Weekly news round-up 24 September 2014

Training fund for nuclear engineers, Finnair flying on recycled cooking oil and early Brunel structures unearthed at Paddington Crossrail.

  1. Funding of £8M for training the next generation of nuclear engineers and technicians has been announced by government. The fund will create hundreds of new apprenticeships and traineeships as part of the Magnox led Nuclear Industrial Partnership. Funding builds on the government’s Nuclear Industrial Strategy which is aimed at making sure Britain can benefit from the £930bn being invested in the nuclear industry over the next two decades. The construction of new power plants, alone, could create as many as 40,000 new jobs in the UK.

  2. Transport for London (TfL) has unveiled plans for a new Overground station at Old Oak Common in west London to connect with HS2 and Crossrail.

  3. Finnair was due to operate an Airbus A330 flight from Helsinki to New York this week using biofuel partly manufactured from cooking oil recycled from restaurants. Switching to a more sustainable fuel source can reduce net CO2 emissions from flights by between 50% and 80%, the airline said. The biofuel mixture is provided by SkyNRG Nordic – a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation.

  4. Remains of structures built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for his Great Western Railway have been unearthed near Paddington in west London as part of works for Crossrail. Finds include foundations of a 200m long engine shed, a workshop and train turntables. The structures were used for Brunel’s broad-gauge railway, which first ran steam trains through the area in 1838.

  5. More doubts are being expressed about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar according to Construction Week. FIFA Executive Committee member Theo Zwanziger is reported to have said in Sport Bild: "I personally think that in the end the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar," the German told Sport Bild on Monday. "Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions," he said. 

  6. Nearly a third of rail passengers are unhappy with the way their train company deals with delays or cancellations, a survey has suggested. Passenger Focus's survey said rail customers found Twitter had better information than station staff.

  7. The Centre for Cities think tank is calling for the establishment of a Cities and Prosperity Act in the first year of the new Parliament to overcome the barriers currently holding back UK cities from realising their potential. The Act would introduce a presumption in favour of devolution, and legislate to enable governance, finance, skills, housing and transport reforms – as the five most critical levers to drive growth and renewal in UK cities.

  8. Former Atkins chief Keith Clarke has been named as non-executive chairman of Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay, the company preparing to begin construction of the world’s first tidal lagoon power plant in spring 2015.

  9. New free flow payment arrangements will come into effect at the Dartford Crossing during late November, the Highways Agency announced today. Registration for pre-pay accounts will open well in advance of these changes. The full benefits of the scheme will be delivered by the end of April 2015, when all changes to the road layout will be completed. 

  10. A new type of cement is currently being tested on a large scale in India. Known as LC3, this new blend substitutes up to half of the carbon intensive materials traditionally used to make cement with highly abundant clays.  Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne together with partners from the Indian Institutes of Technology and from universities in Cuba and Brazil have managed to double the quantity of cement produced from the same quantity of limestone by substituting a large portion of clinker  with calcined clay. Limestone Calcined Clay Cement, or LC3, has the potential to generate 20-30% less CO2 emissions compared to traditional Portland cement; a major reduction considering that cement accounts for 5-8% of today’s manmade emissions.

If you would like to contact Jackie Whitelaw about this, or any other story, please email jackie.whitelaw@infrastructure-intelligence.com.