New Civil Engineer
08 March 2012
View all stories from this issue.
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British Construction Industry Awards - enter now
Time is running out to enter the 25th Anniversary British Construction Industry Awards with the closing date for entries Thursday 28 March. -
Arup joins Turner & Townsend on Sydney Metro rescue bid
Arup has been brought in by Australia’s New South Wales government to join Turner & Townsend in working to revive plans for a light rail network in Sydney city centre. -
Arup to design Euston High Speed 2 station
Scheme promoter High Speed 2 (HS2) Ltd has appointed consultant Arup to produce preliminary designs for a redeveloped Euston station that will become a new terminus for HS2 and help regenerate the surrounding area. -
Balfour Beatty underlying pre-tax profits jump 9%
Contractor Balfour Beatty witnessed a 9% increase in underlying pre-tax profit in the year to 31 December 2011 and reports a stable order book bolstered by the announcement today of a HK$6.2bn (£507M) contract win by one of its major consortiums in Hong Kong. -
Chief nuclear inspector calls for greater transparency across the industry
Chief nuclear inspector Mike Weightman is calling for more “openness and transparency” within the nuclear industry one year on from the Fukushima disaster in Japan. -
Contractors sign up to government's SME friendly contracts database
Amey, Balfour Beatty and Capita are among the first nine firms to agree to put subcontracts out to tender using the government’s free website Contracts Finder. -
Costain reports steady order book as pre-tax profit takes a small hit
Contractor costain today revealed that its pre-tax profts for 2011 dipped slightly to £25.5M compared with £27.9M for the previous year while its order book remained steady at £2.5bn, compared with £2.4bn previously. -
Edinburgh to be home to Green Investment Bank
The government’s Green Investment Bank is to be headquartered in Edinburgh, it has been announced. -
Gifford takeover helps boost Ramboll order book
Danish consultant Ramboll posted a 13% rise in its turnover in 2011 to €925M (£722M) aided by its takeover UK consultant Gifford, its annual results revealed today. -
Government rubber-stamps Network Rail rebirth
Transport secretary has given her full backing to Network Rail’s plan to restructure itself in order to deliver £1.8bn a year of efficiency savings. -
Green light given to new biomass plant in Bristol
The Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has today approved energy firm Eon’s plans to construct a 150MW biomass plant at Royal Portbury Dock in the Port of Bristol. -
Grontmij to cut agency staff and offshore work to Eastern Europe and Asia in bid to return to profit
Troubled consultant Grontmij is to cut agency staff and offshore design work to Eastern Europe and Asia as part of a wholesale restructure focused on profitable organic growth. -
Japan quake anniversary timely reminder of need for disaster preparedness
Engineering disaster relief charity RedR has used the one year anniversary of the Japan earthquake to stress the need for effective disaster preparation in at-risk countries. -
Keller’s De Waele to head up FPS
The Federation of Piling Specialists has announced that Keller managing director Jim De Waele has been appointed as its new chairman and takes over the position from Bachy Soletanche’s Martin Pratt. -
Letters: Industry needs to take up BIM
The potential for improvement through what is now called BIM has been advocated since at least 1989 when I presented a paper on improving the use of IT at the international conference CivilComp 89.A copy of the proceedings of the conference is in the ICE library. In this paper I advocated electronic sha -
Mike Putnam: recession riding
Skanska UK recently posted a set of results showing increased profits and margins for 2011 over the year before. Antony Oliver talks to chief executive Mike Putnam about his plans to keep driving the business in a difficult market. -
Minister opens new £13M flood defence scheme at Borth
Environment minister John Griffiths has opened the £13M Borth flood defence scheme in west Wales which will protect 420 homes and businesses as well as the Cambrian Coast railway. -
MPs repeat call for Network Rail to have more taxpayer accountability
MPs today repeated their demand for public spending watchdog the National Audit Office to have immediate access to Network Rail costs to enable it to fully scrutinise Department for Transport spending. -
No.7 Heathrow Terminal 5 opens
The Queen officially opened Heathrow Airport’s stunning £4.3bn Terminal 5 at lunchtime on Monday 14 March 2008, 53 years after opening the airport’s first passenger terminal in 1955. -
Picture Gallery: Work to stabilise A890 rockfall fast tracked
More than 40 people from TRAC Engineering are working around the clock to stabilise rock face on the A890 Stromeferry bypass near Kyle in Scotland under a contract let by the Highland Council. -
Poorly thought out infrastructure projects do lead to inflated costs says report
Further evidence that bad projects not bad project managers lead to cost overruns on public projects has been revealed in research seen exclusively by NCE. -
Qatar £6bn rail bonanza holds promise for UK consultants
Multinational consortiums featuring a host of UK consultants were this week waiting to discover whether they will be invited to tender for $10bn (£6.3bn) worth of work on Qatar’s mega-metro and light rail project. -
Royal Haskoning and DHV merger will boost global reach
Dutch based consultants Royal Haskoning and DHV are planning a merger to exploit a greater proportion of the global market and open up new opportunities for engineers, Royal Haskoning management board director Henry Rowe told NCE this week. -
Seven south east water companies initiate hosepipe bans
Seven water companies in drought hit areas have today announced their intention to instigate hosepipe bans from next month. -
Tram-train projects gain regional support
Tram operators were this week eagerly awaiting the outcome of an application for the funding of a Sheffield tram-train pilot scheme in the hope that the system could be rolled out across the country. -
Truss probed in Ilford building collapse
The investigation into the catastrophic collapse of a steel-framed building in East London was this week focusing on the main steel truss supporting the roof and top three floors. -
Views sought on new anchor guidelines
The Concrete Fixing Association (CFA) is requesting views on its new anchor guidelines document, which is out for public consultation this week. -
Vinci beats Balfour Beatty to £800M Hounslow highways maintenance PFI deal
The London Borough of Hounslow Council has named Vinci preferred bidder for a 25 year contract to upgrade and maintain its 432km of roads and 763km of pavements. -
Water special: All dried out
After a second dry winter in south east England, drought is making the headlines. But whose responsibility is it to make sure we all have enough water? Margo Cole reports. -
Water special: Coping with water shortages
How can we tackle annual droughts? ICE water panel chairman Michael Norton looks at the options -
Water special: Sinking solution
An unusual technique has been adopted as part of a major upgrade to York’s clean water supply. Margo Cole reports from Acomb Landing. -
Welsh government proposes new tunnel for Brynglas bottleneck
The Welsh Government yesterday launched a consultation on new plans to tackle the notorious bottleneck at Brynglas with a major online widening scheme that would include a new tunnel on the M4, near Newport in south Wales.
