Civils

Stephen Tomkins is Balfour Beatty’s project director at Hinkley Point C The UK’s energy market stands at a critical juncture. As the country accelerates its transition towards renewables, the demand for skilled professionals has never been greater. However, the industry faces an undeniable challenge: a widening skills gap that threatens…

It’s been five years in the making, throwing up multiple technical challenges. But the long-awaited Silvertown Tunnel in east London finally opened this week. The £2.2bn project to construct a 1.4km twin-lane road tunnel under the River Thames to connect North Greenwich and Silvertown has been no mean feat. It…

Alison Fagan is infrastructure lead at law firm DLA Piper In 2025, the UK’s infrastructure sector stands at a critical juncture. The nation’s builders will no doubt welcome the recent announcement that the government intends to give judges the power to block appeals on nationally significant projects, plus its renewed…

Which projects are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the year ahead?  Tribeca Work on London’s largest purpose-built life sciences campus will ramp up in 2025. The first phase of the King’s Cross Tribeca project, which features state-of-the-art laboratories and workshops, saw VolkerFitzpatrick complete the 10,450…

Balfour Beatty is looking to train a new generation of overhead power workers to meet a glut of work in the energy transmission sector Though not quite in the clouds, I am very high up, thinking about the tensile strength of steel and the significance of each of us in…

An independent review commissioned by the Labour Party has called for high-level proposals to be drawn up by the end of the year for a new model of public-private partnership (PPP). The report, produced by  the Urban Transport Group (UTG), was led by former Siemens chief executive Jurgen Maier. It…

Andy Murdoch is a partner at engineering, design and advisory practice Buro Happold The announcement on 30 July by the chancellor Rachel Reeves to cancel several major highway projects and conduct a wider review of ‘unfunded projects’ has had a significant, unexpected impact on road users, local communities and the…

Paul Maile is a partner at Eversheds Sutherland The UK is due an infrastructure revolution. It’s time for a renaissance of public-works building to bring our aged and end-of-life energy, utilities and transport networks into the present century. And to make them fit for the future. The political will is…

The hunt is on for a contractor to build a complex prototype nuclear fusion plant in Nottinghamshire One major strand in the Labour Party’s general election manifesto is its proposal to set up a publicly owned company called Great British Energy to invest in clean and renewable energy. In its…

CN looks into the main parties’ manifestos as the UK general election approaches As the UK prepares to vote on 4 July, how have the main political parties’ manifestos approached the construction sector? Infrastructure The Conservative manifesto criticised “frivolous legal challenges” against big infrastructure schemes, after a five-year term in…