Civils contractors today warned that the infrastructure sector – a key driver of growth in the UK economy – is at risk of stagnation on the eve of the General Election. A report published today by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) found that order books in firstquarter of 2017 fell for the first time in four years. CECA’s Workload Trends Survey found that 9 per cent of firms, on balance, reported decreasing order books. Just 5per cent of firms expect workloads to increase in the next twelve months, the lowest percentage expecting higherworkloads since 2013 Q1. In the same quarter growth in actual work on the ground fell from 11% to 8%, on balance. Commenting, CECA Director of External Affairs Marie-Claude Hemming said: “These results are extremely concerning. “They show that not only is the rate of growth in infrastructure workloads currently sluggish, but that order books have moved into the red, indicating that the sector is at real risk of stagnation. “Unless action is taken, our sector runs the risk of falling into a recession at exactly the time that we need it to be driving growth in the economy. “As the country prepares to go to the polls next month, we call on all parties to commit to the projects outlined in the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan, and ensure steps are taken to boost investment in all regions of England, Scotland and Wales. Key driver of economic growth. “Failure to act could undermine the sector’s ability to deliver. This will imperil the British economy at the very time we need this key driver of economic growth to secure the future of the UK.”

Keltbray has added LED lights to road rail vehicles (RRV) to mark out exclusion zones during night working. Keltbray Rail Plant has borrowed the idea from the highways industry, where lights have been used for some time to create exclusion zone areas around equipment. But it is believed to be a first for the rail sector. Keltbray Rail Plant undertakes much of its work at night; exclusions zones can be difficult to maintain and installing physical barriers is not always possible. The light system solves this. Its fleet of 14 Colmar RRVs is being fitted with high-intensity blue lights. Shining onto the ground, they are directed to mark out illuminated exclusion zones required around the machinery for safe operations. The solution was devised by Keltbray Rail Plant’s piling delivery manager, Grant Fieldhouse, in partnership with Network Rail’s construction manager, Justin Owens, for working on the Great Western line in Wales. Paul Murphy, Keltbray Rail’s operations director rail for Wales and Western, explained: “Where we operate heavy duty machinery, it is important to use clear safety signage to make people aware of dangerous equipment and the risk moving plant can pose to even the most experienced operatives. As we often work at night, signage is not always visible, and so we have adopted lighting to help operatives visualise the exclusion zone and reduce the risk of accidents. “Grant and Justin had to find lights that have high vibration resistance to minimise downtime and the risk of lighting failure, and eventually found these in the USA, where they have been developed to protect factory staff working near moving forklifts. As a UK first, we have now fitted them to a Colmar T10000 heavy lifter RRV, which is working for Network Rail on piling works associated with electrification of the Great Western railway in Wales. ‘RRV are proving very effective’. “These lights create exclusion zones of 10 metres to the side, back and front of the RRV are proving very effective. We are communicating this initiative through the on-site task and POS briefings and will be introducing this into all training plans for operators and staff.” These high-intensity blue LED lights will now be extended to all the other RRV in Keltbray Rail Plant’s Colmar fleet over the next six months.

The recently awarded Infrastructure Architect of the year 2017 has revealed that they are a part of the AECOM-led team that will offer design services for the third and newest crossing of the Menai Strait. The contract has been given by the Welsh Government and Richards, Moorehead & Laing the environmental consultancy will also be involved in the development. The team working on the project will be carrying out the Key Stage 2 Appraisal of the options for the development that will allow the best possible designs for the new bridge will be identified and constructed. This third crossing of the Menai Strait will see connect Anglesey to the mainland of the Wales. It is thought that this project will identify a new preferred route for a number of the passengers. This new connection will help to reduce the traffic in the two existing crossings for the Menai Strait. The original Menai Bridge was built in the 1820s by Thomas Telford. The second crossing, Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge that was built in 1850 struggle with heavy congestion. The congestion is caused on Britannia Bridge because it is the only section of the A55 that is not a dual carriageway which creates a bottleneck. The route that connects the M53 with Holyhead Port via Britannia Bridge is a part of the Trans European Road Network. The new bridge has been planned in order to improve the capacity and reliability of the road network in this area. This new project will also offer better network resilience and improved opportunities and safety for non-motorised users and safety. It is thought that Knight Architects will contribute to the project with their significant expertise in delivering infrastructure designs that are of high quality in both high profile and sensitive locations. Recently the Architects firm has completed a 50m highway that extends across the River Avon in Bath, which was the first new bridge to be constructed in a World Heritage Site for more than 100 years. Knight are also working on the £600 million Mersey Gateway.

The IOSH’s No Time to Lose campaign was launched in 2014 in order to raise awareness amongst industry workers about occupational cancer. The campaign is spread around the world and provides businesses with free and useful resources to protect their workforce against and minimise the risks. The high-profile campaign has reached a new height as it has had their 100th organisation sign up in order to pledge their support to raising awareness about work-related cancers. This milestone has been reached after Wills Bros Civil Engineering Ltd signed up to the No Time to Lose pledge that includes a six-part plan that covers the important actions of organisations that are wanting to manage the exposure to carcinogens within their workplace. The action plan can be accessed by those who are planning to make changes as well as those who are already in the middle of addressing the exposure risks.   The Executive Director of Policy at IOSH, Shelly Frost has been part of the announcement of the 100th pledger during last week’s Global Asbestos Awareness Week. It has been estimated that 666,000 deaths each year worldwide are in connection to cancer that can be related back to causes from work. The biggest killer as part of this figure is asbestos, but other carcinogens such as diesel fumes, silica dust and solar radiation are also causes of workplace cancers. It is thought that through the use of the campaign and the efforts of the pledged businesses that now nearly half a million employees around the world are aware of the carcinogens mentioned above that they could come into contact with through their jobs. Although it is great to see that the campaign is expanding, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done in order to significantly reduce deaths due to carcinogen exposure in the workplace. It has been announced that next year the campaign will be releasing free resources in order to help businesses around the world raise awareness of as well as manage the exposure risk of asbestos. The campaign aims to get rid of occupational cancer.

Highways England has announced Multi-million pounds of road improvements in order to help with the development of 4,000 homes and more than 10,900 jobs. These improvements are expected to cost £75 million and the improvements by Highways England should create opportunities around Derby and Daventry in the Midlands as well as Oldham in the North West, Durham in the North East and Taunton in the South West. As part of these project, Highways England will be contributing £12.45 million contribution as part of its Growth and Housing Fund. The rest of the £75 million cost will be coming from private sector developer contributions as well as other public funding. The Growth and Housing Fund is the Government’s £100 million fund set aside as part of the £15 billion investment in the road network. The Fund will provide funding for road improvements that are necessary for new developments intended to create homes and jobs in order to try and meet the demand. It has also been announced that Highways England has set out a plan that will use Government funding in order to create the largest impact over the long-term on the countries network of motorways and major A roads. It is important that these road systems are kept up to a high standard because they contribute to the country’s economic wellbeing. This ‘The Road to Growth’ plan is a way to manage the growth of the economy through the improvement of infrastructure like roads. Highways England also has plans to publish 128 ‘Route Strategies’ which includes all key road routes around England. The strategies will review the key routes, noting their performances and constraints in order to identify where needs further study or where improvements can be made. England’s Major roads are vital as part of the economic growth of the country as t provides a connection for businesses and people. The more efficient this connection is, the better for the economy.

UK Power Networks have selected six contractors as part of the projects to refurbish and upgrade the electrical infrastructure across the South East of England and East Anglia. One of the contractors that has been awarded the works is SPIE UK. The company has been awarded a noteworthy Wood Pole Overhead Line framework. The project is initially set to be two years but has a four plus two-year extension for their project. The contract awarded to SPIE is part of the £920 million investment project that has been taken on by UK Power Networks. In the first year of the project SPIE will be on site in the East of England, outside of Colchester. From here the company will manage the design as well as the planning of the projects that are associated with the overhead distribution system. The subsidiary of SPIE Group is an independent company and European leader in multi-technical services. Focusing on the areas of energy and communications, the company provides energy, safety and environmentally focused solutions for their clients. SPIE UK employs more than 3,000 staff and also work from a variety of different regional offices around the UK. SPIE’s main focus will be on the wooden poles that support the cables that will be running from 230 Volts up to and including 132,000 volts. The intention behind the project is to keep the lights on for 3.5 million homes as well as businesses across the East of England by updating and replacing the cables. The overall project will see the replacement, refurbishment, and construction of a variety of different overhead lines as well as pole inspections, changes and some terminations. UK Power Network will also use SPIE as their storm response team throughout the year. The expertise required for the updating project are provided by SPIE and the project should improve the performance and capability of the electricity network.