Author Archives: Editor

What is almost certainly the most expensive and complicated interchange in the history of world highways is beginning to take shape in the centre of Boston. A three dimensional nightmare of tunnels and viaducts, the South Bay interchange, has to be completed within three years, at a cost of $397M…

Claimed to be 'the most complex, ambitious and technically challenging highway project ever undertaken in the US', Boston's £4.9bn Central Artery/Tunnel project is designed to cure a massive traffic headache and make the historic city a more pleasant place to live.

How to boost margins without chasing volume workload is something which has preoccupied most if not all of the major contractors over recent years. All have suffered the effects of chasing volume at the expense of profits and heavy resulting losses have made them realise the folly of their ways.

Last year 23 individuals and teams across the Tarmac group were named as finalists in its third Target 2000 competition.

Alastair McLellan previews a high profile year for civil engineers, particularly those that work in the transport sector.

With Scotland heading for devolution, the power base of the new 'English' government lies firmly within the M25. The nation's capital will be the centre of fierce debates over a wide range of issues, with transport again to the fore.

National economic growth may well begin to slow in 1998, hitting those at the front end of the construction cycle. But civil engineering contractors and most consultants feel confident that they have already accrued enough work to continue to see their workloads grow steadily for the next two years.

While today's contractors and consultants all talk of 'partnering' as the magic needed to lower prices, as well as delivering faster results and better profits, Britain's highest spending clients are impatient to convert jargon into radical changes.

The new year opens as the old one has just closed, with a flurry of comment on the Millennium Dome. Just before Christmas, the Commons' Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee under the usually acerbic chairmanship of Gerald Kaufman, MP, issued a report on the dome. A quick scan of…

All of Canterbury will have known there was something going on at Harbledown bridge over Christmas. Baldwin's giant 1,000t capacity Liebherr mobile crane was visible for miles around, lifting in a new deck. But what was less evident was the unusual approach used in the abutment strengthening that preceded the…