Weekly news round-up - 26 March

Your rapid update on the week's infrastructure stories.

Thomas Paterson
26 March 2014
LinkedIn
Print

  1. Japanese industrial giant Hitachi says it will move its global rail business from Japan to the United Kingdom. The manufacturer of the first bullet trains says it hopes the move will help it to expand the rail business to 4,000 workers from the current 2,500.

  2. Siemens and Associated British Ports are to invest £310M in UK wind turbine factories creating 1000 jobs. Siemens will contribute £160M. The investment is being made in Hull and Paull in East Yorkshire.

  3. Mott MacDonald was named Global Consultant and Atkins won UK Major Consultant of the Year Award at the 2014 NCE/ACE Consultants Awards. Other winners: Ramboll associate Gavin White – Young Consultant of the Year; Buro Happold’s Mei Ren – Sustainability Champion; Rhead Group – Outstanding Achievement; Ardent Consulting Engineers – specialist consultant; BCS – consultant under 250 employees; and Peter Brett Associates – consultant 250 – 2500 category.

  4. Spectators at this year’s Ryder Cup will arrive at Gleneagles either by bus or train after the Perthshire venue was designated as a car free zone for ticket paying customers in the transport plan for the event. The majority of the 45,000 fans for the event will use three park and ride facitlities.

  5. Roger Robinson, head of Laing O’Rourke’s European operations is stepping down but will continue with the company in a senior role overseeing projects including Hinkley Point. Chief executive Anna Stewart will take on European operations.

  6. Bids are now open for a £10M government fund to help firms test innovative ways to help take broadband to Britain’s most remote communities. Suppliers can submit bids in three different categories: technology, operating models ie joining smaller networks together into a common larger network; and financial – testing innovative public/private funding models to bring in new investment.

  7. The Highways Agency has invited the following consultants to bid for its Collaborative Delivery Framework due to be announced in the Autumn. They are: AECOM, Amey, Arup, Atkins, Capita Symonds - Design & Infrastructure/Ramboll, CH2MHill, Hyder Consulting, Jacobs Engineering, Mott MacDonald/Gronmij, Mouchel, Pell Frischmann, Royal HaskoningDHV, RPS Group, URS Infrastructure & Environment (UK), Waterman Transport & Development/Tony Gee/WYG Engineering JV, WSP Civils/Parsons Brinckerhoff.

  8. Construction Youth Trust’s Duke of Gloucester’s Young Achievers Scheme announced its winners last week. They were: Construction Delivery and Overall Winner – Gary Fowler, J Breheny Contractors; Engineering – Victoria Martin, Expedition Engineering; Surveying – Jonathon Baylie, Vinci Construction; Project Management – Harriet Bower, Balfour Beatty; and Design and Architecture – Jordan Jones, Aecom. Highly commended were Victoria Turner, United House for Construction Delivery; Brett Holmes, BAM Nuttall for Engineering and Mohammed Usman Shah, Costain for Surveying. Read more about the scheme and the trust here

  9. ADEPT is considering rejecting Department for Transport’s reforms to highways funding saying councils could lose up to 40% of their cash, according to The Transport Network. Plans announced in ‘Gearing up for efficient highway delivery and funding’ in January proposed 10% of each local highways allocation could be dependent on councils demonstrating an “up to date asset management strategy”. A further 10% of the highways block funding could be dependent on authorities adopting highways maintenance efficiency principles. And £200M a year of the cash could be put into a challenge fund that councils compete for to create a competitive bidding process.

  10. Government has kicked off the tender process for the East Coast main line rail franchise to return the operation to the private sector. The tender includes requirements for faster and more frequent services, improved services to destinations such as Lincoln, and the potential to serve five new routes to Huddersfield, Scarborough, Harrogate (via York), Middlesbrough and Sunderland (via Newcastle). A successful bidder is due to be announced in November and the franchise will start in March 2015 and run for eight years.