Weekly round-up - 1 May 2015

Earth pressure balance TBM to be converted to slurry shield for Cairo metro, Peter Truscott is new Galliford Try CEO, construction slowdown slows economic growth and Crossrail roof garden opens.

Jackie Whitelaw
30 April 2015

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1. Vinci and Bouygues Construction are claiming a world first with their plan to adapt an earth pressure balance TBM  to operate as a slurry pressure balance machine to build the Euro 264M Cairo metro Line 3 extension between Haroun and El Nozha stations. The new phase of works (Phase 4A) continues on from Phase 2, which was brought into service in May 2014 more than six months ahead of schedule. Phase 4A consists of 5.15 km of tunnel and five underground stations on Line 3, the east-west link across the Egyptian capital. The joint venture has committed to a very short design-build delivery deadline of 34 months based on the experience it has acquired over more than 30 years of working on the metro project, the oldest in Africa, and to the TBM technical innovation. The TBM which will be converted is named Imhotep and was working on phase 4.

2. New chief executive of Galliford Try is to be housebuilder and Taylor Wimpey south divisional chairman Peter Truscott. He takes over from current CEO Greg Fitzgerald in October. Fitzgerald will become non executive chairman of the business and construction division chief executive Ken Gillespie has been promoted to become chief operating officer while continuing to lead construction.

3. The rate of economic growth halved in the three months to the end of March, the slowest quarterly growth for two years, with construction output falling by 1.6%. Uncertainty created by the General Election was one underlying reason for the construction fall, commentators said. The UK economy grew by 0.3% in the quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. This compared with 0.6% in the last three months of 2014. The economy was 2.4% larger than the same period last year, the ONS said.

4. Economic losses from global flooding are expected to rise by at least 430% by 2080, and possibly as much as 2,000% unless resilence work takes place, scientists have warned. The number of global fatalities could rise by as much as 200% in the same time, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But adaptation investment could cut economic costs of flooding by 96% and fatalities by 69%.

5. Demand for commercial property in the UK is growing close to its fastest pace since 1998 and, along with a surge in investment, reflects the widening economic recovery, according to the latest RICS Commercial Market Survey. In Q1 2015 the UK saw its 10th consecutive quarterly acceleration of demand for commercial properties, with 46% more respondents seeing greater interest. 

6. Sweett Group has been appointed by Network Rail to provide support to existing estimating services on the Western & Wales region for renewals and enhancements projects over the next 12 months. 

7. Heathrow Express (HEx) is the first rail company in the UK to install platform gap-fillers at its stations to reduce the risk of passenger accidents. The bespoke gap-fillers sit along the edge of station platforms reducing the size of the gap between the train and platform edge. On the railways Stepboard accidents are responsible for 48% of the overall fatality risk to passengers, and cause knock-on delays to train services while the passenger’s welfare is being looked after.  A year-long trial at HEx’s Heathrow Terminal 5 station found there were no stepboard incidents wherever gap-fillers were in use. The devices are now set to be installed at all Heathrow Express train stations by the end of May.

8. A project to create a swimming pool in the Thames has started its crowdfunding campaign to raise £125,000 to build a 25m pool and training pool. The Kickstarter campaign organised by project promoter Studio Oktopi ends on 22 May.  

9. The timber and ETFE canopied tropical roof gardens and a leisure complex designed by Foster + Partners that sist above the new Crossrail station at Canary Wharf in London opens to the public at the weekend.The seven-storey structure is the first new building for Crossrail – London's new east-west rail link – to open, although trains will not run from the station for at least three years.