and a tunnel boring machine ran into difficulties when the tunnel lining failed during excavation work beneath the River last November.

A massive tunnel boring machine will soon be transported all the way from Germany to dig the deepest tunnel in the UK to help construct the four mile long Lee Tunnel deep beneath the streets of east London as part of the Thames Tunnel project. Once it arrives on site, the Herrenknecht TBM will be reassembled deep underground and set to work boring the Lee Tunnel.

The Lee Tunnel in east London is one of two tunnels being constructed by Thames Water in an effort to try and solve the sewage problem in the area. For many years, London’s Victorian sewers have been struggling to cope with the waste produced from the greater London area and during periods of heavy rain, large amounts of sewage effluent have been leaking into the River Thames and River Lee.

The project is costing £635 million and once completed, the Lee Tunnel will channel around 16 million tonnes of sewage away from the River Lee. Collectively, once the two tunnels have been constructed and are fully operational, a total of 39 million tonnes of raw sewage will be directed away from the most polluting sewer overflows along the River Thames and River Lee.

Work on the Lee Tunnel is scheduled to begin in January 2012 and the 100 m diameter tunnel boring machine is expected to advance at a rate of 17 metres per day.

When interviewed about the anticipated arrival of the tunnel boring machine from Germany, Lawrence Gosden, Head of Capital Delivery at Thames Water said: “This machine is the best of its kind in the world. Tunnelling is a risky business, especially on a project of this scale, so it’s essential we use the best available technology and ensure every last detail meets our unique requirements,”

According to this morning’s news reports, the current head of development at Network Rail, Ian Lindsay, has been appointed as the new Crossrail land and property director and will step forward into the new role for Crossrail at the end of June. He will be taking over from the former director of land and property at Crossrail, Keith Berryman. Mr Berryman retired at the end of March after a very successful ten years working on the Crossrail project.

Mr Lindsay will report directly to David Allen, Crossrail finance director, and will be responsible for ensuring the £800 million property acquisition programme continues to run smoothly and on schedule. He will also be keeping an eye on the Chelsea to Hackney Crossrail 2 route as well as managing the progress of the many Crossrail over-site development opportunities as the construction work on the various Crossrail stations continues.

Ian Lindsay’s appointment comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Andrew Wolstenholme has been chosen as the successor for Rob Holden. Mr Wolstenholme is currently the director of innovation and strategic capability for Balfour Beatty.

The news that Andrew Wolstenhome would be stepping into the role of chief executive at Crossrail followed months of speculation and rumours in the wake of Rob Holden’s shock announcement he was leaving. However, many regard Mr Wolstenholme as a very worthy successor to Mr Holden and the news of his appointment was greeted by lots of positive feedback from the construction industry.

Andrew Wolstenholme has an excellent track record in the construction industry and as well as working on a number of important projects, including Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Heathrow Express rail link, he was also the author of the highly influential 2009 report “Never Waste a Good Crisis”.

Westminster Borough Council has approved plans submitted by Great Portland Estates for a development of luxury flats to be built above the new Bond Street Crossrail station in the West End of London. Plans have also been approved for the new Crossrail ticket hall at Bond Street station. Further plans for a separate property development above a different section of the new Crossrail station are likely to be submitted to Westminster Borough Council later this year.

The £500 million development on the corner of Hanover Square, New Bond Street, Tenterden Street and Mayfair will comprise a number of retail, commercial and residential units and will include six luxury flats, which will sell for around £2500 per square foot and are expected to generate at least £20 million once they become available on the property market. However, work on the prestigious development will only be allowed to commence once construction of the eastern ticket hall at Bond Street station has been completed in 2016. Preparatory work has already begun on the Crossrail Bond Street station and contractors will make a start on the next stage of construction next year.

Crossrail finance director, David Allen, made the following statement: “This is the first in a number of significant schemes being made possible by the new Crossrail stations. Crossrail has created an opportunity to develop a new Masterplan for this prominent 1.3 acre site in Mayfair. The plans include a mixed use over-site development above the entrance to Crossrail’s Bond Street station in Hanover Square.

He also added, “Sites above other Crossrail stations are being developed to ensure we take advantage of the regeneration opportunities Crossrail is bringing to London and to ensure that the new railway plays a full role in creating an improved urban environment.”

The first stage of the Crossrail UK Tunnelling and Construction Skills Academy has now been completed and the structural building work is finished. The building has been declared watertight and the internal fit-out will commence shortly. With work running on schedule, the training academy should be open for business by September this year, although some training courses are expected to commence as early as this summer.

A great deal of investment has been poured into the Crossrail UK Tunnelling and Construction Skills Academy, both by Crossrail and by the department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Crossrail expect at least 3,500 people to benefit from the training facilities offered by the skills academy.

The new Crossrail Tunnelling and Construction Skills Academy is being built in Aldersbrook in East London. Once the building has been completed, it will provide facilities including training classrooms, workshop space and a resource library. Courses to be offered include advanced skills in tunnelling excavation and underground construction.

The only other European facility to offer something similar is located in Switzerland and the Crossrail skills academy expects to attract people from all over the UK. As part of its drive to improve the level of tunnelling and excavation skills in the UK, the Crossrail Tunnelling and Construction Skills Academy will be offering a nationally accredited technical and safety qualification in underground safety awareness and best practice.

Crossrail chairman, Terry Morgan, commented: “Crossrail has a vital role to play in supporting wider regeneration as well as creating a major skills legacy. The new Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy is not only a UK first but will support the economy by equipping workers with the specialist skills they need to meet the demand for labour in this area, both for Crossrail and for other major infrastructure projects. It will completely revitalise the UK’s skills base and raise safety standards across the construction industry.”