Push to plug UK’s tunnelling skills gap - FT.com
Welcome press@warwick.ac.uk Your account Site tour Sign out
ft.com/companies
Home UK World Life
& Arts Financials
Energy
Companies Health
Industrials
Markets Search
Advanced search
Global Economy Luxury 360
Media
Lex Comment Retail & Consumer
Tech
Management Telecoms
December 2, 2012 11:31 pm
Personal Finance Transport
Share
By Region
Clip
Reprints
Push to plug UK’s tunnelling skills gap
By John Murray Brown
While some engineers argue that tunnelling has never been central to UK
infrastructure projects, the race to win forthcoming government projects has shifted
companies’ focus to a shortage of skills underground.
By the national infrastructure plan, billions of pounds worth of contracts are to be
awarded, many involving large elements of tunnelling.
More
ON THIS TOPIC
Renishaw the model for Midlands
high-techs
Midlands manufacturers forge
Olympic torch
IN COMPANIES
‘Saudi America’ effect unlikely to
dent oil prices
Media groups grapple with
succession
UK courts used for Kuwaiti debt
workout
COMPANIES VIDEOS
Projects such as eight nuclear power stations, each of
which will require underground waste storage
facilities; the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, a sewer
designed to tackle the problem of overflows from the
capital’s Victorian sewers and to protect the river
Thames from increasing pollution; and HS2, the highspeed rail project, which has been redesigned using
50km of tunnels after protests by communities.
This focus on subterranean construction has
prompted several leading engineering groups to
sponsor a specialist course at Warwick university,
amid fears that without a supply of tunnelling skills
the UK could lose out on vital contracts.
The MSc in tunnelling and underground space, now in
its second year, has attracted sponsorship from
Morgan Sindall, Balfour Beatty, Mott McDonald and
the British Tunnelling Society as well as foreign contractors such as Vinci
Construction of France, the Qatari group Redco International and URS of the US.
Chinese princelings profit from
corruption
The Warwick course is only the first step to address this skills gap, with 15 signed
up this year. It is expected the class size will increase to 25 next year.
Industry officials say the UK’s shortage of such expertise has already been exposed
by Crossrail, with half of the contracts to date awarded on the £14.9bn London rail
project going to foreign contractors.
“UK contractors just do not have the capacity to deliver these projects,” says Bob
Ibell, managing director of London Bridge Associates and chairman of the BTS,
which represents about 80 UK companies including Transport for London and
National Grid. He has been lobbying for a specialist course for more than a decade.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
ON MONDAY
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a061648-3b15-11e2-b111-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Dz9WVrJC[03/12/2012 14:31:47]
ANALYSIS
Tools
Print
Email
Push to plug UK’s tunnelling skills gap - FT.com
The dearth of skills is not only hindering UK companies winning business. If the
government has to award contracts to foreign companies, it will also raise the cost
to the taxpayer, says Colin Eddie, managing director of underground professional
services at Morgan Sindall, a contractor with revenues of £2bn and 7,000
employees worldwide.
As Mr Eddie explains, a foreign project manager can be as much as three times
more expensive than a local hire, once housing and schooling are included in the
calculations.
©AFP
Ed Crooks: ‘Saudi America’ Debate rages about the
effect unlikely to dent oil
regulation of shadow
prices
banking in China
HIGHLIGHTS
Today, few engineers in construction companies have any expertise in tunnelling,
and Mr Eddie says those who do spent the past few decades working on projects
related to coastal defences in UK seaside resorts. “I’ve been a tunneller for 32 years
and I could learn a lot from this course,” he says.
He cites the example of Crossrail where eight 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines
will be deployed to carve out 40km of tunnels under London’s streets.
“As soon as you put that machine to work, you make a large investment,” says Mr
Eddie. “If you don’t keep that machine going, you’re losing money. And it can be
held up. You can’t get the spoil away. Or the hydraulics break or the power. Or
perhaps the ground you’re digging has changed, or the grouting is not right. That’s
what a tunnelling engineer does.”
NEW REPORT SERIES
BUSINESS TECH DEBATES
A Blueprint for British
FT's new video series on
Business
corporate security
MOST POPULAR IN COMPANIES
1. Cable hits back at Noyer on role of City
2. Japan bank chief warns on bond exposure
Mr Eddie worked on the Jubilee Line, the channel tunnel and was on the expert
panel for Crossrail. He says one of the challenges for contractors is managing
manpower to match the contract pipeline.
3. Yahoo hit by $2.7bn Mexican court ruling
4. Delta in talks to buy Virgin stake
5. BSkyB man to run Murdoch’s UK papers
“There is this stop-start nature of the business. For instance, at the end of the
Crossrail project there will be teams assembled who will have the capability to build
HS2. But, almost inevitably, there will be a delay – and between the end of one and
the start of the other project, those resources will be lost to the four winds,” says Mr
Eddie.
“Even with Crossrail it wasn’t clear until very recently it was absolutely certain it
would go ahead. It’s the same with HS2. This is all about managing the pipeline. If
we don’t invest in programmes like Warwick’s, we will definitely end up being the
poor relation to the big European construction giants.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Share
Clip
Reprints
Print
Email
LATEST HEADLINES FROM CNBC
Investors Shun US Markets Due to 'Cliff": Goldman's
O'Neill
Content recommended for you
Related articles
Stocks to Watch: CATO, HCA, DELL & More
Financing: Cementing the road to recovery
Super sewer to cost a great deal of money
Stocks to Watch: CATO, HCA, DELL & More
Investment: Shovel-ready projects needed
Warwick and Aston show entrepreneurial spirit
Big schemes need big money
Exxon warns of cost blowout at PNG LNG
US 10-Year Notes Trade Slightly Lower After Upbeat
China PMI
Pension funds lose PFI test case
Dearth of cranes reflects construction fall
WS Atkins shares up as confidence returns
Balfour Beatty – post-Games dip
Bulls Go Shopping at Ascena Retail
FINANCIAL TIMES JOBS
Search
Post your own comment
Faculty Positions
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a061648-3b15-11e2-b111-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Dz9WVrJC[03/12/2012 14:31:47]
Head of HR Operations