Blackfriars team wins at British Construction Industry Awards

The team building the central section of the super sewer are celebrating winning the Temporary Works Initiative of the Year at the British Construction Awards.

Laing O’Rourke’s joint venture with Ferrovial Construction were recognised for the floated culvert operation at Blackfriars. This saw the construction of a 3,700-tonne concrete and steel culvert within the eastern cofferdam, which was then flooded and floated 100 metres to the sewer outfall situated under Blackfriars Bridge.

The culvert float out took place over the 2020 August bank holiday weekend, strategically planned to coincide with the Thames’ high tide.

By utilising the power of experience, the Blackfriars team created a unique solution to a series of engineering challenges and deliver certainty. The operation improved programme, reduced man hours and risk, along with footprint and noise.

Laing O’Rourke Project Director, Viv Jones, said: “We’re thrilled to have been recognised by the industry for the team’s work at Blackfriars. The floated culvert was a unique solution to multiple engineering challenges in a confined and busy area on the Thames. This job was one of the signature milestones of the Tideway Central project – a veritable masterstroke of planning, ingenuity and execution and I’m very proud of our team that made it happen.”

Tideway Programme Director, Andy Alder, said: “This was a challenging operation completed in the heart of London, and this award is testament to the great deal of planning and teamwork that went into successfully completing it.”

The Ferrovial and Laing O’Rourke joint venture has also been recently been shortlisted at this year’s Tunnelling Festival Awards, which is due to take place in December.