Tim Ngai and Mohsen Ebrahimi recognised as prestigious ICE Fellows

Tim Ngai and Mohsen Ebrahimi recognised as prestigious ICE Fellows

It is with great honour that SYSTRA celebrates the achievements of Tim and Mohsen. Both engineers have unequivocally demonstrated ICE Fellowship attributes through their outstanding leadership, technical expertise and dedication to advancing their own knowledge and abilities and, importantly, those of their colleagues and peers.

SYSTRA Ltd CEO Nick Salt, himself an ICE Fellow, said, “Every day I am awestruck by the tremendous talent right across the business, and Mohsen and Tim exemplify our values of excellence, bold leadership, and connected teams.  They have both been deservedly recognised, and their success is testament to their dedication to the engineering professional as a whole.

“Mohsen is an exceptional individual, he enriches life here in the SYSTRA community, and through his work on creating better and more resilient built and natural environments. Tim is without doubt a brilliant civil and geotechnical engineer. His energy and attention to detail is infectious, I am delighted that Tim will also be supporting our business growth ambitions for the future.”

ICE Fellowship shines a light on the achievements of these two outstanding leaders in the profession:

Tim Ngai – Technical Expert, Ground Engineering

Dr Mohsen Ebrahimi – Principal Engineer – Rivers

Tim Ngai said: “I am so proud to work in an industry where dedication, collaboration and innovative thinking are rewarded. It’s an honour to be an ICE Fellow, a role I take with an enormous sense of pride. The exceptional team I work with every single day makes it simple to rise to complex infrastructure challenges.”

Mohsen Ebrahimi said: “My career path has not been without its challenges, I am thrilled and honoured to have achieved the prestigious ICE Fellowship. Huge thanks to my mentors, sponsors and colleagues throughout my career. I am energised by the support I have at SYSTRA and the possibilities that lie ahead towards continuing to excel and making a positive impact on the world through civil engineering.”

SYSTRA Ltd has more than 1,000 employees in the UK & Ireland. Career development is championed throughout the business, with two professional memberships paid for each employee. Find out more about careers at SYSTRA.

2023: A Year In Review

HS2 SUCCESSES

SYSTRA is a key player in HS2, here are just some of the impressive milestones over the past year:

• The world’s longest box slide was completed at Marston Box – we provided the engineering design for the 86-metre-long structure.
• We secured Schedule 17 Consents for the M42/M6 link viaducts, a key element of the Delta Junction, and for the Water Orton viaducts.
• The first pier for the Water Orton viaducts was completed – the viaducts were designed by SYSTRA in JV with Mott MacDonald.
• We won the South Ruislip Vent Shaft with VVB Engineering.
• The Curzon Street station viaducts (designed by SYSTRA in design JV with Mott MacDonald) were cast.

And our successes at Old Oak Common (BBVS JV designed, constructed and commissioned) deserve a roundup of their own!

• The first base slab concrete pour took place.
• OOC’s final (161^st) high speed station box pile was completed.
• The final panel of the station box diaphragm wall was completed.
• The Wycombe Line bridge was removed.
• The Right Honourable Mark Harper MP (Secretary of State for Transport) visited the site for an excellent progress update.
• The OOC East Box was handed over to the SCS JV for launching TBMs.
• OOC won a myriad of awards at the Atkins Excellence Awards!

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

At SYSTRA we place great importance on having an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace, and our Everyone Onboard colleague engagement group is set up to help us promote that environment. Some of our ED&I actions throughout 2023:

• We were awarded the Clear Assured Bronze Status inclusion standard.
• Our colleagues had an amazing time representing SYSTRA at Leeds Pride 2023.
• We launched separate family friendly policies in the UK and Ireland – they go above and beyond the statutory requirements, recognising the need for maternity, birthing parent, adoption, partner and grandparent leave.
• We launched our flexible working policy across the UK and Ireland, so all colleagues can apply for flexible working.

Ecological role win at Sizewell C

We are proud to have been be awarded an environmental services contract with Arcadis to provide Ecological Clerk of Works on the Sizewell C nuclear power station project in Suffolk. The ecology division of our newly formed Nature Positive Discipline is delivering the work.

Business Growth

We made several key senior appointments during the year – Romain Pison joined us as Director of Decarbonisation, Dr Peter Weldon joined as Director of Net Zero, Andrew Dugdale joined as Market Director for Mass Transit, Rail and Highways, and Llewelyn Morgan as Head of Innovation.

In conjunction with the opening of our new Cork office, John Paul Fitzgerald joined us as Director of the new space. The new office is well-prepared to capitalise on local opportunities, as demonstrated by ongoing projects including the proposed Cork Light Rail Transit system, the city-wide bus priority infrastructure improvements through Cork BusConnects EIAR, and the transformative N40 Cork City Southern Ring Road enhancements.

We also opened an exciting new office space for our colleagues in Birmingham, combining two offices that were in different locations in the city, and we grew the business through the acquisition of 3 companies – Bamser, Subterra and Rail Systems Australia and 3 Atkins entities in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

ECML PSU Hambleton Junction site powered up

The REAL Power Supply Upgrade team (an alliance between SYSTRA, Jacobs, Murphy, Network Rail, Siemens Mobility and VolkerRail) powered up the Hambleton Junction site as part of the East Coast Main Line Power Supply Upgrade.

This was a major milestone, allowing testing of the first ever 50Hz / 70mVa static frequency converter (SFC) on the UK rail network (and the largest SFC delivered by Siemens globally). The short-circuit test conducted at the site verified the capability of the SFC provision and protection of traction power to the rail infrastructure.

Bridges to Prosperity

Through Bridges to Prosperity, 10 SYSTRA colleagues from 7 countries (including the UK, France, Brazil, Canada and more), converged in the Rulindo region of Rwanda to construct a bridge aimed at fostering prosperity in the local community by providing better access to vital resources.

Despite continuous heavy rain and thunderstorms, the team did an incredible job across the nine-day period. The Rusumo bridge was officially inaugurated on 17^th November, connecting the districts of Rulindo and Gicumbi. The 59-metre suspended structure is the 12^th bridge built by B2P in the region (and the 500^th worldwide!), promising safe travel for nearly 5,000 inhabitants of the Northern province.

Consultancy Successes

Our consultancy colleagues have worked incredibly hard this year, here are just some of their successes:

• SYSTRA advised the Climate Change Committee (CCC) on electric vehicles – commissioned by the CCC, we undertook research on the differences between ‘typical’ and ‘peak’ demand for electric vehicle charging on the strategic road network across England and Scotland.
• The Tyne and Wear Social Value of Metro Stations – SYSTRA identified and evaluated the social value of a wide range of station activities, including community gardens, farmers markets, the reopening of buildings for hospitality purposes, and even yoga clubs! Alongside Nexus, SYSTRA was awarded the Innovation Project of the Year at the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) North East & Cumbria Annual Awards 2023.
• Cycle-Rail Toolkit 3 was launched in Westminster – commissioned by Cycle-Rail Working Group, administrated by Sustrans and developed by SYSTRA, it provides guidance to station owners, Tran Operating Companies, local authorities and other scheme promoters on making the journey to and from the railway station easier by cycle, as well as advising on how best to provide space for cyclists and their cycles at stations and onboard trains.

• We conducted the Brussels Airport Autonomous Mobility Feasibility study. The study covered airside baggage handling and passenger operations, with a view to transition them for pilot implementation.
• In respect of The Greater Manchester Bus Corridors – Streets For All project, we began working with Mott McDonald and Arup to develop bus priority and public realm improvements in two corridors of Greater Manchester (Rochdale Road and Rusholme Centre), with more to follow.
• We kickstarted the Doncaster Active Travel Social Prescribing (ATSP) Monitoring and Evaluation project for City of Doncaster Council. We were appointed to manage the project over the next three years (including monitoring core project metrics and undertaking a Process Evaluation and Impact Evaluation of the project).
• We have developed and appraised a number of alternative approaches for achieving the required reduction of transport carbon emissions in the Isle of Man (in relation to private cars, goods vehicles, buses, domestic aviation, coastal shipping and fishing vessels).

Early Careers Milestones

Nurturing talent and fostering mentorship is a key priority here at SYSTRA, and a number of important early careers activities and successes have taken place in 2023.

Our 2023 Apprentice Launch Event was a roaring success. The event featured many inspiring stories and united apprentices of various levels across consultancy and engineering.

We also launched our Graduate Development Programme for 2023. The new 39-strong cohort learnt about the development they could expect as a SYSTRA graduate, hearing talks from some of our current graduates about their exciting journeys on the programme to date.

Our Design Coordinator Lucy Davison was also crowned Apprentice of the Year at the Young Rail Professionals Awards! The submission showcased Lucy as an ICE Future Leader, her co-leadership of SYSTRA’s Early Careers Group, and her work on projects such as the Transpennine Route Upgrade and the Azuma InterCity Express Programme.

Consultancy Successes In Ireland

Our SYSTRA experts have been working extremely hard in Ireland as we continue to grow our presence there, with some of their including:

• The Greater Dublin Area Demand Management study.
• A business case for bus station accessibility enhancements.
• A commission, alongside Jacobs, on the BusConnects project in Cork, to undertake the technical aspects of delivering the transport modelling, Transport Impact Assessment and Traffic and Transport Chapters of the Environmental Impact Assessment for up to six bus-based sustainable transport corridor schemes in the city.
• A business case for the Train Projection System, Onboard and Trackside rollout across Ireland.
• A business case for the Foynes Line reinstatement for freight services, as part of a wider policy to dramatically increase the levels of freight on Ireland’s rail network.

Yorkshire Water Combined Sewer Overflow design package win

We were awarded the Yorkshire Water Combined Sewer Overflow design package through Sapphire Utility Solutions (SUS), to design 3 new storage shafts, reducing the frequency of sewage spills from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) causing pollution in Yorkshire watercourses. The multidisciplinary project is being delivered by our environmental services, civils and M&E engineering teams.

We also won a contract through SUS to deliver several Sustainable Urban Drainage schemes at Yorkshire schools, which will see us undertaking invaluable STEM engagement activities.

TRANSpeNNINE RoUTE UPGRADE Successes

Throughout the year we celebrated a number of successful milestones on the Transpennine Route Upgrade project. TRU East is the alliance (between Network Rail, VolkerRail, Siemens, Murphy and SYSTRA) set to deliver the works between Leeds and York, and we are undertaking multiple design roles across the project.

• Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) was installed at the Neville Hill depot.
• Neville Hill’s Track Sectioning Cabin (TSC) was landed.
• The project achieved the first UK active tunnelling under a live railway!
• E1 track renewals were completed between Colton Junction and Church Fenton.
• OLE installation was completed on the Leeds lines.

Opening of the Gatwick Airport station redevelopment

The Gatwick Airport station redevelopment project opened to the public in November, after years of intensive work. The upgraded station is one of the country’s busiest, serving over 20 million passengers every year. The passenger experience has been completely transformed, from train to plane and plane to train.

Our SYSTRA experts are very proud to have led on the architecture, design and engineering of the new-look station, which is now far brighter and more intuitive for passengers, boasting a new concourse and airport entrance, and doubling the space for the millions of people who pass through it. The finished design features a second concourse and airport entrance, with 8 new escalators, 5 new lifts, 4 new stairways and widened platforms.

Great place TO Work

Ensuring SYSTRA is a Great Place To Work is so important to us. Making sure that our colleagues feel appreciated; are able to both personally and professionally develop; and are comfortable, positive and inspired in their working environment, is a crucial part of this. Throughout the year we’ve been prioritising that mission.

We won Employer of the Year at Peloton’s SPOTLIGHT Rail Awards in April! Receiving this award was a very proud moment for us, as it recognised our commitment to listening to our colleagues, taking action and striving to go above and beyond. Our awards entry focused on the progress we’ve made in a number of areas including health and wellbeing; equality, diversity and inclusion; and training and development.

Our internal Excellence Awards in November were a roaring success. So many of our colleagues were recognised for their hard work, dedication and ingenuity.

We launched our Next Generation Leadership Team (NGLT) for our engineering division. The team will play a key role in shaping the future of SYSTRA, actively participating in a 12-month programme alongside our Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

Awards

All our hard-working SYSTRA experts have contributed to the following successes, in many cases collaborating alongside our partners – thank you and well done to everyone!

Wins:

• Environmental Best Practice, Green Apple Awards – HS2’s Old Oak Common.
• Innovation Project of the Year, CIHT North East and Cumbria Annual Awards – Social Value of the Tyne & Wear Metro study.
• Community Overall Ultra Site, Considerate Constructors Scheme Leading Lights Awards – HS2’s Old Oak Common for its Skills, Employment and Education Strategy.
• Design for People, HS2 Inspiration Awards – The Delta Junction (River Cole East and West Viaducts, Chattle Hill Box Structure and Water Orton Viaducts).
• Design for Time, HS2 Inspiration Awards – Area North Context Urban Integration Studies.
• Contribution to Sustainable Transport, Scottish Transport Awards – Blackford Sidings.
• Sustainability Award, CIHT Awards – Lambeth Kerbside Strategy.
• Apprentice of the Year, Young Rail Professional Awards – Lucy Davison.
• Employer of the Year at the Peloton SPOTLIGHT Rail Awards.

Highly commended:

• Design for Place, HS2 Inspiration Awards – Streethay Cutting Area, Environmental Design Integration.
• People Place Time, HS2 Inspiration Awards – Old Oak Common Station Public Realm.

Special recognition

• Vision of the Year, Global Light Rail Awards – Bologna Tram Network.

Shortlisted

• UK project with a geotechnical value of between £500k and £1m, Ground Engineering Awards.

And that’s a wrap on our year in review. What a year it’s been! We’d like to wish our colleagues, partners and clients a very happy new year – here’s to 2024!

If you’d like to work with us in any capacity, please get in touch with our experts here.

Gatwick Station redevelopment opens to the public

The new-look station, designed by SYSTRA experts, is brighter and more intuitive for passengers with a new concourse and airport entrance (pictured), doubling the space for the millions of people who pass through each year.

Gatwick Airport train station was originally built in 1958 to accommodate between 5-10 million passengers per year, and today serves over 20 million passengers. This rise has led to crowded and often chaotic conditions on the platform and at ticketing booths. With Gatwick Airport’s target to increase the share of passengers arriving by train from 42% to 50% by 2040, a complete station transformation was needed.

SYSTRA was appointed by construction company Costain in 2016 to lead the architecture, design and engineering of the much-needed improvements for the Network Rail-owned station. SYSTRA’s architecture team managed the station design from early concept through its formal planning approval and final detailed design.

In addition to ensuring the station could continue to function during the work, they faced challenges around creating new space, improving the passenger experience and safety, relocating train crew offices, and incorporating better use of natural light.

The finished design features a second concourse and airport entrance, with eight new escalators, five new lifts, four new stairways, and widened platforms.

Nick Salt, CEO, SYSTRA, said, “Putting the passenger experience at the fore, the SYSTRA architecture team have excelled in designing an upgraded Gatwick Airport station that will help make journeys in to and out of the airport much smoother. The extra space and functionality created are crucial to the targeted growth in rail journeys to the station, and our team of experts have ensured that sustainability and safety are built-in to the design. It’s great to see passengers using the new concourse and we’re proud to have worked with Network Rail and Costain on this crucial transport infrastructure project.”

SYSTRA has been successfully delivering station architecture and design improvements for high-speed rail, conventional rail, metro and other mass transit projects around the world for over 70 years.

SYSTRA’s architecture team is currently working on HS2’s Old Oak Common Station, west London and has led the redevelopment of award-winning Reading Station and Leeds City Station.

Read the full case study on how we transformed the station at Gatwick Airport.

SYSTRA Ireland expands footprint opening Cork City office

The new office space is located in the heart of the bustling regenerated Cork Docklands area at Lapps Quay. The opening of the new office reflects SYSTRA’s ongoing expansion in Ireland.

SYSTRA’s Cork office will be managed by newly appointed Director, John Paul FitzGerald, a chartered engineer with 20 years’ experience in transport engineering, planning, modelling and appraisal. John Paul has an impressive track record in delivering for the Southern Region’s growth ambitions as Project Manager on the Metropolitan Area Transport Strategies for Cork, Limerick-Shannon and Waterford, and on projects including the Dunkettle Interchange Upgrade, Cork Docks Regneration, Limerick Inter-City Rail Improvements, and Kilkenny Active Travel Networks. With John Paul’s leadership, SYSTRA is poised to support the development of much needed transport improvements in Cork City and beyond.

SYSTRA is one of Ireland’s leading transport planning, engineering and infrastructure specialists, working on key projects for the Department of Transport, National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Irish Rail. SYSTRA has been pivotal in supporting Cork’s growth through its work on Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, Cork City Centre Movement Strategy, Cork Light Rail Transit and Cork BusConnects.

Nick Salt, Managing Director UK & Ireland, SYSTRA, said, “Our new office in Cork City is testament to our commitment to our local clients in Ireland. We are looking forward to growing our business in the region and supporting the delivery of sustainable infrastructure across the country.

SYSTRA advises Commission for Climate Change on EVs

A team from SYSTRA led by @Jordan Di Trapani and Erik Nielsen was commissioned in 2023 by the independent statutory body the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to undertake research on the differences between ‘typical’ and ‘peak’ demand for electric vehicle charging on the strategic road network (SRN) across England and Scotland. The research assessed the impact of these differences on the required levels of charging infrastructure forecast to meet demand through to 2050.

The work involved in-depth analysis of traffic flow data on along 29 English and Scottish strategic routes selected to represent a variety of journey destinations and lengths across the SRN and include existing charge point usage data. The team used the CCC’s modelling tool ‘En Route Charging Optimisation’ (ERCO), which SYSTRA had previously helped to develop, to model and determine the optimal charging network across five demand scenarios and three optimisation scenarios. Results have also been visualised through interactive appendices to accompany the report, developed by our Data Science team.

Traffic flow data and charging data for 2022 were compared for each of the routes, the peak days were selected as the top 5% days in each year. Our analysis found that there are substantial peaks in both traffic flows and charging demand above typical levels, but they do not necessarily occur on the same day. Both sets of peaks are however focused on weekends.

The research concluded that the current charging network plan which is designed to cater for typical levels of demand will not be sufficient to meet demand peaks. To achieve acceptable wait times and enable drivers to charge reliably at peak times, the network will need an additional 18% capacity relative to a typical day by 2035.

Crucially, optimising the en route charging network to meet peak demand could result in carbon savings of 1.1m kg by 2035 and 2m kg by 2050.

As more EVs enter the fleet significant charging infrastructure investment will be required to meet demands for en route charging, ensuring people are confident using their EV for longer journeys and ensuring EV uptake continues. The report also provides projections on the anticipated capital costs required and suggests that significant public investment will be required to meet charging demands whilst working with the private sector.

The report was submitted by the CCC as evidence to the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee inquiry into the EV transition to meet the deadline on 15th September 2023.

Reinforcing tunnelling expertise with Bamser & Subterra acquisitions

The acquisition of Bamser, in Australia, and Subterra, in Spain, positions SYSTRA as a leading global player in the field of tunnel design and construction.

SYSTRA, a member of the British Tunnelling Society, recently completed the acquisition of two companies dedicated to the design of tunnels and underground structures, Bamser, and Subterra. Both acquisitions reinforce SYSTRA’s position as a leading global player in the field of complex tunnels, following the acquisition in 2021 of Italian based SWS Engineering.

With a number of high-profile subterranean infrastructure projects planned in the UK over the coming years, SYSTRA will be uniquely positioned to be able to draw on over 600 global tunnelling and underground infrastructure specialists to support its UK-based team in the delivery of major infrastructure.  SYSTRA’s UK and Ireland presence has grown over the past few years to a team of over 1000, with major infrastructure expertise including geotechnical and ground engineering, BIM modelling, civil and structural design and assessment, planning consents and environmental biodiversity.

We have over 600 tunnelling experts at SYSTRA. We are currently project managing the development of much of the Paris Metro, an enormous project known as ‘Grand Paris’ involving 200km new lines + 68 new stations. Learn more about our tunnelling engineering services.

New Cycle-Rail Toolkit Guidance for Station & Train Operators

On 28th June 2023, new guidance commissioned by the Cycle-Rail Working Group administered by Sustrans and developed by SYSTRA was launched in Westminster by Minister of State for Transport Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP, Network Rail’s Chair Rt Hon Lord Peter Hendy CBE and representatives from Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT), Chiltern Railways and Active Travel England.

The updated ‘Cycle-Rail Toolkit 3’ offers guidance to station owners, Train Operating Companies (TOCs), local authorities and other scheme promoters on making the journey to and from the railway station easier by cycle as well as advising on how best to provide space for cyclists and their cycles at stations and onboard trains.

The rail network is the backbone of Britain’s public transport system, yet passenger journeys do not start nor finish at railway stations. Improving the overall ‘rail offer’ by making it easier to walk, wheel and cycle to and from rail stations by personally owned or shared cycles will encourage more people to travel by train. A simultaneous reduction in the number of people making short journeys to railway stations by car will also ease traffic congestion in our towns and cities and benefit the environment and address social challenges such as health, well-being and air pollution.

The new Cycle-Rail Guidance provides best practice case studies, practical information to support the justification for investment, and also points out possible new sources of funding.

Phillip Darnton OBE, Cycle-Rail Working Group Chair said, “On commissioning this work we wanted to create a user-friendly step-by-step guide to encourage and increase the overall number of cycle-rail users. I am delighted that both the cycling and rail sectors have worked in partnership to help create such a fantastic and informative Guide. It has been written specifically for rail and station operators and those involved in making end to end journeys more attractive”.

Emma Spencer, Cycle-Rail, Sustrans said, “It was great to welcome Transport Minister Jesse Norman and to hear him speak enthusiastically about the importance of combining cycle-rail travel. The launch and guidance highlight the close relationship between the Cycle Rail Working Group and organisations such as Active Travel England, Network Rail, Great British Railways Transition Team and other train operating companies”.

The interactive Cycle Rail Guidance: Toolkit 3 is available to download free of charge today.

HS2 slides into the record books

In December, HS2 celebrated a world first as a team of around 450 people, led by HS2’s construction partner in the Midlands Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), slid a 12,600-tonne bridge a record 165 metres across a motorway in Warwickshire.

A video of the Marston Box Rail Bridge sliding into position over the M42 was the BBC’s ‘most watched’ at one point over the Christmas break. As the footage demonstrates, this was both an impressive spectacle and an engineering triumph that could lead to wider use of this method in the UK.

It was good news for motorists too. The project team worked closely with National Highways to eliminate two years of restrictions and the closure even ended a whole day earlier than planned.

“The Marston Box slide was a great example of what can be achieved when we work collaboratively and as one team,” says Sasan Ghavami, BBV’s construction director, who oversaw the project. “This complex and challenging puzzle was solved thanks to lots of different teams coming together, each bringing their own area of expertise and experience. It’s certainly a career highlight for me, as I’m sure it is for many others who contributed to this impressive engineering feat.”

Sasan Ghavami, BBV’s Construction Director

Taking place between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, this was the first slide of its kind across a smotorway in the UK and specialist Freyssinet, which designed the slide, believes it to be the world’s longest. Box slides are not uncommon in the UK but are usually over or under rail lines; in North Africa and Europe, box slides over highways are less of a novelty.

This was an alternative design for the M42 Marston Box Rail Bridge, requiring BBV’s designer SYSTRA – as part of the Mott MacDonald SYSTRA Design Joint Venture – to rethink the structure, working closely with Freyssinet on the interfaces between temporary and permanent works to ensure the bridge’s 120-year design life. And then there was the plethora of tolerances to contend with, how the structure would settle and the impact on headroom for the motorway and the high-speed rail line above it, since the box sits straight on top of compacted fill with no piles.  

slimmed down

The design for the original M42 Marston Box Bridge, which crosses the M42 near junction 9 in Warwickshire, consisted of a pergola-type structure, sitting perpendicular to the carriageway. The box slide alternative came out of an extensive and wide-ranging value engineering exercise that took place in 2018 after BBV was appointed on lots N1 and N2 phase 1 of the HS2 project.

“We were looking at ideas, construction methods, innovation, how we could do things better than the way assumed at the hybrid bill stage,” recalls SYSTRA’s UK highways lead Andy Baines.

It was a big step for National Highways to agree to this method, but there were some compelling reasons why it looked like a good alternative, says Baines. First, this would be far safer for workers and drivers, with much less work taking place alongside live motorway lanes. Second, there would be far less disruption to road users: rather than two years of reduced lane widths and speed limits and three months of overnight closures, this method required just two road closures.

The new bridge design consists of a two-cell box, skewed at an angle of 61 degrees. It has a large flat base, to reduce the bearing pressure in the temporary and permanent states, three piers which span its width, and a top deck.

There were carbon saving benefits to this solution. Since this structure had to be pushed into position, it was vital to limit its weight. The result is a structure that uses far less concrete, with a smaller plan area than its predecessor design and no concrete piles, leading to a significant reduction in embodied carbon.

The slide

Like all the best engineering solutions, Freyssinet’s patented sliding system is simple in its concept. The box structure is constructed on top of a concrete guide raft, with grease and polythene sheeting between the two concrete surfaces, bentonite is added to lubricate and then jacks push the structure out across the motorway.

The clever bit is how the jacks are deployed. For Marston Box there were nine of them, each with a 1,000-tonne capacity. Each jack creates its thrust by pulling itself along a cable which runs beneath the base of the box structure in a groove cast into the guide raft, anchored into the far end of the raft. The raft is prevented from slipping itself by several 1.7m-deep spades, cast into the ground at intervals along its length.

Once the box reaches the end of the guide raft, it slides onto compacted ground. For Marston Box, the existing ground wasn’t good enough which meant that 3m had to be excavated out, once the carriageway had been removed, and replacement material brought in and compacted. A dewatering system was installed across the area to lower the ground water before the guide raft could be constructed.

“A massive ground replacement exercise took place during the first seven-day closure over Christmas 2021,” says SYSTRA’s geotechnical expert, Tim Ngai. “During that time BBV also carried out a motorway drainage diversion ready for the final bridge position.”

Understanding the ground, which is extremely weak mudstone overlain with fluvial deposits, was vital for the long-term design. One of the early challenges for SYSTRA was creating the geotechnical model with limited borehole information – and no way to do more bores through a live motorway.

Replacing the carriageway was not straightforward either since it is a concrete pavement. Reinstating a concrete pavement after each closure would not have been possible since it would not have reached sufficient strength in the timeframes. Instead SYSTRA, with input from Mott MacDonald, designed an asphalt pavement which required the creation of a special joint detail where it met the concrete pavement at either end.

The lessons learnt from the first closure enabled improvements to be made for the second one. Systra’s highways team, which had been modelling traffic flows and supporting BBV to plan road closures with Staffordshire and Warwickshire County Councils and National Highways, was able to reduce diversions and closures to free up more traffic the second time.

first time for everyone

The video demonstrates BBV’s success in sequencing and logistics, showing the carefully orchestrated preparatory works completed in phases as the huge box structure advances at an average rate of 4.64m per hour. But what it can’t demonstrate is the vast amounts of cooperation and coordination that took place between all the stakeholders involved in this feat.

“There were many meetings and workshops to explain every aspect of the design to National Highways, HS2 and BBV,” says Mills. “We had to make sure everything was signed off and assured and the right consents were in place. And we were all doing it for the first time.”

This won’t be the last time, however. HS2 has two more box slides planned: one across the rail line between Coventry and Leamington Spa this summer and another over the A46 in Kenilworth.

“This has been a huge team effort, with daily challenges,” says SYSTRA’s HS2 engineering manager, Hani Benkhellat. “We are proud to have delivered a ground-breaking design for BBV, HS2 and UK plc.”

SYSTRA bolsters UK-IRL business with two strategic appointments

SYSTRA Ltd is delighted to announce two senior appointments to support its ambition of sustainable growth in the UK & Ireland. Llewelyn Morgan is appointed as Head of Innovation to lead and develop new ideas, technology and methods for working. Dr Peter Weldon is appointed as Director of Net Zero Transport to lead the delivery of transport decarbonisation projects and assist clients in their net zero transitions.

Llewelyn has over 20 years of experience, he joins from Oxford Country Council where he was Head of Innovation leading an award-winning cross-departmental team that undertook many InnovateUK and Government funded projects covering transport, energy, social care, health and the environment. On future mobility, Llewelyn has led projects on connected autonomous vehicles (CAV), Mobility as a Service (Maas) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Oxfordshire is recognised for being at the heart of testing and trialling projects for a digital future.

Peter joins from engineering and professional services firm GHD where he was Business Development lead specialist for transport decarbonisation projects, developing business for both public and private sector clients. Peter has developed his expertise in the decarbonisation of transport over the past 10+ years. Most recently he was the technical author of BSI standards aiming to improve the accessibility of EV charging infrastructure for those with disabilities. Peter has a PhD in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of many papers spanning energy, EVs and sustainable transport modes.

Nick Salt, CEO of SYSTRA UK & Ireland said, “ I am thrilled to welcome Llewelyn and Peter to the business. Both are accomplished professionals with a proven track record of delivering value to clients through innovation and sustainability. They will help drive our sustainable growth and will help raise our profile through their impressive range of expertise.”

Paramics Discovery 26 unveiled with new active travel capability

SYSTRA is delighted to unveil Paramics Discovery 26. The latest version of the well-known Paramics transport planning software tool has improved functionality to simulate behaviour across more modes of transport to better reflect how we use our road infrastructure.

Paramics has been reproducing real world traffic conditions by simulating travel behaviour on a user-defined road network for motorised transport modes since 1996. The latest version Paramics Discovery 26 includes active travel modes for the first time and has been designed to enable transport professionals to design, evaluate and present transport and mobility solutions.

Paramics Discovery 26 can be used to test a wide variety of transport planning interventions simply and quickly, including assessing the impact of increased traffic on a road network, new junctions and infrastructure, changes to traffic signal control, public transport operations, roadworks and event planning.

The intuitive software also enables transport planners to assess both economic and environmental impact from their proposed interventions including cycling and walking to public transport and private motorised modes