Weekly news round-up - 30 April 2014

Design savings deliver new investment for A1, fracking will boost economy by £33bn, pension funds back infrastructure – our review of the week’s news.

Jackie Whitelaw
30 April 2014

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1. Department for Transport has given the green light for the Highways Agency to widen more of the A1 Western Bypass at Gateshead. This will see 6.4km of the A1 widened to three lanes in both directions – an additional 4.8km to what was previously planned. The extension has been made possible through £19M savings identified in the design phase of the original scheme.

2. Marine energy research projects near the Orkney islands may need public funding to get a grid connection after a government report warned of a “looming underwriting funding gap” for a proposed 180MW cable to Orkney.  Orkney is one of three planned Scottish island transmission connections that are caught in a deadlock. The others are a 450MW cable to the Western Isles and a 600MW link to the Shetland Isles.

3. Qatar’s General Electricity and Water Corporation has announced the tender for construction of five primary reservoirs and pumping station packages as part of its Water Security Mega Reservoirs project.  The reservoirs and pipeline network will provide up to 17M cubic metres of potable water storage. Bids need to be in by 5 June.

4. Birmingham Airport’s new runway extension becomes operational on Thursday and will be ready to take fully laden, long haul A380 jets. The 400m extension increases the runway length to 3,003m. China Southern will be the first long-haul airline to take advantage of the extended runway from July 22 when it operates a charter flight to and from Beijing. Runway extension construction began in autumn 2012 and cost £33M. Contractor was a Colas VolkerFitzpatrick joint venture. Designer was Halcrow (CH2MHill), project manager Turner & Townsend and airport engineering advisor URS.

5. The PIP Equity Fund, the first investment fund set up by the UK Pension Infrastructure Platform (PIP), has completed its first investment. According to Dalmore Capital which manages the fund, the PIP has purchased a stake in a holding company for private finance initiative assets from construction company Interserve's pension fund. The portfolio includes interests in education, healthcare, defence and accommodation projects.  The PIP Equity Fund is the first pooled infrastructure fund for pension funds in the UK and is expected to invest at the low-risk end of the infrastructure asset spectrum. Seven institutional investors including the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), British Airways Pensions and the Strathclyde and West Midlands Pension Funds committed £260M to the fund, which will be capped at £500M.

6. Plans to hang giant advertising banners from the top of the Forth Road Bridge to help fund its 50th anniversary celebrations have been abandoned. The 20m wide promotions would have remained in place for up to a year and prompted anger from heritage groups when bridge officials revealed the scheme last year.

7. Proposals to build a road tunnel under Stonehenge could be revived as the Government looks to ease road bottlenecks. A study to be completed this summer will consider options for easing congestion on the A303 at the world heritage site. Plans for a 2km road tunnel beneath the site have been proposed before but were dropped in 2007 due to the estimated £470M cost. Final proposals are due in the Autumn Statement.

8. Shale gas could deliver a potential £33bn benefit to the UK economy and over 64,000 jobs according to the Getting Ready for UK Shale Gas report published by trade body United Kingdom Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG) and part funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Specialised equipment, waste management, steel manufacture and rig manufacture are the sectors that will benefit most. Read the report

9. The Rail Freight Group has welcomed a proposal from Eurotunnel to significantly reduce the level of access charges for rail freight services using the Channel Tunnel. The changes, which take effect from June, will see tolls for the ‘off peak’ period, when most traffic operates, reduce by 25% compared to 2013 levels, with no further increase until at least 2018.  Eurotunnel’s ‘ETICA’ incentive scheme is also to be enhanced and extended such that new rail services will see an average overall discount of around 35-40%. The commitment by Eurotunnel comes as a response to the legal investigation opened by the European Commission against France and the UK for their failure to implement European rules on access to infrastructure in the Channel Tunnel.

10. A report just released by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) shows that 1 in 10 bridges in the United States is structurally deficient and in need of repair. Total number at risk in 2013 was 63,207 bridges measure a total of 2,400km in length, the report said. Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri and California had the most structurally deficient bridges.