News

Yesterday the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the lifting of the de facto ban on onshore wind in England. The move comes into force immediately and is part of a wider plan that seeks to double the capacity of onshore wind in Britain by 2030, and is in line with the Climate Changes committee’s advice that the UK needs to install 35GW of onshore wind by 2035 to deliver a key step on the way to net zero. There is currently 15GW of installed onshore wind capacity in the UK, with over half being in Scotland.

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the ‘Impact in Energy’ award at the 2024 New Civil Engineer Awards. This award celebrates firms within the construction and civil engineering industry that provide outstanding services within the energy sector.

Our Renewables Engineering Team was formed to allow focus on engineering design support and consultancy for offshore wind and other renewable energy projects due to our successful project delivery and expanding workload. To date we have contributed to offshore wind projects with a combined installation capacity >12GW.

International Women in Engineering Day raises the profile of women engineers as they are still hugely under-represented, with 2021 figures indicating that in the UK only 16.5% of engineers are women. We all have a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering and STEM careers.

Today is Clean Air Day! This year, our Air Quality team are highlighting the importance of good indoor air quality and how our services can help to create healthier indoor environments.

Whether it’s in our homes or at our workplaces, we spend a lot of our time indoors, and the quality of the air that we breathe indoors can impact our health. Poor indoor air quality can result in a range of health issues, from allergies and asthma to more serious conditions like respiratory infections and cardiovascular disease.

Senior Acoustics Consultant, Conor O’Brien has recently been awarded ‘best project report by a student studying for the Institute of Acoustics’ (IOA) diploma’ for his first of its kind investigation into the acoustic properties of horse skulls. The award is given annually by the Association of Noise Consultants (ANC), lecturers and tutors from the IOA diploma course, who nominate a shortlist of the best projects and the ANC chose one to win the award for best project.

It’s World Environment Day! A day celebrated annually to encourage awareness and action for the protection of the environment.

This year’s theme is ‘Generation Restoration’ – whilst we can’t turn back time, we can plant forests, revive water sources, and bring back soils.

Staff members at Royal Stoke University Hospital can now benefit from a new £32 million multi-storey car park that opened for use last week. The new staff car park has replaced existing spaces at the Royal Infirmary and Central Outpatients Departments sites.

Our Health and Safety team were first commissioned by the University Hospitals of the North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust in 2020 to act as the Principal Designer and Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Advisor for the c.£5m site clearance and subsequent demolition of the former Stoke Royal Infirmary. The site covered an area of 8.84Ha and comprised of 52 infirmary related buildings. Once cleared the site provided temporary carparking facilities for staff during the construction of the multi-story carpark. This leaves the way for the former Royal Infirmary to be developed for local housing and community services.

Global mining company, Anglo American has announced structural changes today, to divest its coal, nickel, Platinum and diamond assets focussing on critical minerals, copper and iron ore, looking to leverage its position in the ‘global shift to green energy’. 

Alison Allen, Managing Director Wardell Armstrong International gives her insights to BBC World News into how this impacts the mining industry and what it means for the company itself.

All-Energy is a meeting place for professionals in the renewable and low carbon energy community and covers all energy production and transmission sectors including solar, onshore wind offshore wind, floating offshore wind, solar, energy from waste and anaerobic digestion. The exhibition will attract over 10,000 delegates from across the world to Glasgow on the 15th and 16th May 2024. 

Another very rare archaeological discovery has been unearthed at our Uncovering Roman Carlisle project. A mysterious lump of a soft purple substance was discovered at a Roman Bathhouse, within the grounds of Carlisle Cricket Club, during the 2023 excavation by our archaeologists and volunteers. The part of the drains it was discovered in related to a monumental building with a bathhouse built in the 3rd Century – during the time of the Emperor Septimius Severus.