London Underground’s curved track problem has been solved thanks to a new type of concrete sleeper produced by Cemex Rail Solutions. Until now, the sleepers on rail track curves have been made out of wood, but the first new concrete sleepers have recently been laid at a section of track between Aldgate East and Whitechapel. London Underground had previously found it challenging to produce the right type of sleeper that would be sufficient to guide the track around curves of less than a 200 metre radius, while ensuring that the Tube trains remain on the track. Previously, sleepers designed for curves were made out of timber, which can affect the gauge of the track as they tend to shrink over time. As a result of this design flaw, London Underground have been searching for a solution to this problem and it now seems that Cemex have come up with the solution after 12 months of development work. Cemex has said that the main challenge was how to attach the cast iron base plate to the sleeper, as this would typically be done by casting plastic dowels into the concrete to allow the base plate to be bolted down. Durham University conducted analysis into the issue, which highlighted complications when using the normal attachment methods, relating to the forces in pre-stressed concrete that may lead to more cracks. Replacement of plastic inserts normally used for attachment of conductor pots by steel inserts and reinforcement around the plastic dowels, adopted from industry practice in Germany, has significantly reduced the risk of any possible cracking. The Derbyshire-based Cemex Rail Solutions factory has now started to produce three varieties of the sleeper, with two further models in the pipeline. A further 2 variants of check rail bearer were designed (short ended at either end) at the same time to allow for drainage catch pits which are sometimes in the way trackside.

A major hospital in Cambridge is being helped to cut carbon, reduce costs and save energy by Anglian Water Business. The water firm worked with Addenbrooke’s Hospital, along with consultancy company SaveMoneyCutCarbon, to replace the hospital’s inefficient and dated fluorescent lamps with 650 LED tubes and panels in the hospital. This is said to result in an overall carbon and energy reduction of 53%, while saving £15,000 a year and a return on investment in under four and a half years for the hospital. Addenbrooke’s entire wastewater treatment needs are already served by Anglian Water Business (AWB), with the LED replacement scheme forming part of its commitment to proactively identifying the best ways of providing customers with more value. Paul Vincent, AWB Account Manager, said that they are delighted to be helping Addenbrooke’s implement the significant efficiency and financial savings. Vincent continued: “At [AWB], we are committed to working collaboratively with our customers to ensure they lower costs and consumption, whether it’s water or energy. “This project was made possible thanks to our partnership with SaveMoneyCutCarbon and interest-free funding from Salix Finance.” Denis Garnham, Addenbrooke’s Hospital Energy Manager, said that the hospital’s sustainable energy development plan is based on carbon, energy and cost saving, while improving the quality of the healthcare environment on the site. Garnham believes that this latest lighting upgrade project is a prime example of how they are working towards this goal by bringing together their Salix funding stream and AWB’s progressive value added services. Holden Cook, Chief Operating Officer at SaveMoneyCutCarbon, said: “The money saved by the Trust in energy and maintenance costs can now be diverted into other essential areas, which is fantastic.” Anglian Water Business is a national water retailer which supplies over 140,000 public sector bodies and businesses throughout the UK.

The National Grid is preparing for a 400MW spike in demand this Saturday (August 13) as people up and down the country tune in to watch a huge night of Olympic action. The rise in demand is expected for ‘Super Saturday’ as viewers stay up until 3am to watch Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford go for gold. The predicted spike in demand is lower than that of the London 2012 Super Saturday but the National Grid has attributed this to the time difference in Rio. A ‘TV pickup’ occurs when demand for electricity increases during advert breaks or at the conclusion of the UK’s most popular programmes as consumers turn on lights and electrical applicances. If Andy Murray makes it to the final of the tennis event which begins at 8pm, the National Grid is expecting a 500MW pickup, while a 250MW spike is expected if Team GB’s women’s gymnastics team make the final round. When Tom Daley claimed his bronze medal on Tuesday night, Britain saw a pickup of around 169MW, however this was much below the expected 350MW spike. When the coverage switched to the gymnastics, a further 50MW increase was seen. Jeremy Caplin, Energy Forecasting Manager at the National Grid, explained that pickups during this year’s Rio Olympics have been significantly lower than London 2012, which he believes is because of the time difference as the majority of events have been taking place overnight. Caplin added: “As always our team of experts in the control room are working hard to ensure our predictions are as accurate as possible and we are expecting to see an increase in demand of 200MW overnight during ‘Super Saturday’ as people tune in to watch stars such as Jessica Ennis-Hill and Mo Farah.”

Design and consultancy company Arcadis has been appointed as the primary contractor on a £1 million project to study the railway line between Exeter and Newton Abbot. The firm has been appointed by Network Rail to conduct ground investigation studies in the cliff areas between Teignmouth and Dawlish as part of a 50 year scheme. The findings of the study will provide engineering guidelines to model failure mechanisms and inform the later phases of design where planned intervention measures could be proposed. At present, the coastal route for the South Devon Railway is prone to storm damage with the breach of the Dawlish sea wall two years ago leaving the line shut for two months. This cost the rail industry an estimated £45 million. Arcadis Project Manager, Claire Milner, said that they are using innovative GIS technology to deliver the scheme, which will help with communication and improve the quality of data analysis. Milner added: “This means we can ensure Network Rail is equipped with the information and data it needs for future investment decisions, while at the same time working closely with the local community to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.” Meanwhile, project sponsor for Network Rail, Joanna Grew insisted that her firm is committed to the long term resilience of the railway between Newton Abbot and Exeter. Grew continued: “Keeping this railway line available for local communities, as well as passengers and businesses further afield is crucially important. “This work will provide vital data to feed in to the long term resilience options for this route and allow us to better plan the works in the future.” Meanwhile, Network Rail announced last month that the line between Folkestone to Dover is set to reopen this autumn. The project to rebuild the line cost £39.8 million, with work starting on the project in December 2015.

German firm ETW Energietechnik GmbH has developed technology that can blend two gas streams of different qualities to fuel CHPs. ETW said the equipment ’precisely blends the two gases to a homogeneous fuel mixture’. This makes the technology ideally suited for landfills that struggle with shrinking heating values and volumes of biogas along their lifetime the firm said.. This shrinking heating value can be compensated by gradually enriching biogas with natural gas (NG). The blending is completely automated and designed to consume the lowest possible amounts of natural gas. Almost any CHP can easily be upgraded, ETW said. There are several advantages for the operator, ETW adds. At startups the CHP receives a perfectly balanced fuel mixture, preventing startup problems often caused by low CH4 concentration. “This enables the operation of CHPs even with CH4 concentration lower than 30%,increasing its lifetime and availability, and thus its economic feasibility. The CHP can be operated independently from the land-fill gas supply.”

There are two main competitors to the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, according to two sustainable energy projects. The first is the Swansea Bay ‘tidal lagoons’ scheme, which is currently awaiting ministerial approval. The £1billion project involves building a walled lagoon in Swansea Bay that would generate electricity on the ebb and flood of every tide through largely British-built turbines, across 14 hours a day for a predicted project lifetime of 120 years. The scheme could be in place and in operation within 5 years – although to make it happen, it would require subsidy at a level comparable to offshore wide or new nuclear generation. It would also need millions of tonnes of concrete and aggregates from quarries across the UK, and would of course radically alter the local environment, particularly affecting sea life and wading birds. The lagoon power is, clearly, not without ‘teething problems’, but the look pretty modest when compared to nuclear reactor designs which may or may not actually work, and of course storing all the toxic waster afterwards. Should the lagoons prove effective, the project could quickly be added to, with a second lagoon planned in Cardiff, as well as a string of sites along the English and Welsh coasts. The enterpeneur behind this scheme, mark Shorrock, claims that this lagoon power could provide 8% of UK energy needs, which is more than Hinkley Point, and would be the lowest long-term cost per megawatt of any energy source. The other big contender is offshore wind farms. Herik Poulsen, who is chief executive of the French company Dong Energy, says that wind turbines can be built on time and on budget, and give the UK a reliable source of power if they were combined with output from new biomass or gas-fired plants. “Could you build a national energy policy without nuclear? Yes you could … and if you needed to fill a (energy capacity) gap offshore, wind could be accelerated to fill such a gap,” he said. Poulsen claims that the Brexit vote has not caused him to rethink Dong’s £5.1billion investment programme in the UK, which involves constructing three more windfarms on top of the eight already operating. “We hope offshore wind will remain a key component in the future energy system and are optimistic about prospects under the new government,” he added. Britain has a total of more than 5GW of offshore wind capacity, as well as almost 9GW of onshore wind, and new projects are coming on stream all the time. The new proposed Hinkley reactors would provide just 3.2GW.

GMB, the union for energy workers, has called for Ofgem to be scrapped and the government to take over as the regulator accountable to parliament after the new proposals from Ofgem. Earlier in the month, the UK energy regulator set out its approach to the recommendations of the Competition & Market Authority (CMA), stating that they will deliver a fairer and more competitive energy market for consumers. The two year investigation carried out by the CMA came to a close last month and found that the vast majority of households are not interested and paying over the odds for their energy in comparison to those who have switched tariff. The recommendations are trying to free up competition and encourage market innovation to reduce customer bills and make the service better for everyone, not just a minority. Dermot Nolan, Chief Executive at Ofgem, commented: “The CMA’s final report is a watershed moment for industry and consumers and points the way to a fairer and more competitive future. I call on energy companies and consumer groups to seize this opportunity.” However, GMB says that it is not convinced and believes that the government should not duck decision making that is required to keep the lights on and ensure the sector gets decarbonised. GMB National Secretary for Energy, Justin Bowden, said: “Here we go again with more Ofgem tinkering over the pretence that a free market is possible in this sector.” Bowden added that the organisation should be abolished and the government itself should be responsible for industry regulation, meaning that both are accountable to parliament. He also believes that the government should have the power to limit profit levels and cap prices when necessary to run and finance power stations. Meanwhile, GMB and Unison are set to consult their members before a fresh round of leadership endorsements.

JSM has developed the Non-Intrusive Cable Extraction (NICE) innovative system that removes underground decommissioned fluid filled cables without the need for traditional open cut trenching for the entire length of the cable route as current practice entails. Along with fluid filled cables, the NICE system can also be used on gas filled cables and standard power cables. JSM has already worked with UK Distribution Networks Operators (DNOs) and the National Grid in the delivery of commissioned projects and successful trials using the NICE system as the main operation method. JSM most recently carried out the first successful trial in an urban environment on behalf of UK Power Networks in the prestigious Greenwich area. The use of the innovative technology reduced a 460 metre trench to just 60 metres of smaller excavations. The NICE system works by firstly loosening the cables using ‘Launch’ and ‘Receive’ pits, a unique cable de-bonding tool connected to a special drill rig is wrapped around the decommissioned cable, and then extracting the cables, with a series of benefits associates with using the programme that can be filed into three categories. Firstly, there are physical benefits as it is a less intrusive and safer method compared to open cut trenching, with around 80-90% less excavating needed by comparison. There are also commercial benefits as the NICE system provides superior value with projects possibly achieving a cost neutral balance because of asset materials value being recovered. Meanwhile, environmental benefits are also associated with the use of the NICE system as it is more environmentally friendly and reduces the impact on neighbouring habitats and ecology, with reduced carbon emissions and fewer excavated materials sent to landfill sites. JSM is continuing to change and challenge the norms of the industry by refining and exploring the new innovate processes that will provide greater efficiency and added value to the industry.

The UK’s first use of cold repaving has been described as a success as highway contractors on Northumberland’s A1 have pioneered a new method of road resurfacing that is 10 times faster than traditional methods. Highways England’s contractor for the area, A-one+, which is a joint venture of Halcrow, Costain and Colas, has resurfaced 2.2km of the A1 at Brownieside in Northumberland with the use of cold repaving. For the first time, the Wirtgen cold recycling machine is being used in the UK. The machine allows the road’s underlying layers to be recycled, churning up the old surface material, combining it with new material within the body of the machine then laying it back down immediately on the road behind. Every year in Germany, over five million sq m of thin layers are paved in cold application but this is the first time that the technique has been used in the UK. Here, the machinery is owned and operated by subcontractor Lane Rental Services, which purchased the equipment three months ago. There are two models of cold recycling machines offered by Wirtgen; the 3800 CR and the 2200 CR, both of which have an integrated paving screed for in-situ cold recycling of carriageway pavement, however these may be adapted for the addition of bitumen emulsion, water cement slurry or foamed bitumen. Lane Rental Services specified a custom-made 3200 CR, capable of paving carriageways of 3.2- to 5-metre widths, which is being used in Northumberland in conjunction with a Vögele Super 1900-3i tracked paver. The road surface is initially prepared for the application of the thin overlay by cold milling machines with fine milling drums. This results in a fine profile of the milled roadway which created a substrate with which micro-surfacing can engage. The ‘valleys’ of the fine-milled profile engage the layers of the micro-surfacing, which in turn produces a smooth layer structure.

Heating installation firms are gearing up for Gas Safety Week, with Swale Heating the latest company to get behind the initiative by giving away free CO monitors. The heating business, based in the south east, is working with Gas Safe Register (GSR) to ensure that members of the public are fully aware of the gas safety message that the scheme is trying to get across. Matthew Edwards, Swale Heating’s Sales Director, said that one of the best ways of protecting the safety of its customers would be to give away the monitors. Edwards commented: “Members of the public are not always gas safety aware, despite our best efforts. We know from Gas Safe Register’s own survey that many householders are very trusting and don’t always understand how important it is to use a registered engineer. “Giving away CO monitors during Gas Safety Week is a way of encouraging householders to come to a professional, fully registered company and have equipment installed that could save a life.” Gas Safety Week will run from September 19 to 25 this year and the firm is set to provide free CO monitors with any private boiler purchase during the week. Swale Heating has also agreed several other events to mark Gas Safety Week, including a campaign on social media and a gas safety feature placed in local papers in the Kent area. Gas Safety Week is a project that is run every year by the Gas Safe Register to raise awareness of gas safety and stresses the importance of taking care of gas appliances. Landlords are legally required to have a gas safety check, while the focus is on homeowner to get this done too. Poorly services and badly fitted gas appliances may lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, explosions, fires and gas leaks, with thousands of people in the UK diagnosed with CO poisoning every year.