The UK government’s Environment Agency has become one of the first major civil engineering clients to commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Ian Hodge, director of asset management and engineering, says it will require close collaboration with the supply chain.

Trial train running has started on the delayed £19 billion Elizabeth line in London, UK. Mark Wild, chief executive officer of client Crossrail Ltd, says the central section will start operating in the first half of 2022 followed by the rest of the line by the end of the year.

National regulation of embodied greenhouse gas emissions in construction is inevitable given the world’s growing commitment to achieving net zero. Toby Maclean of UK environmental structural engineers firm Allt says this needs to go beyond simple life-cycle assessments to be effective.

The ongoing inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell tower fire in London has exposed major shortcomings in the UK construction industry. John Carpenter, former secretary of the Standing Committee on Structural Safety, says civil engineers need to start putting these lessons into practice now.

In addition to Civil Engineering, ICE Proceedings includes 18 specialist journals. Papers and articles published in the most recent issues are listed here. Summaries of all these and other papers and articles published can be read free in the ICE Virtual Library at www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/journals.

On 15 October 2021 ICE president Rachel Skinner will present awards to the following papers published in the various ICE Proceedings journals in 2020. Journal editorial panels nominated their best papers and an awards committee, chaired by Tim Broyd, allocated the awards. These award-winning papers can be downloaded for free from the ICE Virtual Library’s ‘ICE Publishing Awards 2021’ page at https://www

A dramatic new steel footbridge was completed in 2019 to improve access at the popular Tintagel Castle heritage site on clifftops in Cornwall, UK. The Anglo-Belgian design team was selected from 137 entrants in an international design competition. They describe in this paper how the unique cantilevered arch design was developed for this archaeologically sensitive site, with no direct access by road

Today’s civil engineering profession was born in the industrial revolution with the vision of ‘harnessing the forces of nature for the benefit of mankind’. However, the industry’s alarming environmental impact means that civil engineers must urgently change their impact on the world. Viewing the dangers of climate change through the lens of behavioural science, this paper identifies the four ‘levers’

This paper outlines the technical and anecdotal findings of a horizon scanning exercise into the ability of civil engineers to deliver impactful climate action. Examples of interaction between extreme weather and built environment assets are broken down via systems thinking. The concept of unconscious bias is addressed in how infrastructure climate risk is diagnosed; beyond the effects of flooding

In addition to the physical risks of climate change, civil engineers also need to consider the transition risks involved in moving towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions. These include enhanced reporting obligations, stigmatisation of polluting industries and shifts in consumer preferences. This paper reports on a study into the potential role of civil engineers in mitigating transition risks, using

The history of the Nile in Africa offers useful lessons for civil engineers seeking to build a sustainable future, in which climate change is an existential challenge. For thousands of years, communities along the river have sought greater water security at the interface of technical possibility, politics and unpredictable nature. Large projects such as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam and Jonglei

Climate-adaptation projects such as flood defence schemes must deliver wider societal benefits in the communities they protect to ensure long-term resilience and regeneration. This paper presents a case study of the £100 million Boston tidal barrier across the River Witham in Lincolnshire, UK, that now better protects over 13 000 homes from tidal flooding. The United Nations sustainable development

The UK’s largest and longest running coastal defence scheme reduces the coastal flood risk to 40% of Lincolnshire. A concrete seawall, sand dunes and beach frontage provide the primary protection to 45 000 properties across 35 000 ha. Annual beach nourishment sustains the standard of protection, but the cost and carbon dioxide emissions of the sediment volumes required will increase with climate change

The award-winning Bacton sandscaping scheme in Norfolk, UK, provides an excellent case study of how a coastal management solution can be designed to be more resilient to climate change. It is a large-scale beach nourishment, designed to protect the economically important Bacton gas terminal from cliff and beach erosion. It also reduces flood and erosion risk to the nearby communities of Bacton and

Irish Water and Northern Ireland Water are both using ISO 55000 asset management best practice to deliver their respective sewer rehabilitation projects in the island of Ireland. By prioritising, optimising and applying asset management theory, they have added value by increasing their infrastructure lifespans, improving project efficiencies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Their combined programme

A systematic approach is proposed for civil engineers in the Middle East to minimise the impact of their infrastructure projects on climate change. Based on value engineering principles and a carbon dioxide emissions calculator, the approach was applied to three case studies: temporary retaining walls for a deep tunnel; reuse of site-won material from an open-cut tunnel; and design of piled raft foundations

Completed in 2019, the Thameslink Programme was a £7 billion scheme sponsored by the UK government to transform north–south rail travel across London. One of the most challenging elements was the redevelopment of London Bridge station. Following an earlier paper on the collaborative partnership between the client and delivery team, this paper focuses on the engineering challenges. These included removal

Rapid urbanisation of Dhaka in Bangladesh has led to over-abstraction of groundwater and shortages of drinking water. The US$1 billion ‘Dhaka environmentally sustainable water supply project’ aims to resolve this by providing raw water to the city from the Meghna River. The first construction package of a river intake, 22 km raw water pipeline and 500 Ml/day water treatment plant is due for completion

This is an abridged transcript of the inaugural address of Rachel Skinner, who became the 156th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 4 November 2020. Her inauguration included both live speech and filmed elements, all of which are available on the ICE website.

A recent UK infrastructure industry report says that reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions will simply not be possible without making radical changes to the way homes and buildings are heated. Sam Friggens and Monica Donaldson-Balan of Mott MacDonald explain.

Carbon dioxide capture, utilisation and storage is an expensive but necessary option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero. Adina Popa of Mott MacDonald says the UK is well placed to adopt it but more government support is needed to boost investor confidence.

The importance of ensuring fire compartmentation in buildings is properly designed, specified and installed cannot be understated. David Ing of Weare Fabrick says a new industry best-practice guide will help project teams to meet their obligations to deliver safe and secure buildings.

Platform-based design for manufacture and assembly involves using a standard kit of parts and rules. Ben Carlisle and Paul Webb of Mott MacDonald say it represents a cheaper, greener and more socially advantageous way of delivering infrastructure.

In addition to Civil Engineering, ICE Proceedings includes 18 specialist journals. Papers and articles published in the most recent issues are listed here. Summaries of all these and other papers and articles published can be read free in the ICE Virtual Library at www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/journals.

Bridge Street overbridge next to Newport station in south Wales was replaced to enable electrification of the Great Western main line railway between London and Cardiff. The former 120-year-old steel truss bridge was too low and in poor condition, so a half-through weathering steel–concrete composite bridge deck with a smaller structural depth was lifted onto the existing abutments. The new bridge

A specialised emergency field hospital was constructed in record time in Wuhan, China shortly after the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Covering an area of 34 000 m2 and providing 1000 beds, Huoshenshan Hospital was more advanced and had more rigorous isolation systems than most current infectious-disease hospitals, but it was delivered in just 10 days. The rapid construction benefited from

Communities in London and along the tidal River Thames in the UK already benefit from world-class tidal defences, but climate change means flood risk continues to increase. In 2012, the Environment Agency published a plan for how 1.3 million people and £275 billion worth of property will continue to be protected from tidal flood risk until the year 2100. The first 10 years of the plan, which includes

This paper describes the key challenges faced in three recent long-span bridge projects in India and explains how they were overcome through the application of novel construction methods. They include constructability changes in the precast works for the Barapullah elevated corridor phase 3 in New Delhi, a temporary bamboo pile jetty system for Bihar’s New Ganga Bridge project near Patna and a combined

For the first time it is possible to see, understand and manage all national infrastructure as a ‘system of systems’. Mott MacDonald’s Mark Enzer, head of the national digital twin programme at the...

Keeping critical infrastructure such as nuclear sites operational and safe during the Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge. Nick Shaw of the Hazards Forum reports on a recent webin...

In July 2020, the UK national standards body BSI amended the BS 5930 code of practice for ground investigations. David Norbury of the drafting committee explains how this long-established geotechni...

Sir John Armitt, chair of the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission, welcomes the government’s green construction initiatives to kick-start the economy post-Covid-19. But he says the country also...

Hydrogen is set to be a mainstream fuel for heating, power generation, transport and chemical manufacturing. Prem Mahi of Mott MacDonald says civil engineers need to start planning for its adoption...

The greenhouse gas emissions of a range of current and recent built-environment projects in the UK and internationally were studied to give a benchmark of current levels and to identify where impro...

Through collaborative working, staff engagement, grassroots input, culture change and leadership support, the Greater West Programme rose to the challenge of ‘delivering environmental benefits and ...

The UK’s £3 billion Great Western railway electrification programme was completed in 2019, enabling electric trains to run from London to south Wales. This paper describes the complex testing and c...

Overhead contact wires on electrified railways often have to deviate from their standard height to pass over road crossings or under overbridges. Long height transitions are usually needed to ensur...

A vast volume of documentation was generated by the £3 billion electrification of the Great Western railway in the UK. It was therefore critical to have early agreed requirements and well-configure...

Overhead line electrification of existing railway lines is an essential contribution to sustainable, low-emissions public transport. Civil engineering enables a programme of electrification through...

Electrification of the Great Western railway between London and south Wales in the UK required the design and installation of 13 000 individual foundations for overhead line equipment along 650 km ...

Worker fatigue is an important risk factor in civil engineering and construction projects, particularly when night-time shift working is required. It is a significant cause of accidents and negativ...

Patchway rail tunnels in Bristol were a major obstacle to the £3 billion electrification of the Great Western railway between London and south Wales, completed in December 2019. The tracks in the t...

Building information modelling (BIM) transformed the delivery of Network Rail’s Greater West programme, which included electrification of the Great Western railway between London and south Wales in...

Lei Yue Mun quarantine camp was the first Covid-19 isolation facility built in Hong Kong. The camp’s two sites provide 352 rooms built using innovative modular integrated construction. Smart constr...

Through collaborative working, staff engagement, grassroots input, culture change and leadership support, the Greater West Programme rose to the challenge of ‘delivering environmental benefits and sustainable outcomes to the highest industry standard’, with the strong belief that ‘environmental protection and sustainable development are everyone’s business’. The programme developed and implemented

A vast volume of documentation was generated by the £3 billion electrification of the Great Western railway in the UK. It was therefore critical to have early agreed requirements and well-configured information management systems, automation and visualisation to control and manage documentation effectively. Displaying the right information at the right time to the right people gave the programme team

Overhead contact wires on electrified railways often have to deviate from their standard height to pass over road crossings or under overbridges. Long height transitions are usually needed to ensure safe and reliable operation, otherwise line speeds need to be restricted. This paper sets out how data analysis combined with advanced simulation of the dynamic interaction between pantograph and overhead

Overhead line electrification of existing railway lines is an essential contribution to sustainable, low-emissions public transport. Civil engineering enables a programme of electrification through clearance of the route and the protection of the public from live overhead wires. This paper considers the key civil engineering works carried out as part of the £3 billion Great Western railway electrification

The Patchway rail tunnels in Bristol were a major obstacle to the £3 billion electrification of the Great Western railway between London and south Wales, completed in December 2019. The tracks in the three nineteenth-century brick-arch tunnels needed to be lowered to provide the required clearances for new overhead line equipment. Extensive surveys, stability analyses and strengthening measures were

Electrification of the Great Western railway between London and south Wales in the UK required the design and installation of 13 000 individual foundations for overhead line equipment along 650 km of live railway tracks. A key design requirement was to provide a simple method of allocating large volumes of foundations while providing a robust design for the wide range of ground conditions, topographies

The UK’s £3 billion Great Western railway electrification programme was completed in 2019, enabling electric trains to run from London to south Wales. This paper describes the complex testing and commissioning process required to bring the new overhead line system into service. Starting with testing the new overhead line equipment design on a dedicated 21 km test track in Leicestershire, the testing

The 540 m Tahya Misr Bridge over the Nile in Cairo, Egypt was completed in 2019. At 67.3 m wide, it is the widest cable-stayed crossing in the world. The crossing has an innovative configuration, w...

A specialised emergency field hospital was constructed in record time in Wuhan, China shortly after the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Covering an area of 34 000 m2 and providing 1000 b...

Prior to the 1970s it was common for the designers of major civil engineering projects to use experimental tests on reduced-scale physical models to complement design calculations made by hand. Sin...

This paper describes the challenging temporary works used for demolishing the vast Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, UK, in particular the removal of a major access bridge and one of the mai...

Three new adits were required between existing underground railway platform tunnels on the Bank station capacity upgrade project in London, UK. Normally they would have been built by traditional ha...

Beijing Daxing International, which officially opened in September 2019 after 5 years of construction, is the largest airport in China and has the world’s biggest airport terminal. It is also the f...

David Thorpe of The One Planet Centre says boosting the green jobs market will help to drive economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. Examples include promoting labour-intensive retrofitt...

The International Organization for Standardization has published new free guidelines on environmental communication. Chair of the drafting committee John Shideler, of US consultancy Futurepast, say...

Priti Parikh of University College London and Petter Matthews of Engineers Against Poverty say civil engineers will be in even more demand to deliver the United Nations’ sustainable development goa...