HARDING PRIZE COMPETITION 2024 | BTS
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF COMPLEX OFFSHORE STRUCTURES: THE HPC TUNNEL TO SHAFT CONNECTIONS
The Harding Prize Competition is named after the founder of the British Tunnelling Society, Sir Harold Harding, and is for entrants under the age of 33. Shortlisted papers were presented to the BTS evening meeting on 21 March, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, in London.
David Maddison, Associate Director of Tunnelling with Jacobs, and working on Hinkley Point C project as the Offshore Connections Design Manager for the Marine Works, was a runner-up in the 2024 Competition with a paper entitled ‘The Design and Construction of Complex Offshore Structures: the HPC Tunnel to Shaft Connections’. It is published here with the author’s permission
INTRODUCTION Hinkley Point C (HPC) is a critical programme that will help the UK to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals1
Net Zero carbon emissions.2
and its commitments to reaching HPC has the UK’s first
nuclear safety qualified tunnels, shafts and heads which requires stringent approvals, documentation, and quality standards to be complied with throughout the design and construction process. To construct the tunnel to shaft connections (TSC),
the Marine Works (MW) project has used recent advances in technology in combination with established tunnelling construction practices to deliver works in an overall safer and more cost-efficient manner whilst maintaining the standards required within the nuclear industry. This paper uses the TSC as a detailed example where
interdisciplinary collaboration has been effectively used on a UK major infrastructure tunnelling project. While the underground works continue, the paper shares recommendations to the industry for adopting best practices and lessons learnt.
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT AT HPC I have been involved in the MW project of the HPC3 programme since 2014 and almost full-time since graduating, in 2015. Working with senior colleagues, I initially undertook three years of detailed design to
nuclear assurance standards for multiple onshore tunnel and shaft structures. I subsequently transitioned to a primarily site-based role. Since mid-2018 I have been working alongside the
Balfour Beatty (BB) engineering and site teams to support the tunnels and shafts permanent works (PW) design approvals by the ultimate client, New Nuclear Build GenCo (NNB) and construction of these structures. To achieve this, I fostered a collaborative approach working between Jacobs, BB and NNB which has continued for the TSC element of works. From 2018 to early 2023 my role was primarily to
lead the design coordination, including: support for the manufacture of the 37,484 nuclear-qualified precast concrete segments; the construction of three main tunnels; and, the construction of nine other onshore tunnels, galleries and shafts of varying geometries and functional requirements. I became a Chartered Engineer with the ICE in 2019. Since the start of 2023, I have been leading a large
Jacobs team to implement the accepted design of the offshore TSC. This has involved considering, implementing, and sharing lessons learnt from previous and ongoing work, managing design changes and facilitating collaboration between the Jacobs (site and office-based) and BB teams, BeMo Tunnelling (independent TSC supervisors) and other interfacing teams, including NNB.
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