INNOVATION
Reconnecting London with its river Tideway THE TUNNELLING THE
New Civil Engineer SAFETY DIVERSITY & Major Project Report
COMMUNITY COSTAIN, VINCI CONSTRUCTION GRANDS PROJETS AND BACHY SOLETANCHE ARE PROUD TO DESIGN AND BUILD THE 10KM EAST SECTION OF THE THAMES TIDEWAY TUNNEL.
Our Joint-Venture has been certified ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2004 and BS OHSAS 18001:2007. We aim to deliver not only shafts and tunnels, but also reconnect London with the river Thames.
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VCGP_06 TIDEWAY NCE - V05.indd 1 24/05/2016 14:34 Contents TIDEWAY REPORT JULY 2016
04 Overview
Tideway chief executive Andy Mitchell explains the philosophy of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which will take sewage from combined sewer overfl ows along the tidal Thames for treatment at Beckton Sewage Treatment works
10 Project engineering
How the £4.2bn Tideway project crosses London from Acton in the west to Beckton in the east, connecting with combined sewer overfl ows on the way
12 West section 16 Central section 24 Good Neighbour: Helping the local community understand The 7km West section runs from Acton Contractors working on the 13km the project to Wandsworth following the route of the Central section of the tunnel also have 26 Diversity: Tideway wants its Thames. Work has to be programmed to to build eight access shafts and must workforce to refl ect the communities account for major events like the Oxford repair and rebuild river walls as well as it will serve and Cambridge University Boat Race and reclaiming land from the Thames to the Chelsea Flower Show create a work platform at Blackfriars 28 Low carbon: Work to limit the project’s environmental impact 20 East section 30 System integration: Ensuring seamless transition from construction Value engineering has driven to operation innovation and programme savings 32 Who’s who: Profi les of some of on the 5.5km East section between Tideway’s key players Tower Bridge and Bermondsey where variable ground conditions present a 34 Alliancing: Collaboration and The tunnel follows the route of the Thames major challenge customer focus are key
JULY 2016 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 3 Overview TIDEWAY SYSTEM TIDEWAY REPORT
Cleaning London’s river artery
BY MARK HANSFORD
ince legendary perfectly good rainwater with sewer engineer Sir Joseph water?” he asks. “No. But we are London has S Bazalgette built where we are.” £4.2bn forgotten his sewers And London is not alone, says Total cost the population of Mitchell. “When you look around the river and the London has grown from just over the world there are many cities of Tideway 2M to 8M. that either have or are planning project significance it can While Bazalgette had the foresight similar things. Singapore is currently to design the system to serve 4M – procuring the second phase of its play in the way and while only 6.5M of those 8M are Deep Tunnel Sewerage System,” 39M.t directly contributing to the sewer he explains. “And our system is “London works Annual flows – it is simple maths to see designed to be what a lot of these Andy Mitchell, the system is well beyond capacity. systems are designed to be: transfer amount Tideway chief executive Historically the result has been that and storage.” of sewage 39M.t of combined sewage spills out And that is why it is so big. “It’s into the Thames in a typical year. It a reservoir as well as a transfer currently is unacceptable and it is time to act. tunnel. So the tunnel has to be the discharged “London is growing and the sewer diameter it is to create the volume,” into the tidal flows are rising, whichever way he says. you look at it,” says Tideway chief Starting in Acton in west London, Thames executive Andy Mitchell. “It is only the main 25km long tunnel generally ever going to get worse.” follows the route of the River The Tideway project, at a cost Thames to Limehouse, where it then of £4.2bn (in 2014 prices), is a bold continues north east to Abbey Mills solution. But, says Mitchell, it is the Pumping Station near Stratford. only solution that deals with the There it will be connected to the legacy problem. Lee Tunnel, which will transfer “If you were designing a system the sewage to Beckton Sewage from scratch, would you combine Treatment Works. Along the way it A combined sewer overflow in Vauxhall
4 new civil engineer | JULY 2016 doesn’t make sense.” TIDEWAY SYSTEM Mitchell absolutely cares about the bigger picture and the entire Tideway project has to be seen as more than building a tunnel, he insists. “Our vision is a bigger one. London has forgotten the river and the significance it can play in the way London works,” says Mitchell. “Why is London not in love with its river like Paris is in love with the Seine?” Tideway has a raft of initiatives in place to help make this reconnection a reality. Many of them are social in nature, but others have a clear commercial slant. One such is the Thames Skills Academy, RIVER THAMES which Tideway is supporting along with the Port of London Authority and Transport for London. “We are going to train some 300 new people Victoria Embankment to work on the river to do the work Bazalgette’s original we are going to need,” says Mitchell. sewer “In doing that we are going to prove you can support a time-critical 24/7 Thames Tideway Tunnel operation in a safe way using the river. And after that, the answer Combined sewer can’t be for that skills base to overflow will connect dissipate. These skills have got to be to Tideway shaft taken up by others.” Mitchell and his team is also Sewage flows from hugely aware of the need to be base of the shaft to a good neighbour (see page 24). the Thames Tideway After all, unlike Mitchell’s previous Tunnel project, Crossrail, where he was programme director, most of those affected by the seven years will connect to over 30 combined storm water and therefore is much of construction stand to make no sewer overflows (CSOs) that are more diluted. obvious gain. Indeed all that most located along the riverbanks. “So if we are somewhere in the 50/50 will see is an increase in their water The main tunnel’s diameter grows region of a 96% reduction in spills Targeted bills to pay for the project, although from 6.5m to 7.2m diameter as it we are reducing the actual volume of this increase has been significantly heads east, descending from 30m sewage spilt into the Thames much gender split reduced. to 66m below ground in doing so, more than that,” notes Mitchell. within project And that desire to get in and get and the Thames Tideway Tunnel That is, of course, if nothing done was a major driver behind combined with the Lee Tunnel will changes. But if London continues to team by Mitchell’s push to speed up delivery have a combined storage capacity of grow and rainwater continues to be project end and knock up to two years off the 1.6M.m3. allowed into the sewer system then construction programme. But it will still sometimes not be the number of spills will increase. Being built from three main enough to totally eradicate spills: So for Mitchell the tunnel cannot construction drive sites in Fulham, “Today, around 60 times a year there be seen as a panacea. Sustainable Wandsworth and Bermondsey, using is a spill,” explains Mitchell. “The drainage solutions (SuDS) must also six tunnel boring machines (TBMs), Thames Tideway Tunnel will play a come into play. the project was expected to take big role in reducing this to less than “The argument around whether up to seven years to complete. The four. But if you look at what it would we build the tunnel or look for SuDS geology varies with the western take to reduce this to no spills at became a binary argument,” says section in predominately London all, it would have to be double the Mitchell. “The reality is we need Clay, the Central section being bored size and it gets to the point where it to do both. The tunnel is the only mostly through Thanet Sands and doesn’t make economic sense.” volume fix we have to solve the the Eastern section largely through He also points out that the tunnel problem we have now. But going chalk. Work will require the use of will only hit capacity during pretty forward, we need to do more with 24 construction sites, 11 of which serious storm events, and only then SuDS. London has got to get way are located along the riverbank. after what was already sitting in the smarter through planning. We have Many are in residential areas. With sewer system has been flushed into got to get more intelligent in how we the main construction work already the tunnel – meaning what is left deal with the resources we have and scheduled to start in 2016, speeding to overspill contains much more throwing good water into a sewer up the programme was almost
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unthinkable at contract award late last year. “You could ask: why do that?” observes Mitchell. “Nine months ago On every job I have been on the we were just starting the Optimised quicker you finish, the cheaper it is Contractor Involvement (OCI) phase but we knew that if we were going Andy Mitchell, to throw down that challenge we Tideway chief executive had to do it now. There were one or two groans. The OCI period was ostensibly going to be about figuring out the best possible way to do this. “ We just made it more challenging.” “It was very demanding,” he accepts. “And yet here we are today, with all of us signing up to a situation whereby contractors will be submitting contract programmes under the NEC that finish 18 months earlier, but where payout incentives are maximised by finishing two years earlier. It was a lot of work, everybody was under pressure, but we got there,” he says. “And it is possibly the biggest, single-most important set of decisions made on the project.” And why? “Well as we see it, there are three reasons why it just makes sense,” explains Mitchell. The first plays straight to the good neighbour message. “Frankly, we are a distraction to our neighbours,” he states. “No matter how good we are, the sooner we are gone the better.” The second is cold commercial. “On every job I have been on the quicker you finish, the cheaper it is,” he says. “So bill-payers pay less and our shareholders do better.” And finally, it’s back to the reason to be there in the first place: “Quite simply the Thames is cleaner Above: “We have been very encouraged You also need more resources quicker,” he states. Tideway’s by the support that we have had on the project, again particularly in But shaving two years off of a commitment goes from the consent granting bodies, the early stages. All that of course seven-year construction programme beyond building a who clearly understand the benefits comes at a cost, and pursuing the is no mean feat. After all, innovative tunnel; it is about a of an early finish,” he says. earlier programme is costing in engineering in the design phase has cleaner river Some of the solutions to the region of £50M over the three already reduced the tunnel from delivering faster inevitably mean construction contracts, all paid for the initial 32km proposed, down to more intensive, more visible by Tideway through variations in 25km, and reduced the number of construction works, particularly at the contract terms. construction sites needed from 45 the early stages. “In the big scheme of things it to 24. For example, to construct is not a big percentage, but it is A key aspect has been engaging diaphragm walls for shafts quicker an intelligent thing to do and this stakeholders in the project through you need to diaphragm wall more investment will pay dividends in the the Thames Tideway Tunnel Forum, hours. So noise-containing sheds long run,” says Mitchell. “And we comprising representatives of the over certain shafts have been have arrived at the very best place affected local authorities and other significantly enlarged, so that they to be.” statutory consultees and regulatory can contain the rigs and allow them The net result is the construction bodies. to work longer hours. JVs are aiming for six months
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 7 TIDEWAY REPORT
earlier on site, a further six months earlier to start tunnelling, and an additional year has been taken TIDEWAY First person: Mark Sneesby out of commissioning and testing. TIMELINE Crucially, no time has been taken out of tunnelling at all, with the tunnelling programme set according 2014 “Health, safety and wellbeing to the long run average rate Planning achieved in constructing the Lee is a relentless task” Tunnel and Crossrail. That is crucial decision; Bids because it means no compromising due in for main on safety. And here Tideway is Working at Tideway has been a using the word transformational. Its works fantastic opportunity to be part “EPIC” safety induction programme of a team setting up a brand new is designed to be impactful and 2015 company and delivering a hugely no-one – and Mitchell means no- important infrastructure project in one – is getting near one of his Main works London. sites without having done the full and financing one-day induction – even to change The primary objectives for me are a lightbulb or fit a new filter on a contracts delivering on our transformational crane. The day plays out a real-life awarded health and safety wellbeing agenda, scenario interactively and it is, says and we’re really driving towards
Mitchell “quite an impactful day”. that. Rather than just being a little That induction day is followed 2016 bit better, we want to change the up with a boat trip designed to Main works way people think about health and familiarise everyone with the project safety – whereas traditionally you’d construction sites and brings to life and unite them in a common goal. preliminary make a few mistakes in the beginning our vision of reconnecting London “Everyone but everyone has construction and then address these, we have with the River Thames. We want all a common first day and I want committed to starting the right way our employees to see how they are begins everyone to have a boat trip,” and never giving up. part of the bigger picture in cleaning enthuses Mitchell. Health, safety and wellbeing is a up London. “And then I want everyone once a 2017 relentless task, you can never take Another objective is being able to year to take their family on the same your foot off the gas, and we need to deliver the project in a way that the boat trip to show them what they Tunnelling be constantly thinking of new ways of industry hasn’t seen before. We want are doing. begins doing things. to set a benchmark on how we can “If we want people to feel Key to this is ensuring that all work together as an alliance to get
differently about the job, we have staff, no matter what role they things done, and to ensure people get to treat them differently; again, 2019 play, feel like they are part of the rewarded for doing a good job. It is we believe that by investing in Secondary family that helps us deliver that about doing it the right way and doing the workforce and how they think transformation. One example is our it together. and feel every day, we will see lining begins EPIC Day 2 induction, a boat tour on l Mark Sneesby is Tideway the benefits in behaviour and the river that introduces staff to our chief operating officer performance.” This is all part of a Right Way 2021 programme, through which Mitchell Tunnelling ends of the project. A raft of initiatives jobs and we are putting people on genuinely intends to make Tideway is in place and Mitchell is happy interview training so we can select a new exemplar. “If you don’t do with progress. “A year ago we were in the best way we can,” asserts something meaningfully different 2022 30% female across all areas and we Mitchell. why would you expect a different System ended the year on 36%. We have set “So am I confident we will end this result?” he asks. a target to be 40% by the end of this with 50/50? Absolutely I am. And I “We want the sites to have a sense commissioning year. So it’s alive and kicking,” he think we will get there earlier.” of ‘my goodness, this is different’,” begins says. So whether it is delivery, he adds. “So we are challenging The project has just welcomed its community, safety or diversity – contractors to say ‘what would be second batch of returnships after ambition is the word. ideal?’, ‘what would the site have to 2024 all seven in the first wave carried “High ambition is where we are look like?’.” All works on at the end of the returnship and I think the industry is ready for That desire to be different also programme. The contractors are it,” says Mitchell. feeds into Mitchell and Tideway’s completed involved in this second batch. “Big projects and big programmes powerful diversity message. The This is more than paying lip have a role to play. It is for us to lead goal has been set for a 50/50 gender service. “Our aspiration is to have the way and I hope that is what we split in the project team by the end gender-balanced shortlists for are doing,” he concludes.
8 NewC ivil Engineer | JULY 2016 TIDEWAY SOLUTI NS
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NEWHAM Beckton Blackfriars TOWER HAMLETS Sewage Bridge Treatment Foreshore King Edward Abbey Mills Memorial Park Pumping Lee Tunnel Works Foreshore Bekesbourne Street CIT Y OF WEST MINSTER Station Tower The Limehouse Cut CIT Y OF Bridge EALING LONDON Acton Victoria Storm Tanks Chelsea Embankment Embankment Foreshore Canary Foreshore Wharf Hammersmith Chambers Wharf 2 Bridge The O KENSINGTON London Shad Thames Thames AND CHELSEA Westminster Pumping Station Barrier Hammersmith Eye GREENWICH Pumping Station Cremorne Wharf Greenwich Albert HOUNSLOW Depot connection RICHMOND HAMMERSMITH Embankment tunnel Foreshore Greenwich LEGEND Main tunnel UPON AND FULHAM pumping THAMES station Main tunnel drive site Long connection tunnel Battersea Earl Pumping Carnwath Road Kirtling Heathwall Barn Elms Power Station Station Main tunnel reception site Lee Tunnel (under construction) Riverside Street Pumping Deptford Falconbrook Station Church Street CSO site Proposed drive direction Pumping Station L AMBETH SOUTHWARK LEWISHAM Putney Short connection tunnel drive site West works site Embankment Long connection tunnel drive site Central works sites Foreshore Dormay Street Frogmore connection System modifications East works site WANDSWORTH tunnel King George’s Park Along the Thames
TUNNEL DEPTHS VOLUMES OF DISCHARGES FROM LONDON’S COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS (CSOs) Acton Carnwath Abbey Mills Storm Road Kirtling Chambers Pumping Existing system Abbey Mills Thames Tideway Tunnel and associated improvements Tanks Riverside Street Wharf Station Pumping Station Hammersmith Western 18.82M.m 3 Hammersmith Western Tideway CSO Pumping Station Pumping Station Pumping Station Pumping Station 684,000m3 2.2M.m3 2.04M.m3 104,000m3 246,000m3 30m
Clay 66m Greenwich Greenwich Pumping Station Pumping Station Sand 3.94M.m3 573,000m3
Chalk 3 3 West Central East Total overflow: 39.5M.m Total overflow: 2.35M.m
10 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER JULY 2016 NEWHAM Beckton Blackfriars TOWER HAMLETS Sewage Bridge Treatment Foreshore King Edward Abbey Mills Memorial Park Pumping Lee Tunnel Works Foreshore Bekesbourne Street CIT Y OF WEST MINSTER Station Tower The Limehouse Cut CIT Y OF Bridge EALING LONDON Acton Victoria Storm Tanks Chelsea Embankment Embankment Foreshore Canary Foreshore Wharf Hammersmith Chambers Wharf 2 Bridge The O KENSINGTON London Shad Thames Thames AND CHELSEA Westminster Pumping Station Barrier Hammersmith Eye GREENWICH Pumping Station Cremorne Wharf Greenwich Albert HOUNSLOW Depot connection RICHMOND HAMMERSMITH Embankment tunnel Foreshore Greenwich LEGEND Main tunnel UPON AND FULHAM pumping THAMES station Main tunnel drive site Long connection tunnel Battersea Earl Pumping Carnwath Road Kirtling Heathwall Barn Elms Power Station Station Main tunnel reception site Lee Tunnel (under construction) Riverside Street Pumping Deptford Falconbrook Station Church Street CSO site Proposed drive direction Pumping Station L AMBETH SOUTHWARK LEWISHAM Putney Short connection tunnel drive site West works site Embankment Long connection tunnel drive site Central works sites Foreshore Dormay Street Frogmore connection System modifications East works site WANDSWORTH tunnel King George’s Park
The £4.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel will run 25km from Acton in West London to Abbey Mills in East London, where it will be connected to the Lee Tunnel. It will connect to the most polluting combined sewer over ows along the river banks.
TUNNEL DEPTHS VOLUMES OF DISCHARGES FROM LONDON’S COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS (CSOs) Acton Carnwath Abbey Mills Storm Road Kirtling Chambers Pumping Existing system Abbey Mills Thames Tideway Tunnel and associated improvements Tanks Riverside Street Wharf Station Pumping Station Hammersmith Western 18.82M.m 3 Hammersmith Western Tideway CSO Pumping Station Pumping Station Pumping Station Pumping Station 684,000m3 2.2M.m3 2.04M.m3 104,000m3 246,000m3 30m
Clay 66m Greenwich Greenwich Pumping Station Pumping Station Sand 3.94M.m3 573,000m3
Chalk 3 3 West Central East Total overflow: 39.5M.m Total overflow: 2.35M.m
JULY 2016 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 11 ideway’s West section West section runs 7km from Acton tidewAY report to Battersea, picking T up six combined sewer overfl ows (CSOs) and incorporating seven separate work sites along the way. A three-way joint venture (JV) between Bam Nuttall, Morgan Sindall and Balfour Beatty won the £416M contract to deliver this section of Driving the project last August. “The reason we came together was that we had all had recent experience from either Crossrail or the Lee Tunnel, or both,” explains Bam Nuttall, Morgan Sindall and west Balfour Beatty JV project director Chris Hughes. “It is an equal joint venture, with all three companies having a one third share, and we operate on the principle of ‘the best BY MArgo coLe athlete’, for each staffi ng role, so it is fully integrated. This differs from a consortium approach, where each WESTMINSTER contractor undertakes a discrete West Acton Storm Tanks Hammersmith section of the works.” Pumping Station KENSINGTON AND CH ELSEA The JV bid for all three Tideway HOUNNSLOWSLOW contracts. “That brings benefi ts HHAAMMERSMITH because we have a good knowledge WESTBarn SECTIONAANND FULHAMAM DETAIL Elms Carnwath Road of all three sections, so we Riverside Putney understand the issues that affect the RICHMONNDD L AMBETH SOUTHWARK UPOONN Embankment Dormay Street alliance as a whole,” says Hughes. THAAMESMES Foreshore King George’s Park Frogmore connection tunnel The Tideway West section is using a JV of Arup and Atkins for route wide hydraulic and structural design, Blackfriars Abbey Mills Pumping Station Bridge with UnPS undertaking the shaft and Foreshore TOWER H AMLETS
CIT Y OF Central WESTMINSTER LONDON Victoria Acton Storm Tanks Chelsea Embankment Embankment Foreshore Foreshore Blackfriars Chambers Wharf KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA Bridge Foreshore Shad Thames Cremorne Wharf Depot Pumping Station Albert Embankment Kirtling Foreshore Carnwath Road Street Heathwall Riverside Falconbrook Pumping Pumping Station SOUTHWARK Station LEWISHAM
Dormay Street Frogmore connection WANDSWORTH tunnel King George’s Park
King Edward Abbey Mills Pumping Station Beckton Sewage Bekesbourne Treatment Works Memorial Park Lee Tunnel Foreshore Street CITY OF WEST MINSTER CIT Y OF LONDON The Limehouse Cut NEWHAM Carnwath Road site: Location of one of the SOUTHWARK Chambers Wharf main access shafts for Thames GREENWICH Greenwich Earl Pumping Station Barrier the tunnel drive connection tunnel East Kirtling Heathwall Street Pumping Station
12 new ciViL engineer | JuLY 2016 tunnel design. manager Ben Green. The 6.5m diameter tunnel starts “A lot of the River Wandle was at Acton, where some existing storm £416M culverted and covered over, and tanks discharge to a combined Value of there is currently a CSO from the sewer overflow (CSO). park that runs into the River Wandle Going downstream, it heads south West section and from there into the Thames. beneath predominantly residential contract This gives us one of our biggest areas to meet the river just west of opportunities to reconnect people Hammersmith Bridge, passing under with the Thames, its tributaries and a short length of land to the south 7km its history. before joining the line of the river Length of “The project is not just about and following it to Carnwath Road building a tunnel; it is about building in Fulham. Along the route it picks West section a lasting legacy for local people, and up existing outfalls at Hammersmith main tunnel a lot of the benefit of that will be Pumping Station on the north side seen in the West,” Green continues. and then Barn Elms (Richmond), The section of the Thames Putney Embankment (Wandsworth), between Putney and Hammersmith Dormay Street and King George’s The reason is one of the most popular stretches Park (Wandsworth) on the south, we came of water in the UK for leisure before meeting the Central section activities, and hosts around 80% of the project at Carnwath Road on together was that we of the country’s rowing – including the north west side of Wandsworth the famous annual Oxford versus Bridge. had all had recent Cambridge boat race. The Dormay Street and King The Tideway West team plans George’s Park overflows discharge experience from to drive its section of the tunnel into the River Wandle, a 14km long “either Crossrail or the westwards from a shaft at Carnwath tributary of the River Thames that Road, and has just begun work at runs through south west London Lee Tunnel, or both the site to strengthen the existing and joins the river at Wandsworth. river wall in preparation for These CSOs will be intercepted chris hughes, construction of the shaft. by a new tunnel – the Frogmore JV project director “Establishing the drive shaft at connection tunnel – which connects Carnwath Road is on the critical to the main tunnel at the Carnwath path for the whole of the West Road shaft section, then tunnelling to Acton,” “This project will largely eliminate explains Hughes. “The CSOs overflows into the River Wandle,” have some float, but the one at explains Tideway West delivery Hammersmith is fixed.” Work at the Hammersmith Pumping Station is timetabled to fit in with a new residential INNOVATION development being built by USING TUGS AND BARGES TO TRANSPORT MATERIALS developer St George on the site of a former distillery. “When I joined the project two years ago, the developer effectively The West section main to navigate through all 19 An important factor in the had one partly built block of flats. works contracting joint bridges on the route from choice of vessel was the need Now it has three that are occupied,” venture (JV) of Bam Nuttall, Hammersmith to Tower to meet tight noise and air says Green. Morgan Sindall and Balfour Bridge. quality standards. “One of biggest environmental Beatty has just procured two “What the contractor “They are very highly spec’d benefits of the project is that it specialist tugs to haul barges [JV] has done is looked hard in terms of noise attenuation transfers these flows into the main up and down the Thames at the market to see what’s and emissions, which means tunnel instead of on the doorstep of carrying materials to the available,” explains Tideway they will help us to meet a new residential development – so work sites and spoil from the West delivery manager Ben the project’s aspirations the sooner we can get in and get out, tunnel excavation once that Green. for looking after the the sooner it will benefit.” starts in 2017. “It has procured two vessels environment,” says Green. The entire tunnel drive in the that are specially designed to Tideway anticipates that an West section should be in London The two NavTug 18TS tugs – cope with low air clearance and average of two barges a day Clay, although the team is aware the first of their type to ever water clearance.” will access the West section’s there could be anomalies in the be used on the River Thames The JV’s project director main work site at Carnwath form of “pingos” – air pockets in – were built in Hamburg, but Chris Hughes adds: “The Road in Wandsworth, with the strata that mean “one minute have been working in Australia Thames is a bit like a letterbox: each barge taking around you’re in clay, the next in running until recently. at high water the clearance 45 heavy goods vehicles off sand”, according to Hughes. The JV had very specific under the bridges is very low, the road. The tugs may also be Comprehensive ground investigation requirements for the tugs, and at low water there is very used by the East and Central along the line of the West tunnel including the capability little clearance under the keel.” section construction teams. section has not picked up any unusual conditions, but Green says:
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 13 TIDEWAY REPORT
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer
Putney Embankment Foreshore: Thames Tideway Tunnel intercepts a combined sewage overflow
“It’s a known risk that we have we have people ready for the ramp mitigated for.” up with the right skills,” says Hughes. The project is The Bam Nuttall, Morgan Sindall 19 Green adds: “This project is not just not just about and Balfour Beatty JV is close to Number about building a tunnel; it is about placing an order for its tunnel boring building a lasting legacy for London building a tunnel; it machine, and anticipates that it of bridges – and that includes revitalising the should arrive on site in around crossing River Thames for freight traffic.” is about building a 12 months’ time. But according Hughes says the Tideway scheme to Hughes, the tunnel itself is not the Central is an opportunity to open up the lasting legacy for local the biggest challenge: “The river section river to greater freight use, and “people logistics are probably the key there are sufficient other projects challenge,” says Hughes. planned or underway on the ben green, tideway “We are the furthest upstream Thames – including the Garden West delivery manager section, and we will be using the Bridge, the Northern Line Tube most barges.” extension and the redevelopment He says the JV is putting a lot of Silvertown – that will make it “The key skills are being able to of thought into how to move spoil worthwhile for freight operators to navigate safely through all these from the tunnel by river, and has invest in people and boats. bridges, with the tidal constraints also been challenged by the client to The JV for the West has itself of the Thames, at the same time as bring all the tunnel segments in on just bought two specialist tugs transport on the river is increasing barges as part of its “More by River” and is looking to procure some as a result of all these schemes,” policy to reduce congestion, noise heavyweight barges to carry tunnel says Hughes. and carbon emissions. spoil and materials (see box). “There are other industries that “We think the Tideway project Alongside this, it is working with have people who can drive boats – will result in over three times as an existing river logistics specialist like offshore wind, oil and gas, and much river freight traffic as there is to help bring in and train people to fishing. We could take people from today, so that gives us a challenge in operate the specialist craft that will those industries and train them to recruitment and training to make sure be required. navigate the Thames.”
14 New Civil Engineer | JULY 2016 Enabling intelligent infrastructure decisions
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@ameyplc Albert Embankment Foreshore
Central section TIDEWAY REPORT
tretching 13km from WESTMINSTER West Acton StormAcross Tanks Carnwath Road Hammersmith Riverside in Fulham in Pumping Station KENSINGTON S AND CH ELSEA the West to Chambers HOUNSLOW Wharf, Bermondsey in HAMMERSMITH the East, Tideway’s £750M Central AND FULHAM Barn section will meander beneath the Elms Carnwath Road Riverside River Thames collecting sewage Putney RICHMONDthe centreL AMBETH SOUTHWARK from seven combined sewer UPON Embankment Dormay Street THAMES Foreshore overfl ows (CSOs) to keep the King George’s Park Frogmore connection tunnel London river clean. The Tideway project requires construction sites to be set up BY RUBY KITCHING Blackfriars Abbey Mills Pumping Station temporarily near each of the existing Bridge Foreshore TOWER H AMLETS seven CSOs on the Central section to allow the accompanying upgrades CIT Y OF and new infrastructure to be built. Central WESTMINSTER LONDON Victoria Eight of these sites require shafts Acton Storm Tanks Chelsea Embankment Embankment Foreshore between 9m and 30m in diameter Foreshore Blackfriars Chambers Wharf and between 40m and 53m deep KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA Bridge with varying lengths of connector Foreshore Shad Thames tunnels 3m to 4m in diameter to Cremorne Wharf Depot Pumping Station Albert create the path for sewage to fl ow Embankment from each CSO to the Thames Kirtling Foreshore Carnwath Road Street Heathwall Tideway Tunnel. Ferrovial Agroman Riverside Falconbrook Pumping Pumping Station SOUTHWARK Laing O’Rourke is the joint venture Station LEWISHAM (JV) design and build contractor Dormay Street Frogmore connection with consultant Aecom developing WANDSWORTH tunnel King George’s Park 16 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER JULY 2016
King Edward Abbey Mills Pumping Station Beckton Sewage Bekesbourne Treatment Works Memorial Park Lee Tunnel Foreshore Street CITY OF WEST MINSTER CIT Y OF LONDON The Limehouse Cut NEWHAM
SOUTHWARK Chambers Wharf Thames GREENWICH Greenwich Earl Pumping Station Barrier connection tunnel East Kirtling Heathwall Street Pumping Station shaft will be built directly over the tunnel, along with challenging ground level works: signifi cant infrastructure will need to be built close to Tube tunnels, as well as under and either side of the bridge. “Building the culvert at Blackfriars is like building a two lane cut and cover tunnel,” comments Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke JV project director Tom Tagg. Across the length of the Central section, the method of shaft construction varies according to the particular constraints of each site. Since the shafts pass through the Lambeth Group – strata known for their variability and pockets of water-bearing soil – careful consideration has also been given to prevent water inundation. Engineers are currently weighing up the availability of land to store materials, the infl uence of ground conditions, noise sensitivity, access and programme requirements for each shaft. “Diaphragm wall construction has good watertightness, but requires more land for concrete batching and a ready supply of bentonite,” says Alder. These ancillary items would not be required for a segmentally lined shaft, he continues, but there would be an added requirement for better groundwater control, “which can take some time to establish”. Tunnelling for the Central section will begin at Kirtling Street the JV’s detailed design, all for client in Battersea, located about half At fi rst Tideway. way along the route, where a 30m sight Tideway “At fi rst sight Tideway is a £750M diameter, 48m deep shaft will be tunnelling project, but it’s much Value of sunk to allow two tunnel boring more than that,” comments Tideway machines (TBMs) to progress east is a tunnelling Central delivery manager Andy the Central and west. The tunnel will fall 15m project, but it’s much Alder. section from Carnwath Road to Chambers Across the sites, river walls will Wharf for it to be self cleaning. more than that be repaired and rebuilt, signifi cant contract Work at Kirtling Street began in culverts will be constructed and March with demolition of existing “ANDY ALDER,TIDEWAY land will be reclaimed from the buildings and site clearance. 13km CENTRAL DELIVERY MANAGER Thames at the Albert, Chelsea and Since tunnel arisings will surface Victoria Embankments as well as Length of at Kirtling Street, work here will at Blackfriars Bridge, in the City. Central also involve building an overhead This land will be created using conveyor system and jetty to a sheet piled cofferdam in the section transport material away by barge. river, pumping water out, fi lling it Tideway is using river transport with earth, sinking the CSO shaft, wherever possible and, at Kirtling constructing the connector tunnel Street, barges will also deliver tunnel and building up a pavement for Above: segments, construction materials new public spaces that reinstate At Blackfriars, and plant to minimise disturbance the capital’s relationship with the signifi cant to nearby residents and road users. watercourse. One advantage of infrastructure will To minimise the use of dewatering, building on these reclaimed areas is be built close to the Kirtling Street shaft (on the that there will be fewer utilities or Tube tunnels as well Central section’s critical path) will obstructions in the ground, unlike on as beneath and on be built using a diaphragm wall. the other Tideway construction sites. either side of the Phased construction concurrent At Blackfriars Bridge the CSO bridge with demolition has already saved
JULY 2016 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 17 TIDEWAY REPORT
over 20 weeks on the programme, allowing shaft construction to begin in late summer 2016. INNOVATION The thought being put into each TUNNEL BORING MACHINES AND BIM shaft’s construction demonstrates one of Tideway’s underlying philosophies – to use the most appropriate method for the job, The tunnel boring machines have used their experience to erecting them on site.” rather than to use a “one-size-fits-all” (TBMs) are being designed drive greater efficiencies in the Carrying out this work in the strategy. The intention is then to and manufactured using Tideway TBMs. fabrication yard is undoubtedly yield programme savings, which will building information “Using BIM, we can check easier and safer than on a ensure the project can be completed modelling (BIM) so that that access to all parts [of the construction site. two years earlier than originally they can be scrutinised TBM] are adequate and that He adds that to speed up planned (New Civil Engineer 10 more easily by the project there are no health and safety and simplify TBM reassembly December 2015). team. issues, which would need to be on site, the team has requested “We made a conscious decision addressed when it arrives on that the manufacturer ships not to squeeze the construction Tideway Central delivery site,” explains Alder. parts in larger sections than programme, but to get the design manager Andy Alder and joint “For example, we can normal. done more efficiently and get venture contractor project make sure platforms are This simple initiative is consents earlier,” explains Alder. director Tom Tagg, and many of exactly where we need them shaving another few weeks Maximum effort was also put into their team members previously to be for maintenance, instead off the project’s construction coordinating the 300 consents worked on Crossrail. They of having to spend weeks programme. that needed to be in place prior to starting on site at Kirtling Street. These included protection of marine ecology, minimising disturbances the annual Chelsea Flower Show. and maintaining traffic flow, as well At Chelsea Embankment, work as some much wider aspects. 1.8m will have to stop when the flower “Tideway isn’t just about Length of show is taking place. In Central, improving the health of the river, precast working patterns and deliveries will it’s about improving a whole area by also have to accommodate events creating business opportunities and tunnel lining such as the London Marathon. creating a legacy,” adds Tagg. segments “We have to build in a way which Meanwhile, engineers have also also allows us to stop for certain been concentrating on optimising events,” explains Alder. “Every site construction methods to improve has its own challenges, but on the safety and productivity. Central section, everything we are “Take the diameter of the doing is very visible and, with very connector tunnels,” says Alder. little space for us to do our work “Although the hydraulic engineering in, there is a heightened interest in suggests they should be 3m in what we are doing and how.” diameter, when we consider the size Before There are a number of milestones which would make it easier to build during the course of constructing and size of machinery we need, we this is a the Central section including may opt for a bigger tunnel.” coordinating connections to the The construction sequence at tunnelling project, CSOs with Thames Water and each site (except Blackfriars Bridge) it is a marine job the tunnel’s western and eastern involves first sinking the shaft, then extremities. Running eight separate excavating the connector tunnels by Tggom Ta , construction sites in parallel will be advancing 1m at a time and spraying JV project director one of Tideway’s main challenges. fibre reinforced concrete to support “ “Before this is a tunnelling the ground. A secondary cast insitu project, it is a marine job and lining is then applied to complete has also had to take into account some of the most complex parts each connecting tunnel and shaft. the high profile nature of many – coordinating with existing An earth pressure balance TBM of the Central section sites. The underground services and other will be used for the main tunnel. Victoria Embankment site is ground works – take place before It will install 1.8m long segments, opposite the London Eye, the tunnelling begins,” comments Tagg. 350mm thick. Seven segments plus Albert Embankment site is in front Indeed, tunnelling for the a keystone are required to complete of the MI6 building and the Chelsea Tideway’s Central section could each 7.2m diameter ring. Embankment site is next to the prove to be considered its most The method of construction Royal Hospital grounds, which host straightforward operation.
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Blackfriars Abbey Mills Pumping Station Bridge Foreshore TOWER H AMLETS
CIT Y OF Central WESTMINSTER LONDON Victoria Acton Storm Tanks Chelsea Embankment EngineeringEmbankment Foreshore Foreshore Blackfriars Chambers Wharf KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA Bridge Foreshore Shad Thames Cremorne Wharf Depot Pumping Station Albert Embankment Kirtling Foreshore Carnwath Road Street Heathwall RiversidesavingsFalconbrook Pumping Pumping Station SOUTHWARK Station LEWISHAM
Dormay Street Frogmore connection WANDSWORTH tunnel King George’s Park BY JAcKie wHiTeLAw
King Edward Abbey Mills Pumping Station Beckton Sewage Bekesbourne Treatment Works Memorial Park Lee Tunnel Foreshore Street CITY OF WEST MINSTER CIT Y OF LONDON The Limehouse Cut NEWHAM
SOUTHWARK Chambers Wharf Thames GREENWICH Greenwich Earl Pumping Station Barrier connection tunnel East Kirtling Heathwall Street Pumping Station n a nice nod to under its £605M East section London’s fi rst super contract comprises Costain, Vinci The biggest I sewer designer Joseph Construction Grands Projets and £605M challenge Bazalgette, the builder Bachy Soletanche. The JV’s designer Value of of the East section is Mott MacDonald. of the new Tideway scheme will be “The selection of the Greenwich East section is going to be the launching one of its tunnel boring connector tunnel option instead contract competence of the machines (TBMs) from an original of continuing the main tunnel to Bazalgette pumping station – at Beckton saved 7km of tunnelling and chalk and dealing Greenwich. hundreds of millions of pounds,” 5.5km That TBM will be constructing says Thames Water programme “with fl ints Length of a 5m internal diameter connector manager for Tideway integration JAcKie rOe, tunnel over 4.5km to link with the David Whittaker. East section main Thames Tideway tunnel at Now the theme of savings in TiDewAY eAST DeLiverY Chambers Wharf, south of the the east has been continued by MAnAger river and just to the east of Tower the contracting teams building Bridge. Chambers Wharf is where Tideway with another innovation construction of the East section that has been the direct result of proper begins, and from where working in alliance, he explains. the main 7.2m internal diameter “The three contracting teams are tunnel will be driven 5.5km to operating on a single pain/gain share Abbey Mills in East London. There, arrangement, so everyone benefi ts it will connect with the existing Lee from beating targets and loses out Main image: Tunnel, which will take the sewage even if just one party is off its game greenwich collected by the whole Tideway so as to encourage innovation and pumping station, scheme to the Beckton Sewage collaboration,” he said (see feature Bazalgette’s only Treatment Works. page 32). pumping station The contracting joint venture As part of the East section south of the river, (JV) building both tunnels contract, Costain, Vinci built in 1860s
20 new civiL engineer | JULY 2016 Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche JV will build a dedicated chamber for the Central section team of Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke in which to park its TBM when it completes it tunnelling journey at the Chambers Wharf site, rather than wait for the East team to clear out of its shaft, a decision that has cut a full six months off the original programme (see box). In one move, that accounts for a third of the total 18 month reduction in the original programme that the alliance has identified so far after it was challenged by Tideway chief executive Andy Mitchell to get the scheme built two years quicker. “At least another six months has also been predicted to be saved in commissioning by the mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control alliance for Tideway and another six months in various preconstruction and advance works,” says Tideway East delivery manager Jackie Roe. The East section will be the last to finish. “The stretch target is currently to complete tunnel construction by September 2021 instead of August 2022 and for it to be commissioned by July 2022 rather than March 2024,” says the JV’s deputy project director Mike Sawyer. Sawyer’s two slurry TBMs are not scheduled to be in the ground until August 2018, with both drives carried out in parallel. They are going to be tunnelling through chalk INNOVATION at 60m depths, so there are no USING THE INTERFACE concerns about hitting underground services and Tube lines. “The biggest challenge is going to One of the main places the the shaft would be full of our in the same building to aid be the competence of the chalk and Tideway contractors looked equipment,” says Tideway East collaboration like this across dealing with flints,” says Roe. for savings in the programme JV deputy project director the project. Vinci Construction Grands Projets under the alliance was at the Mike Sawyer. “We can just walk upstairs and Bachy Soletanche were both interface between contracts, “So we came up with a and talk to each other,” says part of the team that constructed often the Achilles Heel of different method of TBM Sawyer. the £635M Lee Tunnel at up to 80m major projects. launch and receiving which has “That is so productive. depths, also through chalk, so are knocked up to six months off There is no reason to bringing the experience and learning The challenge at the the programme. compete; under the alliance from that project which opened connection between the “We are building the Central arrangement we all need to in January 2016. In fact, the newly Central section and East team a chamber outside our succeed together.” arrived project director for the East section was that the Central shaft so it can drive its TBM Other areas the teams are contract, François Pogu, was the Lee team was due to arrive at the into it and having done that working together on include Tunnel PD. East a number of months can remove all the back-up common testing facilities “We are going to be working at before the East section would plant and finish the secondary and common procurement of 4 bar pressure, which is less than finish tunnelling. lining of its tunnel. reinforcement and fuel. Lee (where the TBM face pressures “The Central team’s TBM “Effectively they can park “There is also going to be hit 7.5bar at maximum depth),” was due to arrive at Chambers up and go.” a common training regime Roe says. This gives the team Wharf before we finished our The three contracting teams for the boatmasters needed confidence. “And there was concern drive, which meant it couldn’t on the Tideway scheme have for the river deliveries,” says on Lee about the potential for high get out and get on because to date elected to be based Sawyer. pressure water to enter the tunnel when changing the cutting heads
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 21 TIDEWAY REPORT
in poor ground, but this proved unfounded as they always found competent chalk in which to carry We are going out that activity.” Lee used a pressurised mixed to be working in shield slurry TBM built by Herrenknecht, but no decision a residential area, so has yet been taken on who will manufacture the Tideway East we will be sensitive to machines. “They will be ordered this the locals’ concerns autumn,” according to Whittaker. The most pressing task for Sawyer “Mike Sawyer is to create the work platform for JV deputy project Director the main east drive. This involves construction of a cofferdam in the Thames, measuring 145m by 60m, which can be filled with ballast to double what limited land was there but while still creating a very contained site. It will also allow for creation of a non-tidal berth, so secondary lining segments and aggregates can be brought in by river transport to reduce lorry movements and pollution in the capital. “We are going to be working in a residential area, so we will be sensitive to the locals’ concerns,” he says. “We have strategies in place to reduce noise levels and monitor air quality. Working hours for surface work are restricted to 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, though we are allowed to carry out some activities up to 10pm on weekdays to take cutter drums that rotate in opposite the concrete plug to unite Tideway advantage of the tides. directions. with Lee Tunnel,” Roe says. “Noise sheds will cover the shaft, Counter-rotating wheels dig into Plans for where to fabricate and tunnelling will be going on 24/7. 800,000 the ground and a pump within the secondary lining segments for shafts We’ll have a treatment plant for Tonnes of cutter sucks solids away. As it is and tunnel are in place. “We are the slurry on site where the chalk excavated, the trench is topped up going to be manufacturing them can be pressed to remove water chalk to be with bentonite slurry to maintain ourselves and are in the process of and then taken away by barge to removed from the stability of the sides. “It’s a very awarding a contract. landfill. There’s going to be a lot of accurate technique,” Roe says. Unlike the other Tideway it – 800,000t from the main drive main East “Installing the diaphragm wall sections, East is not troubled by too and 350,000t from the Greenwich section tunnel will take six months,” Sawyer many combined sewer overflows. connector. drive says, “followed by another six to There are two on the Greenwich “Our enabling period is longer excavate the shaft. This then needs connector – at Deptford Church than the other sections because a secondary lining, so the TBM will Street and Earl Pumping Station, we have to build the cofferdam,” be launched in August 2018 on the along with Greenwich Pumping Sawyer continues. stretch programme.” Station itself which have to be taken When the cofferdam is complete, When the main drive TBM gets to into the scheme. And on the main construction of the shaft to create Abbey Mills in 2021, arrangements tunnel there is one combined sewer the launch pit for the TBM can are already in place to receive it. outfall at King Edward Memorial start. This is going to be 60m deep, The Lee Tunnel project constructed Park Foreshore in Shadwell. created using the hydrofraise two shafts at the pumping station, At the park site, the work will method of diaphragm walling. connected by a concrete plug. One create its own legacy when the job Hydrofraise is a Bachy Soletanche shaft is currently in use, the other is is completed – an extra piece of speciality and involves a reverse the target for the Tideway East drive. open space to become a permanent circulation drilling rig with two “We get there and then excavate amenity.
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Everybody needs good neighbours BY MARGO COLE
he scale of Tideway Stride. “I am very proud that through to deliver materials and remove spoil as a project is evident the whole of that time, we have using barges on the River Thames, T from the statistics: never refused to give a briefing to a 300,000 which Stride calls “an underused from the £4.2bn community group, action group or Number motorway through the middle of being spent, to the society.” London”. thousands of construction jobs that Stride believes that one of the of people Great work went into will be created. But the scale of the important decisions we took was to consulted accommodating local concerns. For project’s impact on Londoners is have project team members staffing about example, the main drive site for the clear from the number of people these exhibitions and meetings, and West section was originally going to who were engaged in the public doing their best to answer every construction be in the Barn Elms playing fields in consultation process. question. activity Barnes. Public feedback combined “In 2010 we wrote to 300,000 “The learning from all of with evolving technical factors led people who either lived in or around this is that being open, honest to this moving to a brownfield site at properties close to the proposed and transparent is absolutely 114 Carnwath Road in Fulham. construction sites or adjacent to fundamental,” says Stride. Number Other changes included moving the alignment of the tunnel,” says Almost three years of public the main shaft for the East section Tideway external affairs director Phil exhibitions and consultation of public from King’s Stairs Gardens in Stride. generated 9,400 pieces of feedback consultation Southwark to nearby Chambers “That’s when it first became from individuals and groups Wharf. “Following phase one of the apparent to people there was the commenting on the proposals. “That days held consultation, we were questioned potential for us to be working in was a really important stage of about having a large main shaft in a their communities.” the consultation,” says Stride. “We small park,” explains Stride. “These That initial letter was the listened to what people said and were very active protest groups, start of a huge public engagement took their comments on board, and who pointed out that the owner of and consultation process when – whenever we could – we changed the Chambers Wharf site just along the project team – at this stage our proposals.” the way was not going to develop under Thames Water – shared its The comments broadly contained it. From there we went on and plans for the scheme as a whole two messages: where you can, use purchased that land.” and proposals for work at each of brownfield land instead of greenfield; He adds: “In some way we the sites. and where possible use river changed every site where we’re “We did 114 days of public instead of road transportation. The going to maintain a presence. exhibitions around each of the latter point has been addressed by At King Edward Memorial Park neighbourhoods, as well as 200 Tideway’s “More by River” strategy in Tower Hamlets we dramatically external or public meetings,” says that sets targets for the contractors changed the design to include a
24 new civil engineer | JULY 2016 Everybody needs good neighbours
sympathetic extension of the park. Above: to build a sewer to help stop We have never There was no other place to Tideway purchased sewage getting into the river; but our intercept the North East Storm the land at vision is to reconnect London and refused to Relief sewer, but through careful Chambers Wharf Londoners with the river,” explains give a briefing to a design and working methods, and when finished Stride. 80% of the park will remain open will leave a new Tideway wants to be community group, throughout the work.” route on the transformational not just in terms One of the original work sites Thames Path of the end result – a cleaner river action group or at Druid Street was a small play connecting East – but also in terms of the economy area in the middle of a block of London of London: creating over 4,000 “society flats in Southwark. “Through smart direct jobs many more indirectly hydraulic design, we worked out in the supply chain; permanently Phil Stride, Tideway that we could control the sewage transforming the use of the river External affairs director discharge without building at that by tripling the amount of freight it site at all,” says Stride. carries and training 300 people to While much of the consultation work on it; making sure 25% of the and engagement process has been people employed on the project about working with people living are from the 14 London boroughs close to the work sites, Tideway is it passes through; and providing also keen to be a “good neighbour”. opportunities for local SMEs. More generally initiatives include At least one in 50 on site jobs employees spending, in total, will be apprenticeships; one in 100 an average of 75 minutes a day roles will go to ex-offenders; and working in schools as science, contractors are involved in local technology, engineering and maths volunteering. (STEM) ambassadors and providing “We understand that this is educational tools for teachers; a harder sell than Bazalgette supporting London Youth Rowing’s experienced,” says Stride. “The programme to develop young people river isn’t black, and people in East through physical activity; and London don’t have cholera and supporting Thames 21’s Riverwatch typhoid. But in general terms, the initiative to raise awareness of the vast majority of people get to a point health of the river. where they want to work with us to “Our engineering challenge is get the best out of the project.”
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 25 oon after being Diversity appointed in 2014, TIDEWAY REPORT Tideway’s chief S executive Andy Mitchell announced that he wanted to achieve gender parity on the project by the time it finishes. He said: “We need women, and we need diversity. It’s a fact that a diverse workforce is a more Getting productive one; and if we are to deliver infrastructure that is of most use to society, we are more likely to achieve that with a team that is representative of that society.” Mitchell’s announcement the right coincided with a change in emphasis within the Tideway team, as head of HR Julie Thornton recalls. “When I came on board, this project was very focused on the technical engineering side of things. balance Then, around Christmas 2014, we did an exercise around what our vision and values and behaviours should be. “One of things that came out was the importance of what we BY MARGO COLE leave behind – the fact that we are cleaning up the river. That started to
CASE STUDY Fiona Keenaghan
“Tideway has tried to tailor the work I was doing in the office with what I was learning at college”
Fiona Keenaghan is a civil engineering the things that I learnt at college and get a technician who joined Tideway on better understanding of what I was learning. its BTEC L3 Construction and the Also, if there was something I didn’t Built Environment – civil engineering understand at college, there was always apprenticeship programme in 2013. someone who would be able to explain it to me in the office. What was the attraction of the “I studied one day a week and spent apprenticeship? the other four days at work. I also had to “I liked the idea that I could work and study at complete an NVQ in civil engineering. the same time, and get paid to do it.” How has your career progressed? What did the apprenticeship involve? “I stayed in Delivery East Engineering at the “The apprenticeship lasted two years. end of the apprenticeship and got promoted During that time I rotated around teams, to civil engineer technician. In my job I starting with environment and consents, could be working on calculations, working on health and safety, field investigations, and the programme or assisting with reviews of finally Delivery East Engineering. I liked the the documents our main works contractors fact that, whatever team I was in, Tideway submit. has tried to tailor the work I was doing in the “I’m currently studying my HNC part time office with what I was learning at college. It and I hope in the next five years I will be a meant I was able to see the practical side of fully qualified engineer.”
26 new civil engineer | JULY 2016 boards that specialise in attracting Tideway is part time workers and those wanting Focusing our using job to return after a career break. And 12 weeks vision on the the organisation has instigated a Length of specific programme for encouraging boards that specialise people who have taken time out Tideway’s river, rather than in attracting part time of the industry for more than returners the engineering, two years – usually due to family workers and those commitments. programme allowed us appeal to “This is a huge untapped “wanting to return resource,” says Thornton, explaining “a far broader range of that the returners programme is after a career break “all about trying to focus on the people skills, not the gaps. Typically when people go to interviews after a long break, they find it a very negative experience, because employers and recruitment companies just see the change the way we looked at things. gaps.” works contractors getting involved. Focusing our vision on the river, Tideway’s programme consists of Tideway has given the alliance rather than the engineering, allowed 12 weeks of paid work and training, contractors targets around the us appeal to a far broader range of including “back to work” skills and percentage of their workforce that people.” one to one coaching. After that must be made up of local people, One example of this is the the returners can apply for full apprentices and ex-offenders – but language used in job adverts. time posts. The first programme has not insisted they achieve gender Instead of focusing on the attracted 125 applicants, of which parity. engineering, Tideway’s ads now talk seven were selected and all but one “In fairness to the main more about cleaning up the river are still with Tideway. All seven are contractors, they’re doing some and the legacy of the project. women – although men were eligible great things individually,” says But the organisation is not relying to apply. Thornton. “A lot of this is about us solely on traditional recruitment The programme has run again learning from them. It isn’t just us methods. It is also actively using job this year, with some of the main dictating.”
Case study Carolien Batenburg-Soons
“I enjoyed being at home; however, after two years I was ready to get back to work”
Carolien Batenburg-Soons is assistant project ended, and then I read about the integration manager at Tideway, having returners programme with Tideway. It looked joined in the first cohort to be recruited perfect for me, as I have a masters in tunnel through the returners programme in April safety and worked on many tunnel projects in 2015. She trained as a civil engineer, and the Netherlands. worked for seven years on projects in her “I was back at work again within a month. home country, the Netherlands, before Once the returnship programme ended, I taking a career break. applied for the assistant integration manager job, and commenced my current role in What is your background? August 2015.” “In 2012, when I relocated to the UK with my husband and four children. I chose to stay at What does your job involve? home until everyone was settled. I enjoyed it, “The Tideway project consists of six but after two years I was ready to get back to organisations working together in an alliance. work. In 2014 I started to rebuild my network, The objective of my team is to promote with former university classmates and collaboration with all parties to ensure connecting with people I used to work with. seamless delivery of the works. My role My first job in London was a short project supports the alliance structure, ensuring with the Greater London Authority (GLA) on interface issues are identified and monitored, sustainable drainage systems. and consistency of approach across delivery “I continued my search when the GLA areas.”
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 27 Low Carbon TIDEWAY REPORT Cutting out the CO2
BY MARGO COLE
key element of contractors came on board, so the Development Tideway has now set them the A Consent Order (DCO) 840,000t challenge of finding ways to bring granted for the Total carbon the carbon footprint down. Tideway project was “Effectively, that was the initial the energy and carbon footprint footprint for planning design – which was revised report, which gave a snapshot of Tideway further for the tender,” explains the predicted carbon footprint Tideway delivery environmental during construction and for the advisor Philip Smith. “The 120-year lifespan of the tunnel. 84% contractors are revising it again as This figure was based on the type Carbon they go into detailed design.” of technologies and materials that The tunnel has already been were likely to be used, as well as embodied redesigned to make sure it is as the way the sewer system will be in materials short as it possibly can be while operated. still capturing the most polluting The total carbon footprint came used to build combined sewer overflows (CSOs), out at 840,000t, of which 84% is If we can Tideway and now Tideway is working with embodied in the materials and the contractors to see where products being used. Only 2.3% of include other savings can be made. “We that total comes from operating the are looking at different products system – compared with around 80% options that are more and seeing how they work in our for that other London mega tunnel sustainable, we want challenging environment,” says project, Crossrail. White, who explains that the Tideway environmental to look at them, Tideway tunnel may look similar to sustainability manager Darren White Crossrail’s running tunnels, but has said: “It is designed to use gravity “and we are working to perform a very different function: and the storm flow operation which “A tunnel that carries a train is very means that it is predominantly with the supply different to a tunnel that carries our self-cleansing and operates with Victoria sort of material.” minimal mechanical assistance, so chain to look at Embankment He adds: “Performance is the main carbon input is over the next what alternatives are Foreshore: key thing. We want it to be as low five years of construction. And it’s Once it is built, maintenance as possible over 120 mainly the materials that go into available the tunnel years. We want it to last. So, for building a huge concrete tunnel.” will operate example, we don’t want to start The energy and carbon footprint DARREN WHITE, with minimal increasing the level of alternative report was prepared almost ENVIRONMENTAL mechanical products and then find we have to three years before the scheme’s SUSTAINABILiTY MANAGER assistance replace it after 30 or 40 years.
28 new civil engineer | JULY 2016 “But if we can include options that are more sustainable, we want to look at them, and we are working with the supply chain to look at what alternatives are available.” One area where Tideway is looking to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the project is by asking the contractors to find possible re-use options for the chalk and clay that will come out of the tunnel excavation. The contractors have been set targets for the beneficial re-use of excavated material, as well as for construction waste diverted from landfill and the amount of material moved by barge rather than by road. But White – who previously worked for Olympic delivery partner CLM – says one thing he learned from that project was not to be too prescriptive. “The contractors on the Olympic Park had to use 20% recycled content,” he explains. “But what they said to us was: ‘If you talk to us you’ll get better outcomes’. We need to work with the supply chain and research establishments to bring about the greatest benefits which may include leasing assets instead INNOVATION of procuring them.” The contracting joint ventures REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT have to measure all their activities using a carbon calculator, and report quarterly on their carbon Tideway has adopted footprint. Crossrail’s innovation If any of the numbers increase, platform to encourage and the contractors have to submit an disseminate innovation – intervention plan to Tideway for including ideas that will review, explaining the reason for help reduce the carbon the increase. And the DCO means footprint of the project. that any changes to the original And it is trying to foster design have to be environmentally an environment that gives assessed to ensure that it is “not suppliers at all levels the environmentally worse than” the confidence to bring ideas to planning design. the table. White believes the key to reducing the carbon footprint is to tap into “It might be a tier three, all the knowledge at Tideway’s four or five supplier who tells disposal. “We know what a lot of the us how to do things more by working more effectively,” are ways we could have done it contractors are capable of doing effectively,” explains Tideway he says. better,” he says. on projects like Crossrail and the environmental sustainability “They’re the things we need “And there will be ideas Olympics,” he says. “Within our manager Darren White, giving to capture.” and products that come out joint ventures, we’ve got the best the example of a supplier White believes there has of this project that High contractors in the market, and we telling the contractor the been an accumulation of Speed 2 (HS2) and Crossrail want to tap into what they’re doing best way to load and unload knowledge about efficiency 2 will want to be able to use. in all their other sectors – like PFI its products using re-usable and innovation that runs from Hopefully we can take some of hospitals and defence estates. “We packaging. “If that means all High Speed 1 to the Olympics, these things further. want to see if there’s something we the concrete segments turn up then on to Crossrail and now “And if we are working can use from another sector they’re whole, and there is no wastage Tideway. on ideas with our research working in. because of breakages in “We want to take what partners that might be too late “Pretty much all the best ideas are transport, then we could have worked well on those previous for us to use, Crossrail 2 or coming up from suppliers and the a 15% saving on materials just projects and also see if there High Speed 2 could benefit.” people doing the work. They know how it can be done more efficiently.”
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 29 System integration TIDEWAY REPORT Equipped for the future
BY MARGO COLE
nderstandably, much by Tideway. “We were looking for of the focus and someone with software capability excitement generated and experience in delivering these U by the Tideway kinds of systems, and Amey has project is around the got a strong history in delivering construction of the tunnel. But for complex systems for railways,” says Tideway head of asset management Thomas. “The technology of the Siân Thomas, that is only part of the monitors may be quite simple; it’s story. “We’re not here just to build the software, and the relationship an impressive new tunnel,” she says. between our system and Thames “We’re delivering a sewerage Water’s and across multiple sites system that has to integrate with that brings the complexity. That is existing infrastructure. Our job is where the benefit of Amey’s complex to build on Bazalgette’s interceptor rail capacity is valuable.” sewers and integrate the new tunnel One of Amey’s first tasks is to system with Thames Water’s existing Our job put together a user requirement network.” specification. “There are a number of The importance of getting this is to build standard SCADA systems out there,” integration right is evidenced by says Thomas, who adds that Thames the fact that Tideway has already on Bazalgette’s Water already uses more than one, so appointed a system integrator as interceptor sewers the important thing is to make sure part of the alliance team. they can all talk to one another. “We are not due to start system and integrate the new “The specification has to include commissioning for a few years, the needs of Tideway as the but we brought the appointment “tunnel system deliverer of the scheme, and we forward so they could be part of the have got to prove we can operate Tideway alliance,” explains Thomas. SIÂ N thomas, it through system commissioning “By having them on board now we head of asset management and acceptance. And then there are can standardise as much as possible key things that Thames Water will across the geographies and ensure install the mechanical and electrical require as the ultimate operator of design is progressed with the end in equipment at their worksites with the system. It will have particular mind as well as making sure we will the system integrator installing the requirements from an operational integrate our system with Thames telemetry at each site. In addition perspective and how it operates Water’s network and controls to instrumentation at the other within its existing infrastructure.” infrastructure.” combined sewer overflows, as well Thomas is conscious that The role of the system integrator as the work within Thames Water’s technology moves on very quickly. is to specify, procure and install control rooms, the system integrator “We do have to be aware about a SCADA (Supervisory Control will be responsible for the telemetry obsolescence,” she says. “We don’t And Data Acquisition) system that and the SCADA operating system. necessarily need to decide today remotely monitors and controls all Amey won the system integrator exactly what the technology looks the discharges into the river. contract, and it will work as part like. But we do need to know what The main works contractors will of the delivery team headed up those options might be.”
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MAIN: transparent version Brought to you by: Who’s Who TIDEWAY REPORT Major project Sue Thomas Anne Richards Noise and vibration advisor Head of property and facilities
Qualified environmental health C hartered surveyor Anne Richards people practitioner and acoustic specialist runs a team charged with Sue Thomas advises on all aspects ensuring that the main works of noise and vibration on the contractors can access sites on the project, including noise monitoring, dates in line with their construction noise predictions, and managing the programmes. She is also responsible noise impacts of the works. for compensation payments for She also helps the regional any land take and to those affected delivery teams talk to regulators, by the works. stakeholders and members of the local communities about noise and vibration.
Tideway Tunnel will be one of the biggest employers in London. Here we introduce some of the key players.
Kelly Bradley Martin Stanley Legacy and community Geotechnical construction investment manager/chair of manager (East) Encompass
Kelly Bradley’s role is to ensure C hartered geotechnical engineer Tideway leaves a lasting legacy Martin Stanley is the contractor for London. Tideway has made JV’s manager for geotechnical more than 50 public commitments works including groundwater to leave London with lasting monitoring, unexploded ordnance benefits beyond the construction risk management, additional ground of the tunnel, including pledges investigation and construction on jobs, skills, public spaces and works including diaphragm walling, community support, and it is piling, grouting and soil mixing. He Bradley’s job to monitor, review also chairs the Tideway alliance’s and report on its progress. Kelly transformational health and safety also chairs Tideway’s inclusivity working group on diaphragm walling programme, called Encompass. and piling.
32 new civil engineer | JULY 2016 4,000 Number of direct jobs Tideway will create
Paul Morris Gareth Thomas Dominic Molyneux Head of innovation Tideway engineering Senior Engineer – responsible manager (Central) for the main tunnel (West)
Town planner Paul Morris leads G areth Thomas joined the project Tunneller Dominic Molyneux a major effort to ensure the with CH2M in January 2008, with looks after the technical aspects Tideway Alliance has considered a plan to stay for first six months to of the work at Carnwath Road, all significant opportunities for get the project up and running. Eight Putney and the main tunnel. world class innovation in design years later he is working with design His formal role is technical and construction before Tideway and construct partner Flo to ensure assurance where he checks that the mobilises on site. It is also his job to the design is delivered to the quality work provided by the contractor ensure all knowledge and ideas are specified. He is also collaborating complies with the specifications shared in the pursuit of progress. with and supporting designers and meets the client’s requirements. He also chairs Tideway’s early career including Aecom as they work He also acts as an educated professionals network. through challenges of delivering such contributor involved in workshops a complex project. and offering advice.
5,000 Estimated number of supply chain jobs Tideway will create
Clare Donnelly Elaine Alderton Norman Reid Tideway’s lead architect and Skills & Employment Corporate social responsibilities legacy design advisor Coordinator manager for Changing Paths
C lare Donnelly’s practice, Fereday Elaine Alderton is charged with Changing Paths is a charity and Pollard, was appointed in 2009 looking after the welfare of social enterprise, founded in to focus on architectural and Tideway’s apprentices and supporting 2010 to support those furthest urban realm design input for the the main works contractors to from the labour market including surface works. She was embedded in hit their skills and employment ex-offenders, the homeless and the design team from 2010. legacy targets. She has joined ex-forces personnel to increase She now leads a team of architects from Crossrail where she set up employability and provide access to and landscape architects to and project managed its hugely vocational training and employment. oversee the contractor’s designers successful apprentice programme. On Tideway Changing Paths is and make sure the project delivers to supplying staff for the Sir Joe’s Cafe its legacy commitments to achieve and Reid is responsible for creating world class public realm. positive systems which inspire intrinsic motivation in its team of voluntary and paid staff.
JULY 2016 | new civil engineer 33 Alliancing TIDEWAY REPORT Shared vision
BY Michaila Hancock
inanced and being Tideway alliance board sit the government and Ofwat, structured delivered by the newly three construction JVs, the systems the alliance agreement as part of created infrastructure £25 integrator, Tideway and Thames the suite of commercial, contractual F provider Tideway, Water. and regulatory arrangements which the massive Thames Maximum “Our involvement covers the formed the economic heart of the Tideway Tunnel project is breaking cost of the lifecycle of the project – the project, ready to sell the proposition new ground. Thames development, the delivery – to the investor market. “We developed the model in particularly through the alliance “The way we ran the procurement collaboration with our colleagues Tideway agreement as well as the other process was probably a first for from the Department for Tunnel to contractual relationships we have a mega-project like this,” says Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with Tideway, and of course as the Qureshi. and Ofwat and considered that it Thames Water ultimate operator of the tunnel once “The overall timeframe was was in the interests of customers for customers it is built,” explains Qureshi. considerably shorter than the delivery company to be separate each year, The alliance is really in part an traditional procurement processes, from Thames Water,” says Thames embodiment of the overall vision because we knew the type of Water major projects director reduced from that Thames Water has been process our target investor Amar Qureshi. a ‘worst case’ articulating for years. community was used to. They were “This enabled us to get the best “We wanted a bold vision, and used to doing deals in single digit value for customers by putting £75 the contracts reflect those values of months, so we had to reconcile our out to competition all elements being collaborative and focused on procurement process.” of the project – from financing the interests of the customer.” The successful investor, to construction costs. Tideway Thames Water, with the Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (BTL), therefore sits independently of won the contract in August Thames Water and uniquely is a 2015. The consortium comprises regulated wastewater utility, with its fund managers Allianz, Amber own licence from [water regulator] We wanted Infrastructure, Dalmore Capital Ofwat,” he adds. and DIF, and more than 1.7M UK Thames Water occupies a unique a bold vision, pensioners through UK pension position on the project. It was and the contracts funds. responsible for its development – “The outcome of the competition through the securing of reflect those values for the financing resulted in the consents including the development tumbling of the ‘worst case scenario’ consent order, the acquisition of being collaborative cost of the project from £75 a year of land, putting in place a “and focused on the [per Thames Water customer] down phenomenal number the contracts to a maximum of £25. To save that required to deliver the project, off customer bills is incredible,” says and of course, running the interests of the Qureshi. competition for the right to own customer “But fundamentally the alliance the new company. And it remains is about creating the right involved through Tideway’s alliance Amar Qureshi, environment for all the parties to framework that sits on top of the Thames water major make decisions in the best interests construction contracts. On the projects director of the project,” he adds.
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