BOOKS | BTS - 50 YEARS
Above:
...and it also holds many more recent images of projects and people
its operation within the Institution of Civil Engineers
(ICE) and other associated societies, such as the British Geotechnical Association (BGA) and all leading to thoughts on the future. The Appendices are a ‘data miners’ vault of lists of evening meetings, committee members across the years, and other tunnelling ingredients. Sections intervene in this structure that describe
all manner of tunnelling projects: major under river tunnels, Scottish hydropower, metros, airport tunnels, sewers, and road schemes. These are carefully woven through pieces taken through the decades highlighting the movements in market trends, political scenes and project types. Major projects such as the Channel Tunnel, Channel
Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL 1 and 2), HS2, Crossrail, Jubilee Line Extension, and Tideway (to name but a few) are described in their own sections with tales from those that worked, designed, detailed, supplied and crafted the projects. For example, the nuggets of information about the
Victoria Line are superb with a map of the scheme (page 66) framing a superb range of tales and archive photographs throughout. The personal tales dotted throughout this tome are
excellent. The story about a flat cap, the jaguar saloon and some jacks (page 73) and another describing the “hairdryer treatment” on the Cairo Wastewater Project (page 303), maybe familiar to some.
Others are standout. The Second World War escape
tunnel and shafts (Page 220), lying hidden in an area of a Swiss road job for decades, only to become problematic on the construction work later, is a fascinating read on how the history of a site is vital for a successful tunnelling project. And, then, there is the tale about the “paperweight”,
but no page number there, as I will let you discover that yourself! The book is a great celebration of the British
Tunnelling Society’s 50th year, it has the data, the lists, the history and the tales, all laid out for the reader. This is a superb companion for those that are in, dealt with, or have family connections in the tunnelling industry. It is also worth its value as a record of tunnelling history and I would recommend it. All I would add is rollover ‘Indictment: Power and
Politics in the Construction Industry’, this is the tunnelling book for me.
Paul Perry is Technical Engineering Director in Aecom, based out of their offices in Croydon. He is a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer and has designed schemes for a number of tunnelling projects, as well as for buildings, bridges and other structures that are above, adjacent and connected to tunnels. He was The Royal Academy of Engineering/ Ove Arup Foundation’s Visiting Teaching Fellow at the University of Nottingham and a member of the newly-formed Net Zero Tunnelling Group.
GET THE BTS BOOK The celebratory book can be ordered via the British Tunnelling Society website:
www.britishtunnelling.com
Published by the British Tunnelling Society, the book is available in two formats - Hardback ISBN 978-0-9546106-6-1) and eBook (ISBN 978-0-9546106-7-8).
44 | January 2025
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