New Civil Engineer

‘Real buzz in the sector’: Roads minister discusses RIS3 as A47 Thickthorn Junction progresses | New Civil Engineer RIS3 is the UK government’s strategic plan for the management, maintenance and modernisation of England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN) between 2026 and

The roads minister told NCE about the excitement in the UK highways sector around Roads Investment Strategy 3 (RIS3), while on a recent visit to National Highways A47 Thickthorn Junction upgrade where work is ramping up

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National Highways completes restoration work on 19th century Riddings Viaduct | New Civil Engineer The repair programme, carried out by National Highways’ Historical Railways Estate team in partnership with contractor Balfour Beatty, began in 2024 and

National Highways and Balfour Beatty have completed a major restoration of the 19th-century Riddings Viaduct, work that officials say will secure the disused structure’s future while preserving its historic character

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Northern Powerhouse Rail: Watchdog queries governance, delivery, growth strategy alignment | New Civil Engineer The NAO report, published today, 11 March, reviews early progress on NPR, a major multi‑phase project announced by the Department for Transport (DfT) in

The government’s Northern Powerhouse Rail programme needs closer alignment with national and local growth plans and stronger collaboration between Whitehall and northern authorities if it is to deliver the economic benefits promised, the National Audit Office has warned

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HS2 | 130m bridge slide over Grand Union Canal completed 7 days early | New Civil Engineer The operation, carried out by teams working for HS2’s construction partner Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV), began on Wednesday 4 March and was completed in the

A 2.4km stretch of the Grand Union Canal in Warwickshire has reopened after HS2 engineers slid a 130m steel bridge into place above the waterway

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Updated UK Infrastructure Pipeline tops £700bn and gives granular data for workforce planning | New Civil Engineer The Pipeline, which is managed by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (Nista), now lists around £718bn of projects and

The Government has published an expanded version of the UK’s 10‑year Infrastructure Pipeline, offering businesses and investors a deeper view of planned public and private capital projects – and an estimate of the workforce and skills likely to be needed to deliver them

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Troubled waters: One method for mitigating floods and droughts | New Civil Engineer It is no secret that our most precious commodity, water, is under threat. The impacts of water scarcity run deep. Not least does it look likely that we

Op-ed: Troubled waters: One method for mitigating floods and droughts

✒️ Aco Technologies national business development manager Russell Palmer

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Regenerating Stevenage: What can new new towns learn from the evolution of the original? | New Civil Engineer Designated in 1946, Stevenage was the original new town. It was one of eight selected by the government to be expanded with new accommodation to relieve

Stevenage Borough Council is working with developers including Mace to overhaul the town centre for modern life - and the lessons learned in the process could inform the new wave of new towns plotted by the UK Government

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Government promises ‘proportionate’ nuclear regulation as it sets out steps to overhaul system | New Civil Engineer Ministers from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said a package of reforms, drawn from the taskforce’s independent review, will cut

The government has announced a number of regulatory changes it will make to consenting new nuclear developments in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce’s recommendations

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Hinkley Point C | TBM readied for 620m long fish return tunnel | New Civil Engineer The tunnel boring machine (TBM) that will excavate the fish return tunnel has been christened Sarah Guppy by local schoolchildren, in tribute to the

Engineers at Hinkley Point C have begun preparatory work to tunnel the fish return tunnel at the new nuclear power station, marking a further step in efforts to reduce impacts on marine life in the Severn Estuary

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VolkerFitzpatrick to deliver new bridge and road widening for Didcot infrastructure upgrade | New Civil Engineer The contract covers the Didcot Science Bridge element of the wider Didcot and surrounding areas infrastructure package, which is being funded through the

Oxfordshire County Council has appointed VolkerFitzpatrick to build a key section of a major transport upgrade scheme around Didcot, taking the project a step nearer to construction

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Infrastructure Unit among new methods to fast-track environmental checks in project consents | New Civil Engineer New strategic policy statements (SPS) will give Natural England and the Environment Agency clearer direction to prioritise outcomes rather than

The UK Government has unveiled measures intended to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure projects by changing how two of the country’s main environmental regulators operate

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1950s Yorkshire aluminium bascule bridge set for off-site refurbishment to remedy corrosion | New Civil Engineer East Riding of Yorkshire Council has appointed Esh Construction to carry out the £1M programme on Weel Bridge, which spans a tidal section of the River

A 73-year-old aluminium bascule bridge that carries the road between Beverley and the village of Weel will be removed for a three-month off-site refurbishment after inspectors found corrosion and other defects

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Main works start on £100M Shipley TrainCare Centre for Transpennine Route Upgrade | New Civil Engineer The TrainCare Centre, being built on a brownfield site in the town, is intended to provide temporary space for Northern’s fleet while access to the

Construction has begun on a new £100M train maintenance depot in Shipley that will support the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) and accommodate Northern’s electric trains serving the Airedale and Wharfedale lines

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Application for revamp of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre lodged with Bromley Council | New Civil Engineer Morgan Sindall Construction, appointed under the Southern Construction Framework, lodged the planning application on behalf of the centre’s owners. The

Plans have been submitted to Bromley Council for a major renovation of the Grade II‑listed Crystal Palace National Sports Centre (CPNSC), a redevelopment that would modernise the site, improve accessibility and reduce its carbon footprint

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TBM launched on National Grid’s 2.2km power tunnel under the Thames | New Civil Engineer The machine, named Caroline, was launched from a 48.7m-deep shaft at Tilbury in a ceremony attended by energy minister Michael Shanks. The tunnel will be

A 271.5t tunnel boring machine (TBM) has begun excavating a 2.2km tunnel beneath the River Thames as part of National Grid’s Grain to Tilbury project

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The impact of grid congestion and planning intervention on data centre viability and delivery | New Civil Engineer This threw up two – now well publicised – barriers to progress. Power Data centres require significant amounts of power to operate (and power that is

Op-ed: The impact of grid congestion and planning intervention on data centre viability and delivery

✒️ Wedlake Bell partner Ed Phillips and solicitor James So

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Wales urged to overhaul transport network with third Menai bridge and rail reopenings | New Civil Engineer Authored by Centre Think Tank, Getting Wales back on track: Improving roads, rail, buses, and planes across Wales, highlights chronic weaknesses in

A report from @centrethinktank.co.uk setting out priorities for Wales’s transport system says the country needs major investment in roads, rail and airports to address long-standing connectivity problems between north, mid and south Wales

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Arup appointed to provide early phase engineering and designs of Wylfa SMRs | New Civil Engineer The Wylfa site, on the island’s north-west coast, was selected by Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) as the location for the country’s first SMRs. The

Arup has been appointed to provide early-phase foundation engineering and design support for the Wylfa small modular reactor (SMR) project on Anglesey, part of Government-backed plans to expand nuclear capacity in the UK

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UK Government removes offshore wind energy tariffs to help manufacturers save millions | New Civil Engineer Under a new “authorised use” customs measure, traders who bring specified components into the UK and use them for approved purposes within a set period

The UK Government will waive import tariffs on 33 industrial goods used in wind‑farm equipment from 1 April in a move intended to lower production costs for manufacturers and stimulate investment in the country’s offshore wind industry

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UK’s largest AI data centre receives approval, paving way for £10bn investment | New Civil Engineer The Elsham Tech Park development, put forward as part of a wider Northern Lincolnshire AI Growth Zone, would occupy about 176ha adjacent to Elsham Wolds

Councillors in North Lincolnshire have granted outline planning permission for a proposed artificial intelligence (AI) data centre campus near Elsham

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Last concrete precast segment completed at HS2’s ‘viaduct factory’ | New Civil Engineer More than 2,700 concrete segments – each weighing up to 85t – were cast over three-and-a-half years at the Kingsbury facility in Warwickshire to form the

The final precast deck segment for one of the most complex structures on the HS2 route out of Birmingham has been manufactured at a temporary yard beside the M42

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Early work begins on Lower Thames Crossing in preparation for tunnelling in 2028 | New Civil Engineer Around 1,000ha of habitat will be created early in the programme so it has time to establish before the main construction phase. Early works now under way

Work to prepare areas of Essex and Kent for construction of Lower Thames Crossing has begun, with archaeologists, ecologists and engineers carrying out preliminary activity ahead of major tunnelling due to start in 2028

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5 new stations including Camp Hill line set to open in West Midlands over next month | New Civil Engineer Willenhall and Darlaston stations in the Black Country will open on Thursday 19 March, while Moseley Village, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road on

Five new railway stations in the West Midlands including the three long-delayed Camp Hill line stations are set to open to passengers over the coming month, marking the completion of a regional rail project intended to reconnect communities cut off from services

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UK net zero needs £26bn a year to 2050 but still cheaper than fossil fuel price shock, CCC says | New Civil Engineer In a new report, the CCC has supplemented its 2025 advice on the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget, stating that “the total additional cost of a single fossil

Reaching net zero in the UK will need £26bn of investment each year to 2050 under the Climate Change Committee’s balanced pathway, but this is still cheaper than a fossil fuel price shock akin to the one in 2022, @thecccuk.bsky.social has said

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Britain’s infrastructure is only as strong as the ground beneath | New Civil Engineer While much of the focus on climate centres on flooding, heat or coastal defence, the stability of the ground beneath our infrastructure is emerging as a

Op-ed: Britain’s infrastructure is only as strong as the ground beneath

✒️ Mainmark UK commercial & infrastructure lead David Hedley

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Yorkshire Water kicks off £14M of storage and overflow projects while welcoming new investor | New Civil Engineer Malton and Norton water resilience Early works on Yorkshire Water’s £9.5M project to make the water supply serving Malton and Norton, North Yorkshire,

Yorkshire Water is starting three new infrastructure projects across its catchment, including a new storage reservoir, while welcoming a major new investor in the business

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‘Real buzz in the sector’: Roads minister discusses RIS3 as A47 Thickthorn Junction progresses | New Civil Engineer RIS3 is the UK government’s strategic plan for the management, maintenance and modernisation of England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN) between 2026 and

The roads minister told NCE about the excitement in the UK highways sector around Roads Investment Strategy 3 (RIS3), while on a recent visit to the A47 Thickthorn Junction upgrade where work is ramping up

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Motts and WSP to masterplan Pioneer Park clean energy scheme adjacent to Sellafield | New Civil Engineer The appointment, made by local development company Energy Coast West Cumbria (BEC), follows initial market engagement and technical assessments

Mott MacDonald and WSP have been appointed to lead the masterplan and programme management office for Pioneer Park, a proposed clean-energy and economic regeneration scheme on land adjacent to the Sellafield nuclear complex in West Cumbria

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5 objecting water companies only allowed 17% of demanded increase from Ofwat decision | New Civil Engineer The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)-appointed group has allowed the companies – Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern

An independent panel has ruled on how much extra revenue five water companies can recover from customers after the firms challenged Ofwat’s 2025–30 price control

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Hydrogen used to decarbonise asphalt production in UK first | New Civil Engineer The trial took place at the company’s Criggion plant in Powys, mid Wales. It has been three years in the planning and forms part of the Government’s

Hydrogen has been used to decarbonise asphalt production on an industrial scale in the UK for the first time by Heidelberg Materials UK

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