Engineering Matters

Island states are at the forefront of climate change. Rising sea levels mean more coastal erosion, overtopping of defences and salinification of land. More frequent and devastating severe weather events are disrupting everyday life and acidification of the ocean is impacting on fishing. It is happening now, not in decades to come. From atolls in the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Northern Ireland w...

In this episode we explain how one of the world’s biggest problems – plastic waste can be reused in state of the art, energy-efficient road-building products. Working with Cumbria County Council within an initiative called Adept Live Labs Shell will be publicly sharing the knowledge they are gaining in these lab trials, with the overall objective of helping to build a more sustainable, circu...

Ecologists on infrastructure projects have some new team members: Conservation dogs. Their superior olfactory systems mean that they can sniff out a plethora of protected species from great crested newts and water voles, to bats and birds. Critically these canine detectives can do this more quickly, accurately and safely than humans. Thanks to pioneering work by consultant Atkins, the use of conse...

Every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted. The waste occurs all through the supply chain, from the farm itself, all the way to the household. It represents enough calories to potentially feed every undernourished person on the planet, and there is an environmental cost to this. About 6% of all human greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food loss and waste. Target 12.3 of the Sustainable...

Every good superhero universe has its origins story. Hagerbach’s begins with Rudolf Amberg, looking to innovate and find new efficiency savings for his iron mine. So began a 50-year journey from testing equipment and explosives, to fire and tunnel safety simulations, and ever more creative uses for underground space. Ultimately the mining industry in Switzerland failed, but Hagerbach survived, and...

When people think of digital tools to help with engineering problems, they usually think of a 3D model or a computerised image, representing something that exists in the real world. Machine learning is not that.  What it does is completely alien to your way of thinking. It operates in such a way that is totally free from human bias, and completely ignores geometric realities. Machine learning...

London is the world’s first national park city, with about 50% green coverage of its surface area. This is a legacy of the public and Royal parks, Victorian tree planting, and is something Londoners enjoy on a daily basis. Behind the scenes, major organisations and stakeholders are working to raise the profile of environmental sustainability.  And despite London’s heritage, more needs to be d...

For millions of years spiders have been spinning naturally occurring proteins into an incredibly strong and durable silk. By studying the anatomy of these arachnids, scientists in the UK have cracked the code to reassembling natural proteins creating a new alternative to plastic. Pioneering research company Xampla says that its supramolecular engineered protein is fully biodegradable and can be sh...

Since the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, humanity has focused its activities in the southern continent on science and research. To do this effectively, logistics are critical. To prepare for the arrival of its new ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, the wharf at Rothera Research Station needed to be replaced. The new wharf needed to be built in the extreme conditions of Antarcti...

Preparation is currently underway for installation of one of the world’s longest fibre optic communications cables. Survey vessels are circumnavigating the entire coast of Africa determining the best locations for laying the cable on the seabed and bringing it onshore. At around 36,000km long it will provide connectivity to countries throughout the continent and form a critical part of meeti...

Why do we build? Why develop society? And who reaps the benefit? In this episode we look at the new interest the construction industry is taking in quantifying and appreciating social value. That difficult-to-define idea that has also enjoyed the recent attention of central government, with legislation mandating that projects and tenders take it into account. Social Value is relatively new to indu...

In a field a few miles southwest of the city of Lexington in Kentucky, a sheep is quietly grazing in the shade. This is a very special sheep. It has been carefully selected from a rare breed to control the vegetation at Kentucky’s largest solar farm. The practice is known as Solar Grazing, an environmentally friendly and incredibly cost effective solution to what would otherwise involve slow and b...

In 2019/20 an estimated 693,000 workers in Great Britain sustained a non-fatal injury at work in Great Britain. The figure, which comes from the Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey, represents 2,160 injuries per 100,000 workers.  The rate had been steadily decreasing for decades. This self-reported rate passed just below 4,000 per 100,000 in 2000/01 but then it stopped reducing....

What is Net Zero? And how can we get there? Can we mitigate the damage of three centuries of fossil fuel-powered industrialisation, with three decades of new energy infrastructure? While Canada is rich in renewables and already produces 80% of its electricity using non greenhouse gas sources, it, like countries around the world, has a daunting task in front of it. In order to reach Net Zero, Canad...

Every two years the Peak District hosts ‘Hillhead’ in a disused quarry. It is the largest event for the Quarrying, Construction and Recycling industries. It is known both for its lively equipment demonstrations and unpredictable weather. This year the coronavirus forced the event online, and the new format forced the organisers to reconsider the focus. Already an industry that strives for environm...

Along the west coast of Scotland lies a chain of island communities where fishing and farming have been a way of life for thousands of years.  In securing the future of these islands through providing reliable electricity, engineers and archaeologists are looking to the past to ensure that the rich history is not lost.  Replacing substations and cable connections also means preserving an...

This is the third and final episode of our three-part special looking at the delivery of megaprojects. In this episode we examine the lessons learned from two of the most iconic tunnelling projects of recent times: London’s Crossrail and New York’s East Side Access. Crossrail was the largest infrastructure project in Europe. Weaving in and out of the spaghetti of existing assets under central Lond...

For the 100 th episode of Engineering Matters we bring you this three-part special looking at the delivery of a megaproject. In this second episode, we look at how a client can assess the scale of the task of delivering an impossibly complex scheme, such as a megaproject and supplement gaps in its skillset with industry support. How projects are brought from vision to reality. If you would like to...

Megaprojects are among the most complex and challenging of society’s undertakings. Each is grand is scope and due to the scale, none are ever built twice. Although they leverage the resources and political will of a nation, most encounter cost and schedule overruns, damaging reputations and souring public support. For the 100 th episode of Engineering Matters we bring you this three-part special l...

Today the world holds 33 megacities, cities that are home to over 10 million people. As these sprawling urban centres become more crowded than ever before infrastructure is under pressure to do more, last longer and respond faster. In this episode we find out why it is so important to understand exactly what is in the ground beneath our feet and how geophysical data can help us find out. We also v...

As projects grow ever more complex, with tighter delivery demands placed on the entire supply chain, a baseline of digitalisation has been essential for the past few years… the companies that have adapted and thrived in this environment are now looking into areas they might not have worked with before. Predictive analysis, material tracking, sensors, drones, connected tools and programme visualisa...

To alleviate the burden on its largest city Jakarta, Indonesia is going to move its capital more than 1,000km from the densely populated island of Java, to less developed Borneo. The new city will be constructed near the port city of Balikpapan, an economic boon for the region but an increased strain on its already-tested infrastructure. Balikpapan Airport has already been deteriorating, with more...

Dalam episode ini kami bermitra dengan Shell untuk membahas pengaspalan ulang landasan pacu (atau runway) Bandara Balikpapan – Bandara Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan. Kita akan mempelajari bagaimana peningkatan jumlah penumpang dan armada pesawat yang lebih baru dan berat telah mendorong landasan pacu yang ada melampaui batasnya. Frekuensi serta beban yang meningkat, yang dikombinasiikan d...

In this episode we are looking at a project being run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority which aims to build a prototype fusion power plant by the 2040s. To do that they are currently working on a concept design, choosing from a menu of international technologies. Their work needs to be complete by spring 2024 to then work on and complete a detailed design by about 2030. Called ‘STEP’, its success...

The world’s oceans are in crisis. Plastic pollution, rising sea levels, warmer waters and chemical changes are degrading ocean systems and the world is at a dangerous tipping point. A point so dangerous that the United Nations has made 2021 the start of a new decade for ocean science for sustainable development. In this episode we partner with Fugro to explore how data acquisition and new technolo...