TUNNELLING TALES

FIFTY YEARS OF THE

BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY
 INTRODUCTION
The book to celebrate the BTS at 50 is finally getting close to publication.

We have selected the articles that follow to showcase a cross section of the final book.
The majority of the pages will contain stories from the construction of underground
infrastructure, with further chapters describing the BTS, along with ‘people’ pages featuring,
for example, the recipients of the James Clark Medal. It promises to be a fascinating,
informative and entertaining read.

There is no universal style or theme: people have chosen to write about their life in
tunnelling, a project that was a special highlight in their career, or about a particular incident
or one of the many characters in the tunnelling world. Most articles were submitted in
written form, but others have come from interviews or were gathered in their natural
environment, with a pint in hand.

I hope that this selection will leave you eager for more. If so, the back pages explain the
pre-ordering options that are available to ensure you don’t miss out on getting your copy (or
copies!) as early as possible.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the volunteers and professionals involved
in the production of the book, and of course our authors. It has been a much harder and
longer process than I envisaged when proposing the idea way back in 2018, and many thanks
for sticking with it.

Ken Spiby February 2024

2 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY BEFORE THE BTS 3

 4 BTS CHAIRS 11 THE 2000s
16 OUR INDUSTRY
CONTENTS THE CHANNEL TUNNEL
HEATHROW TERMINAL 5
HEALTH & SAFETY
THE ENVIRONMENT
5 THE 1970s KING’S CROSS
OTHER UK TUNNELS
CHALLENGING THE INDUSTRY:
DIVERSITY AND DISCRIMINATION
The book contains 16 chapters, each ROAD TUNNELS OVERSEAS PROJECTS TRAINING
subdivided into sections as shown. Each THE JUBILEE LINE MICROTUNNELLING AND JACKING THE CHANGING FACE OF THE
section contains a number of ‘stories’ written WATER AND SEWERS INDUSTRY
by different people in the industry. The OTHER UK PROJECTS MOVING FORWARD
authors have been given broad discretion to
tell their stories as they feel is best. This has
OVERSEAS PROJECTS
12 AWARDS AND
RECOGNITION
left us with informative, entertaining and APPENDICES
sometimes even comedic accounts spanning
the history of British tunnelling. 6 THE JAMES CLARK MEDAL

8 THE HARDING PRIZE 13 THE 2010s AND 2020s

7 THE 1980s LONDON UNDERGROUND

1
STATION UPGRADES
INTRODUCTION WHERE IT ALL BEGAN THE CHANNEL TUNNEL CROSSRAIL
IVOR THOMAS THE THAMES TUNNEL: EIGHTH
THE THAMES WATER RING MAIN
GREATER CAIRO WASTE WATER
9 THE 1990s OTHER LONDON TUNNELS
OTHER UK TUNNELS
WONDER OF THE WORLD HEATHROW OVERSEAS TUNNELS
SEWAGE AND WATER SCHEMES
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION OTHER UK PROJECTS THE JUBILEE LINE EXTENSION THE TUNNEL TIGERS
OTHER LONDON TUNNELS
2
HYDROPOWER
KEN SPIBY
FOUNDING THE BTS OTHER OVERSEAS TUNNELS THE DLR

THE FOUNDING OF THE BRITISH

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL
OTHER UK TUNNELS 14 TUNNELLING PEOPLE
SPONSORS TUNNELLING SOCIETY CLEAN BATHING BEACHES AT THE SHARP END
OTHER SEWERS SUPPORT TO LEAN ON
OVERSEAS PROJECTS
3
IN THE OFFICE
BEFORE THE BTS
AN INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL SPECIALISTS
TUNNELLING MAJOR UNDER-RIVER TUNNELS
THE TYNE TUNNELS 10 THE HARDING
MEMORIAL LECTURE 15 OPERATING THE BTS
THE MERSEY TUNNELS
THE CLYDE TUNNEL THE STRUCTURE OF THE BTS
THE VICTORIA LINE
SCOTTISH HYDRO POWER
OTHER TUNNELS

4 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY 5

BEFORE
■ Ferry Lane to Pretoria
Avenue SHUTTER OIL AND POSTCARDS
One Kinnear Moodie & ■ Pretoria Avenue to
■ Ferry Lane to Page
one McAlpine machine Walthamstow
Green Common

THE BTS
One Kinnear Moodie Two McAlpine tunnelling
machines I spent my last two school summer holidays working for
& one McAlpine
machine W & C French Ltd, for whom my uncle, Greville Bickerton,
Tottenham was a site agent. At that time they were engaged on

THE
■ Netherton Road to Hale Blackhorse
Page Green Common Walthamstow tunnelling projects for the Metropolitan Water Board at
Seven Road
One Kinnear Moodie & Central Staines and in North London. The pit boss for French was
one McAlpine machine Sisters Charlie Dowel, who had been a Royal Navy diver in the

VICTORIA Second World War and had worked on Operation PLUTO

■ Finsbury Park to Netherton (Pipe Line Under the Ocean, supplying fuel to the Allied
Road (experimental tunnel, forces in Europe, installed just a few days after D-Day).

LINE
1961): Kinnear Moodie, using a Finsbury Park He had a serious limp due to the bends but was always
Kinnear Moodie drum digger
very cheerful and friendly to me. I remember him once,
while we were putting up a shutter together, rubbing a
handful of shutter oil into his hair saying, ‘There you are,
■ Finsbury Park to LONDON
King’s Cross: Kinnear And.’ (He always called me ‘And’.) ‘Much cheaper than
Moodie (Andy Smith) Brylcreem!’ Charlie was a regular at BTS meetings in his
The Victoria Line, built in the 1960s and using two McAlpine Highbury & Islington retirement and was always good for some reminiscing.
opened (to Victoria) in 1969, was the first tunnelling machines Working on these jobs gave me a taste of tunnelling and
deep railway to be built across Central I knew that it was what I wanted to do for a career.
■ King’s Cross Station: I attended Leeds University from 1960 to 1963 and
London for sixty years, and the first new line Balfour Beatty (Andy Smith)
obtained a Third Class Honours Degree in Civil
since nationalisation of the network in 1948. Engineering, which I believe is known as a ‘Gentleman’s
It was the world’s first full-scale automatic Degree’, and had a wonderful time getting it. During the
railway, running 16.9km from Walthamstow ■ King’s Cross to King’s Cross St. Pancras two summer vacations, I again worked for my uncle in
Oxford Circus:
in the north-east suburbs to Victoria Euston North London and then in Luton on a drainage scheme
Mainline Station, entirely underground and involving the use of compressed air. Tom Gibbs was
Warren Street general foreman.
with every one of its twelve stations an Following graduation, I decided that if I was to
■ Oxford Circus
interchange with either a mainline station, Station: Kinnear Oxford Circus become chartered and work in contracting, I had better
another Underground line or both. During Moodie get the design experience out of the way first, so I joined
(Dave Foster)
the construction, an extension to Brixton was JD & DM Watson at their Victoria Street office. I chose
ABOVE: Andy Smith and
Green Park Kinnear Moodie drum digger them (or maybe they chose me), because they were the
approved (adding four further stations), with ■ Oxford Circus TBM crew at a breakthrough
consultants on the North London scheme. I worked with in Poole.
this section opening just two years after the to Victoria:
Horace Roy Oakley (HRO) and Jack Preston, who were
J Mowlem
main section. both partners, on the design of various drainage LEFT: One of three
step-plate junctions north
Much of the construction of the twin Victoria schemes and investigation work for the Tyne Sea Outfall. of King’s Cross.
single-track running tunnels was mechanised I remember recording the results of sealed plastic
by employing early tunnelling machines Pimlico VICTORIA TO BRIXTON envelopes containing a prepaid postcard and a penny
■ Victoria to Vauxhall 1966–1968 coin for the finder, which had been dropped into the sea
developed just a few years earlier by Kinnear including Pimlico Station: The 5.6km extension
at the proposed outfall diffuser location. The idea was to
Balfour Beatty Vauxhall
Moodie and Sir Robert McAlpine. These were was excavated using
find out where the discharge (largely untreated sewage)
the less mechanised
purchased by London Underground and ■ Vauxhall Station
‘Greathead-type’ shields might end up! We had many postcards returned from all
(excluding platform
supplied free of charge to the contractors. tunnels): Kinnear Moodie around the North Sea coast and even from Denmark and
Holland. The scheme, however, never went ahead.
■ Vauxhall to Stockwell Stockwell
Ana Barbosa including Vauxhall
platform tunnels: [Extract from a longer story]
Mitchell Brothers Brixton McAlpine tunnelling machine Andrew (Andy) Smith
0 0.5 1 km Section Engineer, Kinnear Moodie & Co
■ Stockwell to Brixton
including Stockwell and Now: Retired, formerly Construction Director,
Brixton Stations: Joseph Gallagher Ltd
A Waddington & Son
6 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY BEFORE THE BTS 7

A ‘GROOVE-LESS’ ORDER
As we all know, ‘change’ is an inevitable part of our
industry as we manage the unmanageable. One of my
earliest and most vivid recollections of change
management (not that it was called that in those days)
occurred on the Channel Tunnel in the late 1980s.
Within the service tunnel on the UK side, the ground
support consisted of an expanded pre-cast concrete
segmental lining. Segments at knee level had corbels
cast-in, and pre-cast concrete planks were then placed
onto the corbels during TBM passage (one plank per ring)
to form the main roadway structure for service vehicles.
These were initially designed and checked as solid
planks, after which reinforcement bending and mould
8 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY
manufacture commenced.
A late instruction came through from the Client to
insert two grooves into the top surface, 75mm deep and
about 300mm wide. We asked what these were for so
that space-proofing could be confirmed, but it seemed
that this was a tightly controlled official secret and we
were not within the close circle of knowledge, so we
could not (‘must not’) have access to the details. There
was concern about having these open grooves on the
top surface, as they could present a tripping hazard, but
they were mainly covered by the two construction tracks
and at least they ran longitudinally along the tunnel. So,
the design and reinforcement were changed, the moulds
altered and completed, casting commenced and planks
started to be installed in the tunnel.
Very shortly afterwards the same Client
representative walked down the tunnel and immediately
asked what the grooves were for. Our explanation was
obviously lacking in conviction because he then
instructed us to get rid of them!
Mike King
Engineer, Eurotunnel
Now, Director, MK Tunnelling Ltd
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LOCO FITTER
As the ritual morning alarm goes off, I sit bolt upright out to have the usual complaints: ‘It won’t start’, ‘There’s and shout: ‘All sorted now. Get the ****ing train on the
while my eyes adjust to the darkness. I quietly slip out, no power’ and ‘It stinks of rotten eggs’, the last probably bunker.’ As I walk back up the bunker, I hear ‘Nice one,
not disturbing the household but already thinking of the translating to the fuel filters being dry. But strangely, the Phil’. It’s Dick, with a great big grin on his face. We sit
alien world that I will soon be entering. Driving the short tank is full to the neck, the air filter and engine cylinder down for five minutes, having the craic over a cup of tea
distance to work, my mind starts ‘revving up’ at the heads are blocked up and the smell is most likely a in the OBC’s hut.
thought of the often continuous queue of end-of-shift wrecked transmission. As I return to my workshop, all I can think is: ‘Just
breakdowns outside the workshop and the inevitable list Almost immediately, I am trying my best to placate a seven hours to go!’
of the night’s rolling stock casualties. couple of pit bottom bunker chargehands, assuring them
I park my car and jump on the bus. I can see familiar that their locos will be returned to them soon, knowing Phil Neech
faces, some chatting away and others sitting there half that at least one is going to the surface workshop for a Loco Mechanical Superintendent
asleep. At the back, there is someone who has clearly new gearbox. As the lads get to work, both my radio and
come straight from the Capel Club. I think to myself that office telephone go mad. On the radio, it’s Bill Jobling:
I would not want to be behind those eyes, and with eight ‘The train is stuck on the bunker and the ****ing skip
hours on a German jigger ahead of him! won’t close.’ On the telephone is Dick Lee, and all I can
I approach the changing room doors and, taking a hear is: ‘The ****ing train won’t ****ing move. Get
deep breath, I push them open. Then it hits: a someone ****ing here.’ Then the phone died. ‘**** me,’ I
combination of heat and rotten cabbage. It can make think, knowing there is no one else to send. So I grab my
you gag if you’re not ready for it. There’s no doubt about shifters and go.
the source of the smell: wellington boots and foot rot, As Bill is bigger than Dick, I decide to sort the skip
and all that unwashed clothing hanging in the baskets first, then I shoot around to the MST (marine service LEFT: Running tunnel TBM passes
suspended way above my head. I feel sure that some of tunnel), where I find Dick chastising the driver who is through the UK Crossover cavern,
the socks are alive! I get changed quickly and head off trying his best to explain: ‘There’s no air, the brakes won’t Channel Tunnel.
BELOW: Phil Neech (right) and Ross
for the shaft. come off!’ I slip past them both and close a half-open air
Dimmock prop up a loco in the
As I approach the tally hut, the usual security guys are line valve at the back of the train. I step in between them underground station area before
missing and there seems to be a lot of hubbub in the heading into the TBM.
Alimak area. Making my way over to it, I spot many of the
safety team, then the security guys standing behind
Micky. He is not looking happy.
It all becomes clear as the double-decker lift arrives,
the voices of the men inside quietening down as they
push open the doors and face him. Out of the 48-person
lift emerge 72 men, and not an operator to be seen – he
had been ejected at pit bottom! Clearly, they were going
to get an almighty b*****king or worse!
Descending in the lift, I spot the lad from the back of
the bus, who is being helped across the tracks to the
waiting manrider by his mates. I turn and walk up to the
LST (land service tunnel) workshop where the nightshift
chargehand is waiting, keen to pass on the night’s
outstanding work and problems so that he can head for
the Alimak himself.
The first of my dayshift lads arrive, and I hurriedly
give them some spare parts and the instructions as to
where the tunnel breakdowns are. They both hurry off to
catch the manrider.
By the time the rest of my team arrive, I have already
performed triage on the waiting line of locos. They turn
 Brighton and Hove
Portobello Outfall

1971–1974
Edinburgh
Eastern Interceptor
Sewer Isle of Grain
The 1970s
Power Station
1971–1972 Shafts
Edinburgh Central Ayrshire Bath
Inverted Joint Drainage City Interceptor
Essex and Kent
Syphon Scheme Sewer
County Council
Second
Bristol
1971–1972 1971–1972 1972–1973 1972–1973 Dartford Tunnel
River Avon Weymouth and
Inverted Syphon Portland
Outfall
Selby Coalfield
Channel Tunnel
1972–1979 1974–1975 1974–1975 1975–1976 1977–1980 Gascoigne Wood
1973 Attempt
Drift

London Empingham
Fleet Line Water Transfer Newcastle
(Jubilee Line) Tunnel North Bank
experimental Interceptor Sewer
length with 1973–1975 1973–1976 1977–1981 1979–1983
Bentonite shield
1972–1975 Edinburgh Grimsby
London McDonald Road Relief Sewer
Piccadilly Line Screw Pump Station
Extension to
Heathrow 1972–1982 Edinburgh 1979–1983
Outfall
1978–1980
1972–1974 1972–1974
1979–1981 1979–1983 London
Falconbrook
Edinburgh Lewes Flood Relief
Western Cuilfail Tunnel
London Interceptor
Ring Main Stage 1 Sewer Sheffield
Merton to Ashford Common Don Valley
10 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY BEFORE THE BTS 11
 THE LEE TUNNEL

Growing up on a dairy farm on the north coast of

LEFT: Rolling stock at the launch
Northern Ireland, I certainly never envisaged that in a shaft pit bottom.
few years I would be working down a tunnel in the BELOW: TBM launch shaft during
middle of Central London. My introduction to the excavation.
tunnelling industry probably came about through chance
more than anything else. However, there are some
similarities between milking cows and building rings. For
one, both miners and farmers are always complaining
about money!
I studied Construction Engineering in Belfast, and for
my year out I worked on the Belfast Sewer Project. This
was a massive project for Northern Ireland, and I was
employed by Farrans Construction, who were working in
a joint venture with Morgan=Est. I wasn’t directly
involved in the tunnelling, as Farrans were mainly
undertaking the Civils works, but I thoroughly enjoyed
my time there. The 38m diameter pumping shaft was an
impressive sight and indeed a daunting one the first time
I was lowered into it in a manrider! This was a great
project to be involved in, even if some of the locals had a
habit of setting fire to things on site (and we think we
have annoying residents in London!).
After graduating, I worked on the family farm for a
time before an opportunity arose in London. At the age
of 22, I had never even visited London as a tourist, and
yet low and behold, on a rainy Sunday night in March,
LEFT: A 75m deep, 20m
here I was flying over to start a job there. From diameter TBM launch shaft. monotonous and boring. I disagree. When things are
Ballymoney, County Antrim, to Beckton, East London: ABOVE: TBM Busy Lizzie going well, it is an enjoyable place to work, and the Flying out, early on a
both places start with a B and that’s pretty much where starting her journey.. characters in this industry ensure that it never gets Monday morning, from
RIGHT: A TBM launch seal
the similarities end.
during installation.
boring. When progress is good, it’s usually not long the fresh sea air of the
For the next five years, I worked on the Lee Tunnel for before the next issue arises. That’s the way it seems to North Antrim coast
Morgan Sindall, based in the biggest sewage treatment be and I don’t think it will change. This industry is all
straight into Beckton
works in Europe. Flying out, early on a Monday morning, about turning things around when the proverbial hits the
from the fresh sea air of the North Antrim coast straight fan. It would be boring if it was easy. Sewage Treatment
into Beckton Sewage Treatment Works was never the The Lee Tunnel was an impressive job and one in Works was never the
highlight of my week. which I am proud to have played a small part, despite highlight of my week.
As a young engineer, my first pit boss on the Lee the fact that since it is a stormwater sewer, nobody will
Tunnel was Pakie McGeever, a man with a lifetime of ever see what we built! It is now some ten years since I
experience and more than a lifetime of stories and craic first set foot in London and I am still here, although now
to wind away a long nightshift. I spent a couple of years working on the Tideway Thames Tunnel. I also met my
as a shift engineer on the TBM, and I think even to this wife in London, so I have tunnelling to thank for that too!
day that has been the highlight of my short career thus
far. Achieving 18 rings (or 30.6m) in a 12hr shift was one Matthew Campbell
achievement that stands out. Safe to say, I lost a few TBM Shift Engineer
litres of sweat that night, running up and down the
erector steps.
Some people say that working on a TBM is

12 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY THE 2010s AND 2020s 13

THE HARDING PRIZE
HARDING PRIZE WINNERS

The competition is named in honour of the BTS
founding chairman Sir Harold Harding. It is open
to everyone age 33 and under at the end of the
calendar year prior to the competition, which is
held one evening in the following April. Entry to
the competition consists of presenting an original
paper of between 1,500 and 5,000 words (no more
than ten pages long, including data, diagrams,
drawings, photographs. . .) relating to any aspect
of tunnelling that the entrant considers to be of
interest to others within the tunnelling industry.
This must be submitted by the end of January/early
February, together with a signed ‘permission to
publish’ from the entrant’s employer and others as
appropriate, along with the entrant’s CV.
1975
1 9 76 S Fellows
1977
1 9 78 Tim Freeman
JUDGING Tunnelling History and My Own Involvement (while stocks 1979
The papers are reviewed by a group of BTS Committee last), a cheque for £500 and two tickets to the BTS 1981
members, with the writers of selected papers (usually annual dinner in early May (seated at the chair’s table).
1983
three) being invited to make a short oral presentation at Runners-up whose papers are selected for presentation
the April BTS evening meeting. The presentation must be each receive a cheque for £100, and all the remaining 1985
based on the written paper and be a maximum of fifteen entrants who submitted a paper to an approved 1986
minutes in duration, followed by several minutes during standard receive a cheque for £50. 1987
which the presenter answers questions from the Where papers are suitable and permission can be
audience. The entrant should focus on their personal obtained, the papers of the winners and runners-up are 1989
contribution to the topic they present. published in Tunnels & Tunnelling and are made available 19 9 1 John Corcoran
The criteria against which entries are evaluated: on the BTS website (see the following link or QR code 1993
The paper top right of chart opposite).
1994
• The importance of the problem or issue and the https://britishtunnelling.com/the-bts/bts-awards/
technical substance of the paper. the-harding-prize,-winning-papers 1999
• The entrant’s grasp of the subject and aptness of 2001
the method discussed and its interest to the WINNERS
2003
tunnelling profession. The first award was made in 1975 to Trevor Orr, while the
• Their personal involvement in the content of the paper. 2023 award to Jake Rankin was the 31st since the 2005
• The clarity of presentation within the paper and the competition began. Originally held every second year, 2007
illustration of the main results. the large numbers of high-quality entries in 2011 and 2009
• The details of the descriptions relating to the topic of 2013 led the BTS to run the competition every year for
the paper. several years, but it dropped back again to every second
2011
The presentation year in 2019. 2013
• The clarity of delivery. You may have been wondering what happened to 2014
• The aptness of the approach and emphasis of the these promising young engineers? Did they remain in
2015
findings. tunnelling, and how did winning affect their careers?
• The entrant’s grasp of the subject and skill in Would they recommend the competition to today’s 2016
summing up. rising stars? We decided to ask the winners, along with
• Their confidence and efficiency in dealing with some other questions, and their responses are included 2017
questions. in the pages that follow.
• Their interaction with the audience. The contributions for this section were collected by 2018
The members of the BTS Awards Subcommittee Leah Jacobs and John Corcoran, who are themselves
(chosen to include both contractors and consultants) both winners of the Harding Prize, and we were 2019
retire to consider their verdict. Upon agreement, they pleasantly surprised to find that, thanks to some
return to the lecture hall and the chair of the judging excellent detective work by John, we were successful in
2021
panel briefly comments on the papers and presentations contacting all but one of the thirty-one winners. 2022
and announces the winner, who receives their award 2023
from the BTS chair. Editors
The winner receives a copy of Sir Harold’s book
WINNER PAPER
Trevor Orr Effects of lining compression on model tunnels in stiff clay
Tunnel profiling by photography
Steve Cartney The ubiquitous joint method. Cavern design at Dinorwig Power Station (North Wales)
Behaviour of fully-bonded rockbolts in the Kielder experimental tunnel (Northumberland)
Keith Nicholson Coping with difficult ground on the full-face mechanised tunnel drives at Kielder
Gordon Masterton Concrete lining of the Kielder Water tunnels.
Julian Cockett Grouting the Coal Measure Sandstone at No. 2 shaft, North Selby Coalfield (Yorkshire)
Derek Arnold Ground treatment for the Three Valleys Water Tunnel (Slough)
Janine Pound Comparison of predicted and observed displacements around a large underground excavation (Kiambere, Kenya)
Nick Gray Remedial works on the Piccadilly Line’s cast-iron rings at Heathrow
Christopher Snee Grouting to control compressed air lost beneath London’s Docklands
Construction of the new escalator shaft and tunnels at London Underground’s Angel Station
Dan Louis Construction of the Hanging Lake Tunnels (Colorado)
Neil Moss Development of computer software to assist with the design of tunnels and shafts in soft ground.
Simon Morgan Pre-vaulting success at Ramsgate Harbour
Alun Thomas Numerical modelling of sprayed concrete tunnel linings (SCL) (Heathrow Airport Terminal 4)
Phillip Lea Pre-cast segmental lining joint tests on the Arrowhead Water Tunnel project (Southern California)
Damian McGirr Settlement mitigation on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Contract 250
Ian Whitehead Datchet Tunnel repairs (near Slough)
Michele Mangione Segmental opening sets at King’s Cross St Pancras Station (London)
Robert Milner Settlement due to tunnelling on the West Ham Flood Alleviation Scheme (London)
David Clayton TBM crossing at the Lee Tunnel connection shaft (London)
Edward Batty Crossrail Western Tunnels: TBM breakthrough at London Underground’s Bond Street Station
Ryan McCarron Challenges of mining an escalator barrel within an operational station (Victoria Station)
Howard Sayers Use of a fully integrated temporary and permanent works design to construct an underpass in close
proximity to a live operational underground railway (Victoria Station Upgrade)
Omar Mohammed Deep pile foundation interceptions in tunnelling at London Underground’s Bank Station
Leah Jacobs Changing the safety culture: contribution to a large infrastructure project making
a significant difference (New Zealand)
Eugene Wong Deformation of framed structures due to tunnelling: a rational and practical assessment approach
Benjamin Lafarga Implementation of parametric design in the tunnelling industry (HS2, Euston Station)
Christopher Barrett Planning and construction of Tideway Mainline Tunnel B Connection Tunnel
Jake Rankin CGI - artificial intelligence for forecasting tunnelling projects

14 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY THE HARDING PRIZE 15

ROBERT MILNER
2011
I didn’t set out to enter the Harding Prize. My paper was
instead the result of an opportunity that had presented
itself. I was assessing the settlement from the
construction of the West Ham Flood Alleviation Scheme
(FAS) and we were getting some good readings
tunnelling beneath a large park. I back-analysed these
against our predictions and found that they matched the
predicted Gaussian curve, but at a much lower volume
loss than we had predicted, indicating that our volume
loss assumption had been overly conservative. I showed
16 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY
The West Ham
flood alleviation
scheme.
these results in my Civils chartership
review, and due to the lack of
published modern greenfield
settlement results at the time, was
encouraged by my ICE reviewer and
senior colleagues to submit a paper on
this subject.
I have very fond memories of the
actual evening of the presentations,
which brought home to me what a
welcoming society we have in the BTS.
Throughout the process, and in the
bar afterwards, senior and
knowledgeable members of the
society were encouraging of their
younger colleagues and were
respectful of our work and efforts. A
particular fond memory is speaking to
Myles O’Reilly in the bar, who gave me
an animated history of settlement
analysis and its unsung heroes.
Although winning this prize has
strengthened my CV, I don’t feel that it
has had a direct impact on my career.
However, it definitely improved my
confidence in presenting work and
explaining issues to a range of people, and this has been
extremely useful in working with stakeholders for HS2.
I am still in tunnelling, and for a period my career was
focused on managing settlement and third party
impacts. However, I now find that more of my time is
spent in rail, generally, as well as in management, and all
too often in sales and tendering too.
Robert Milner
DAVID CLAYTON EDWARD BATTY RYAN McCARRON
2013 2014 2015
The challenges of mining an
escalator barrel within an
operational station.
I can say without ‘Read Plain Words’ and ‘much My paper describes the work we
hesitation that improvement needed’ were the key planned and undertook in mining an
presenting at the ICE to phrases that stood out in the email I escalator barrel at Victoria Station in
the BTS has been the received from my mentor one summer London, working around existing assets,
crowning achievement morning in 2013. surface structures and poor ground
of my professional The email formed an in-depth critique conditions.
career to date. The of my Harding Prize paper and felt largely negative at the time. My first draft had been This work was unique and extremely
BTS has always been the culmination of four months of hard work on board Ada (a mechanised tunnelling challenging, pushing me and the team to
a forum for ‘real’ shield) and had been written while traversing beneath the streets of Central London. My our limits, both personally and
tunnellers, not just draft had been put down on paper between ring builds and in my spare time at the professionally, and there was a great
engineers involved weekend. sense of pride and achievement on
in tunnelling projects. Their After consulting Google, I soon discovered that Plain Words was a style guide written completion. It wasn’t without its
interest in what I had to say, their questions and indeed by Sir Ernest Gowers and intended for the Civil Service in 1954 as a means of promoting difficulties (some of which will be etched
their support were all truly humbling. the use of clear and concise English. After reading Gowers from cover to cover, I in my memory forever), but we felt that
Winning the award in 2013 was a testament to the appreciated my mentor’s angle. It was obvious to me now that my ability to this story needed to be told. My wife had entered the Harding Prize competition two years
hard work and dedication of all those who were involved communicate ideas in writing was substandard and that a complete overhaul of my previously, and I was therefore very aware of its existence.
in solving the complex challenges we encountered on vocabulary, writing style and indeed first draft I knew that in order to do justice to my colleagues and myself I needed to get across to
the Thames Tideway Lee Tunnel project and with whom I would be required to succeed in the competition. the audience not only how complex and interesting the work was, but also how, even
had the very great privilege of working. Another four months passed on Ada, but this though there were difficulties, we had worked together and overcome these as a team.
Tunnelling is a profession that intrigues and mystifies, time, between ring builds, I was rewriting my paper This was a challenge in itself, given the short time available. I also wanted to demonstrate
but also delights in equal measure. My participation in word by word. I continued to refine it until I that it is possible to undertake complex works even in the early stages of your career. For
the Harding Prize process was one that I greatly enjoyed. believed the standard was on a par with other me, being selected as the winner demonstrated my success in achieving these goals.
It empowered me to take the next daunting steps in my published texts. I remember being very nervous. I had attended many presentations and evening
career and affirmed my dedication to this fantastic Looking back on winning the prize, I am mostly meetings at the ICE, so I knew what to expect, but that only took a slight edge off the
industry. grateful for the personal development gained from nerves. I felt pressure to do justice to the project, to the team and to myself, and I was also
writing and refining my paper. The competition was intimidated by the industry presence in the room. Allaying my fear, however, was my
David Clayton the catalyst for this growth and I’m sure the skills I confidence that on this subject I was the most knowledgeable in the room. I also
developed during this period will be called upon for appreciated the fact that so many of my colleagues (from all levels of both the project and
the rest of my career. the business) turned out to support me.
Winning is a significant personal accolade and I gained further recognition through
Ed Batty being nominated and having been a runner-up for the Young Tunneller of the Year award
from the ITA. I went on to lead the tunnelling team at Victoria Station through to the
successful completion of all the tunnelling works and was a member of the team that won
a major project award at the NCE Tunnelling Awards in 2016.
Ryan McCarron
THE HARDING PRIZE 17
BTS COMMUNICATIONS
The BTS constitution has a clear
objective: To advance the education
of the public in and to promote the art
and science of tunnelling, including the
creation and use of underground space
by fostering, understanding, experience,
interest and research therein.
Fundamental to this is good
communication, and how the BTS
achieves it has evolved, reflecting the
way in which society itself communicates.
Early communications relied on face-to-face discussions
at BTS meetings, picking up a flyer from the table
outside the meeting, or information delivered via the
monthly edition of Tunnels & Tunnelling (T&T). Advance
warning of upcoming events, courses and lectures was
found in the journal’s back pages or on the calendar. As
communication technology moved forward, with
computers becoming more widely accessible, the need
for a BTS website was the necessary evolution of the
communication tools.
The BTS first website went live in 2001, and became
the platform for accessing society information but
worked in parallel with the more traditional emails, flyers
and publication of important communications via T&T.
This first BTS website was a ‘managed’ site, with required
updates and corrections notified via a ticket system and
incorporated by a service company for a monthly charge.
Although normal in 2005, by 2009 this system had
become both cumbersome and expensive. A new site
was created and launched in 2010, with information and
illustrations entered directly by the BTS team as
required. An online booking and payment system was
introduced in 2013, and this has proved invaluable for
managing big events such as the BTS dinner, BTSYM
conferences and BTS training courses. The website was
18 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY
upgraded again in 2019/2020 and
relaunched in 2021 to take advantage of
improved technology.
However, the most active forum for communications
and discussions for the BTS membership is without
doubt social interaction at the evening meetings,
whether enjoying sausage and chips together or at the
ICE bar after an informative presentation.
Tunnels & Tunnelling remains a critical part of the
promotion of BTS activities, articles, papers and awards.
The magazine provides a full page in each issue for the
BTS to run an advert focusing on the next few months’
activities, as well as for more general promotion of the
society.
As ‘social media’ has become more varied and
increasingly popular, the BTS has started to use these
platforms too. They include Facebook (2009, but only in
active use since November 2020), Twitter/X (January
2014) and LinkedIn (December 2021), although in the
early years it would be reasonable to say that these
platforms were not ‘go-to’ places for the more
traditional BTS membership. For the BTSYM, the use of
social media for communications was more readily
accepted, with their own Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn
and Instagram accounts actively participated in and
followed by the BTSYM cohort.
The first video recording of a BTS meeting was in 2011,
and was posted on the website for later viewing.
MODELLING A SPECIFICATION
I heard the first rumours of the formation of what
became the BTS in 1969, and registered my interest
while a site engineer working for Mott, Hay & Anderson
(now Mott MacDonald) on the second Mersey road
tunnel. I had spent the previous five years working in
Sweden, designing and building rock tunnels for a water
and sewage scheme for the city of Gothenburg. The
proposal seemed to be an excellent forum for the
exchange of ideas and I joined as soon as it was formed.
In 1970 I became resident engineer for the Mersey
Outfall Interceptor Sewer, a difficult 3 mile tunnel in
compressed air alongside the tidal River Mersey. The
contractors were Mitchell Brothers, Sons & Company. I
wrote an article describing the job for Tunnels &
Tunnelling, which had just been launched and would
become the house journal for the BTS.
In 1972 I moved to Edinburgh as the resident
engineer supervising the construction of 14 miles of
tunnel for the Edinburgh Sewage Disposal Scheme. This
included a 2 mile long sea outfall tunnel, the remainder
being tunnels of 3.6m diameter and smaller beneath
urban Edinburgh through a mixture of ground
conditions varying from dolerite rock to running sand
(sometimes in the same face!). There were six main
contractors, five of which are no longer in existence
(Kinnear Moodie, Cementation Mining, Mowlem,
Dew-Kilroe and Shand) and one that has survived
(Nuttall), although is no longer independent. It was in
Edinburgh in 1975 that we organised what I think was
Livestreams of events were also introduced, starting in
2013. They gave audiences beyond One Great George
Street the opportunity to participate.
Perhaps the most significant change in BTS
communications was brought about by the global COVID
pandemic of 2020 and 2021, when physical meetings
were prohibited. The BTS quickly and successfully
converted to Committee work via video conferencing,
and the programme of evening lectures became an
online-only event. Thanks to sterling work by Divik
Bandopadhyaya and the ICE IT department, and with the
full support and cooperation of the presenters, the BTS
the first BTS site visit – a whole day when around
thirty members, mainly from London, toured the
various points of tunnelling interest around the
project. In 1976 I gave the first paper at
‘Tunnelling ‘76’, the first conference organised by
the BTS, describing the more unusual features of
the Edinburgh scheme.
On completion of most of the work in
Edinburgh in 1977, I joined the civil engineering
contractor Lehane, Mackenzie and Shand Ltd, of
Matlock, Derbyshire, to set up and run a new
tunnelling division. The industry was then slowly
beginning to adopt mechanisation, having
previously been a largely manual operation. In the
financial climate of the time, and with the general
shortage of projects in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
establishing a new force in the UK tunnelling world was
not an easy task, but we managed to gain enough work
to survive and to try out new ways of mechanised small
diameter tunnel driving. I remember driving down the
country from my then home in Edinburgh, visiting jobs
and potential clients, and ending up in Great George
Street on a Thursday evening for the monthly BTS
meeting. I would then put my car on the Motorail sleeper
train at Euston for the trip back to my Edinburgh office
for work on a Friday morning.
In the early 1980s, I served my first term on the BTS
Committee, campaigning for meetings outside London,
which resulted in the ‘Views from the Site’ series of
was able to continue to function under the restrictions
and to provide a full programme of presentations. In
fact, after moving to online meetings, the BTS has seen
an expansion of its global audience through its YouTube
channel, which sits at over 2,000 subscribers and over
100,000 views.
As the restrictions were gradually lifted with the end
of the pandemic, we anticipated a gradual return to
in-person meetings and to socialising over a beer or
sausage and chips in the bar afterwards. Despite this, the
benefits observed from the wider use of social media in
expanding the BTS sphere of influence will, we hope, not
meetings in conjunction with local ICE regions. Following
a hostile company takeover of the Shand Group in 1984,
the new owners abandoned the embryonic tunnelling
division (and other ‘peripheral’ activities). I left
contracting to form my own consultancy, Gerard Pakes
Consultants, active from 1984 until 2004, when I retired.
Originally it consisted of just me, but we soon grew to
employ about twelve people, providing specialist
geotechnical and tunnelling design and site supervision
services, at first in the UK, and then worldwide, with
much of the steady workload coming from Scandinavia.
At this time (late 1980s and early 1990s), the Channel
Tunnel was drawing much of the ‘established’ UK
tunnelling expertise to the south-eastern corner of the
country, but the water companies were also busy with
capital works and we helped the engineering
be lost as the active use of social media is incorporated
in the wider BTS communications strategy.
The BTS continues to work on technical publications,
expecting that these will be printed as hard copies.
However, these are also increasingly available as
downloads free of charge from the BTS website.
We all enjoy the odd unusual and humorous story or
anecdote, and communications is no exception. During
the pandemic, communications lead Sarah Langley
decided to post about an upcoming lecture on
Facebook, tagging it as a BTS event. The electronic
chatter and interest seemed a little higher than might
ICE, One Great George Street, London
departments of North West Water, South
West Water and Anglian Water with their
tunnelling projects, including several sea
outfalls and other major sewer tunnels. In
Denmark we assisted a major UK
consultant with a sub-sea railway tunnel
design and subsequently also a sea outfall
project in Boston, Massachusetts, as well
as other work in the United States.
In the early 1990s, while serving a
second term on the BTS Committee, I
suggested that the society publish a
specification for tunnelling, in order to
raise the standard of these documents from
non-specialist clients. The suggestion was accepted
and supported by the ICE, and I was then charged
by the Committee with the task of pulling this
together. Many consultants and manufacturers
contributed their specifications, and a huge
amount of material was collected and analysed.
This resulted in the publication of the Model
specification for tunnelling in 1997. A second
edition, incorporating improvements and
suggestions from the industry, followed in 2000
and a third edition in 2010. The ‘BTS Specification
for tunnelling’ is in use worldwide.
Ged Pakes
otherwise have been expected for a lecture on ‘Future
tunnels at CERN for particle physics research’. It soon
became apparent that the interest emanated from
South Korea and was causing a stir in the followers of the
famous K-pop group named BTS. We are not sure how
many stayed online for the full lecture, but perhaps we
have ignited an interest in tunnelling as a career in one
or two South Korean youngsters who might otherwise
never have come across the idea.
Alastair Smith
BTS Communications s/c Chair
OPERATING THE BTS 19
 OUR SPONSORS
The ‘BTS at 50’ team and the BTS are extremely grateful to all our sponsors. Quite simply, without
your help, producing a book such as this would have been impossible. The BTS could not have
justified subsidising it to the sum necessary, and the price would have confined sales to a few
copies only. This would not justify the mammoth effort of those involved in its production and
the very large number of tunnellers who contributed.

PLATINUM Burrows Conevyor iPS Powerful People INDIVIDUAL Steve Parker

SPONSORS Systems Ltd SPONSORS
Joseph Gallagher BAM Nuttall COWI
Jacobs
Derek Arnold
Douglas Parkes

Sika UK David Parks

SPECIALIST CIVIL ENGINEERING CONTRACTORS Gall Zeidler Consultants
Barhale Divik Bandopadhyaya
VINCI Construction Alan Runacres
BMB Tideway West Herrenknecht AG Grand Projets Oliver Bevan
Mark Simmons
Joseph Gallagher High Value Systems Wayss & Freytag Alan Boden
Engineering Ltd Ingenieurbau AG Tim Smart
London Bridge David Caiden
J3M Training WJ Groundwater Adrian St.John
Associates
John Carroll
Mammoet UK Ltd Nick Swannell
Mudtech BRONZE Enda Casey
Mining Equipment Ltd SPONSORS Alex Vaughan
J Murphy & Sons Ltd Malcolm Chappell
Specialist Plant Geotechnical Consulting Colin Warren
TG Tunnelling Ltd Associates Ltd Group Gregg Davidson
Eugenio Zoppis
TYPSA Tunnelcraft The family of Tommy Harold Fennell
Talbott
VVB WM Plant John Greenhalgh MEDIA
Master Builders PARTNERS
Zitrón UK Bill Grose
SILVER Mott MacDonald Absolute
SPONSORS David Hindle Photography Ltd
GOLD R & B Tunnelling
SPONSORS ARUP Eoin Joyce Tunnelling Journal
Andy Sindle
Bouygues Travaux Bekaert Mike King Tunnels and Tunnelling
Publics
Dr. Sauer & Partners Ltd. Martin Law TunnelTalk
Burrows Brothers (Sales)
Ltd hyperTunnel Mike McConnell

20 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY OUR SPONSORS 21

Stories and
first-hand
accounts from
The production of the 50th Anniversary book continues at high
the tunnellers speed, but the book’s popularity and the number of contributions
who shaped that we have received has left us with a mammoth task.
The book is now 95 per cent written and is going through the
today’s global final review stages. We therefore expect to be printing in August
2024 – ready for delivery in September.
underground To avoid the risk of ordering the wrong number of books, we
world will be requiring pre-ordering and advance payment. The window
for this will open in late February and continue for three months.
After this, we will order the exact number of books that have been
reserved. Please order early to avoid disappointment!
Pre-ordering is available exclusively on the BTS website (www.
britishtunnelling.com). You can order through the link on the BTS
website home page or through the QR Code below.
Those who have sponsored the book will receive their copy/copies
to the address given on the sponsorship form, unless otherwise
specified.
Please direct any queries to: bts@ice.org.uk

BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY

AN ASSOCIATED SOCIETY OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

One Great George Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3AA

www.britishtunnelling.com
email: bts@ice.org.uk

23
 Celebrate with us the lives and works of those who construct all things
underground, providing the hidden infrastructure that is essential for
modern life.

The methods used to excavate and support underground space have

seen substantial change over the past 50 years, with mechanisation
providing huge leaps forward in safety and productivity, along with
bringing down unit costs. However, these add to rather than replace
those methods used by our predecessors, and there remains much in tunnelling that would be
recognised by Brunel were he to find himself transported forward by almost 200 years.

We anticipate that the final book will include more than 500 stories, spanning 900 pages, from over
200 authors, representing the full range of roles required to construct a tunnel. The book will be
available for pre-ordering from late February for approximately 3 months. After which, the exact
number of orders will be printed. Please ensure you order your copy in time to avoid disappointment!

Written by people who clearly love their industry, and who, despite a lifetime of hard graft, wouldn’t
have wanted anything different. It promises to be a fascinating and informative read.

Cover Photograph: Crossrail Bond Street Station by John Zammit