Health, Safety & Wellbeing Initiative of the Year

This award recognises initiatives introduced or championed within the tunnelling industry which have enabled a project or programme team to deliver improved performance with respect to health, safety and wellbeing of the workforce.

Align JV and Bouygues Travaux Publics
KERN Tunnel Services Dismantling Gantry

Align, a joint venture comprising Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, and Volker Fitzpatrick, was tasked with constructing twin bore tunnels for HS2 beneath the Chiltern Hills. This 33-month project, spanning 16.1km, was completed in March 2024. A total of 192km of service pipes and other infrastructure needed safe removal post-construction. Traditionally this would involve MEWPs, cranes, and intensive labour, posing many risks, particularly around working at height and manual handling. Align, aiming to mitigate these risks, collaborated with KERN Tunneltechnik to design an innovative gantry system. The gantry, with adjustable height and width, semi-automates the dismantling process, minimizing physical interaction and enhancing safety. Operatives quickly adapted to this ergonomic and efficient solution, which has led to a 70% strip-out completion with zero incidents. This innovation not only enhances safety but also boosts productivity, drawing interest from other contractors for potential broader applications in tunnel projects.

Align Joint Venture
Emergency Planning 

The geographical area that Align covers crosses the boundary of 9 of the statutory emergency services. The 16km Tunnel construction crosses two of these. Align is the largest infrastructure project to be undertaken in the area and during construction creates unique environments in which the emergency services rarely get to operate. Align JV recognised that in the event of an incident in the tunnel, meticulous preplanning was required to ensure that our teams and the emergency service were able to effectively manage the incident . Align set out to deliver world class emergency planning, and to create an exemplary relationship with the emergency services to deliver benefit to both the sites and the responders who may attend the sites in the event of an incident.

Align Joint Venture
Finishing Safely, Finishing Well

To correspond with World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28th April 2024, Align JV launched an initiative called Finishing Safely, Finishing Well in the knowledge that we can lose focus as a project ends. Over two weeks during May 2024, 2011 project personnel were engaged in workshops and live exhibitions. Each session was two and a half hours to focus on individual team pledges and charters, and were facilitated by our Mid-level Leaders to reinforce with teams from their areas the things we need to do to Finish Safely and Finish Well each element of the works. We launched new digital communications, new lifting initiatives and promoted our leadership commitment to "SLAM", which is stopping work when things change or unsafe situations are perceived. We have developed 97 different team charters, 2011 personal pledges and great engagement to help us bring our project to a safe conclusion.

Align Joint Venture
Safety Will Be A Success

The Safety Will Be A Success programme was developed on the HS2 C1 lot by Align JV (a joint venture of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, and Volker Fitzpatrick). At the start of 2023 we embarked upon a huge programme of cultural development that saw the launch of 5 Major Risks, 13 Life Saving Rules, SLAM and IMPROVE, 5 STARS and a brand new Supervisory Development Programme and an online public portal where our personnel and supply chain could openly access all of our development collateral. This new programme is truly collaborative an continues to engage our Supply Chain Partners who have adopted many aspects and taken them as their own with our blessing. They supplemented our already successful AIM HIGH vision and Safe at Heart value. Together we wished to AIM Higher, and we genuinely have made Safety a Success

Skanska Costain Strabag Joint Venture
Lithium Battery Electric Vehicles: Risk assessment and competency framework for use underground

Technology is changing rapidly with new fuel and power sources such as HVO, synthetic fuels, hydrogen, and Lithium battery (LIB) technology becoming common in underground work. These innovations help meet challenging environmental and carbon targets and can bring significant health and safety benefits. However, while the hazards and risks of traditional fossil fuels are understood with clear industry guidance, this is not the case with the use of LIBs underground, which bring different and unique hazards due to lots of energy stored in a very small space within large vehicles. With no formal industry guidance on the use of LIBs, a new risk assessment technique and competency frameworks were required to control the LIB risk underground, covering electric vehicles (EVs), LIB hand tools, and electrical storage systems. SCS Railways have created a standard to cover risk assessment, systems, and competencies, done collaboratively with the HSE, industry, and specialist experts.

Park Signalling
KT100 Traffic Marshal - The use of Digital Signalling for the Safe Movement of Construction Vehicles

KT100 Traffic Marshal is a site safety system which prevents two vehicles from occupying the same, under control, section: for example, in quarries, tunnels, construction sites or where pedestrians and vehicles are occupying the same space. Digitally interconnected KT100 machines communicate via a secure network, keeping track of the section occupancy. Drivers acquire a physical token to enter, ensuring only one vehicle occupies the section at a time. Upon exiting, they return the token, signalling a clear passage for the next vehicle. For user experience, KT100 machines can display token availability and tunnel occupancy through traffic lights and barriers.