Tunnelling awards

Alan retired in the spring of 2011 after 45 years with Halcrow. He joined the company as an engineering student in 1966 before graduating in 1971 and becoming a full-time employee.

Tunnels and tunnelling said of Alan: “His CV reads like a who’s who of tunnelling projects of the latter part of the last century and into the new millennium.

Alan himself has said there are monuments around the world where parts of his soul are buried”. He has worked on a global scale, on the delivery of major tunnelling infrastructure from the 1970’s to the present day.

Halcrow celebrated a night of success at the prestigious New Civil Engineer (NCE) International Tunnelling Awards 2011 in Hong Kong, scooping the coveted international tunnelling adviser of the year award.

The award recognised Halcrow’s key role on a variety of projects including DART Underground in Dublin, the Northern Line Extension in London and Brazil’s TAV – the first high-speed rail line in Latin America.

The company was also shortlisted for the international tunnelling designer of the year award in recognition of its design input on key projects around the world.

Halcrow also played an important role in several other projects that were highly praised by the judges. It undertook the design for the Tottenham Court Road London Underground station upgrade which was highly commended in the project up to £100 million category. In the same category, Halcrow also provided the tunnels, shafts and pumping stations design for the Cleaner Sea for Sussex scheme, which was shortlisted by the judges.

In the technical innovation of the year category, the shortlisted Sacramento County tunnel design featured an innovative lining which was designed by Halcrow.

Halcrow’s Robert Milner has won the 2011 British Tunnelling Society Harding Prize competition.

The biennial Harding competition is open to young engineers aged 33 or under. The paper competition is named in honour of the British Tunnelling Society’s founding chairman, Sir Harold Harding.

The entrant’s papers could address any aspect of tunnelling they considered of interest to the tunnelling industry, with the winning paper selected by the British Tunnelling Society committee. The three papers for this year’s competition focused on different techniques for predicting ground movement and the monitoring of settlement on soft ground tunnelling projects.

Robert presented his winning paper, Settlement due to tunelling on the West Ham flood alleviation scheme, at the final, held at the ICE on 14 April 2011. Robert was awarded two tickets to the annual British Tunnelling Society dinner, Harold Harding’s book and a cheque for £500.

The Technical Innovation Award went to Halcrow’s GRANIT system. GRANIT (GRound ANchor Integrity Testing) is the world’s first rapid, effective, multiple capability, non-destructive anchor integrity testing system for rockbolts and cables used in mining, tunnelling and slope stability.

Halcrow was Highly Commended as Design Firm of the year.

The Busan to Geoje fixed link project was Highly Commended in the Major Tunnelling Project category. It is an ambitious scheme to reduce journey times between Korea's south coast city of Busan and the island of Geoje - a tourist hot-spot and home to the country's biggest shipbuilding yards.

Halcrow’s global technical director for tunnelling Martin Knights, has been recognised by the British Tunnelling Society with presentation of its coveted James Clark Medal honour.

The award is presented in recognition of outstanding contribution to the national and international tunnelling industry.

Martin is the immediate past president of the International Tunnelling Association, having followed in the footsteps of past prominent Halcrow holders of this position, Sir Alan Muir Wood and Colin Kirkland.