Weekly round-up - latest

John Laing to float, Austria fights Hinkley deal and free flow tolling making a difference at Dartford, all in the latest news.

  1. Infrastructure investment business John Laing is to float the business on the stock market in a move which hopes will raise £130M to invest in infrastructure initially in the US.

  2. Austria is to appeal the EU approval of the UK government funding strategy for Hinkley C which could delay construction of the new nuclear plant by two years. The row is over whether the agreed strike price counts as a subsidy.

  3. Savings in travel time of nine minutes southbound and four minutes northbound have resulted from the introduction of the Dart Charge free flow toll on the QE2 bridge between Essex and Kent according to the  Highways Agency.  More journey time savings are expected when the new road layout is complete in spring.

  4. According to Transportation Professional there are calls for fire protection systems inside the Channel Tunnel to be urgently upgraded and open sided wagons banned from freight trains. The calls come from a leading civil engineer and the fire brigade following Saturday’s fire on board a train carrying heavy goods vehicles. I

  5. Airports and airlines are being urged to bid for government funding of up to £17.5M in the next year to help launch new routes. £56M is available in total over three years from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund.

  6. Edinburgh Airport announced it is to start work on the £50M second phase of its £150M expansion programme to build a new immigration and baggage haul that will allow it to triple long haul flights. A £25M security hall and temporary baggage/immigration haul starts construction next week to accommodate the start of long haul flights to the Middle East in June.

  7. Super insulated pipes, advanced algorithms and heat recovered from industrial waste are among the winning ideas in a million pound government-run competition to drive down energy bills and boost low carbon heat supplies in the UK. The competition is intended to help stimulate innovation in heat network technologies and bring the UK a step closer to generating 14% of heat demand through heat networks by 2030.

  8. Government has awarded a £27M grant towards construction of a further 5km of dedicated busways in Bristol, which will effectively double the network. The new South Bristol Link will connect to the Ashton Vale to Temple Meads MetroBus section already under construction.

  9. Crossrail this week celebrated the appointment of its 400th apprentice, Fatima Alghali. Around two in five of Crossrail apprenticeships have been filled by people that were previously not in work. They have been trained in a range of professions from construction to accountancy, quantity surveying to business administration.

  10. The Highways Agency announced its Supplier Recognition Scheme awards this week. For the winners, click here.

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