Weekly news round-up - 19 February 2014

Your rapid update on the week's infrastructure stories.

Thomas Paterson
19 February 2014
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  1. The Thames Barrier was closed for the 197th time on Tuesday, the 43rd of this winter. Most of the recent closures have been to help manage upstream flooding. Throughout the country 1.3M properties have been protected from the recent flooding according to the Environment Agency; 4000 properties have been flooded compared to 8000 in 2007. There are 55 new flood defence schemes to be built this year.

  2. Project bank accounts are to be piloted for the first time on roads infrastructure in Scotland on the A96 Inveramsey bridge to help improve cash flow in the construction sector, Scotland’s minister for transport and veterans Keith Brown has announced.

  3. China is planning to build a tunnel twice as long as the Channel Tunnel, running 121km from Dalian to Yantai on the east coast, knocking 1280km off the route between the two cities. Estimated cost is £22bn and the scheme involves three tunnels, one for cars, one for trains and one for maintenance.

  4. There has been a rise in the number of young people considering a career in engineering according to a survey by Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. The number of 11 to 14 year olds who are considering a career in engineering has jumped 6% and the number of girls contemplating becoming engineers has also increased 6%.

  5. Five nuclear facilities have been identified as potential sites to store waste from disused nuclear submarines. They are the Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire, Sellafield in Cumbria, Chapelcross in Dumfriesshire and Capenhurst in Cheshire. Public consultation will take place later this year.

  6. Viridor Waste Management and Highview Power Storage have been awarded over £8M to spur on innovation in storing energy, Energy & Climate Change Minister Greg Barker has announced. The two companies will use the funding to develop a technology to store air in a liquid format which can then be used to supply electricity at times of high demand. Storing energy has the potential to save over £4bn a year by 2050.

  7. Hammersmith flyover could be replaced by a tunnel in as little as three years and could be funded by receipts from newly available land on the former trace of the flyover. Consultant Halcrow (now CH2M Hill) revealed the plans to Hammersmith & Fulham Council last week.

  8. A new town could be built at Ebbsfleet on the Thames Estuary according to a report from the Centre for London authored by former transport secretary Andrew Adonis. The development of 35,000 homes would benefit from the HS1 link into London.

  9. The Highways Agency is consulting on introducing a 60mph speed limit on a new stretch of smart motorway on the M3 to limit levels of air pollution which would be caused by the increased number of vehicles using the stretch between junctions 3 and 4 in Surrey.

  10. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin is to lead a review of all transport networks to extreme weather events.