H&S | BTS HEALTH & SAFETY COURSE 2025
BTS HEALTH & SAFETY COURSE
The British Tunnelling Society’s highly-regarded Underground Health & Safety Course takes place in mid-November, in London. A preview of the two-day course is given by Rod Young, Past-Chair of the BTS, and Regional Manager & Construction Manager with Barhale.
To satisfy calls for a significant increase in health and safety content in the tunnelling industry, in 2008 the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) Committee proposed and then organised a two-day Underground Health and Safety course. Presented by a variety of industry experts, it has proved to be popular and is now held annually in November ,in London – this year over 17-18 November 2025. The tunnelling industry has continued its buoyant
period, through projects such as Crossrail, Thames Tideway, HS2, Hinkley Point C, York Potash and progressing onto Coire Glas Hydro Storage Scheme, Sizewell C, Lower Thames Crossing and Haweswater Aqueduct Water Tunnel Scheme in the UK. There are also numerous smaller TBM-bored tunnels around the country for road and rail crossings for the utility companies. Key to the success of these projects is their
completion with the best health and safety record possible. Following the success of the Underground Health &
Safety Course over past years it has been repeated in the two-day to allow more time on specific subjects and, vitally, to include time for discussion and debate. The Underground Health & Safety Course is organised
and run by the BTS, which is an Associated Society of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The purpose of the course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to Health & Safety in tunnelling.
The course has been developed to focus exclusively
on the underground environment. It aims to provide an introduction or enhance existing basic knowledge and develop an awareness of the particular health and safety challenges that working underground can pose. The course has developed with changes in the Health
and Safety needs of the construction work force to be kept fresh and relevant: Nurturing a Good Safety Culture; Critical Role of Human Organisational Performance (HOP) and Human Factors in creating safer, more efficient workplaces; technical and practical aspects of design - readiness reviews, spray trials, and trial assemblies; Sprayed Concrete Lining (SCL); Emergency Response Management; Mental Health Wellbeing in Construction; and, a Case Study in Failure. The lectures have evolved to become more interactive
to allow students to better understand the wide range of subject matter in which an experienced tunneller needs to be expert. The course 100% relies on the support of the
companies within the tunnelling industry to allow the experienced tunnellers to present on the course. Without the presenters and the support of their companies this course would not be able to be held and be so successful and beneficial to the industry. The presenters have changed over the years, including
the opportunity for younger members of the tunnelling industry to present and delegates not only then obtain knowledge they also can have experience of presenting.
Right:
A variety of Underground Health and Safety topics and settings will be discussed during the next BTS H&S course
IMAGES COURTESY OF BTS
36 | October 2025
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