Weekly news round-up - 13 February 2015

Highways England set for April start as Infrastructure Act now law, frackers can drill under national parks, Borders Rail completes track, Capita buys BCS Design.

Jackie Whitelaw
12 February 2015

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1. The promised £15bn in roads investment in England is to become reality after the Infrastructure Act which contains legislation to allow creation of Highways England -  the new government company charged with overseeing the investment - became law on Thursday (12 February). 

2. Meanwhile, late amendments to the Infrastructure Act mean that fracking will be allowed to take place beneath national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, even though ministers said there would be a ban. Instead, energy companies will not be allowed to base their fracking operations on the ground within the protected zones but will be able to station drilling rigs outside the zones but drill beneath them.

3. Track-laying has been completed for the new 50km Borders Rail Link in Scotland being built by BAM Nuttall for Network Rail. Construction of the completed link between Edinburgh and the Borders is forecast to cost £294M and includes seven new stations. It is set to open on 6 September.

4. Capita has bought 40 strong Leeds and London based BCS Design for an an undisclosed sum. BCS provides a wide range of civil, structural, geotechnical engineering and surveying services in markets including rail, highways, industrial and utilities.

5. The consumption of structural steelwork in the UK is expected to increase 9% to 895,000 tonnes in 2015 according to a recent survey by Construction Markets. This increase in demand comes off the back of a 6% rise in 2014, reflecting the ongoing recovery in the construction sector. Growth is forecast to continue in subsequent years, with structural steel consumption estimated to reach 972,000 tonnes in 2018 (the end of the forecast period). 

6. MPs have expressed concerns about the government's ability to attract £600M in private sector investment for flood defence schemes in England. The Environment Committee said it was unclear how the target would be met. In a new report examining the department's priorities, MPs said the level of private contributions pledged so far was a "cause for concern". Of the £148M secured since new rules were introduced in 2011, only £40M had come from sources other than local government. "It is unclear how the £600M target can be met and we want Defra to demonstrate how it intends to obtain that money and to explain the impact on its investment programme if the money does not come forward," said committee chair Anne McIntosh

7. HR Wallingford has announced a strategic partnership Siemens, to boost infrastructure monitoring solutions for the water industry. The technology partnership includes the development and delivery of innovative real-time solutions for dams and flood defence infrastructure.

8. According to new research by recruitment firm Randstad CPE, women are expected to fill a quarter of all construction jobs in the UK by 2020. The research found that since 2010, the number of women in construction jobs has risen by 4%, from 16% to just over 20%, compared to a 1% rise over the preceding five year period. Randstad projects the proportion of women working in construction will rise to 26% by 2020, and that this proportion could well be higher “given the right cultural change”. The recruiter says that as of today, the proportion of construction jobs held by women is one in five.

9. Tidal Lagoon Power has announced a General Electric-Andritz Hydro consortium as the winner of a £300M contract to build the 16 turbines the Swansea scheme will use. GE and Andritz have committed to produce the majority of the turbines’ major components in the UK including the generators - the highest value component of the turbines – which will all be built at GE’s plant in Rugby.

10. Experts are creating a unique visual archive of every tower block in the UK to help restore the reputation of post war high rise flats. Social and architectural historians from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) will create a publically accessible catalogue that celebrates Britain’s post-1945 building boom. Tower Blocks – Our Blocks! has been described as a “Domesday Book” of the UK’s post-war reconstruction. It will contain images of every single multi-storey public housing project ever constructed in Britain, including ones destroyed more than 30 years ago.