Infrastructure Europe

London to Beijing...by rail?

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:55:00 +0000

The Chinese are famous for their outrageous infrastructure projects - you don't build something like the Great Wall without being ever-so-slightly ambitious. And if you are to believe the latest whispers to come out of the People's Republic, nothing has changed.

Passengers could soon travel from London to Beijing in a little over a day on trains travelling almost as fast as aeroplanes. China is in negotiations to build a 2000 mile high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains capable of travelling at over 200mph within the next ten years. Trains would also travel to Singapore, India and Pakistan - and this is just the first phase.

A second line would head to Germany via Russia (exact routes are currently undecided), and a third line would extend south from China to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.

Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China's domestic high-speed railways, said this month that work on the Southeast Asia line was "underway".

"Opening up Central, East and South East Asia"

"We have also already carried out the prospecting and survey work for the European network, and central and eastern European countries are keen for us to start," Mr. Wang said.

Mr. Wang said that China was already in negotiations with 17 countries over the rail lines, which will draw together and open up the whole of Central, East and South East Asia.

He added that the network would also allow China to transport valuable cargoes of raw materials more efficiently.

"It was not China that pushed the idea to start with," said Mr. Wang. "It was the other countries that came to us, especially India. These countries cannot fully implement the construction of a high-speed rail network and they hoped to draw on our experience and technology."

Government funding

However others remain cautious, "I understand we want to improve our rail networks, potentially as far as Europe, but whether they will be high-speed or not is yet to be determined," said one Chinese official based in Brussels.

Financing would come from government cash and bank loans but private sector funding would also be needed, according to Mr. Wang.

Business Week reports how European experts say the current low maritime transport costs make it harder to justify an EU-China rail line on commercial grounds however. With global trade seemingly unstoppable in early 2007, ship builders were receiving record orders. But the subsequent financial crisis and global economic slump led to a 12 percent fall in world trade flows last year, according to WTO figures.

China is currently investing in its own high-speed railway expansion project. When completed in the next five years nearly 30,500 kilometres of new railways will be built, connecting all its major cities with high-speed lines.

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Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

Updated: UK high-speed plans revealed

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:34:00 +0000

The British government are to unveil new plans for a UK high-speed network that will showcase trains capable of 250mph.

The plan will see a new line between London and Birmingham with a possible extension to northern England and Scotland. However work is not expected to commence until 2017 at the earliest, due to permission being needed for the proposed route.

The idea has been floated for several years now, and both opposition parties are committed to the scheme in principle however a final decision on the route should cause political divisions ahead of the general election.

Low-carbon economy

Speaking to the BBC, Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said "The commitment that all three parties have shown to high-speed rail is a vote of confidence in the industry, and will help place train travel at the heart of a successful low-carbon economy.

"The plans must be affordable at a time of real constraint in the public finances and must show how high-speed rail will be paid for while continuing to invest in the existing network on which passengers make more than a billion journeys a year."

Affordability is definitely the key when it comes to high-speed rail. Currently, the train service in the UK is plagued by delays, expensive tickets and extensive journey times.

If the route is approved, it would cut journey times from Birmingham to London to just over 45 minutes. If the route was extended further north, passengers would be able to get from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, while also serving Manchester and Birmingham.

It was estimated that by 2020, three times as many passengers will be travelling around the country by train.

Whether such a project can be approved and sufficiently budgeted is another matter though.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis' report, which is set to go public, will confirm the scheme's specific details, such as whether it would go via London's Heathrow airport.

Last year, Lord Adonis previewed a series of Japanese-built Class 395 Javelin trains, that can reach speeds of up to 140mph, on the line between Kent and London St Pancreas to showcase the benefits of high-speed rail.

Plans revealed (12/03/2010)

Yesterday, at a press conference Lord Adonis unveiled the new plans. The network project will see the construction of a new terminal in Birmingham as well as the possible extension of the network further north to Glasgow.

"The time has come for Britain to plan seriously for high-speed rail between our major cities," Lord Adonis said to reporters. "The high-speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel has been a clear success, and many European and Asian countries now have extensive and successful high-speed networks. I believe high-speed rail has a big part to play in Britain's future."

However, there are already concerns about the environmental impact of the project. The Government has already stated that they will attempt to "minimise the environmental impact" of the project through a combination of tunnels and following existing rail and road corridors, but the county of Buckinghamshire has said it will fight to 'protect its precious countryside', not to mention the 440 homes that may be demolished to make way for the line.

While the initial phase of the project is estimated to cost GBP£17.4 billion, there are plans to expand the network if it proves to be a success. As well as going to Scotland, there are also plans for the network to split off in the Midlands, with a track going east to Sheffield and Leeds, and another going west to Manchester.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

French Skyscrapers designed for eVolo

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:46:00 +0000

The eVolo Magazine 2010 Skyscraper Competition, which "recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organization" has ended, and whilst the winner was an unique concept for a 'vertical prison', the contest has seen designers from all over the world submit mind-blowing designs for skyscrapers in the future. Two innovative designs that received special mentions would, if construction, see Paris gain two fantastic structures.

Atelier Zundel et Cristea

Designed by Gregoire Zündel, Irina Cristea, Nicolas Souchko and Mario Russo, this unique-looking skyscraper would be representative of life in Paris; a city, the designers say, where "quality of life" is elevated to "the art of living."

As such, this 'tower city' would extol the Parisian virtues of "strolling about, getting lost, dreaming, living and taking advantage of beautiful weather" by being a unit "of shifting density and complete diversity, within which all activities are possible; a beautiful, attractive tower; a non-emitting and energy independent tower."

Standing 200 metres tall, the tower would have a "spatial texture", consisting of slabs stacked vertically but within the uniform design would be a "dynamic formation process utilizing an empty tube of manifold geometry. In motion, this cavity becomes a generator of space, a dynamic, fluctuating, and evolving construct."

What is clear is that tower would make an stunning addition to Paris' skyline.

This unique skyscraper, created by Jiang Yuan, Xu Yang, is designed to be placed at the confluence of la Seine and la Marne, one of the key points of the topography of Paris, is another innovative design that with three 'frames' represents three rivers trends from the site: to the center of Paris, east of Paris (Vincennes) and south-east of Paris (Ivry-sur-Seine).

Instead of merely being another place for high-profile offices, this site aims to use the different characteristic of the vertical context at different heights to attract three public programs.

The projects proposed are;

At the top: a museum on the top facing with the grand “frames” taking the skyline of Paris as the background of the exposition space.

In the middle, there is a library with a view to the bois de Vincennes – Paris’s biggest green space.

At the bottom part, one auditorium is just in front of the open-air theatre, giving a showcase to both inside and outside.

It is hoped that the skyscraper will attract other public facilities around it, making it one of the 'go to' places in the French capital, a contemporary alternative to the Eiffel Tower if you will.

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EuroTunnel's surprising profit

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:23:00 +0000

As bad years go for transportation companies, 2009 was one of the worse. For Eurotunnel though, it was the proverbial nightmare with a tunnel fire in September 2008 hampering capacity till February 2009 and the extreme weather conditions during winter making a mockery of the service and hitting the company's revenues hard.

Despite many industry publications, including ourselves, slamming Eurostar and Eurotunnel for their disastrous performance over the last few months the company has managed to still make a profit despite, in their words, the 'poor economic environment'.

While it is GBP£31 million down from the previous year, Eurotunnels's 2009 net profit was still GBP£1.3 million. Eurotunnel were also quick to say profits had been heavily affected by December's snow... no kidding.

Famously in December, Eurostar's services came to a grinding halt as snow forced cancellation all over the continent. The company had to cancel services for three days when snow caused power outages, trapping a total of 2,500 passengers in the Channel Tunnel for up to five-and-a-half hours due to delays. Meanwhile, another 100,000 were stranded all over Europe for the weekend before Christmas, blackening the company's name even more.

Hard times

The recession has also impact the service with cross-Channel truck shuttling services falling by a fifth since 2007.

However, Eurotunnel's chairman and chief executive Jacques Gounon has been optimistic about the company's performance saying that the fact the company was able to remain in the black was "proof of Eurotunnel's resilience in the face of difficulties".

"Our group has remained profitable in an unfavourable economic context," he said. "This performance shows that the group is in good shape to benefit from the economic recovery, as soon as it begins."

Despite the company's profits, independent reviews have still continued to slam the company's plans over the winter period, saying their contingency plans for helping 'stranded passengers' was 'insufficient' and raises concerns about the company's competence.

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Timon Singh

London Olympic Stadium stands tall

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:46:00 +0000

It's a milestone for the construction of the Olympic Stadium in London. According to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the first of the Olympic Stadium’s lighting towers has been successfully lifted into place displaying the stadium's full height - 60 metres above the field of play below.

The 'feat' was described as one of the toughest engineering challenges on the Stadium project to date. A 650-tonne crane was built in the middle of the stadium in order to lift the 28m-high lighting towers on top of the inner ring of the cable-net roof.

The lighting towers are essential for illuminating the field of play and are apparently necessary for high definition footage. They are located high above the stadium roof to ensure "optimum lighting angles" which will avoid dazzling spectators, photographers and competitors.

There will be a total of 14 lighting towers, each weighing 34 tonnes, designed with integrated walkways, access, power supplies and cabling and lighting.

Heart of the action

In a statement, ODA chairman John Armitt said: "The Olympic Stadium will be at the heart of the action in 2012 and its image will be beamed to billions of people across the world. The team has made impressive progress over the last year and we are on schedule to finish by the summer of 2011 to give a year for Test Events.

"The lifting of the lighting towers is a significant engineering and construction challenge and has taken a huge amount of work and planning, complicated by snow, wind and rain. Once all fourteen towers have been lifted, the Stadium will be at its full height and the venue will be another huge step closer to completion.'

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, concurred with the chairman's sentiments saying, 'The Olympic Stadium will be the centrepiece of the London 2012 Games, and it is very exciting to see it taking shape so quickly. There will be some fantastic sporting action taking place there and the eyes of the world will be on us in the summer of 2012. We look forward to welcoming the world’s athletes to the Stadium in 2012."

Last year, it was reported that the cost of the Games had risen by GBP£21 million.

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Shipping route frozen over

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:28:00 +0000

While some shipping routes have been opened up due to melting ice, others have been hampered by severe temperatures. In the Baltic Sea off Stockholm, over 40 ships have been trapped in ice for several days and have only just been freed thanks to icebreakers.

While vessels were freed from areas between the capital and the Aland Islands, it is believed several ships are still stranded in the Bay of Bothnia, further north.

Among the ships trapped were three ferries, including the ferry Amorella which had 943 passengers and crew on board. The Amorella had collide with another ferry, the Finnfellow, whilst trying to manoeuvre in the ice. Whilst no damage or injuries were reported, it indicated how dangerous the situation had become for shipping.

Iced-up

It was estimated between 1841 up to 2630 were aboard the ferries. Other ships included the smaller Via Mare ferry carrying 66 people, the roll-on-roll-off ferry Sea Wind with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board.

Speaking to the AFP, Jonas Lindvall, the controller of the ice-breaking unit at the maritime administration, said sea ice in the area would not normally have been a problem for merchant ships.

However ice combined with winds of 45mph had pushed the ice towards the coast creating ridges that the ships were unable to handle. As such, both Finland and Sweden were forced to deploy ice breakers.

"They got caught outside the archipelago, where there is moving ice. It's hard to navigate," Mr Lindvall told the AFP news agency, adding he had not seen so many ships stuck at once since the mid 1980s.

Tommy Gardebring of the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre in Gothenburg concurred saying, "It has been a lot colder than normal in the southern parts of the Baltic sea, but in the north all is normal with normal levels of ice."

"However, in the worst-affected areas, the ice breakers that normally operate haven't been able to cope with the ice..."

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Italy's waste problem

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Major cities all over the world have to cope with large amounts of waste due to the high numbers of people living there, but not all of them are accused by the EU of breaching directives on waste disposal through leaving litter uncollected.

This is what has happened to Naples.

The European Commission has decried that during 2007-2008, Naples allowed thousands of tonnes of waste to fester in the streets due to inadequate waste disposal sites in the area. The EU directive on waste disposal became law in 2006, and as such the case has been bought against Italy.

The EU has said that the large quantity of waste damaged the environment and was a hazard to people's health. It's not the first time Italy has been the focus of 'illegal waste dumping'. Last year, it was believed the local Mafia deliberately sunk a ship off the coast of south-west Italy with nuclear waste on board.

At the time, informant Francesco Fonti who is from the Calabrian mafia known as the ''Ndrangheta', stated that the crime syndicate have muscled in on the lucrative business of radioactive waste disposal in recent years. However, instead of meeting the country's stringent waste disposal laws, the Mafia had simply sunk the vessel out at sea.

It is the same in Naples; the local version of the Mafia, the Camorra, have a lucrative waste dumping business, where they illegal tip industrial waste in the region's landfill sites, as well as the countryside.

Disposing of the problem

With the EU getting tough on Italy, the country is going to have to work hard to comply with the judgement or else risk a heavy fine. At the peak of the waste crisis, the Italian government opened up several new incinerators in Campania in order to dispose of the rubbish. The army was also drafted into help clear the rubbish, leading to clashes with locals who were angry at the levels of waste that had been left in the streets.

As of this week, the EU has declared that Italy has yet to set up an "adequate network of waste disposal installations as close as possible to the areas where waste is produced."

"By failing to adopt all the measures necessary to prevent danger to human health and damage to the environment in the region of Campania, Italy has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Waste Directive," the judges said.

The Italian government is believed to have blamed "contractual breaches and mafia interference", but the court reportedly said even "the presence of criminal activity" could justify "both the failure to fulfil obligations" or "the failure to have the requisite facilities up and running on time."

The court said that, when the deadline set expired, "the waste littering the public roads totalled 55,000 tonnes; 110,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes of waste lay in municipal storage sites awaiting treatment; and the exasperated local inhabitants had started fires in the piles of refuse."

These impromptu pyres were a major embarrassment to the Italian authorities. If the country does not put an adequate waste disposal system in place as fast as possible, there is no doubt a fine and further legal action will follow.

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How will Miliband cut UK emissions by 29%?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:31:00 +0000

UK energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband is on a crusade - he wants to cut emissions from British homes by 29 percent by 2020, but considering how woolly the UK's climate change policy has been in the case how does he hope to do this?

Enter the Warm Homes, Greener Homes strategy - a plan that aims to make Britain's homes more comfortable, warmer and cheaper to run. Why set out such a plan in the first place? Because currently around one quarter of UK emissions coming from energy used in homes.

The new proposal aims to make it easier for people to take action and reduce bills, such as installing wall insulation that could see energy bills cut by £380 a year (average between 2013 and 2020).

It is also hoped that the new plan will be good for the economy by creating up to 65,000 jobs in the green homes industries, such as installing and manufacturing energy saving measures or providing home energy advice.

Three stage plan

In order to make sure the scheme reaches certain targets, the strategy will be implemented in a three stage plan;

to insulate six million homes by the end of 2011
to have insulated all practical lofts and cavity walls by 2015
and to have offered up to seven million eco-upgrades by 2020 as well fitting all homes with smart meters.

In a statement, Ed Miliband said, “This shows we can meet the national interest of tackling climate change and reducing our dependence on foreign energy at the same time as we help people save money.

“The Warm Homes, Greener Homes Strategy will remove the deterrent of upfront costs and reduce the hassle of the move to greener living.

“Making homes more energy efficient will help protect people from upward pressure on bills, tackle climate change, and make us less reliant on imported energy.

“New ‘pay as you save’ green finance, a new alliance between energy companies and local authorities to help people in their communities, as well as moves to encourage landlords to stop ignoring energy wastage in their properties, will help deliver the radical transformation that’s necessary.”

As well as making houses greener, the strategy will also aim to remove the financial barriers that come with renovating your home. They include;

Legislating to allow new ‘pay as you save’ green loans to be tied to the property, which will avoid the up-front cost of eco-upgrades
Help those in private rented accommodation whose landlords have little incentive to take action and who endure poorly insulated and cold accommodation.

On the local front;

Energy companies and local authorities teaming up to make homes more energy efficient – with energy companies required to help householders become more energy efficient. The new local partnership approach will take over from 2013, once the current Carbon Emissions Reduction Target ends
Building on the Local Carbon Framework pilots announced by Communities Secretary John Denham in December, which are a new approach for local authorities to set targets and put in place plans to reduce carbon emissions.

However, this has not been met with overwhelming support by some. The British Property Federation has reacted angrily to the proposals put forward for the private rented sector. Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the BPF said speaking to Building.co.uk, “While some target setting from government can be helpful in changing behaviour, the idea that a private rented property will have to meet a minimum level of insulation before it can be rented out is ill thought out."

So is the government's scheme a step in the right decision or ill-thought out voter bait?

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Timon Singh

Wales' giant dragon project

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:19:00 +0000

Here at Infrastructure EU, we are generally concerned about construction, transportation, water infrastructure and other things of note; but when plans are unveiled that state Wales may get a 82ft bronze dragon sculpture sitting atop a 131ft tower... well, we have to take a look!

It is hoped that the sculpture, called Waking the Dragon, will dwarf the Angel of the North - the UK's current biggest sculpture - as well as driving tourism to region. It is hoped that the project will be undertaken in north Wales near Wrexham, a region which in this writer's opinion needs substantial redevelopment.

Enter the Dragon

The project is the brainchild of local business Simon Wingett who hails from Wrexham. It is his hope that the GBP£6 million scheme will "strengthen and develop" tourism in the area.

Speaking to WalesOnline, Wingett said, "The idea was spawned because of all the time spent driving up and down motorways and seeing cars and lorries displaying Welsh flags, the drivers obviously very proud of their heritage.

"I just thought that we must be the proudest nation in the world. The thought came about, ‘why not have a colossal Welsh dragon?’ Something of the Statue of Liberty proportions."

The dragon will definitely be colossal. Current plans have the dragon's wingspan at 170ft – bigger than a Boeing 737.

Of course, the project isn't simply about Welsh Pride, Wrexham borough council leader Aled Roberts hopes that the project will "strengthen and further develop the tourism and heritage available to visitors in this part of North-East Wales."

"The dragon project will not only celebrate our unique heritage and culture, it will also boost the local economy with the creation of local jobs," he said.

The plan would also see the construction of an art centre and gallery next to the tower. Reinforcing the core message of Welsh art and tradition, the project would be build in a landscaped area of trees and paths depicting the four branches of the Mabinogion, the collection of mythological tales of early Wales. Dafodills will also be present.

However, it still costs GBP£6 million, so where will the money be coming from?

Way of the Dragon

Mr Wingett has stated that he hopes to fund the project without using taxpayers' money, instead attracting capital through commercial sponsorship as well as charitable donations, the sale of steps within the the tower and investor finance.

The art dealer also hopes that any money raised by the tower, once built, will go to the Frank Wingett Cancer Appeal, named after his father, who died from throat cancer in 1988. The 30-year-old organisation specialises in improving cancer sufferers’ quality of life.

It is hoped that the tower will house an interactive display relaying local stories and myths. Meanwhile, the top of the glass and concrete tower will boast an observation deck giving panoramic views across the border into England and back into Wales across Wrexham.

While planning permission has yet to be improved, it has already garner a lot of media press and attention. Many locals are already dubbing it the 'Eighth Wonder of Wales', though they haven't specified what the other seven are.The beginning of a trend building massive sculptured national symbols? Can we expect an enormous thistle in the centre of Edinburgh in the future? A giant glass cloverleaf in Dublin? A gigantic pint glass in London...?

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What will Russia take from the Vancouver Games?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0000

Vancouver can breathe a huge sigh of relief as the 2010 Winter Olympics comes to a close, however next up hosting the event is Sochi, so how will Russia go about topping this year's Games?

Any past host city will testify that holding the Olympic Games is an expensive honour, however the financial benefits can be worth it with money coming it from tourism and sponsorship. It also has the distinction of putting cities on the map long after the Games end.

This is what the organisers of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics are hoping for them.

Historic event

"We are next," Sochi organizing chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said to reporters at the Vancouver Games' closing ceremony. "The bar has been well and truly raised."

Sochi's major Anatoly Pakhomov concurred, saying "This is a historic event for Sochi. We understand it is a huge responsibility for Sochi and for Russia and we can't let anyone down."

The world got a taste of what Russia would bring to their first Winter Olympics when the Olympic flag was handed from the mayor of Vancouver to the mayor of Sochi.

The closing ceremony also boasted a eight minute preview of what we might seeing in the Sochi opening ceremony in four years time; Russian sports stars, music, dance performers and giant glowing "Zorbs."

However underneath the glitz and glitter, there are concerns over whether Russia will be able to finish the massive construction projects on time? Then there are the funding issues, not to mention the safety concerns due to the proximity of the temperamental separatist Abkhazia region in neighboring Georgia.

However Russia is unlikely to let the pressure overwhelm them. Many are hoping that the summer resort will be transformed into a world-class destination with the Games acting as a catalyst for tourists.

"It's so important for Russians that they will not allow it to fail," senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound said. "Whatever has to be done will be done."

However it is a great feat ahead of them; all the venues have to be built from scratch and despite all the sites being currently under construction by an army of 16,000 workers, the "biggest construction site in the world" has a lot riding on it... $7 billion to be precise.

"All the money is allocated and we don't see any risk for a shortage of finance," said Chernyshenko, who has a separate operating budget of $1.8 billion. Russia is also spending billions more on other non-Olympic projects but schemes that will enhance the area's infrastructure, such as the renovation of the Moscow-Sochi railway line.

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European telecom firms see profits fall

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:06:00 +0000

You'd have thought that with the increase in smartphone and internet use, that it would be happy times for telecoms companies, but two of Europe's biggest - Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom - have seen massive drops in their annual profits.

For 2009, Deutsche Telekom reported a massive drop of 76 percent on the year before with a net profit of $476 million (353 million euros). France Telecom's profits fell by 26 percent giving them a profit of 3 billion euros. They had a distnictly difficult year after investigations into a series of suicides by 24 employees during 2009.

Unsurprisingly, after the string of worker deaths, profits were hit hard during investigations with overall revenue falling 1.9 percent. France Telecom's new chief Stephane Richard said a new scheme this year would put customers and employees "at the heart" of the firm's priorities.

During the 'suicide spree', the company's 'atmosphere' and never-ending drive for efficiency, especially among older employees recruited when France Telecom was part of the public sector, was blamed for playing 'emotional havoc' with staff.

"Bumpy start"

Deutsche Telekom chief executive Rene Obermann was surprisingly upbeat regarding his company's profit drop. He was quite as saying, "After a bumpy start, we rounded 2009 off with good results."

"Cost discipline was key to getting through economically challenging times. However, we did not save at the expense of the future, but continued to invest heavily," he added.

While the company had made a 3 million euro loss in the final quarter of the year, this had been significantly less than the 730 million euros it lost in the same period a year earlier. As a result, revenue for the year rose 4.8 percent to 64.4 billion euros.

However, this slump for the two companies could be coming to an end. They are planning to merge their UK businesses, to create the UK's largest mobile provide. This would see Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and France Telecom's Orange become a sole provider, but the merger is currently being investigated for fears it could threaten competition.

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Timon Singh

New US embassy in London gets a moat

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:15:00 +0000

Despite having the largest foreign embassy in Europe, the United States have decided that their current UK embassy in Grosvenor Square, London is "too small, outdated and hard to defend from security threats".

Even though the 1950s building is imposingly surrounded by concrete and metal barriers, as well as armed police officers, the US has been pursuing a newer modern, welcoming and secure base for the American diplomatic headquarters, and today it was unveiled.

Gone will be the concrete facade and 1950s architecture, instead a modernist glass cube will house the US ambassador and his staff. The US embassy will also move for its current location, despite it being based in Mayfair, an upmarket district known for its luxury hotels, expensive shops and galleries.

Instead a more defensible location has been picked in Nine Elms on the south bank of the River Thames, just upriver from the MI6 headquarters and slightly downriver from the abandoned Battersea Power Station.

The move will cost over a USD$1 billion, but the embassy will hardly be in an 'exclusive' area. Its neighbours will include a Royal Mail sorting office and the Covent Garden fruit and veg market.

Futuristic design

Designed by Philadelphia-based architects Kieran Timberlake who won a competition to design the embassy, the new building will consist of a glass cube sheathed in a stretched, sculptural membrane embedded with gossamer-fine photovoltaic cells. This crystalline second skin both shades the interior from the sun and converts the sun’s rays into power in one of the multiple measures to make this an eco-Field as well as defensive building.

Despite the US saying the old embassy wasn't 'defensible' enough, the new embassy is much less domineering and intrusive, with the designers placing in upon a colonnade intended to create a feeling of civic engagement and openness.

The site also includes a sensible and sensitive landscape strategy, which while it may look beautiful has a defensive purpose. There are no high walls, because instead the embassy is set back far from the road behind a series of landscaped ditches and moats.

A semi-circular 'moat' will protects the building on the side facing the river, while the building itself is slightly elevated atop a mound, like a castle, to avoid the possibility of ramming the structure with the car bombs.

This subtle design provides a strong defence without the need for high walls and an imposing compound, something US embassy have been reminiscent of in the past.

The cost of construction of the new embassy is estimated to be about US$500 million. Qatar will get the old building.

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Why are European airlines struggling?

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:44:00 +0000

Strikes, cancellations and delays; it seems you can't open a newspaper or turn on the news without hearing about a European air carrier suffering one of the above.

A mere glance at BBC News aerospace page is filled with stories relating to Lufthansa's four-day strike, BA's £50 million loss in three months and the need for European airlines struggling to 'polish up their image' - so where did it all go wrong? Was it the downturn during the recession? Increasing fuel prices? Or is there something else that is damaging the European aviation industry?

It did begin during the recession; with people thinking to cut costs where they could, many travellers opted for economy carriers such as EasyJet or Ryanair over British Airways and Lufthansa. As such, these companies have been forced to completely restructure their earnings.

As first-class and business-class passengers have not been forthcoming, the carriers have lost money maintaining an old business model that post-recession may never be needed again especially if people opt for cheaper companies.

However change does not come easy.

Changing a legacy

For companies that are well established, making changes is a massive challenge especially when it is resisted by its workforce.

Air France, BA and Lufthansa have all faced massive staff strikes and in turn, crippled by the stoppages. In customers' eyes, these continuing industrial actions (BA's has been going on for months) has led them to book with rival airlines, hitting the earnings of established carriers hard but massively increasing the likes of RyanAir.

Speaking to the BBC, Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at FBE Aerospace said, "Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways and Alitalia are just a few players that have been crippled by stoppages."

"Customers are taking their money to low-cost and Middle Eastern airlines that provide much better and much more reliable services."

As such, Asian and Middle Eastern airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways have seen a boost in custom taking massive numbers of customers away from European carriers.

The fact that 'budget' airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet have long since outgrown BA when measured by passenger numbers shows the shift in power and established carriers have had to join forces to survive.

In 2004, Air France and the Dutch airline KLM merged to counter the growing dominance of budget airliners while the likes of Lufthansa and BA have been buying up smaller rivals or working towards mergers with Iberia of Spain and American Airlines.

While this may cut costs, it has not been popular with staff. What is clear though is that legacy carriers are attempting to change, but the question is whether they can change fast enough to still be players in the industry.

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Timon Singh

The Failings of Eurostar

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:44:00 +0000

It seems that no matter what the weather or the time of year, Eurostar always seems to be suffering delays or problems with its service. If it's not cancelling journeys due to the 'wrong kind of snow on the tracks' then it's rescuing passengers after 'major technical problems'.

If last week's train crash in Belgium, that saw the deaths of 18 people, hadn't hurt Eurostar services enough, then the weekend's breakdown that saw 700 passengers have to be rescued south of Ashford in Kent will be a major blow.

In fact, it has been a rough season for the train service. In December, the company had to cancel services for three days when snow caused power outages, while a total of 2,500 passengers were stuck in the Channel Tunnel for up to five-and-a-half hours due to delays. Meanwhile, another 100,000 were stranded all over the continent for the weekend before Christmas, blackening the company's name even more.

Independent reviews have slammed the company's contingency plans for helping 'stranded passengers' as 'insufficient' raising concerns about the company's competence.

The report, that was published earlier this month, said that the company had no plan in place" to deal with the breakdowns, and said passengers, including expectant mothers and youngsters returning from Disneyland Paris, had to contend with "appalling conditions". Famously, five trains broke down in the Channel Tunnel on the night of December 18 and 19 2009 after snow shorted the units' power cars.

However, while Eurostar may be an occasionally running joke (pun intended), they remain the only choice for many who opt to travel to and around Europe by rail. Here's hoping Deutsche Bahn or Veolia can increase the number of their services.

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Timon Singh

Opel's Astra project will create 700 jobs

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:04:00 +0000

General Motors' European subsidiary Opel's decision to produce the new Astra IV model in Poland could see the create of 700 jobs.

The Polish plant will operate 24 hours a day, going from two shifts, to three in order to maintain production and to secure GM multi-billion euro loans in order to help the car firm return to profitability.

"This has been planned for a long time, and will be in operation by the middle of the year," Opel spokesperson Ulrich Weber said in a statement.

Time for a restructure

Last year, Opel appeared in trouble with Canadian firm Magna looking set to take it over, leaving GM to make a last minute decision to keep the company (as well as Vauxhall) causing causing relief in the UK and other parts of Europe who feared mass job cuts.

Since then, the car company has said it is set to invest US$15 billion (11 billion euros) in to a five year "product offensive", including plans to make the Polish factory in Gliwice break even within two years.

The Astra IV project will see the Gliwice factory receive a major employment boost after the site was forced to cut 500 jobs over the past 12 months. The factory has also seen production fall by 43.5 percent to 96,700 vehicles in 2009 from 171,640 in 2008.

Company restructuring looks like GM will still cut 8,300 jobs across the continent as well as close a plant in Antwerp, but for now things are looking up for staff in Poland.

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Belgium crash sees Eurostar services suspended

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:24:00 +0000

After Monday's horrific train crash in Belgium that killed 18 passengers, Eurostar has stated that services between the UK and Brussels will be suspended until next week while investigations continue.

The cause of the crash, that also injured 150 people, is still not known, but the incident at Halle, near Brussels, saw two trains collide during rush hour, forcing front carriages into the air taking down nearby power cables. It is thought one train may have missed a stop sign.

Since the accident, Eurostar has opted to run a reduced timetable with its services running between the UK and France, with any services in the area of the accident completely suspended.

The company stated that any passengers planning to travel from London to Brussels were "strongly advised to postpone or cancel their journeys" and that passengers could exchange their tickets or get a refund.

It has also been reported that the Thalys services to France, Germany and the Netherlands are also being affected.

The services from Brussels to Cologne resumed on Wednesday, but the high-speed Amsterdam service remained suspended and there were a "handful" of trains travelling to and from Paris, according to a Thalys spokeswoman.

The Halle crash

The crash at Halle was at the point where commuter and high-speed lines meet, preventing Eurostar and other train companies from being able to operate in the area.

One train had been going from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte, while the second train had been travelling from Quievrain to Liege.

The crashed trains may not be completely removed from the tracks for two or three days while crash scene investigators continue their work. 55 commuters were seriously injured while a further 89 people sustained minor injuries.

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Bulgaria joins high-speed rail club

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:44:00 +0000

Sure Europe has been one of the world leaders in terms of high-speed rail with successsful tracks in France and Spain, but with the likes of China and the US rapidly developing new systems it seems other European countries don't want to be left behind... literally. So who is stepping up to the high-speed rail plate? Bulgaria.

In the southern village of Starosel, Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov announced the opening of bids for the Sofia-Burgas high-speed rail service.

Tsvetkov stated that he hoped the tender will finish within a month and the construction of the 290km railway line will begin in the spring. It is hoped that once the railway is finished, trains will be able to run at a speed of 160 km/h between the southern cities of Plovdiv and Burgas.

However, another EU-financed high-speed stretch is also being planned - a route between Sofia and Plovdiv. The country already has the Sofia-Dragoman railway section under construction so once work finsihed, in approximately three years, Bulgaria will have high-speed railways between Sofia and Plovdiv.

It is sure to be bad news for European airlines, who have been forced to drastically cut prices or drop routes altogether to compete in regions where high-speed rail lines are prevalent.

The Bulgarian line is expected to cost 3 billion euro.

High-speed rail lines in Europe - here

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British Airways to produce bio-fuel

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:02:00 +0000

The cost of fuel plus the economic recession has clearly influenced British Airways to find ways to cut costs. However amongst the staff cuts, the company has unveiled a plan to build Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant and plans to use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014.

The plant will derive new fuel from waste biomass and manufactured in a facility that can convert a variety of waste materials, destined for landfill, into aviation fuel. The site of the factory is expected to be somewhere in East London, with four possibilities being discussed.

High-flying partnership

The plant, built in partnership with American bio-fuel company Solena Group, aims to convert 500,000 tonnes of potential waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel equating to greenhouse gas savings of up to 95 percent when compared with normal fossil-fuel driven jet fuel.

Dr Robert Do, chairman and chief executive of the Solena Group said: "The Solena - British Airways BioJetFuel project will efficiently convert biomass into clean renewable fuels and electricity and is completely carbon neutral.

"The plant will be a state-of-the-art renewable fuel manufacturing facility, distinct from a standard waste to energy incinerator facility. It will not produce any polluting emissions or undesirable by-products."

16 million gallons would also be twice the amount of fuel required to make all of BA's flights at London City Airport carbon-neutral.

As you can see the environmental and financial benefits are clear, but the project makes even more saving in reducing the amount of waste (and money needed) to send waste to landfills. This in turn can also be used to generate 20MW of electricity a year from renewable sources.

BA would purchase all fuel produced at the plant and it is believed that its construction would lead to the creation of 1200 jobs.

Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive, was quoted as saying, "This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

"We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene. We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation's environmental initiatives."

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Holes: The largest man-made structures

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:12:00 +0000

If someone was to ask you what the largest man-made structure in the world was, your mind would generally leap to the tallest (The Burj Kalifa) or the longest (The Great Wall of China) or something equally large and famous (The Great Pyramid). However the largest man-made structure in the world is none of these things. It is something far more mundane, yet still impressively large.

It's a hole. A massive hole. More specifically, it's a landfill - The Fresh Kills Landfill site in New York.

As Europe's biggest man-made hole, Aberdeen's 466ft-deep Rubislaw Quarry, is sold off, we at EU Infrastructure thought this would be a good time to look at the massive strucutres that are often ignored by those looking for the 'biggest' man made objects.

The biggest, Fresh Kills Landfill, was opened as a "temporary landfill" in 1947, The Fresh Kills Landfill covers 2200 acres (12 sq km, 4.6 square miles). While its area is not as 'long' as the Great Wall, the site's volume surpasses that of the China's ancient wonder.

When it was opened in 948, Fresh Kills Landfill became one of the largest refuse heaps in human history. At its 'peak', the site was visible from space and taller than the Statue of Liberty, at a height of 225 ft. Located on the western shore of Staten Island, the site is made up of four sections which contain fifty plus years of landfill, mostly in the form of household waste.

Under local pressure and with support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the landfill site was officially closed on March 22, 2001. The site had started to become a hazard to employees with packs of feral dogs roaming the landfill as well as thousands of rats. Before the site officially closed, the area was declared a wild bird sanctuary and a number of hawks, falcons, and owls were brought in to cull rat numbers.

However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the landfill was temporarily reopened in order to receive and process much of the debris from the destruction. It is estimated that over a third of the debris from the World Trade Centre was processed and searched at Fresh Kills Landfill for remains of those killed in the attacks.

During the investigation, a virtual city was constructed on the site for those workers and volunteers, police and federal investigators analysing the wreckage. Fresh Kills now remains the resting place of a majority of the debris of the World Trade Center.

The site is now being converted into a park. When finished, Fresh Kills Park will be at 2,200 acres, three times large than Central Park.

Big holes

Landfills and quarries often seem to be 'forgotten' or dismissed when it comes to large man-made structures. They lack the mystic and allure of skyscrapers and other notable buildings, yet their size is no less impressive.

A diamond mine in Mirny, Russia for example, claims to be the 'biggest hole in the world' with a depth of 525 metres whilst being 1.25 km in diameter. There are rumours that the suction created by the hole resulted in several helicopter crashes, so flying above it is now prohibited.

Another open-pit mine, said to be excavated completely by hand, is the Big Hole or Kimberley Mine in South Africa with a depth of 800m and a diameter of 470m.

Between 1871 and 1914 22.6 million tons of earth and rock were excavated from the mine for a yield of 2,722kg of diamonds.The hole is now filled with water, but one can only imagine what it was like when thousands of men worked in the hole hauling rock up to the surface with cables.

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2012 Olympics cost rises by �21m

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:59:00 +0000

The cost of London's 2012 Olympic Games has risen by GBP£21 million due to a drop in expected land receipts.

While the cost of the games has stayed well with its GBP£1.25 billion contingency, the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body in charge of building the games, has assured that the increase was inevitable in the latest progress report.

John Armitt, Olympic Delivery Authority Chairman, said: "We are continuing to make strong progress across the project. There are however still big challenges ahead as construction accelerates across the site and the workforce peaks.

"This will be our toughest year. We take nothing for granted but I am confident that the foundations for success are now in place."

Increased prices

While the rise is mainly due to the drop in expected land receipts from selling Olympic Land after the games, and works to plan and procure the operation of the Olympic Park between 2011-13, the ODA has still managed to make major cost reductions in some areas.

For example, the ODA reported that they managed to knock GBP£13 million off the price of the broadcast centre and GBP£55 million off the cost of infrastructure and site remediation. In addition GBP£54 million has been written off the expected spend because of reduced risk.

However, some small adition costs have occured. Due to land receipts falling by GBP£150 million, an extra GBP£9m is being paid to programme delivery partner CLM for successfully hitting project milestones.

In a statement, the ODA reported they'd be allocated up to an extra GBP£160 million from other parts of the GBP£9.3 billion budget to pay for the venue security, test events and operating venues for elite athlete training in advance of and after the games.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said to building.co.uk, "We are making savings, so where we have had challenges to meet we are, therefore, well placed to respond to them. We will continue to ensure that the investment in the Olympics is an investment that brings benefits to the whole of the UK now."

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