December 2008 - Halcrow

issue one: december 2008
A
safe
passage
Steering through
turbulent economic waters
Featuring
State of the nation
A snapshot of Halcrow’s performance
Expecting the unexpected
Scanning the horizon for risk
Strategy 2018
Planning for the long-term
Sustainable development
Tackling the global challenge

The Vox team
Anna Mann, editor
mannal@halcrow.com
Chris Warmoll, deputy editor
warmollcj@halcrow.com
Emilie Dadswell, designer
dadswelle@halcrow.com
Editorial
Haidee Harrison
harrisonha@halcrow.com
Bryony Ulyett
ulyettb@halcrow.com
Eloise Young
youngel@halcrow.com
Distribution
Garry Whitaker
whitakerga@halcrow.com
Vox is designed and produced
by Halcrow’s corporate
communications team and
K4 Creative.
Printed by Rumbold Holland on
Revive 50:50 Silk recycled paper,
it contains 50 per cent recovered
waste and 50 per cent virgin
fibre. It is manufactured at a mill
accredited with the ISO 14001
environmental management
standard.
Editor’s
comment
Welcome to the first edition of Vox,
Halcrow’s re-invigorated successor
to Connections.
Meaning ‘voice’ in Latin, Vox is your place to champion
successes and achievements. It’s the forum for business
groups, regions and management teams to share their
vision and future direction for the company. It’s our
collective voice to talk to each other, our clients and
our stakeholders.
Vox builds on the solid foundations laid by Connections
and remains the pre-eminent place to read about the
company and your colleagues’ achievements – whether
professional, personal, academic or sporting.
The fresh layout and improved graphics cater to individual
reading styles. So if you’re a ‘skimmer’, nuggets of easily
digestible information will leap from every page. And if
you’ve always enjoyed immersing yourself from cover
to cover, the engaging graphics will add another visual
dimension to your reading experience.
The editorial team hopes you enjoy the new look and feel
of Vox and continue to send in your articles and photos.
Read, reflect, share and digest. This is your magazine, your
forum and your voice. Enjoy.
Anna Mann – editor
The pulp used in this product
is bleached using an elemental
chlorine-free process.
This material is recyclable.

Featuring...
That’ll be the Daewoo
Mega structure takes shape – 04
State of the nation
In the hot seat with
Peter Gammie – 32
Expecting the
unexpected
Risk sub-committee
gazes into its crystal
ball – 22
A decade of decisive direction
Strategy 2018 takes centre stage – 34
Project profiles – 04
Business beat – 32
Correspondents
Americas
Argentina, Mariana Ojeda
Canada, Cathy Spark
Belize, Ian Rowdon
Chile, Georg Welzel
Saint Lucia, Mandish Singh
US, Andrea Grinbaum
Asia
Beijing, Cathy Hu
Chongqing, Guo Ping Yang
Hong Kong, Irene Or
India, Rajni Dhiman
Philippines,
Ricardo P Dela Cruz
Seoul, Andrea Choi
Shanghai, Victor Cheung
Shenzhen, Victor Cheung
Australasia
Brisbane, Russ Evans
Melbourne, Margaret Westman
Sydney, Helen Orchard
Testing our mettle
Transforming abandoned steel works – 06
Racing to victory
Burning rubber on
the Middle East’s
latest mega-project
at Yas Island – 10
Double first for Dubai rail
The Palm on track for mass transit system – 12
A green and pleasant land
Turning the tide on urban encroachment – 16
Incredible India
Tourism magnet for international hoteliers – 18
Sustainable solutions – 24
Sick and tyred quarry revived
Defusing an environmental time bomb – 25
Winds of change
Pakistan’s first wind
farm breezes
into operation – 26
A first for London
Travel plan puts Halcrow streets ahead – 28
A chip off the old block
Fry guy Max Bloomfield talks biodiesel – 30
Financial fluency
Steady hands steer financial ship – 38
Act now! does it again
Savvy savers reap real
rewards – 39
Sir William Halcrow – a
portrait of quiet brilliance
Company’s 140 th birthday
highlights founder’s
achievements – 42
People parade – 44
Soapbox scribe and alumni – 47
Giving generously – 48
Achieving ambitions – 50
Out of office
Life in the
terror zone – 58
140
years
on
Sporting success – 52
Wedding wishes – 54
Baby boom – 56
Europe and Central Asia
Ireland, Dijana Garwood
Latvia, Iveta Liepina
Romania, Gabriela Mehedintu,
Andreea Pana and Eliza Pintilie
Middle East
Gulf offices, Vanessa James
Pakistan, Ali Khan
UK
Bedford, Walter Makoni
Birmingham, Peter Robery
Bristol, Laura Williams
Cardiff, George Ballard
Crawley, Stella Barber
and Warren Crawley
Derby, Peter Robery
Edinburgh, Becki Fleming
Exeter, Rachel Smith
and Sarah Dawe
Glasgow, Julie McSorley
Gloucester, Andrew Prout
Inverness, Kat Dearing
Kent, Vijay Jain
Leeds, Phil Thrower
London (Vineyard House),
Christopher Warmoll
London (Shortlands),
Liz Wilson
Peterborough, Simon Morris
Reading, Beverley Tocock
Swindon, Garry Whitaker
and Sarah Payne
Waltham Cross,
Dawn McGilchrist
Worcester, Anita Inight
York, Graeme Pollard

The Busan-Geoje fixed link includes two cable-stayed bridges and
an immersed tunnel, linked by approach bridges
At up to
156m-high, the
cable-stayed
bridge pylons
are Korea’s first
to be designed
with a curved
diamond shape
That’ll be the
Halcrow is providing
top-end technical
expertise to what will
be the world’s deepest
immersed concrete
roadway tunnel in Korea
4
Vox | issue one

he Busan to Geoje fixed link project
T
is an ambitious scheme to reduce
journey times between Korea’s
south coast city of Busan and the island of
Geoje – a tourist hot-spot and home to some
of the country’s biggest shipbuilding yards.
On completion in late 2010, the link will slash
journey times from three and a half hours to
just 40 minutes. It will open up the region to
a wealth of previously untapped business and
tourism opportunities.
The impressive 8.2km-long link includes a
record-breaking immersed tunnel, both a
three-pylon and a two-pylon cable-stayed
bridge, together with approach bridges and
road and rock tunnels on the islands.
The cable-stayed bridges are the first of
their kind in Korea, employing the most
advanced design techniques and latest
construction technology.
Held in place by cable stays, the roadway will
‘float’ in the air between the pylons, allowing
ships to pass easily underneath. When full
erection of the bridges begins, five sets of
balanced cantilevers will enable construction
of the mammoth structure.
The 3.2km-long immersed tunnel will carry
traffic at a depth of up to 48m below sea
level, avoiding the massive container ships
plying their trade above.
Based in Busan, Halcrow’s Don Fraser
is providing advice to Korean contractor
Daewoo Engineering and Construction,
which designed the project with Danish
company, COWI.
“Halcrow has been involved on this worldclass
project from the very beginning and it’s
proving to be a tremendously challenging,
but extremely rewarding scheme,” said Don.
On completion in late 2010, the
link will slash car journey times from
three and a half hours to just 40 minutes

Project profiles
Celebrating excellence
Testing our
Transforming former Welsh steelworks
ne of the biggest challenges
O
currently facing Halcrow’s UK
landscape architecture team is
the £300 million landscape restoration of a
former steelworks in the south east corner
of Wales.
In the mid 1900s, Ebbw Vale was the largest
steelworks in Europe, with a weekly output of
2,300 tonnes. During the Second World War it
attracted the attention of Nazi bombers, but
the deep bowl of the valley gave the works a
natural protection, and it escaped unscathed.
Pump it up
One of the few ecologically-rich areas of the
steelworks was the pump house. Retaining
over 100 plant species and its cooling
tanks, this site is being developed as an
environmental resource centre.
Working with Gwent Wildlife Trust, which
will jointly manage the site long-term, the
Halcrow team is incorporating ideas from
local schools to develop the pump house as
an educational resource.
Proposals include boardwalks inside
the retained tanks, a covered ponddipping
platform, a new bog garden and a
teaching area. The old railway lines will be
transformed into paths, providing a link to
the site’s industrial heritage.
Where possible, the project will use
materials recycled from the Ebbw Vale site.
The car park and paths will be surfaced
in crushed concrete, with compostenriched
soil covering the new planting and
wildflower grass zones. Other areas will be
left to regenerate naturally.
A casualty of the decline of Britain’s steel
industry in the latter part of the twentieth
century, the works finally closed completely
in 2002, and were soon demolished.
The old works became one of the UK’s
largest brown field reclamation sites – and
a restoration project led by Halcrow for
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council is
now transforming the town.
Currently at the planting stage, the project’s
strong social, economic and environmental
objectives meet the Welsh Assembly
Government’s sustainability agenda.
The team will enhance the existing landscape
of the site, providing new green spaces,
natural habitats and strong transport links
to and around the town. The plans include
a community hospital, a learning campus,
high-quality residential developments, and
an exciting business hub at the centre of the
Ebbw Vale valley – all interlinked by vibrant
urban squares.
A key challenge facing the team was the
mineral waste material generated by over
200 years of industrial activity. It filled the
central valley to over 20m deep in places and
obliterated natural soil cover and vegetation.
Getting plants to thrive in this environment
needed some innovative thinking.
Mixing steel slag or colliery spoil with green
compost and organic fertiliser has fed
nutrients into the soil, bound by crushed
gritstone and glacial drift material to help
retain moisture. Some 70,000 tonnes of soil
have been created using 13,000 tonnes of
compost, covering 11ha of land.
The rural valley slopes to the east of Ebbw
Vale provide open, windswept hillsides
with panoramic views and a network of
paths, tracks and ponds – and enormous
recreational potential.
In the mid 1900s,
Ebbw Vale was the
largest steelworks in
Europe, with a weekly
output of 2,300 tonnes
The team helped formulate the council’s
vision and masterplan for the Eastern Valley
slopes. This has brought major funding for
the land purchase from steel firm Corus.
Plans include over 1km of new stone walls
and an additional 5,000 new trees, adding to
the existing 50,000m² of managed woodland.
It’s clear Ebbw Vale has a bright future on the
horizon – built on roots of steel.
Artist’s impression of the restored steel
works site compared to the current
landscape (top left), which includes the
restored valley, new watercourse and
recent grass seeding. Planting will take
place at the end of this year.
6
Vox | issue one

pink
In the pink
alcrow’s health and safety team
H
celebrated in style at a gala event
after scooping Scotland’s premier
award for the prevention of accidents and ill
health at work.
Survival
of the fittest
The RoSPA Occupational Health
and Safety Awards have been
running for over 50 years. They
are sponsored by NEBOSH
(National Examination Board in
Occupational Safety and Health)
with Her Majesty the Queen as patron.
Competition is fierce for awards and
specialist trophies, with over 1,500
delighted winners this year.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and
Safety Awards ceremony was held in Glasgow
on 25 September.
The team accepted the prestigious RoSPA
Scotland Trophy at the ceremony, where
Halcrow was also commended in the
commercial and business services sector.
The RoSPA judges were particularly
impressed by the company’s arrangements
for ensuring the health and safety
competence of its workforce. Also noted
was its clear communication of health and
safety information, thorough investigation of
incidents to facilitate learning and the high
standard of its corporate performance review
and reporting.
Halcrow’s director for health and safety,
Nigel Valvona, said: “We’re delighted that the
judging panel
has recognised
Halcrow’s
commitment to
looking after its
employees and
building safety
into our work. We
are exceptionally
honoured to
receive the RoSPA
Scotland Trophy, and will continue to
work towards raising health and safety
standards globally.”
Commenting on the team’s award,
RoSPA’s chief executive, Tom Mullarkey,
said: “If every business in the UK could
put in place the kind of safe and healthy
working that award-winners such as
Halcrow have created, very many tragedies
would be avoided and lives saved.”
Halcrow’s Nigel Valvona and John
Walker display RoSPA’s Scotland Trophy
A safe road to Damascus
Halcrow’s group security team supports high-profile airport project in Syria
alcrow’s group security team is
H
usually found busily shoring up
the company against risks to its
employees, IT systems and buildings. But
it came under the international spotlight
recently with its involvement in a high-profile
airport project.
Head of group security David Grant has been
working as part of the on-site project team,
headed by Sam Jazairi, as it manages a
suite of major improvements to Damascus
International Airport. The works are being
funded by a loan of £31 million from the
Malaysian government.
Halcrow is assisting Malaysia’s Civil Aviation
Department in its efforts to modernise the
airport in response to recent growth in traffic.
The terminal, originally constructed in the
1970s, requires renovation and expansion to
Contact the group security team for:
• personal safety advice and assistance
• country security analysis
• crisis management
• e-mail or internet misuse
• IT security
• advice on business resilience and strategic plans
• legislation relating to security issues
• advice and assistance regarding business
continuity and pandemic plans
• security/data protection for bid material
establish it as a world-class airport with all
the trimmings.
David has been on site advising the
project team on a CCTV network, check-in
procedures, flight information and public
address systems, as well as
IT security.
“Given the high profile
of airport security
in recent years,
it has been an
exciting challenge
to help improve
standards here,”
says David.
As well as expanding
the check-in and
bag reclaim halls, the
Damascus,
Aleppo and Palmyra are
becoming increasingly
popular tourist destinations.
Within three years, Damascus
International Airport is
expected to handle some
3 million passengers annually,
serving as a Syrian Arab
Airlines hub
lounges and concourses will be refurbished
and a new VIP area will be created. Interiors
and furnishings will also receive a major
face-lift, to bring their battered 70s visage
into the 21 st century with new ceilings,
lighting, floors and cladding.
Major mechanical, electrical and
plumbing equipment will be
replaced. The contract also
includes apron expansion,
landscaping, parking facilities
and road resurfacing.
The group security team
has already provided
external consultancy
services to many projects,
including port and ship
security at the North Tyneside
Council Fish Quay, and building
and perimeter security for the
Thames Water reservoirs,
both in the UK.

Project profiles
Celebrating excellence
Water,
water everywhere
The Alkborough tidal defence scheme
has scooped overall honours at the UK’s
Environment Agency’s Project Excellence
Awards, and secured top spot in the ‘making
space for water’ category.
High tide levels will be
controlled by allowing water
from the estuary to run into
Alkborough Flats, creating a
massive flood storage area
Halcrow provided the project appraisal,
environmental assessment, design and
assistance during construction of the
£11 million scheme, which forms an integral
part of the Environment Agency’s longterm
strategy for managing flood risk in the
Humber Estuary.
Moving away from physical barriers to more
natural flooding patterns, high tide levels
will be controlled by allowing water from
the estuary to spill into Alkborough Flats,
creating a massive flood storage area.
It encompasses the largest area of managed
realignment in the UK, while providing
improved protection from flood risk for
300,000 local residents. A 25m-wide tidal
exchange structure allows normal tidal
inundation of an area of approximately 150ha,
while a 1.5km weir lets surge tides spill into
375ha of washland.
Inundation of the flats has established
massive swathes of inter-tidal habitats,
contributing towards the UK’s obligations
under European Union habitats directives.
Aerial view of inundated site
The tidal exchange structure
Awards bonanza
• Named a highly
commended project for
excellence by the Institution
of Civil Engineers in 2007
• Received an ‘excellent’
rating from the Civil
Engineering Quality
Assessment and Awards
(CEEQUAL) scheme in 2007,
achieving a score of 88.2 per
cent (the second highest
score ever at the time of
the assessment)
• Won the innovation
category of the Waterways
Renaissance Awards 2007
8
Climb every mountain
Halcrow’s Glasgow-based transportation team is nearing
completion of an £18 million road improvement scheme
in an achingly beautiful slice of south west Scotland.
The project covers two separate sections of carriageway
– at Haggstone and Glen App. Located 4km apart on the
A77 trunk road, the scheme provides safe overtaking
opportunities while simultaneously protecting a site of
special scientific interest (SSSI).
Located on a steep hillside, the 2km Haggstone section
provided a number of unique challenges. The team
decided to widen the road by cutting into the hillside
rather than extending over the edge of a steep existing
embankment, minimising the environmental impact.
Being next to an SSSI, various landscaping and ecological
mitigation measures were required at the Glen App site,
including several otter underpasses. To lessen the impact
of excavation, existing material from Haggstone was used
as fill for the embankments.
Vox | issue one
Located on a steep
hillside, Haggstone
provided a number of
unique challenges
Tapping in to a fountain of knowledge
Penang’s expansive water supply
network is operating more effectively
after a year of sustained work by the
Malaysian urban water team.
Responsible for 470,000 connections
sprawling across 4,000km and
serving a population of 1.5 million
people, Penang Water Board sought
to hone in on its network, segmenting
it into sub-systems for improved
operational control.
Halcrow was brought in to deliver
detailed models of the recentlydivided
network over a three year
period, recognising Malaysia’s steady
march towards a more rigorous
regulatory environment. In-depth
modelling will play an increasingly
important role in identifying
leakage-prone areas
and low-pressure zones,
as required by nascent
legislation.
On completion, the models
evaluated a range of
proposed system changes,
with Halcrow feeding the
results back to the client.
The team installs flow
measuring equipment
Laudable successes are not
limited to the Penang team.
In fact, Halcrow’s Malaysian
engineers are carving out an
enviable reputation across
the competitive water sector.
Further south, another
Halcrow team is working flat
out on an even larger scheme
for Johor Water Company –
12,000km of pipeline with
900,000 connections. Add four
models for the UK’s Wessex
Water already underway
and you’ve got a water-tight
example of Halcrow’s global
skills-sharing in action.

Towering success
Halcrow had cause to celebrate as
consultant on Bahrain’s Financial Harbour,
when it was named best commercial
development at the recent Arabian
Property Awards.
Held at the Madinat Jumeirah resort in
Dubai, the awards highlight world-class
developments that represent the pinnacle
of design, functionality and innovation. The
£1.5 billion harbour is a fully integrated
development for a financial city and selfcontained
community, right in the centre of
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.
As consultant to the Bahrain Financial
Harbour Holding Company, Halcrow was
commissioned to validate and rework the
concept plan to meet the development’s
gross floor area targets and provide a mix of
land use that was sustainable for
the existing infrastructure.
Halcrow also designed and
supervised the construction
of the reclamation areas and
elements of the harbour’s
marina. Plot development guidelines, a car
parking assessment, landscape frameworks
and an overall three dimensional masterplan
and urban design models were also created.
Covering 380,000m 2 of reclaimed land
in Mina Al Manama – the city’s old
trading harbour – Bahrain’s Financial
Harbour combines business, leisure
and residential districts. Just 15
minutes from Bahrain International
Airport, this waterfront development
will cater for 7,000 residents, with
work for a further 8,000 people.
Good vibrations
When Anglian Water’s new pipeline
ran into an immovable obstacle in the
shape of the A12 dual carriageway,
the only viable option was to tunnel
under the road to connect the
excavated pipe trenches on either
side of the busy thoroughfare.
Halcrow’s geospatial expertise was
sought to observe ground movement
and identify any risk of settlement
damage caused by the tunnel’s
construction. Led by Halcrow’s
Chris Hall and Andrew Baines, the
work was carried out as part of the
Horkesley to Cowdray Avenue water
mains replacement scheme.
The unrelenting stream of traffic
roaring down the A12 posed an
obvious challenge, preventing the
team from physically surveying the
road. Traffic was diverted from the
central lanes overnight while precise
monitoring targets were installed,
allowing surveyors to measure from
the safety of the side verges.
Laser scanning techniques in tandem
with daily precise levelling checks
ensured that any changes in the
road’s stability from the tunnelling
below would be picked up quickly by
the Halcrow monitoring team and fed
back to the client.
Breathing new life into bygone bridge
Aberdeen’s historic Wellington Suspension Bridge has reopened after a
seven year hiatus, thanks to inspired work by Halcrow’s Scottish team.
Halcrow also provided engineering
survey support to the tunnelling
contractor to ensure that everything
was built in exactly the right place.
Wellington Bridge, a testament to Captain Brown’s ingenuity
Halcrow initially undertook an inspection
of the bridge, built in 1830, following which
sections of the chains were removed,
examined, and found to be badly corroded.
In addition to designing replacement
stainless steel chains, the team managed
the Aberdonian landmark’s refurbishment,
adding a new timber deck, re-painted
metalwork and re-pointed granite masonry to
complete the face-lift. All works adhered to
Historic Scotland’s requirements.
Aberdeen City Council’s Lord Provost cut
the red ribbon on 3 September 2008, giving
the city’s pedestrians and cyclists their first
glimpse of the restored structure.
In recognition of the quality work carried out
by the team – David Hodson, Chris Short,
Anne Kerr and Brian Whittle – Halcrow
has been commissioned to design an
architectural lighting scheme for the bridge.
Captain Samuel Brown
chain bridge pioneer
Captain Brown hung up his naval uniform
in 1812 with several lucrative contracts
to his name, and a series of chain cable
patents that stood practically unchanged
for the next 100 years.
After establishing Samuel Brown and Co to
manufacture chains, Brown made his first
foray into bridge design and construction.
Suspended over the River Tweed, Union
Bridge was completed in 1820, making
it Britain’s first vehicular suspension
bridge. Aberdeen’s Wellington Bridge was
the seventh chain-supported structure
designed and built by Brown’s company.
Millimetre perfect
• Surveyors took measurements
on the same set of known
points each day
• Survey monuments were
established prior to tunnelling
and were checked regularly to
an accuracy of 1mm
• The level survey proved there
was no substantial movement
of the embankment during the
tunnelling work
• The laser scanner survey
showed no significant
ground movement of the two
carriageway surfaces

FACT
With a five-star hotel at
its core, the race track marina
can house 122 yachts at the
centre of the F1 track
Halcrow steps
up to the ultimate
cross-business
group challenge –
Yas Island
ome to six world-class marinas,
H
a Formula 1 (F1) race track and a
one-of-a-kind Ferrari experience
theme park, Yas Island is set to exceed all
expectations when it hosts the first Abu
Dhabi F1 Grand Prix in November 2009.
than in places like the UK. This means that
plans continue to develop even when work
has begun. Our biggest challenge is to
incorporate these and still complete on time.”
That work began back in October 2006 when
As one of Halcrow’s biggest regional projects,
its scope includes six marinas, numerous
bridges, eight-lane highways and all the
major utilities for the island. Around 350
Halcrow engineers from around the world are
contributing to its development.
Tasked with a vital part of making this
£23 billion dream a reality, Halcrow’s Yas
Island project manager, David Connolly, is
a man who has witnessed every stage of its
development.
“We’re on masterplan version 28 and
counting,” says David while looking out of his
window on to the 2,500ha construction site.
His calm disposition almost makes you forget
that Yas Island is one of Halcrow’s biggest
projects in the Middle East.
The race track winds around the edge of the marina, which will be flooded in May 2009
Around 25,000 on-site workers have set a
rapid development pace, creating a premier
destination in little over two years. “When
Halcrow started, the masterplan was at
version 16. Two years later it has changed
over ten times,” David explains.
Not that it’s a bad thing, he suggests. “In
the Middle East, there is usually much less
development time spent prior to construction
Halcrow was appointed by Abu Dhabi-based
developer Aldar Properties to undertake
transportation planning, detailed design
and construction supervision services for all
primary infrastructure works for the vast,
challenging project.
To achieve this, Halcrow has worked with
world-class consultants and contractors
such as Tilke, Six Construct and KBR.
Halcrow’s one-team approach to project
management has seen four out of five of its
business groups providing services on-site.
The fifth team – property – is also set to
play a part and will come on board as soon
as residential and commercial building
construction gets underway.
Principal utilities engineer Mark Jones
claims that the single-minded approach to
10
Vox | issue one

P1 Water works
The scale of work at Yas Island is immense.
Providing water and sewage connections for a
resident population of 110,000 – and up to 300,000
daily visitors at peak times – requires some
seriously sophisticated coordination.
P2 Marvellous marinas
The team must understand and meet the water
requirements for over 20 hotels, an ever-growing
shopping mall, theme parks, a race track and
countless villas and apartments.
Halcrow has devised one of the largest underground
water tanks in the world to provide the island with
sufficient water storage. Working with Halcrow’s
design centre in Pakistan, engineers were able to
complete this aspect in good time.
The cofferdam stretches the
length of the marina entrance
The six marinas are an integral aspect of Yas Island’s
infrastructure – they are currently supervised by
long-time marine veteran Richard Wardropper.
With a five-star hotel at its core, the race track
marina can house 122 yachts at the centre of the
F1 track. “The race track marina has been a daily
challenge,” says Richard. “All work must be done in
dry conditions. Just keeping the water out has been
a daunting task.”
As the base of the race track marina is 6m below
sea-level, engineers had to construct a cut-off dam
to protect against leaks. The team came up with the
solution of a cofferdam that stretches the length of
the marina entrance and reaches to a depth of 18m,
where it is embedded into the bed rock.
Richard Wardropper and David Connolly by the Royal Yas Marina
and the evolving marina hotel
P4 Freeway to the future
In a separate concurrent project, Aldar has
appointed Halcrow to design and supervise the
construction of the dual five-lane Shahama to
Saadiyat Freeway that traverses Yas Island.
The freeway will provide vehicular access to the
island for the majority of residents and visitors
coming from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and further afield.
P3 Total transport solutions
Halcrow’s transportation experts are working on
a dual three-lane underwater tunnel to the south
of the island.
According to project manager David Connolly, the
tunnel was a late addition to the island as plans for
a bridge were scrapped to provide an unobstructed
route into the marina for the mega-yachts of the rich
and famous.
Yas Island’s new transport network includes 30
signal junctions, as well as bus, tram, cycle and
pedestrian facilities.
Yas Island is a defining feature of this project.
“We have to work as a team,” he says. “The
one-team approach is evident throughout
Yas Island – it allows us
to tackle changes and
stay on top of client
requirements.”
The head of Aldar’s
infrastructure
works, Lee
Kandalaft, shares
this ideology. In fact,
his office is only a few
doors down from David’s,
allowing him day-to-day involvement in the
project, managing all infrastructure and
The project’s scope
includes six marinas,
numerous bridges,
eight-lane highways and
all the major utilities
for the island
logistics work on-site. “We take pride in being
involved,” said Lee.
Maintaining a tight
schedule and long
hours, Halcrow’s
team has managed
to design and
build Yas Island’s
infrastructure
simultaneously.
“Revisions, changes
and late additions
were always going to
be part of this island’s
development,” says David. “We like to look at
it as the interactive management of change.”
One of Yas Island’s signalised junctions
Whatever you call it, it’s a phenomenal
achievement. And with the 1 November 2009
F1 debut looming large, it’s all hands to the
pump for David and the team.

Project profiles
Celebrating excellence
Double first
for Dubai rail
The team with the first monorail train in Japan
n a region where superlatives such
I
as ‘biggest’ and ‘tallest’ frequently
precede new projects, the iconic
Palm Jumeirah development in Dubai has
fast-tracked another Middle Eastern first
with the opening of its new transit system.
Running up the Palm’s spine is a state-ofthe-art
monorail system – the first of its kind
in the Middle East and the first rail transit
system to come on line in Dubai. Halcrow
is ensuring that rigorous standards are
met through its role as independent safety
assessor for the design, operation and
maintenance of the emirate’s first foray into
rail engineering.
Approximately 5km long, the Palm Jumeirah
transit system will transport passengers
in air-conditioned comfort from the Palm
Gateway to the Atlantis Hotel and theme
park – launched in November with a
£13 million celebrity-studded bash.
Several stations are currently under
construction and will be fully operational
by late 2009, with initial passenger services
beginning in April next year.
In addition to the Palm Jumeirah scheme,
several interlinked rail transit systems
are at various stages of planning and
construction to ease congestion on Dubai’s
crowded motorways.
Now subject to rigorous new safety,
technical and operational regulations,
the emirate’s future rail network is being
designed to international standards.
Work on the independent safety audit
commenced in April this year with
an assessment of the operations and
maintenance contractor’s preliminary safety
case. Currently, the Halcrow team is
engaged in an independent assessment of
the system’s design.
Approximately 5km long, the
Palm Jumeirah transit system
will transport passengers in
air-conditioned comfort from
the Palm Gateway to
the Atlantis Hotel
The team also visited the train manufacturing
site in Japan to witness factory inspection
testing and to undertake a pre-delivery
inspection prior to shipment of the first
two trains to Dubai at the end of August.
Operational testing and commissioning are due
to begin later this year, subject to the team’s
verification that the design and technical
testing is predominantly complete.
The eighth wonder
of the world
• 100 million m³ of sand and
rock have been dredged and
quarried to construct the Palm
• Extending 6.5km into the Arabian
Gulf, the Palm also features
a 12km-long crescent shaped
breakwater arc around the trunk
and branches
• If all the fill materials used to
build the Palm Jumeirah were
placed end to end, a wall 2m-high
and half a metre thick would
circle the world three times
• Jumeirah’s man-made islands
are visible from space with the
naked eye
• The Palm will eventually house
50 luxury hotels, including the
1,539-room, £750 million Atlantis
mega-resort
Stations
of the Cross
Halcrow helped ensure that 500,000
pilgrims who flocked into Sydney,
Australia, for Pope Benedict XVI’s historic
visit experienced stress-free journeys
throughout the World Youth Day event.
Roles and
responsibilities
Owner: Nakheel
Independent safety assessor: Halcrow
Operator and maintainer:
Singapore Mass Transit
Main systems contractor: Marubeni
Regulator: Dubai Roads and
Transport Authority (RTA)
The Sydney-based transport planning team
delivered high level consultancy services
to train operator RailCorp to assist in the
rail operations planning for several major
stations within the city.
Dubbed a huge success by the New South
Wales state government, Australia’s national
media was equally full of praise for the
meticulous attention to detail across the
12
Vox | issue one

Hydro powers
India’s progress
India’s thirst for power will be partially quenched by
two colossal hydroelectric schemes. While the Indian
population currently uses 600kWh a head per year
against a global average of 2,596kWh, the country’s
rocketing economy and increased affluence is fuelling
a growing demand for electricity.
Halcrow will provide detailed design and engineering
services for the Bhyunderganga and Khiraoganga
hydroelectric power projects, converting the flowing
Alakananda River into electricity.
Nestled in the Himalayas, the Bhyunderganga scheme
lies upstream of the aptly-named Valley of Flowers and
Sikh Hemkund Sahib shrine – both sites of significant
international importance.
The remote location poses challenges for the project
team, which must overcome a complete lack of road
access to the site. Construction on both schemes will
begin in February 2009.
Broadlands – best
in the business
Halcrow has aced its recent Health, Safety,
Environment and Quality Assessment (SHEQA)
delivered by the Achilles Group, an external
industry auditor.
Broadlands Environmental Services – Halcrow’s
joint venture with contractor Edmund Nuttall –
received glowing praise for its near-perfect scores, ranging between 95 per
cent and a flawless 100 per cent. This compares to an industry average of 65 per cent.
Contracted to upgrade the flood defences protecting the Norfolk Broads over
20 years, the team improves and maintains over 250km
of flood bank through a £100 million pathfinder scheme.
The strengthened defences shield sites brimming with
natural beauty, home to substantial lizard and water
vole populations. The team’s inventive approaches to
ecological protection – such as staggering the project
to enable the relocation of animals to other sites – won
it special mention.
Work is nearing completion
on the River Bure at Stracey Mill
Top marks
for joint venture
95 per cent for environment
96 per cent for health and safety
100 per cent for quality
65 per cent – industry average
Safely does it
Halcrow’s initial planning and clear communications
were rewarded by excellent marks for health and
safety. Ongoing collaboration with the project’s partners ensured
risk assessments identified any hazards early on. And major safety
benefits for the public are anticipated as a result of the team’s drive
to improve railway crossing signage, working with Network Rail.
The project team includes Iftikhar Drabu,
Nadeem Ahmed, Pradeep Jain and Swarn Singh
Project fast facts
Client: Super Hydro Electric Power Private
Bhyunderganga
Generation capacity – 24MW
Weir elevation – 2,240m
Power house elevation – 1,720m
Head race tunnel – 3,500m
Time frame for completion – three years
Khiraoganga
Generation capacity – 3MW
Time frame for completion – two years
A grand
scheme
Success on a large scale for
UK north urban water team
The urban water team in Halcrow’s
UK north region has been reaping
sizeable rewards through its ‘large
schemes’ framework with
Yorkshire Water, working with
contractor Laing O’Rourke.
Rob Grant inspects the final effluent at the Knostrop works
Months of detailed planning – led by Peter White and Mark O’Brien – paid off
when the team successfully commissioned the first phase of the £35 million
refurbishment of Knostrop wastewater treatment works – one of Yorkshire’s largest
sewage works.
Elsewhere, the successful ‘design and build’ team undertook the £13 million
upgrade to Nutwell water treatment works. The scheme involves the blending of
seven different borehole sources in a fully automated and OPEX-optimised process.
multi-modal transport planning services.
Transport minister John Watkins said: “This
is the biggest public transport challenge
we have faced in this city.” RailCorp chief
executive Rob Mason expected 500,000
people to travel on the trains, compared with
175,000 on a normal day.
Thousands lined the streets to catch a rare
glimpse of the Austrian head of the Catholic
Church in his famous Pope-mobile.
Their third major win was the Harrogate South wastewater treatment works. The
project – involving the design and construction of a wastewater activated sludge
plant and sludge treatment works – is now well underway.
Following the floods suffered in Hull in 2007, a ‘quick-fix’ refurbishment of the
Bransholme pumping station was called for. Using two large submersible pumps,
Halcrow provided a short-term solution to this very public problem.
And after customers complained of odour and taste problems with their water
supply, the dynamic duo were called in again – this time to design and construct a
major pipeline and pumping station to transfer potable water in the York area.

Project profiles
Celebrating excellence
Virgin territory
New airport to transform access to tiny Caribbean isle
he Caribbean isle of Virgin Gorda may be the celeb-heavy,
T
sun-kissed destination of choice for moneyed souls in need
of a glamorous vitamin D injection, but this tiny British Virgin
Island territory had a number of air transport challenges it needed to
urgently overcome.
Its government – led by premier Ralph T O’Neal – enlisted Halcrow’s
expertise to help its small airport – accessible by direct air services
from Puerto Rico and neighbouring islands – conquer the issues of
crosswinds and difficult surrounding terrain.
Currently, the small community and its all important leisure market
can access the island on regular ferry services from the capital,
Roadtown, on Tortola Island. Tourists usually reach Virgin Gorda by air
via Beef Island International Airport on Tortola, and then by ferry or
sea plane, or directly from neighbouring islands.
In June, Halcrow signed a contract to help the government improve
the condition and safety of the airport and its air access. The team
will plan, design and then supervise the construction of these
improvements, bringing the facility up to international standards.
Plans include an extension and surfacing of the runway, a small new
terminal and apron, and improvements to security, air traffic control
and general operations. Halcrow is working closely with the British
Virgin Islands Airport Authority and the regulator to make sure the
proposals are compliant with Twin Otter type operations.
With the help of Halcrow’s office in Tampa, Florida, the team carried
out extensive surveys, looking at coastal, maritime, marine ecology,
environmental and geological issues. With the design expected to start
before the end of this year, construction is on schedule to commence
in mid 2009.
Richard Branson’s
Neckar Island
lies just north
of Virgin Gorda,
testament to
the stunning
natural beauty
of the area. So
it comes as no
surprise that
team members
were more than
willing to visit
this project site.
Halcrow’s Chris Myers and Bill Millington at the signing
ceremony in Spanish Town on 17 June with the country’s premier
L to r: Halcrow’s Neal Dudley and Neil Sharpe, Proshield’s
David Ashby and Graham Doig, PSI’s Bob Jarvie and Alistair Muir
14
Raising a glass to success
The culmination of two years’
intensive effort by Halcrow’s
Inverness-based water and
power team has resulted in
cleaner, safer drinking water
for Scottish consumers.
Tasked with improving
disinfection measures –
the final treatment process
undertaken to prevent
bacterial contamination –
the team faced a demanding
brief. Quality needed to
be drastically improved
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008
following a series of belowpar
disinfection performances
across the industry.
Rising to the challenge,
Halcrow developed a series of
sodium hypochlorite dosing
skids to treat the water. After
12 months of rigorous testing
and development, residents
on the far-flung Shetland
isle of Unst were the first of
25 communities to benefit,
turning on their taps to better
quality water in early 2008.
Rewarded with a
‘delivering through
partnership’ award from
the client, Scottish Water
Solutions, the team has
also been chosen to
design a further 100
disinfection schemes
across Scotland.
Planning for water
New guidance on water cycle studies, coauthored in partnership with
the Environment Agency, is propelling Halcrow to the forefront of
sustainable water management.
To meet long-term housing needs, the UK government’s house
building strategy will see some 3 million new dwellings built by 2020,
placing huge demands on the water cycle. Local authorities in areas of
projected growth are now required to develop comprehensive studies.
The UK government’s house
building strategy will see 3 million
new dwellings built by 2020
Working with key stakeholders to look at every facet of water supply
and management, from infrastructure capacity to flood risk, the
studies are paving the way for an holistic approach to urban planning.
Led by Andy McConkey and Alison Mallows, Halcrow has joined forces
with the Environment Agency to produce guidelines outlining the
key objectives and main criteria for the studies, providing technical
support to participating local authorities.
Halcrow has already delivered 20 such studies and demand is
projected to surge following the launch of the guidance in 2009.

Putting Swindon on the map
Halcrow plugs information black hole over Wiltshire
lobal positioning system (GPS)
G
users in the UK are now able to
access more accurate data, thanks
in part to Halcrow.
From motorists trading in their dog-eared
maps to surveyors working in the field, more
of us are reliant on GPS than ever before.
While most areas in the UK are within range
of the Ordnance Survey’s continuously
operating reference stations (CORS) network
– OS Net – up until recently an information
‘black hole’ hovered over the Swindon area.
This transmission gap reduced the available
data’s accuracy, prompting Leica Geo-
Systems – one of the world’s leading
equipment manufacturers – to team up with
Halcrow’s geospatial skill group.
Resident pigeons at Burderop Park now have
to share the roof space with a CORS. This
installation will provide coverage within the
Leica SmartNet Network, which in turn links
to the OS Net Network.
The benefits for Halcrow are manifold. In
addition to free access to data and services
via the station, Halcrow will be closely
identified with major improvements to the
network’s capabilities.
Resident pigeons at
Burderop Park now
have to share the roof
space with a CORS
The next step is to incorporate the CORS
into the global navigation satellite system
network, which is tapped into by a diverse
range of academics, surveyors, engineers
and meteorologists. Applications range
from measuring sea level rises to weather
predictions and tracking glacial activity.
The project team of
Simon Canning, Chris Kelly
and Paul Grant
A two-pipe problem
Halcrow protects lifeline to Isle of Wight
The Solent – a busy stretch of water that
lies between the coast of Hampshire in
southern England and the Isle of Wight
– presents a
series of unique
challenges to any
self-respecting
engineer.
Among these is
the fact it is both
a busy shipping
lane and yachting
playground, but
perhaps its most
pressing conundrum lies on the seabed. Its
briny floor is crisscrossed with dozens of
cables and pipes – both electric and gas –
with many ‘live’ and several now redundant.
The most crowded section is a 3-4km
stretch of the western Solent between Lepe
on the mainland and Gurnard on the island
in waters that run 25m deep.
Despite it being illegal to both anchor
and trawl in this area, there is little
policing of the law. In the past few years
several anchor strikes have caused
severe damage and costly repairs to the
cable infrastructure. Following just such
Towing the mammoth pipes across the North Sea
an incident, Halcrow was appointed by
Southern Water in late 2004 to undertake
feasibility studies, ground investigations,
environmental impact
assessments and
designs to replace
twin 200mm diameter
water supply
pipelines.
But by then the area
was designated one of
special conservation
status, banishing the
option of trenching.
The solution lay in installing twin 3.9kmlong,
300mm-diameter pipes – to allow
for future demand growth – underneath
the conservation zone using the latest
horizontal directional drilling technology.
Polyethylene pipes up to 1.2km long
were towed from Norway. Other pipes
were transported from Denmark by
marine barge on huge spools and
embedded a metre deep by water jets
before being connected by divers.
Completed in June 2008, the project
has won an Institution of Civil Engineers
(ICE) South East Construction Award.
Thumbs up from
ICE president
David Orr, president of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, has been given a guided tour of
the new 70m lock at east London’s Prescott
Lock – part of an £18 million British
Waterways canal improvement scheme.
Organised by Waltham Cross-based project
manager Tabindah Akhtar and attended by
water and power business group regional
director Roland Grzybek, the presidential
visit included a tour of the lock chamber
and temporary cofferdam, which enabled
construction of the water control structure.
Controlling the water level upstream of the
Prescott Channel will significantly enhance
proposals to regenerate the Lower Lea
Valley in time for the 2012 Olympics.
L to r: Roger Martin, David Orr, Tabindah Akhtar,
Mark Stephens, Roland Grzybek and Colin Perkins

A
green and
pleasant land
Blooming opportunities
atch any film set in Britain –
from Four Weddings and a Funeral
W
to Braveheart – and chances are it
will feature the great swathes of open
countryside for which the British Isles have
always been famous. From the genteel
London parks and lush green hedgerows of
southern England, to the savage beauty of
the Scottish highlands, the undulating Welsh
hills and the romance of the rugged Irish
countryside.
However, the latter half of the twentieth
century saw many of the UK’s green spaces
eroded by urban development. Play areas
and parks have been gradually nibbled away
or left to rot and wildlife habitats threatened,
to the alarm of local communities.
The endless waiting lists for the few
allotments remaining of thousands created
during World War II’s ‘dig for victory’
campaign testify to the value placed by
today’s urbanites on every pied á terre, no
matter how modest. After years of neglect,
declining standards, local government
reorganisations and funding cuts, the last
decade has seen Britain fighting back to
improve its green spaces.
Halcrow’s landscape architecture team, with
Paul Rabbitts at the helm, has been at the
forefront of the recent change. The principal
landscape architect, based in the Tees Valley
office, is an experienced judge with Green
Flag, the organisation helping to raise park
standards across the UK.
As part of the ongoing renaissance,
the UK government recently revised its
planning policy guidance on the provision
of open space, sport and recreation. Having
previously advised local authorities to
provide a ratio of six acres of open space
per 1,000 people, it now advocates a local
needs assessment. This evaluates quality,
quantity, community value and accessibility
to determine the provision of open space.
Paul’s team has led the detailed assessment
of over 2,500 open spaces across the
UK, including Luton, and areas in North
Hertfordshire, Rugby, Middlesbrough and
more recently, the Scottish Borders.
Every type of open space has been assessed,
including parks and gardens, play areas,
sports pitches, allotments, youth facilities,
athletics tracks, semi-natural and natural
green spaces, green corridors, churchyards
and cemeteries.
The recent focus on the value of play to a
child’s development has brought over
Drumlanrig Square, Hawick, Scottish Borders
£155 million from the Big Lottery Fund over
the last four years. In addition, over
£250 million has been invested by the
government through its Play Builders
programme. What children get up to after
school is now big business, it seems.
Paul’s team was responsible for the
funding applications and play strategies for
Blyth Valley, Allerdale, in West Cumbria,
Middlesbrough and Carlisle, releasing
£1.2 million from the Big Lottery Fund
for play improvements.
Not a lot
Following a wartime peak of 1.4 million UK allotments
allocated in 1943, there was a sharp decline with only
a paltry 297,000 plots available by 1996.
Concerns about genetic modification, chemical pollution and contamination of food,
sharpened by desire for fresh, natural produce, has seen empty plots filled and yearslong
waiting lists appear for sites that were previously left untended for decades.
16
Vox | issue one

Green flags flying high
The number of parks that have achieved the
standard necessary to gain coveted Green Flag
status has leapt from less than a dozen in 1996 to
743 in 2008.
Green Flag is the key national performance
indicator for parks, administered by the Civic Trust.
Parks are entered annually and judged on their
sustainability, cleanliness, accessibility and
community involvement, as well as management
and maintenance.
Park life
The UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund began to fund urban
parks in 1996 with an initial investment of £50 million.
That expenditure has since multiplied by ten, much of which has been
invested nationwide in restoration and development projects, including
the UK’s first municipal park at Birkenhead.
Some of Britain’s most popular and historic parks have
benefitted, including Saltwell Park in Gateshead, Lister Park
in Bradford, Mowbray Gardens in Sunderland and the
People’s Park in Halifax.
The green renaissance
The move towards preserving and improving the nation’s green spaces
came after a number of high-profile studies – including the 1995 report
Park Life: Urban Parks and Social Renewal, by Comedia and Demos.
Wilton Lodge Park, Hawick, Scottish Borders
This brought into public focus the benefits that parks and open spaces,
allotments, play areas and natural green spaces bring to the welfare,
health and quality of life of local communities, as well as to
the economy.
Registered charity Green Space was soon established, together with
the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) –
the UK government’s adviser on architecture, urban design and public
space. Together, they have championed the cause of good quality green
space in Great Britain.

Right: artist’s impression of the Chalet Trivendrum. Top: Chalet Mid Market
18
Project profiles
Celebrating excellence
Incredible
India
India’s thriving tourist industry –
a magnet for international hoteliers
ndia offers a landscape where
I
beauty enthrals, Bollywood
captivates and diversity delights.
It’s no wonder that Conde Nast Traveller – a
leading travel and tourism journal – recently
ranked India as the top travel destination in
the world.
With tourists flocking to sample this rich
tapestry in record numbers, Halcrow
is helping to address the country’s
accommodation deficit.
Despite an estimated 1.5 million hotel rooms,
only 90,000 are star-rated – and largely
over-subscribed. With
demand pegged at
240,000 rooms in 2011,
an additional 150,000
high-quality rooms
must be built within
the next four years – an
ambitious target, but one
that Halcrow has approached with gusto.
Given the colossal shortfall, a number of
national and international hotel operators
and developers have unveiled massive
investment plans.
Major players in India include Taj Hotels,
Chalet Hotels, Hilton, Accor, Marriott,
Berggruen and Four Seasons. Capitalising
on the surge in demand, Halcrow’s property
business group is providing structural
engineering services for Taj Gateway and
Chalet Hotels, with both operators aiming to
build a chain of around 30 hotels over a five
year period.
Working directly for the hotel developers
and operators, the building structures team
in India is delivering outstanding value. For
the Taj chain, the team developed a solution
for the low-rise concrete framed structure
that avoided the need to transfer columns
above public areas. This resulted in a much
Vox | issue one
neater service floor, improving ease
of maintenance, and also increased
resistance to earthquakes in India’s
shock zones.
The team is currently developing a
prototype design for the Chalet Hotel
chain, saving costs through considered,
well-executed design solutions.
But there’s no time for team members to
rest on their laurels, with work starting
on a sprawling business resort in Kerala
and new new hotels in Bengaluru,
Hyderabad and Delhi.
Despite an estimated
1.5 million hotel rooms,
only 90,000 are star-rated
Halcrow’s employees in India blew out
seven candles as the company celebrated
its anniversary on 6 August 2008.
Halcrow has flourished since opening for
business in 2001 with just five employees.
Less than a decade on, the team has
blossomed to 160 people, with an
Crawley’s next top
hydraulic model
Halcrow is helping West Sussex plan for
future growth, reviewing the viability of
intended development within the County Oak
Sewage Pumping Station catchment west of
Crawley, UK.
Commissioned by Thames Water, Halcrow’s
modelling team will assess the ability of the
region’s infrastructure to support some
2,500 proposed new homes.
The team set about updating and verifying
the hydraulic model of the sewerage system
before investigating its existing capacity and
forecasted flows from future developments.
Tasked with addressing both localised and
strategic catchment requirements, the team
– Pavel Koudelak, Laurence Hart, Chris Dunn,
and Sue West – explored a range of potential
scenarios and time frames.
Weighing up the ‘what-if’ scenarios and
working through the myriad potential
outcomes, the Crawley team identified
influential developments and different
strategic options.
Boom time
India’s robust economy, growing at
8-9 per cent annually, is set to reach
the dizzying heights of the second most
powerful in the world by 2042, helping to
fuel its skyrocketing tourism industry.
Birthday bash for Halcrow in India
Domestic tourism is
playing a key role in this
growth, propelled by
rising income levels,
higher aspirations and
more affordable travel.
The travel and tourism
industry is expected to
generate approximately
£53 billion in 2008,
growing to
£150 billion
by 2018.
impressive depth and breadth
of expertise.
It has secured a solid
reputation across a range of
sectors, including hydropower,
highways, urban
planning and maritime.

Major bypass operation
N9 opens on time and to budget
Halcrow’s ability to exceed expectations
– even when a project team is spread
across hundreds of kilometres – has been
demonstrated once again with the success of
the N9 Carlow Bypass project.
The celebrated bypass opened to traffic in
June 2008, after just over two years of site
work and an 18-month design effort.
The N9 road is a national primary route in
Ireland, running from Junction 11 on the N7
located near Kilcullen in County Kildare, to
Waterford. The bypass was almost completely
funded under Ireland’s £146 billion national
development plan for 2007-2013 – the largest
and most ambitious investment programme
N9 Carlow Bypass
ever proposed for Ireland. It was the first
section of the N9 route to open to traffic.
The challenging £60 million design and
build project provided 20km of new dual
carriageway, three grade separated interchanges
and 19 major bridge structures.
The Glasgow office led Halcrow’s highways,
drainage and structures design work, with
assistance from the Dublin, Tees Valley,
Handforth and Swindon offices. A business
collaborator extranet site was used
throughout the design process to manage
the huge volume of work produced by team
members at the various locations.
Congratulating project manager Neil Stewart
and the team for rising to the huge challenge
presented by a delayed start, regional director
Sam McCurdy said: “This project contributes
towards the completion of Ireland’s strategic
road network by 2010, providing the state with
one of the best road networks in Europe. It is
testament to the ability of Halcrow Barry.”
Halcrow
in the dock
New home for Royal Navy’s
biggest-ever aircraft carriers
he dockyards of Rosyth, on the
T
Firth of Forth in Scotland, are being
transformed into a majestic setting,
capable of assembling two massive new aircraft
carriers for the Royal Navy.
HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales
are the largest warships ever commissioned by
the Royal Navy. Following the construction of
constituent parts in Glasgow, Barrow in Furness
and Southampton, the mighty warships will be
assembled in the dockyards of Rosyth.
Coming in to land on one of the new aircraft carriers
Led by the Glasgow office, Halcrow designed the
alterations to the original 1916 Royal Dockyards
to accommodate these titans of the sea. This
included widening the entrance for the aircraft
carriers to glide through.
The N8 team: project director – Bob Diffin, project manager – Brian Johnstone,
construction supervision – John Norbury, Alan Oliver, Peter Sheehy, Janet Slattery and Rob Merredew.
Partners: NRA, South Tipperary County Council and contractor Sisk Roadbridge Civil Engineering
Beat the clock
Cashel-Mitchelstown road opens early
Ireland’s 41km-long N8 Cashel-Mitchelstown
road scheme opened to traffic on 25 July
2008 – ten months ahead of schedule.
Led by Bob Diffin and Brian Johnstone,
Halcrow Barry project-managed delivery of
the £360 million N8 scheme from the initial
planning stages through to completion. It’s
the largest road project the joint venture has
undertaken to date and was completed in just
eight years.
“This project clearly demonstrates the
benefits of teamwork and a partnering
approach. It is a credit to the Dublin and
Glasgow project team,” said Bob.
Located on the major inter-urban route
between Dublin and Cork, it’s the first early
Cashel-Mitchelstown road
contractor involvement scheme undertaken
by Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA).
At the opening ceremony, Martin Mansergh,
minister of state at the department of
finance, said: “This road, which runs through
the heart of South Tipperary, will be of major
benefit to the people and the economies
of adjoining towns in terms of jobs and
investment, and indeed will make the whole
county more accessible.”
Commissioned by Babcock, the works are taking
place behind protective ‘cofferdam structures’
which keep the water at bay while Halcrow and
contractor Edmund Nuttall carry out the
£35 million modifications.
Halcrow has designed a ‘propped gate’ to
enable new sections to be lifted inside while
works are taking place.
The entrance will be widened to 42m after the
existing walls have been demolished. With
25m deep foundations, the new structure will
safeguard the dock’s operational capability.
Ensuring a dry dock working environment
for ship assembly, Halcrow designed
three widened caisson gates and a new
intermediate gate to hold back 15m of
water pressure.
Halcrow is also designing foundations to
support a goliath crane. Withstanding
the relentless North Sea winds, this
structure has a span of 120m and a
1,100 tonne capacity, making it one of
the largest of its kind in the world.

In brief
Celebrating excellence
Stopping
the rot
Saudi Arabia
UK
Halcrow has won a threeyear
framework agreement
with Saudi Arabia Basic
Industries Corporation
(SABIC) to provide cathodic
protection consultancy
services.
With Alaa Hassanein as
project director, the team in
Dubai will provide advice
on this corrosion protection
method for use in harsh and
aggressive environments.
SABIC is one of the
world’s top ten petrochemical
companies and the largest
non-oil company
in the Middle
East.
Awards galore in Edmonton
Edmonton Green Shopping Centre
picked up a handful of accolades
at the recent Enfield Design Awards
in London.
A supermarket, leisure centre,
bus interchange, office units and
residential flats coexist on the
ambitious mixed-use site, for which
Halcrow’s property business group
provided mechanical, electrical and
engineering services.
In addition to the entire
project’s ‘highly commended’ status
in the new residential category, the
bus terminus and St George’s car
park grabbed ‘highly commended’ and
‘commended’ status respectively in
the community building section.
Cross Valley honoured, UK
The Cross Valley Link Road (CVLR)
project was recently branded ‘excellent’
by the notoriously demanding Civil
Engineering Environmental Quality
Assessment Awards (CEEQUAL). The
accolade recognised the planning and
design stages.
Hopes remain high that the
construction management and site
supervision elements will garner
similarly positive platitudes.
Digging deep
UK
Deep beneath the River Tyne, a new tunnel will soon link
Newcastle and neighbouring Gateshead, with Halcrow appointed
by consortium-head Bouygues Travaux Publics to design the
mechanical and electrical systems. The team will tackle a number
of design challenges, including ventilation, fire and incident
detection, traffic control, electrical supply arrangements, drainage
and lighting. Fathi Tarada is Halcrow’s project director.
Projects
NaFRA again
in brief
UK
A £1 million Environment Agency flood risk commission
is due reward for the cutting-edge work of Halcrow’s
geospatial skill group.
Having successfully delivered the Environment Agency’s
National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA) in 2007, the
Halcrow team has been welcomed back to the fold to build
on its previous work.
As well as establishing a solid foundation for further
work on flood risk and climate change, the assessment
underpins the UK’s framework for insurance provision
and will also provide leverage for ongoing investment
in flood risk management.
Halcrow’s Rob Deakin will head up the team, which has
been entrusted with the project since 2004.
Driving transport integration
UK
Halcrow will delve into the relationship between population, settlement patterns and
the demand for travel as part of a study for the Commission for Integrated Transport
(CfIT), in partnership with Oxford Brookes University’s planning department and
Oxford University’s transport studies unit.
The importance of embedding transport planning within the wider development
process is coming into sharper focus at every level of UK government, and the CfIT is
heavily involved in shaping best practice.
The study will hone in on the ways in which the built environment influences how
people get from A to B. Robin Hickman is Halcrow’s project manager.
Managing flood risk (UK)
As the flood waters receded in the UK following the
devastation of 2007, calls for a more robust approach to
flood risk management rose to a deafening pitch.
Supporting recommendations made by the governmentcommissioned
Pitt Review, the Environment Agency called
on Halcrow’s experience to develop integrated flood risk
management solution studies.
Demonstration sites around Ripon in Yorkshire could
provide a testing ground for the project, enabling the
Halcrow team to explore the potential for delivering
flood risk management through land use at catchment level.
Resource protection, biodiversity, water quality and
access opportunities will take centre stage as natural
processes are harnessed.
Jo Cullis or Katherine Pygott have further details.
20
Vox | issue one

STOP PRESS
Halcrow wins UK Excellence Award
Halcrow’s consulting business group has been named a winner at the
2008 UK Excellence Awards, run by the British Quality Foundation at a
glittering awards ceremony on 14 October.
The award follows an ‘exemplary’ business model submitted
for assessment in July. It recognised the team’s excellent client
relationships and its relentless focus on process improvement.
Mark Brown, managing director of the business group, praised his
team’s hard work, adding: “This award acknowledges our commitment
to business improvement and our desire to place excellence at the
heart of Halcrow’s strategy.”
Batty about the environment
Princess Anne with BBC presenter Louise Minchin
presents the UK Excellence Award to Halcrow’s
Michael Fairey, Mark Brown and Andrew Ball
If they could speak, the bat population adjacent to South
East Water’s Wichling Pumping Station would be
thanking Halcrow profusely. The project team’s mitigation
measures – led by Charlie Dwight – ensured minimal
impact on the bats’ habitat, which was recognised through
a Green Apple Award for environmental best practice.
A-nother-one, UK
A-one – Halcrow’s joint venture with Colas – has won the
Highways Agency-sponsored ‘health and safety at work’
award for its recent use of the ultra light Durakerb product.
At 6kg, the product dramatically reduces the risk of
accidents by allowing it to be laid by hand.
During the awards ceremony, A-one received a clutch
of accolades – more than any other organisation – for its
marked and positive contribution to the health and
safety of both employees and professional users of the
transport network.
Powering ahead
Poland
Halcrow’s Polish team has secured a
commission to deliver a 24.5km expressway.
Connecting Jezewo and Bialystock, the
£4.5 million project is an integral component
of the Warsaw to Bialystock arterial network.
The expressway is the third contract won
this year by the team and was awarded by
the general directorate of public roads
and motorways.
The tender was led by project
manager Rafal Szwedowski, while
Bob Diffin will head up the scheme
with Brian Johnstone providing
technical and contractual advice.
Highways heroes, UK
The Horrocks Avenue corridor in Liverpool
has received a Green Apple Award for
environmental best practice.
Once dominated by cracked bitumen, the
area is now a more welcoming, aesthetic
space for local residents and users.
Halcrow was part of the winning team,
which was led by Birse Civils.
Masterplanning merits, UK
Halcrow’s landscape team blitzed the field
at Homes for Scotland’s 2008 Designing
Places Awards, taking top plaudits in the
inaugural masterplanning category.
The pioneering homezone project at
Greendykes North will underpin future
Edinburgh streetscape guidance.
A-one for all, UK
A-one was given a virtual A+ by the
Association of Consulting Engineers
(ACE) at its annual Engineering
Excellence Awards ceremony. It
recognised the team’s outstanding
work creating the wider structure
which now carries the A66 over the
River Tees in the north of England.
A barnstorming charge, UK
Halcrow left the Institution of Civil Engineers 2008 south
west annual awards dinner with a ‘highly commended’
accolade for the Barnstaple Western Bypass project.
The award recognised the environmental
considerations at the heart of the Devon County
Council scheme – contractor Nuttall and Halcrow
worked closely to ensure minimal disruption to the
protected Taw Estuary.
Completed last year, the £27 million project
earned universal public support, relieving
Devon’s chronic traffic congestion woes.
Awards in brief

Predicting the future and how
international events will impact
on business is no easy task,
as recent events in the global
financial markets illustrate. But
Halcrow’s risk sub-committee is
committed to doing just that –
ensuring that Halcrow is prepared
to successfully navigate through
any looming crisis.
Expecting
unexpe
the
Events and issues that buffet the global economy rarely spring
out of the blue. Ripples in the water – portending turmoil ahead –
are frequently visible to those scanning the horizon.
stablished five years ago, the risk
sub-committee (RSC) assesses the
E
strategic risks to the company’s
success. Arising from internal or external
sources – or a combination of both – these
key risks are held, evaluated and monitored
on Halcrow’s risk register.
For the last three years, the RSC has
anchored its work to that of the World
Economic Forum, using compiled lists of
major global risks as a starting point.
In 2008, nine topics were initially selected
by the committee as being most relevant to
Halcrow – from a tally of 31 outlined in the
forum’s report: Global Risks 2008: A Global
Risk Network Report. The RSC then narrowed
the list further, honing in on the six themes
liable to have an impact – positive or
negative – on Halcrow’s future.
Three broad headings emerged, within
which the six topics can be categorised.
‘Economic instability’ covers steep rises in
oil or gas prices and a fluctuating US dollar.
A pandemic disease outbreak and ageing
population fall beneath the headline ‘social
instability’. And extreme weather conditions
caused by climate change and dwindling
fresh water supplies are filed under
‘sustainability’.
Exercising the universal axiom that ‘one
man’s risk is another’s opportunity’, the
group works to the premise that a potential
snagging point in one part of the world may
open doors in another.
And as a global company, Halcrow is able to
respond in a positive, proactive manner to
the peaks, troughs and proverbial spanners
in the works that appear in the marketplace.
Rising energy prices are a clear-cut example
of the thought process: as oil and gas costs
skyrocket, demand for renewable generation
and energy conservation services will
shoot up. Informed by the RSC’s report, the
business planning process can focus its
22
Vox | issue one

attention on the areas of potential growth –
as one door closes, the business is striding
through another.
This heightened engagement with global
issues is intended to inform and shape every
level of the business – from group strategies
to individual project plans.
As well as pre-empting potentially damaging
scenarios, the committee’s findings highlight
where Halcrow could contribute to decisionmaking
processes at a global level.
This recognition mirrors the board’s
keenness to tap into the wealth of knowledge
simmering beneath the company’s surface.
Evading
the financial
maelstrom
Halcrow will focus its attention
on the areas of growth – as one door
closes, the business is striding
through another
Les Buck, group board director and
committee chair, outlines the thinking:
“The RSC’s findings can be taken on at any
and every level. Rather than simply expanding
upon last year’s business plans, we need to
be looking ahead, and trying to judge how
world events will affect each element of
our operations.”
cted
Les points out: “We’ve always just quietly got
on with what we’re good at. I believe that we
can – and should – be offering considered,
impartial advice to policy makers and begin to
influence the influencers.
“Free of political shackles, we are in a great
position to provide expert, objective support
As global markets implode, what
is Halcrow doing to mitigate the
crisis? Quite a lot, as it turns out.
An advantage of Halcrow’s
international reach is the ability to
move its metaphorical eggs around
many baskets, pumping additional
resources into regions less affected
by Wall Street’s woes.
Halcrow is
hedging its bets as
it hedges its funds
Group board
director
Les Buck
– it’s just a question of raising our profile in
the broader context. Policy-makers can come
to us for the same reasons that clients do.
We don’t just tell people what they want to
hear – we use our skills to assess available
evidence and arrive at a sound decision. Now
we’re looking to our senior thinkers to step
outside their offices and carve out positions
of prominence.”
Les highlights the appointment of Andrew
Kluth, group sustainable development
director, as a step in the right direction.
RSC members
Les Buck
Alasdair Coates
Ken Mair
Nigel King
Matthew Wernham
Rachel Fowler
Tenia Chatzinikoli
David Birch
Aaron Burns
Andrew’s recognised expertise
and niche knowledge will
present Halcrow as
a voice of authority
on sustainable
development issues.
“This is just a taste
of things to come,”
says Les. “We’ve
got the skills and
the people – now we
just need to make a
bit of noise about it.”
In the Middle East, for example,
Halcrow’s profits for the first eight
months of 2008 were 16 per cent
above predicted levels. And while
the property business group is
experiencing understandable
challenges, Halcrow’s multispecialism
set-up allows it to shift
focus towards areas of growth.
More specifically, Alan Saffer,
group finance director, has been
spearheading a drive across the
company to push down debts and
reduce outstanding invoices.
A critical review of Halcrow’s
payments has shed light on areas
where significant savings can
be made.
Halcrow is hedging its bets as it
hedges its funds, and while dark
clouds gather over companies
worldwide, Halcrow can look
forward to a bright future.

Sustainable solutions
It’s in our hands
Taking a lead on sustainable development
Alternative
thinking
IN ACTION
ustainable development. It’s
S
the topic on everyone’s lips; an
epochal challenge facing the global
community. The looming global recession will
doubtlessly throw the split between ‘window
dressers’ and organisations truly committed
to action into sharper relief. Placing itself
firmly in the latter camp, Halcrow has
embedded sustainable development at its
heart, and will continue to invest in, develop
and refine its approach to this core value.
Despite a sea-change in public awareness,
we’re still consuming the world’s resources
and belching out carbon emissions at an
alarming rate. If each of the world’s six billion
residents adopted a typical American lifestyle,
we’d need five planets to meet our demands.
And while ‘green’ concerns have been on
environmentalists’ radars since the 1970s,
sustainable development has only recently
become a mainstream concern.
With calls for individuals and businesses to
cut their energy consumption and curb their
travel, and governments under pressure to
initiate lasting change, the noise around
sustainable development and climate change
has reached a deafening pitch. But what can
we do to make a real impact?
As an organisation, Halcrow has a major role
to play, both in its own operations and in the
advice it provides to clients. With the recent
appointment of Andrew Kluth as the director
– and Nick Murry as the group manager –
responsible for sustainable development, the
company is taking a more focused approach.
Several months in, Andrew gives us his take
on Halcrow’s attitude to the issues. “It’s clear
from speaking to people across the business
that sustainable development features
strongly in Halcrow’s methodology. But due to
the diversity of sectors and skills, this means
different things to different people.
“There are pockets of good, even best,
practice – sustainable development silos –
dotted around, but not as much awareness of
how to link with other parts of the business.”
Companies’ sustainable development
strategies are increasingly coming under
scrutiny from all directions. The recent client
survey brought external expectations to the
surface, highlighting the services demanded
by Halcrow’s partners. Candidates are also
picking through potential employers’ attitudes
to everything from climate change to ethical
investment.
Sustainable practices are clearly becoming a
differentiator, and Halcrow is subjecting itself
to critical self-appraisal. Andrew outlines
the thinking to date: “We’re aiming for a
more holistic approach, integrating social,
economic and environmental elements, both
in what we offer clients and how we operate
as a company. We can guide clients through
the decision-making process to ensure
they arrive at a solution that both fits their
specifications and is ultimately sustainable.”
The seeds of change have been sown and the
flurry of recent activity around the business
heralds major progress. We will be judged by
future generations against our commitment
to collective action – a mammoth
responsibility certainly, but Halcrow intends
to prove itself equal to the task.
Above: leading from the front – Andrew Kluth and Nick Murry
Bagging good ideas for
sustainable development
Halcrow’s latest green initiative is winging
its way around the world, sparking new
ideas and sharing knowledge
Andrew and Les Buck entrust the
bag to Phil Hughes to take on its
maiden voyage to Melbourne
Launched at this year’s group seminar, the ‘good ideas’ bag aims
to share Halcrow employees’ thoughts and experiences – from
solutions developed for clients to commuter cycle schemes. Carried
to offices by travelling employees, the bag will maintain a zerocarbon
footprint, returning to the UK in time for next year’s seminar.
Recognising the wealth of inspired ideas bubbling away within
the company, the initiative – managed by Sally Sudworth and Amy
Shoesmith – allows employees in the US or UK to share their thoughts
with those in China or Pakistan.
The team will periodically look inside the bag, posting updates on Halnet’s
sustainable development pages.
24
Vox | issue one

Sick and tyred
quarry revived
Halcrow defuses
environmental time bomb
After
alcrow’s Glasgow-based waste
H
team averted an environmental
crisis in a quarry-full of illegally
dumped tyres, creating a rare ecological
paradise in the process – with highly
acclaimed results.
Until a year ago, the Old Hampole Quarry in
West Yorkshire was one of the UK’s biggest
stockpiles of used tyres. Over 3 million
had been dumped in the limestone quarry
between the 1970s and 1990s, weighing an
estimated 23,000 tonnes.
Finding an appropriate way to deal with this
risky situation had been causing the UK’s
Environment Agency – which took on the
issue five years ago when Doncaster Council
declared the site to be contaminated land –
concern for some time.
The main risk was the potential for the tyres
to be set on fire by vandals. This could have
caused a conflagration that would have
burned for days, spreading vast clouds of
highly toxic fumes over a wide area, as well
as poisoning local water supplies.
The team, led by Lindsay Renfrew and
managed locally by Iain Edmonds in
Leeds, was appointed under the National
Engineering and Environmental Consultancy
Agreement (NEECA) to review the options for
remediation, prepare designs, and manage
and supervise the construction works.
Instead of spending millions of pounds on
shifting the tyres, the resulting plan was
to transform the site into one of the rarest
habitats in Britain – limestone grassland.
Based on Halcrow’s options appraisal it was
concluded that the tyres should be covered
with a special geogrid/geotextile to manage
Unusual
habitats
The Old Hampole site is home to some unusual creatures,
including lizards lounging on the tyres to soak up some rays. A
colony of pipistrelle bats and a pair of nesting kestrels roosting
in two old limestone kiln chimneys were also discovered.
their instability.
This had the added
advantage of acting Before
as a filter separator
to allow rain to
percolate through the various layers,
preventing surface ponding or run-off
that would have required a further
drainage system. A layer of shale
topped with a layer of the same kind
of magnesium limestone that was
quarried at Hampole completed
the new look.
The surface of quarry
fines allows the area to
regenerate naturally
to create a flourishing
limestone habitat. This
type of magnesium
limestone grassland is
incredibly rare, with perhaps
only a few hundred hectares in
England. Plants of classic limestone
grassland have been introduced from
the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve at
Sprotbrough, along with seeds from its
magnesium limestone meadows. These
include some of the more common
orchids, as well as unusual species like
fairy flax, yellow-wort, black horehound
and squinancywort.
Completed two weeks early
and within budget, the project
came runner-up in the
‘most sustainable remediation
project’ category at the
Brownfield Briefing
Remediation
Innovation
Awards
earlier this
year.
Some suitable rocks were soon found for the lizards – and the team
managed to work around the other wildlife, which is now flourishing in
its new calcareous grassland habitat.
The Halcrow-designed capping
Something to say?
If you’re providing
sustainable solutions to
clients and want to share
ideas, take part in the
discussion group on the
sustainable development
Halnet site or email
murrynja@halcrow.com
a 1m-thick layer
of recycled waste in the
form of colliery shale
solution for the tyres included:
a 0.5m-thick layer of limestone
quarry fines designed to encourage
the development of a calcareous
grassland habitat
Innovative solutions
a geogrid/geotextile
covering
JOIN THE CLUB
Halcrow made a guest appearance
at CIRIA’s clients’ sustainable
development club, where highprofile
construction clients meet to
bounce around ideas on sustainable
development and share their
experiences.
As well as providing a better
understanding of key
sustainable development
issues through knowledge
sharing and informal benchmarking,
the working sessions
help members to find practical
methods and tools to embed
sustainable development within
their organisations.
Club members jumped at the
chance to try out an asset
management model developed by
Halcrow for a client-facing joint
venture. Steve Faulkner was on
hand to demonstrate its benefits,
created and directed by Charles
Oldham and David Pocock.
Reinforcing the links between
financial and environmental
benefits, Steve also illustrated
the gains to be made through
whole life costing within
capital investment
programmes.
Representatives
from BAA,
Crossrail, the
Environment
Agency, the
Highways
Agency,
Network Rail
and British
Waterways
attended.
For details on how to
engage with the club,
contact Nick Murry.

Sustainable solutions
It’s in our hands
of
change
Pakistan’s first wind farm operational by end of 2008
iven the scale of Pakistan’s looming energy
G
crisis – an estimated 5,300mw deficit by 2011
– 700mw may not seem like the answer to the
country’s electricity woes. However, Halcrow believes
that even if it does not satisfy Pakistan’s immediate
energy requirements, the Gharo Wind Corridor is a
definite step in the right direction.
Halcrow will provide environmental solutions for the
project which links 14 wind farms, meandering alongside
the fertile Indus River. The team has already completed
a series of environmental impact assessments and
regional environmental assessments for the client
partners – a joint venture between leading Spanish
companies Taller and Eolic Partners SA.
Expected to supply energy directly to the national grid,
Pakistan’s first wind farm will breeze into operation by
the end of 2008.
But building a wind farm in the middle of nowhere is no
easy task. Unlike Pakistan’s major cities, most inland
regions are still without electricity and roads. According
to the Asian Development Bank, only 50 per cent of the
population in Pakistan has access to electric power. The
remaining half of the population lives without electricity
in isolated rural areas, and project sites are typically
barren, remote landscapes.
Rising to the challenge, the Halcrow team – made up of
botanists, soil specialists, wildlife experts and various
environmental scientists – was able to navigate its way
through the rough terrain. Neither an absence of roads
nor the abundance of snakes was enough to hinder the
team’s rampant progress.
The Gharo Wind Corridor will have minimal effect
on Sindh’s wildlife, benefitting surrounding
Lights out – why
Pakistan is low on power
Having traditionally relied on fossil fuels,
Pakistan currently imports 85 per cent of its oil,
placing it at the mercy of fluctuating prices.
Demand for the country’s energy reserves is
rapidly outstripping supply, threatening to push
Pakistan’s energy deficit to 5,300mw by 2011.
May 2008 saw a potential taste of things to come
– an enforced switch to daylight saving time
to maximise natural light and reduce energy
consumption. Pakistan’s summer season also
brought power cuts as air conditioners were
cranked up to full blast.
communities through the construction of basic
infrastructure, such as roads and water wells. The project
will boost the local economy, bringing new jobs and
enterprise right to residents’ doorsteps.
Clean and renewable, wind energy will make a muchneeded
contribution to Pakistan’s future power supply.
As Ajmal Abbasi, Halcrow’s environmental specialist,
points out: “Wind energy is by far the best available option
to meet our energy requirements. Zero emissions, zero
waste: wind power clearly has the least environmental
consequences.”
With increasing pressure on fossil fuels, a global interest
in renewable energy and a heightened demand for
electricity, it appears that betting on air could just be
Pakistan’s best investment yet.
Halcrow in Pakistan: fast facts
• Largest Halcrow operation outside the
UK, North America and the Middle East
• 800 per cent employee growth – 222
people, up from 25 in 1999
• Key markets include: transportation,
water, environment, rural and urban
development, and oil and gas
• Offices in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and
Islamabad
Indus River – home to Pakistan’s groundbreaking energy project
26
Vox | issue one

Full of (renewable)
energy
ive employees from the renewable
F
energy team presented papers –
based on Halcrow projects – to an
international audience of 2,000 delegates at the
Glasgow-hosted tenth World Renewable Energy
Congress (WREC) in July.
WREC’s biannual conferences boast a strong
academic flavour in which to impart the transfer
of renewable energy knowledge. The event
attracts a wide audience of world experts, policy
makers, manufacturers and those interested
in the supply, distribution, consumption and
development of energy sources.
Halcrow’s speakers considered the potential of
wave, solar, combined heat and power (CHP) and
fuel cell technology to address the energy crisis.
Donna Munro related Halcrow’s experience as
the UK partner in a European Union-funded
programme, which aims to increase the mass
urban uptake of solar photovoltaic technology.
John Simmons based his observations on the
potential energy and carbon savings that can be
achieved through CHP based on a West Midlands
Regional Development Agency project, which
mapped heat demand across the region.
The findings of a Highways Agency project formed
the basis of Inma Andina-Pendas’ thoughtprovoking
presentation. It looked at the potential
savings achieved through the use of fuel cell
technology for roadside power applications.
Wave energy
surges forward
Two Halcrow experts were invited to
share their experiences of developing
wave power at the WREC.
Iain Mowat presented a paper on
Halcrow’s ongoing study into the
wave energy potential of the Western
Isles of Scotland.
He explored the available energy
resource, as well as the technical,
environmental, economic and social
challenges and benefits inherent in
implementing wave power projects.
Developing an effective wave energy
project was the focus for Peter
Croll’s paper. It covered all the major
stages from concept design and
marine developments through to
planning consent and preparing for
construction.
Tartan transition
Scotland on target for 80 per cent cut
in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
S
cotland’s determined bid to become one of the world’s first
nations to make the transition to a low carbon economy has seen
it enlist the help of Halcrow to realise its green dream.
While Scotland only contributes 0.15 per cent of total global carbon
emissions, it still emits a disproportionate level of greenhouse gases in
relation to its size. This initiative also dovetails into the recently devolved
government’s policy priority of sustainable economic growth.
Halcrow was commissioned by the Scottish Government to conduct a
strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of its proposals for the Scottish
Climate Change Bill (SCCB).
Such is the importance of the SCCB that it will effectively sit at the heart of
all Scotland’s future policy and decision making activities.
While Scotland only
contributes 0.15 per cent
of total global carbon
emissions, it still emits a
disproportionate level of
greenhouse gases
In essence, the bill aims to create a long-term framework to ensure that
by 2050, it will have delivered an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions relative to 1990 levels.
As one of the first SEAs to be conducted on draft policy in the whole of the
UK, Halcrow’s Scottish-based environment team applied some innovative
thinking and methodologies in undertaking the assessment. With direction
from Nick Murry, the team assessed the potential environmental impacts
of a range of possible future emission reduction measures across nine
key economic sectors. The team also made recommendations for further
increasing the net environmental benefits of policy proposals. Specialists
from AEA Technology provided support in several specific technical areas.
Consultation on the bill has attracted over 21,000 responses and the team
is now working towards the final phase of the SEA statement – expected to
be submitted to the government with the draft bill by the end of 2008.
Glasgow-based environmental scientist and SEA project manager John
Fox said: “This has been an extremely challenging project as it was the
first SEA of its type carried out in Scotland, coupled with the wide ranging
implications of climate change and emissions mitigation.”

Sustainable solutions
It’s in our hands
A first for
Lond n
Halcrow blazes a trail with its new travel plan
alcrow has become the first
H
business in the London Borough of
Hammersmith and Fulham to have
successfully completed a travel plan under
Transport for London (TfL)’s ‘A new way to
work’ corporate scheme.
Developed in partnership with TfL and the
London Borough of Hammersmith and
Fulham, Halcrow received a welcome £15,000
of financial support from TfL to assist with
the cost of improving sustainable options.
Halcrow’s travel plan is a long-term
management strategy that seeks to deliver
sustainable transport objectives. It involved
identifying an appropriate package of
measures to promote sustainable travel, with
an emphasis on reducing reliance on single
occupancy car journeys.
In the current climate of upwardly spiralling
oil and petrol prices, eco and cost-conscious
employees are looking to switch to alternative
modes of travel wherever feasible.
Thanks to the capital’s excellent public
transport network, over 90 per cent of
employees based in the Vineyard House and
Shortlands offices already travel to work by
alternatives to the car.
Following feedback from last year’s first
travel plan survey a number of measures
have been implemented to encourage
employees to cycle to work. In August,
several employees took advantage of
one-to-one cycle training sessions and in
October, two folding bicycles were made
available for business use.
Additionally, the London travel plan will
inform and support the development of
a template for preparing or updating
similar travel plans across other UK
offices. This is one of many proactive
strands of the company’s emerging
sustainable development agenda, headed
up by Andrew Kluth, Halcrow’s new group
director for sustainable development.
Find out more
For further details of the travel plan
check out the sustainable development
pages on Halnet.
Vineyard House-based travel plan
coordinators, Paul Holloway and Edward
Jackson, welcome any comments or
queries relating to the plan.
Laura Williams, Halcrow’s smarter
choices technical leader, should be
approached for any other queries relating
to Halcrow’s wider travel plan capabilities.
per cent
Key objectives
Increase the number of commuter
journeys made by sustainable modes of
travel and improve the choice of transport
made available to employees
Reduce unnecessary business travel
Raise awareness of sustainable travel
Promote our corporate social
responsibility activities
Reduce business travel costs
2011 targets
Raise the number of employees walking
to work from 23 per cent to 28 per cent
Increase the volume of cyclists by
3 per cent to 11 per cent
Increase video-conferencing uptake by
10 per cent to 38 per cent
Raise home-working numbers by
5 per cent to 32 per cent
Action plan
Improve cycle parking and
shower facilities
Provide information on travel options
for all new recruits
Provide an on-site car club facility
(or in the local vicinity) in partnership
with neighbouring businesses
Make better use of video and
tele-conferencing facilities
Provide dedicated parking spaces for
moped/motorcycle users
Improve office directions and maps
on halcrow.com
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Current
modes of
travel to
Vineyard
House and
Shortlands
28
Vox | issue one

New milestones
for Scottish
transport
Park-and-ride facility puts sustainable development at its heart
n innovative £3.5 million park-andride
scheme in Edinburgh – set to
A
ease congestion and speedily whisk
users into the heart of the Scottish capital –
has been completed.
The Straiton park-and-ride facility is one
element of the Leith to Straiton/Ferniehill
Quality Bus Corridor scheme – taking shape
around Edinburgh as part of the city council’s
local transport strategy.
It is the sixth such
facility encircling
Edinburgh.
Halcrow was
involved in two of
the existing sites
– Hermiston (A71)
and Ingliston (A8). Both opened in 2005 and
proved extremely popular with the public.
The project includes the construction of a
bus-based, park-and-ride car facility for
600 vehicles, a high-quality terminal building,
a new signalised road junction, significant
landscaping, cycle and pedestrian facilities,
sustainable drainage and general road
improvements.
Work began in October 2007. The
block paved car park is being
A family of oystercatcher
birds roosted
in a part-constructed
parking bay
laid and the striking, steel-framed
terminal building is taking shape. This
closely resembles its sister building at
Hermiston that Halcrow helped design.
The whole site is intelligently screened
from surrounding properties and roads
through a series of strategically placed
and landscaped bunds.
During construction, a family of
oystercatcher birds roosted in a partconstructed
parking bay.
From within their fencedoff
exclusion zone, the
feathered creatures
raised a brood of chicks
in the heart of this busy
construction site.
Security played a key role in the scheme’s
planning and design. The whole site will
be securely fenced and covered by CCTV
linked back to the City of Edinburgh’s
central monitoring facility. It’s just this
sort of insightful forward-planning that
should ensure the facility is approved by
the police and awarded a ‘Park Mark’
accreditation.
he Scottish Government
T
is embedding sustainable
development at the heart
of its transport strategy, and has
commissioned Halcrow to initiate a
comprehensive review.
Breaking the link between economic
growth, increased traffic and rising
emissions is a key challenge laid down in
Scotland’s National Transport Strategy.
Halcrow will develop approaches and
tools to help integrate climate change
considerations into Transport Scotland’s
management and technical procedures.
Building on existing relationships and
experience of completing similar work
for the Highways Agency, Halcrow
will assess the scope for sustainable
development within Transport Scotland’s
infrastructure and network management
processes. A customised carbon
accounting tool will be developed as part
of the review, enabling evidence-based
decisions aimed at reducing a project’s
carbon footprint.
Covering both roads and rail, the project
will focus on making sustainable
development an operational reality rather
than simply an aspiration. A whole-life
approach to transport infrastructure is
a central feature of the review, which
evaluates new build, improvement and
maintenance projects.
Market sector director Mark Baynham
commented: “This is a milestone project
which fits superbly with the company’s
aim to become the lead consultant in
sustainable development.”
Designated bus lanes await their first passengers
The team celebrates the terminal’s official opening
The Team
Design and supervision – Halcrow, contractor – Graham
Construction, sub-consultant – Gillespies Architects,
project manager – Neil Stewart, detailed design team
leader – Scott Grant, site team – Stuart Smith,
John Gillogley and Vicky Bache
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
train
tube

Sustainable solutions
It’s in our hands
Mandhy Senewiratne
30
Launching the
carbon collective
Enthusiasts from every business group
attended the first meeting of Halcrow’s
carbon collective to debate arguably the
most pressing and contentious issue facing
Halcrow, its clients and the planet.
Coordinated by Mandhy Senewiratne and
Sue De Rosa, the workshop evolved from
research sponsored by Will Williams and
the water and power business group’s asset
management team.
The day’s activities were kicked off by Les
Buck, group board champion for sustainable
development, who outlined Halcrow’s current
position and future intentions.
Case studies of Halcrow’s work dominated
the morning session, with examples ranging
from carbon accounting for water companies
to the use of ground source heat pumps
at the award-winning Churchill Hospital.
Interactive sessions facilitated by Nick
Murry and Paul Conroy involved analysis of
Halcrow’s skill sets and market engagement.
Looking inwards, a handful of presentations
considered Halcrow’s own footprint, with
Nick outlining plans for managing the
company’s progress against a range of key
performance indicators.
Invited guests joined the afternoon session,
with presentations from Dan Green and
Tony Sudworth providing insights into
carbon management at Wessex Water and
Companies House. Andrew Kluth talked
about the approaches taken by Alliance Boots
and Virgin Media, having worked with both.
Ever conscious of carbon emissions,
attendees were quizzed on their travel
arrangements, and prizes – kindly
donated by Fiona McLay and David
Cross – were dished out for low
carbon travel. Participants were
also able to offset their carbon
footprint via a tree planting
partnership with Tree Appeal.
Vox | issue one
The event was followed up
with a questionnaire, helping
to establish the group and
keep the momentum going,
ahead of the next workshop
planned for March 2009.
To get involved or for
more information, visit
the carbon collective
page on Halnet’s
sustainability gateway.
A
chip
Powering a car with chip shop oil sounds like a recipe for disaster,
but the theory that a diesel engine can work perfectly well when
burning a recycled, cleaned vegetable oil has been put to the test –
successfully – by a number of Halcrow employees.
here did you first hear of the
possibility that a car can be run on
W
vegetable oil?
“Many people don’t realise that the diesel
engine (developed by Rudolf Diesel in 1895)
was originally designed to run on a form of
peanut oil, as demonstrated at the World
Exhibition in Paris, 1900.
“Alternative fuels come
under a range of
headings including
waste vegetable oils,
straight vegetable
oils, pure plant oil and
unused cooking oils. Once purified, many of
these can be used as biodiesel.”
So where do you get your chip shop
diesel from?
“I buy my fuel from a small organisation, run
from the back of a farm in rural Sussex. It’s
becoming a lucrative business – restaurants
that used to pay for their waste oil to be
taken away are now selling it via collectors
to buyers as far away as America. Collectors
clean the waste oils of impurities, from bits of
chip and batter to free fatty acids.”
That’s it? You just sift out the fried junk and
it’s ready to go?
“Residual contaminants should be removed,
as these will cause a number of defects
within the engine, including corrosion of
the fuel injectors, seal failures, injector
blockages and fuel pump seizures.
“In winter I would suggest adding 10-20 per
cent regular diesel to help the fuel flow better
through the engine when it is still cold.”
What are the benefits of using biodiesel?
”The vegetable oil actually has a cleaning
and lubricating effect throughout your tank,
lines and engine, so much so that you need
to change your fuel filter after the first
15,000km or so as it cleans out the years of
accumulated gunk. This also helps to reduce
that classic diesel engine ‘knocking’ noise.
off the
old block
An interview with Max Bloomfield
Biodiesels produce
100 per cent
less sulphur than
regular diesel
“Most impressive, though, are the
environmental benefits. Essentially, vegetable
oils take CO 2 from the air and return them
when burned, so if you ignore for the moment
the collection and processing of the oils,
there is a net zero addition of carbon to the
atmosphere.
“From a pollution perspective, biodiesels
produce 100 per cent less
sulphur than regular diesel
and reduce exhaust smoke
emissions by up to 75 per
cent. They also degrade
about four times faster than
petroleum diesel after spillage, with most of a
spill broken down after just 28 days.”
So what does the future hold?
Will we all be driving around
with chip oil in our tanks?
“I’m thoroughly investigating
the methods of creating
my own biodiesel, and
one day perhaps I’ll
be doing the rounds
of local chip shops in
Brighton.
“I know three other
Halcrow employees
– all ecologists – who
also run their cars on
the same fuel as me.
I recently drove to the
south of France on
holiday and a single
tank of my old
chip shop oil got
me 1,200km
to my
destination.
It was just
a shame
there was
nowhere to
fill up again
once down
there!”
Biodiesel guru Max Bloomfield

Cementing
reputations
As president of the Concrete Society, Halcrow’s
Peter Robery delivered the opening address at
the University of Dundee’s recent congress –
‘Concrete: Construction’s Sustainable Option’.
Held over three days during July, the event
evaluated and sought to promote the merits of
concrete as a sustainable material.
The regional director for Birmingham’s
presentation focused on effective asset
management. He set out some of the challenges
facing the industry, where owners are trying to
simultaneously achieve longer lives and reduced
maintenance costs for their concrete assets.
LEEDing the way
Mechanical engineer Firas Atiyeh has become Halcrow’s first Dubaibased
employee to attain a Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) accreditation.
Firas developed an interest in sustainable design while working on a farmhouse
project in Dubai. “The client wanted a ‘green’ design that would include grey water
recycling, renewable energy and absorption chillers,” said Firas. “While I was
researching this, LEED kept coming up as a desirable qualification, providing the
best way to learn more about sustainable design.” With his wedding pending, Firas
crammed in his studies, passing the test just
days before he tied the knot.
The third Middle East employee to gain the
LEED qualification, Firas is now working
on registering Halcrow’s Dubai office as
an approved sustainable consultant with
Environment, Health and Safety (EHS).
His speech was broadcast online and attracted a
large remote audience.
Firas Atiyeh
Firas’s achievement and that of his LEEDaccredited
colleagues will help position the
company to take a leading role in the region’s
growing commitment to sustainable design.
In the spotlight
Halcrow helped to paint the town green at the
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s recent awards, recognising
action taken on sustainable development issues by
local businesses.
Over 200 attendees piled into the Four Pillars Cotswold
Water Park Hotel for the trust’s inaugural Corporate
Green Awards. Halcrow took home ‘highly commended’
honours in the environmental impact category, winning
plaudits from the judging panel for its work with
Swindon-based companies.
Bankrolled by sustainable development adviser
Envirowise, Halcrow’s project tied environmental
benefits to cost savings – a compelling dual motivator
for any ethically-conscious corporation. Swindon’s
regional director, Chris Kearns, was on hand to accept
the award.
As one of the event’s sponsors, Halcrow was then
invited to present an award. Group sustainable
development manager Nick
Murry did the
honours.
As a corporate
member, Halcrow
is planning further
collaboration with
the trust, including
looking at potential
joint initiatives at
Burderop Park.
Chris Kearns and Nick Murry with former
Tomorrow’s World presenter, Judith Hann
Burn baby burn
he construction industry has long been a sustainability minefield,
T
with battles raging over materials, energy and pollution. Cement –
so often cast an environmental pariah – is taking a step towards a
greener future, thanks to a partnership between Halcrow and global cement
supplier Holcim.
A major international player in
the aggregates market – 90,000
employees in 70 countries and
counting – Holcim’s Asian kiln empire
blankets the region, with plants
dotted around Thailand, Vietnam,
Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Fired up
to reduce its carbon footprint, this
leading manufacturer has invested
heavily in alternative fuels and raw
materials (AFR) in a bid to minimise
its consumption of finite resources.
Enclosed conveyor belts transport alternative fuel
The trend towards burning waste products has gained traction in recent
years, with used tyres, plastics and oil sludge among the materials ending
up in the furnace rather than buried deep within a landfill. These wouldbe
fuels’ volatility, toxicity and potential for unexpected explosions mean
that production plants and kilns must be assessed within rigorous safety
standards … enter Halcrow.
Led by Ali Adam, regional manager, Halcrow has undertaken a raft of risk
assessments, hazard and operability studies and ‘fit for purpose’ surveys
over the past two years, enabling Holcim to comply with strict safety
obligations. Melbourne’s Stephen Anderson has flitted around the region,
managing structural, electrical and safety reviews of operational cement
plants. Sharing his depth of experience, Stephen also delivered risk
assessment training to key Holcim staff in Vietnam and Thailand.
The Halcrow/Holcim juggernaut is rolling on unabated, with India firmly in
its sights. Halcrow’s Ashok Sharma in Delhi, Jim Haile in Tees Valley, UK,
and Stephen Anderson are at the helm, tasked with coordinating potential
projects. It’s clear that the partnership is blazing a trail towards more
sustainable aggregate production with safety at its heart.

State of
thenation
An interview with
chief executive Peter Gammie
t’s a well-accepted premise that the
I
advertising industry is one of the
first to feel the effects of a recession
– the canary in the coal mine. Engineering,
with extended lead times and protracted
contracts, is one of the last to be hit.
And while businesses around the world
steady themselves to face the same economic
quagmire, not all organisations are equally
equipped, prepared or positioned to respond.
As billions are wiped off share prices and
global heavyweights stumble, how will
Halcrow fare? How has it been affected so
far? The answers to these questions are
“pretty well” and “not too badly”, according to
chief executive Peter Gammie.
While the media paints
the slump as the worst
collapse since the
1930s, Peter is quick
to point to economic
downturns lurking in
recent memory – and
Halcrow’s response
to these pressures:
“During the last recession in the UK in the
early 1990s, and during the Asian crisis
at the end of that decade, Halcrow grew
as we globalised our market portfolio. We
responded positively and successfully to an
adverse situation – and I am confident we will
do so again.”
Although many commentators predict
that the crunch will bite in 2009, it is 2010
that Peter predicts will be Halcrow’s most
challenging year. “We have a bulging order
book that should see us safely through next
year,” he says. This, coupled with the fact that
government agencies are often slow to claw
back spending, means that Halcrow shouldn’t
feel the pinch until 2010.
For the year to date,
the company is
£7.4 million ahead of
budget recording a
profit over £23 million
recording a profit over £23 million – and
has outpaced 2007’s performance by
£4.1 million already.
As can be expected, some business
groups and regions have been harder hit
by international events than others. New
opportunities have opened up for several
sectors, including transportation –
£3.1 million ahead for the year to date – and
maritime, which has amassed a £1.4 million
lead on its budget.
Predictably, the property team has borne
the credit crunch’s brunt to a greater extent
than other business groups, resulting in a
downturn in a number of its sectors. Despite
the unfavourable climate, property’s global
performance is still
well above budget,
with North America
in particular, making
impressive headway.
Although the UK
has suffered from
developers delaying
or halting projects,
the Middle East has recovered from a
difficult start to the year and is hitting
its targets.
Halcrow’s breadth, depth and flexibility
insulate it from the full weight of the global
crisis, enabling the company to shift its
attention to its most promising prospects.
Reiterating that closer client relationships
are integral to its ongoing stability, Peter
points to the client survey as an important
tool in garnering clients’ opinions: “Client
focus is critical. We’ve invested money and
effort in gathering client feedback. Now is the
time to use it. Let’s raise the industry norm
and differentiate ourselves.”
Despite the cataclysmic headlines dominating
the media, Halcrow’s performance has
exceeded budgets since the wreckage of US
sub-prime mortgage markets first signalled
serious trouble ahead. For the year to date,
Halcrow is £7.4 million ahead of budget –
As twilight sets on 2008, there are plenty of
reasons to be confident about the future, and
many more to resist complacency. The last
word goes to Peter: “If we pull together, focus
on our clients and respond flexibly, we can
emerge as an even stronger company.”
32
Vox | issue one

“survey
And our
“
says…
The results are in from
Halcrow’s BIGGEST ever
client survey
arlier this year, 269 clients
were interviewed across the
UK and North America to
help form a representative picture
of how clients perceive Halcrow’s
service delivery performance
compared to its competitors.
E
The mammoth undertaking was
conducted as part of Halcrow’s
strategic relations development
programme. It also proved a key
litmus test of how far the company
has travelled towards its goal to
become ‘the consultant that clients
and partners naturally seek out when
addressing their greatest challenge’.
And the results demonstrate that
the solid groundwork put in across
the business has already started to
reap wider dividends and put Halcrow
firmly on track to deliver on its
promises to clients.
Across the UK, Halcrow’s clients
reported that the company was
ahead of – or at least equal to – its
competitors in all ten service factors.
This is a significant improvement on
the 2006 findings when Halcrow was
behind on four factors.
The huge UK sample – covering 172
respondents from 52 separate clients
– demonstrates that ‘understanding
client needs and culture’ is the single
most important factor. By embracing
this tenet, Halcrow can deliver an even
better performance.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, ‘delivering
projects to deadline and to budget’
was deemed the most significant
element, while ‘depth and breadth of
relevant expertise’ took third place.
The survey demonstrated a number
of issues that are crucial for every
Halcrow employee to digest and
act upon, but perhaps the most
consistently clear message of all is the
fact that sustainability is changing the
way clients do business.
Such sentiments transcend all clients
and sectors, demonstrably testifying
that the issue is not a passing fad or
a cynical attempt by corporations to
tack on ‘green’ credentials without
delivering on the elements at its heart.
Halcrow’s diverse client base felt there
was little differentiation between the
company’s performance here and
When asked
to rate the
importance of
sustainability,
the mean score
for UK clients
was 8.98 out of 10
that of its competitors – rating the
business 6.96 out of ten compared to a
competitor average of 6.77.
Group board director Neil Holt
summed up the depth of pride
Halcrow employees should take
from the survey’s findings: “This
year’s study has shown that in
North America our clients identified
‘anticipating their needs’ as being a
key area in which we can improve.
“Nevertheless, we are ahead of
our competitors in terms of overall
satisfaction and are perceived by
our clients as being a consistently
strong service provider. Everyone in
the business should be justly proud of
these results.”
Find out more
Visit the client survey page on Halnet
under our clients/SRD

Business beat
Setting the agenda
A decade of
decisive
direction
2018 strategy sets out bold ambitions for growth
everal months ago the group
S
board set out to ask a series of
challenging questions concerning
the future direction of the company.
Their findings – based on strong empirical
business drivers – informed and ultimately
led to the creation of the 2018 strategy.
This practical template defines the
vision and cultural landscape that will
fuel Halcrow’s direction and ongoing
evolution over the next decade.
This will be achieved through a number
of factors, but will primarily be driven
by employees fully embracing the
tenet that Halcrow ‘will become the
consultant that clients and partners
naturally seek out when addressing
their greatest challenges’.
Closely allied to this is the company’s
commitment to ‘live our values and code of
conduct, maintain our independence and
exercise leadership in everything we do’.
Central to the wider thrust of the new
refreshed strategy is the drive to become a
much larger global player with an annual
turnover of £1.5 billion by 2018. As chief
executive Peter Gammie is quick to point out,
there are sound and compelling reasons for
this: “We do not want to become a bigger
company simply for the sake of it, but
because the environment we are working in is
rapidly changing.
“But to achieve our
longer-term goals we do need
to be a larger company with
enough critical mass in the
right places”
“With competitor consolidation and growth in
our underlying markets, we took the position
that if we are not growing at least as fast as
the market, we would be going backwards.
Instead, we want to take advantage of the
markets we intend to operate in.”
This means that the current level of
operations – with around 50 per cent of
income derived in the UK, and the remainder
spread out across the rest of the world – will
shift fairly dramatically.
Peter’s vision encapsulates the future
scenario that around 70 per cent of Halcrow’s
income by 2018 will be derived from outside
the UK’s diverse market share.
He stresses that the UK’s input
will still grow, but the potential for
expansion in this most mature of its
markets will not be as great as in
other regions where Halcrow still has
a long way to go. Ultimately, the UK
share will be 30 per cent of a much
larger business.
A more diversified, internationally
interspersed portfolio will reap many
dividends, not least the ability to weather
geographical shifts and turmoils in the
economic cycle.
Current predictions place the US as
accounting for some 20 per cent of turnover,
with an equal proportion of the contribution
emanating from the Middle East.
Powering
up...
The increasing global currency of sustainable
energy presents a number of exciting
opportunities for Halcrow to pursue over the
next ten years, driven by the resurgence of
political support for nuclear energy.
One key caveat is that neither the UK, nor
the US, has built a nuclear power plant for
over a quarter of a century. This has led to a
massive global skills shortage in this sector.
Although the current generation of nuclear
power plants are intended to be standard
designs, there are still huge opportunities
for Halcrow to supply the needs of such a
complex undertaking.
This includes planning and environmental
services, transportation links, maritime
studies and geotechnical advice, alongside
plant and wider civil engineering openings.
34
Vox | issue one

PEOPLE POWER
At Halcrow’s heart are its people. Employees are the company’s
most important asset – those who not only deliver on its promise
to sustain and improve the quality of people’s lives, but are the
living embodiment of its culture and values.
Pairing up
Working with partners has
already proved its mettle
through an agreement with
CH2M Hill on the UK’s hugely
ambitious Thames Tideway project.
A key focus of Halcrow’s long-term strategy is to become the most sought-after
employer in every market and field in which the company operates.
Halcrow is proactively looking at a number of programmes to develop the business.
The new employee recognition scheme, for example, aims to recognise – and reward –
the sterling contributions made by employees at every level.
Peter’s vision
encapsulates the
future scenario that
around 70 per cent of
Halcrow’s income will be
derived from outside the
UK’s diverse market
share
This challenging scheme – designed to make
the tidal River Thames cleaner and healthier – is
one of the most challenging feats of engineering
undertaken in modern-day London.
The project features the deepest tunnels
ever constructed in the capital – up to 75m below
ground level – while the diameter of each tunnel
will be wider than three London buses placed
side by side.
The increasing importance of India will see
the vast Asian sub-continent contribute
around 10 per cent. The remaining fifth will
be supplied through Halcrow’s other core
operations in Australasia, the Far East,
Eastern Europe, China and Latin America.
Planning for the long-term means looking
at new ways to achieve the company’s goals.
Major projects and global clients will also be
key drivers for the 2018 strategy’s ambitious
growth plans.
2018. The huge business benefits emanating
from such complex, long-term projects as
High Speed 1 – which delivered self-evident
stability and profitability over a lengthy period
– are indisputable.
A further elemental tool in the strategy’s
armoury will be developing new – and
enhancing existing – markets.
A clear opportunity exists in the power
sector as governments proactively seek out
new and more efficient ways to close power
gaps and tackle ever-more pressing energy
requirements.
In order to take advantage of these potential
opportunities, resource and market
intelligence pooling will become a key
>>
Major projects will account for some 30 per
cent of the business’s anticipated workload by
Abu Dhabi skyline
Stock market
floats away
An oft-mooted question centres on Halcrow’s
proud history of independence and whether
that status quo is now under review.
crisis and that will be a serious concern for
their boards that have to answer to external
shareholders.
“I can categorically state that there are
no plans to float the company,” said Peter
Gammie. “It is simply not on our agenda.
Many of our competitors have seen their
share price halve in the current financial
“It’s a great time not to have any debt on
our balance sheet – now is the time to look
after your money. As long as we make money
we can continue to return a dividend to our
employee shareholders.”

Strategy Business 2018 beat / Business
Setting the agenda
>>
Downtown Manhattan skyline
factor through new partnering agreements
with other professional service operators,
contractors and suppliers. Tenders now
being submitted for CrossRail – London’s new
underground line – and the Qatar Bahrain
Causeway are a case in point.
But partnering choices will always be
informed by Halcrow’s values and principles,
as Peter is quick to point out. “If our partners
are not aligned to our values we won’t
succeed. We have learnt hard lessons about
working with others and if you don’t have that
alignment, it simply doesn’t work. It costs the
business money and impacts negatively on
our reputation.
“While making a profit is important, making a
profit at any price is not the way we conduct
our business. If a potential partner believes
that that is the most important thing, then
you can be sure that other values will go out
the window.”
Peter also points out that the target figure of
£1.5 billion by 2018 is exactly that – a target.
“It’s important not to get hung up on targets
in terms of the exact amount – all it says is
that this is the direction of travel, and that’s
what we are striving to achieve, much in the
same vein as our values and conduct are
always aspirational.
“But to achieve our longer-term goals we
do need to be a larger company with enough
critical mass in the right places to deliver and
win the big projects. This will also help us to
attract and retain the best people.”
And while the world faces up to the swirling
economic winds of fiscal turbulence, Peter
has comforting words of optimism. “In terms
of the current global recession, we are
planning for the long term – it’s not just about
today or tomorrow.
“If we have to be prudent in the early years
because of the state of our markets, then
we can afford to do that. When the upturn
comes, it will be strong and there will be a
huge pent up demand to replace, redevelop or
build new infrastructure. We will be ready for
that day.”
Michael Della Rocca
Strategy
showcase
US operation
targets
ambitious
growth
he US has a key role to play
T
in helping Halcrow achieve
its bold 2018 targets,
responsible for 20 per cent of the
company’s turnover within a decade.
Some five years ago, Halcrow
began to build a viable business in
North America through a series of
strategic investments. This, fused
with organic growth, has led to over
600 employees driving a £44 million
annual turnover
business today.
Headed up by
Michael Della
Rocca, the team
has now forged
its long-term US growth strategy.
Closely aligned to Halcrow’s wider
Strategy 2018, the business is
focused on increasing its annual
turnover to £370 million within ten
years – driven by an employee-base
of some 2,000.
The US operation will position itself
as a strategic multi-specialist,
proactively targeting niche markets
that will benefit from Halcrow’s
exacting global skills base.
Growing at a steady pace, the US
will seek to leverage Halcrow’s best
practice credentials to its growing
client base.
The business is focused
on increasing its annual
turnover to £370 million
On a practical level, this means
utilising the world-class coastal,
climate and sea-change work
developed in the UK – and bring it
to the US. This has borne fruit with
coastal defence work in Louisiana,
following Hurricane Katrina.
Significant opportunities exist in
the US’s mass transit and goods
movement markets. This includes
sectors such as shipping, ports,
trucking, rail and
freight, aviation,
highways, roads
and tunnels.
Another key target
is the public private
partnership arena – a niche area
in its infancy in the US, and one in
which Halcrow has already begun to
showcase its credentials.
The hugely diverse field of asset
management is another core market
that Halcrow can bring immense
experience to bear – and one in
which no other player has, as yet,
claimed as their own.
Overall, the US operation aims to
become an even more dynamic and
diverse business that delivers value
to its clients, partners and people.
36
Vox | issue one

Two heads are better than one
any a famous person achieved
M
greatness thanks to mentoring –
take Martin Luther King, or even
T.S.Eliot. Would they have been such a
success without their mentors, Benjamin
Elijah Mays and Ezra Pound? Maybe…
Inspired by successful examples of mentoring
around the world, Halcrow is prepping its
emerging talent for a rewarding career as
an expert. Technical Excellence is Halcrow’s
business improvement programme providing
the framework for this mentoring and
tutoring scheme.
Alan Warren and Robin Wood are one
example of the growing number of mentoring
partnerships signing up for this challenge.
Now seasoned Texperts, they have recently
been giving a feasibility study for a flood
storage reservoir the benefit of their
combined brainpower. “Not all of my work is
with Alan but the main advantage of having
him as my mentor is that he is
there for any technical questions I
have,” says Robin.
Find out more
Visit the Technical Excellence
site on Halnet under
knowledge/staff development
programmes
For him, one of the most valuable aspects
of Technical Excellence is how it ties in with
other professional development objectives
and provides a framework for reviewing skill
levels. “Alan acknowledges the skills I have
developed and is very encouraging – but it’s
when I sit down with him as my mentor that I
realise just how much I am learning,” he said.
Burgeoning workloads restrict face-to-face
meetings to a six-monthly catch-up, but
Robin calls on Alan for advice whenever he
needs to. Alan’s role as mentor is to help
Robin identify the gaps in his knowledge
and skills – at the moment he is tackling
hydraulic structures and embankment
design, which Alan is more than qualified to
help with.
But the experience is clearly also about the
human side of development, and Alan finds
being a mentor extremely rewarding: “The
satisfaction of seeing people grow in their
knowledge and
experience – and the
self-confidence that
this brings – is
a really fulfilling
way of
contributing
towards
Halcrow’s
Alan Warren and Robin Wood
future.”
Exhibiting excellence
Over 450 delegates converged on the
University of Manchester in early July
to discuss the UK’s evolving flood risk
management strategy and plan for the
impact of climate change. Halcrow’s
technical experts delivered 16 papers at
the event, more than any other body.
Designed specifically for the event,
Halcrow’s cutting-edge exhibition stand
visually reflected its credentials as
the UK’s number one consultancy
in flood and coastal management.
Plasma screens and backing
graphics set against an
innovative S-shaped stand
gave delegates an easilyaccessible,
engaging
insight into Halcrow’s
achievements.
What’s NEC?
NEC is a suite of standard contract
forms that promote partnership between
employers, designers, contractors and
project managers on engineering and
construction projects.
It is widely used on UK civil engineering
projects by government departments and
local authorities.
STOP PRESS
UK software put to the test
Halcrow’s contracts and procurement team is
testing an exciting new contract management
tool, stuffed with benefits that promise to
give project teams the edge.
Contract Event Management and Reporting
(CEMAR) is a web-based application owned
by software company Client Managers
Toolkit. Developed with Halcrow’s assistance
it helps project teams achieve the good
management practice required by the UK’s
NEC3 family of contracts.
The software’s benefits include automating
the NEC3’s early warning, ‘compensation
events’ and technical query processes, saving
everybody time. It also controls contractual
timescales and the approvals process, even
issuing reminders to alert users to pending
responsibilities.
The project team can also configure the
system to include key elements such as
approval authorities, specific contract
clauses and document templates for a
tailored management system.
Volunteers among Halcrow’s project leaders
are now testing the product in a wider
environment, remote from developers.
IN BRIEF
Investors in People success for UK
Having visited 11 of Halcrow’s offices throughout October, the
assessment team from Investors in People (IIP) declared the
company to have performed excellently in its third accreditation.
Employees successfully demonstrated Halcrow’s values and
identified its strong ethical corporate culture. They cited the main
advantages of working for Halcrow as being the variety of work,
the range of personal and technical development opportunities,
and its supportive culture.
When asked to rate how good Halcrow was as a place to work, the
average response was 4.6 out of 5.
Glasgow knocks up a century
One hundred new highly-skilled
jobs have been filled ahead of
schedule at Halcrow’s UK
Glasgow office, marked by the
appointment of transport
economist Janine Graham.
Halcrow now employs
over 600 employees in
Scotland in a wide range
of engineering-based
disciplines.
Janine Graham with
regional director Donald Bell

Business beat
Setting the agenda
Financial fluency
Stronger financial assets will safely
carry Halcrow through to 2018 and beyond
S
ince Alan Saffer took over Halcrow’s financial reins in
January 2007, he has initiated – and driven – a number of
group-wide efforts to help the company achieve its goals.
The primary thrust of these more commercially-savvy disciplines is
the need to ensure that greater financial and commercial awareness
can be leveraged to support Halcrow’s 2018 strategy.
“We have already made great strides toward improving project
capital and cash flow,” said Alan. “We have witnessed better regional
reporting and a smarter approach to financial management.”
He supported Halcrow’s 2007 decision to reduce its reliance on the
banks for borrowing – in 2006, Halcrow paid more than £1 million in
interest. Given the current parlous state of the global economy, this
foresight proved to be a delightfully canny move.
“The underlying net cash
position is breaking even after
borrowings, drawn down in 2004,
of £10 million to finance two
acquisitions in North America”
Today, the underlying net cash position is breaking even after
borrowings, drawn down in 2004, of £10 million to finance two
acquisitions in North America.
“The group’s recent results have been stunning – exceeding target
almost across the board,” says Alan. “Team Halcrow’s response to
improving cash flow has been fabulous. This is a radically different
position than a number of our competitors that still have significant
borrowings on their balance sheets.”
As the bottom-line improves, so does Halcrow’s ability to fund key
strategic acquisitions, such as Masson Wilson Twiney in Australia.
“So despite the credit crunch and the straitened economic times
we find ourselves in, we are infinitely better placed than we were.
Even after including our pension deficit of £52 million – which new
accounting rules compel us to include on the balance sheet – Halcrow
Who do you admire most?
Fast-food chains display theirs on the wall. Oprah Winfrey
showers hers with sparkling cars and jet-set holidays. The
people in question? Employees who have demonstrated
outstanding talent, dedication and drive.
Positioning itself in the middle of this spectrum, Halcrow
has launched its new recognition scheme, rewarding
employees who make their mark. The new programme
replaces all existing recognition schemes, barring oneoff
discretionary awards.
has positive net assets of over £8 million at
31 December 2007,” Alan enthused.
Finance teams are working ever more closely with project managers
and directors, supporting them to meet clients’ needs. Project Portal
is one of the most recent tools designed to support the entire lifecycle
of a project, developed by different areas of the business. It
facilitates project management both commercially and technically.
“Project managers now have a far better understanding of their
scheme’s finances with more real-time information
available to them. Project Portal has empowered
teams with more sophisticated means to better
manage their project portfolios,” says Alan.
The valuable lessons learnt through this
process will be rolled-out and implemented
across the major projects programme.
Allied to this, Alan and his team are in the
process of implementing a number of changes
to support local managers, supporting regional
empowerment throughout the business.
The first phase of this was rolled
out in June 2008 with the global
overhead codes initiative. The next
improvements, phased over the
coming 18 months, will provide
even more consistency and
reliability for regional planning
and reporting and for assessing
project profitability.
Such a backdrop of enhanced
financial awareness will underpin
the company’s wider drive and
ambition. This includes not only
surviving the current economic
maelstrom, but emerging stronger
on the other side, positioned to
take advantage of the inevitable
upswing when it arrives.
It is open to all employees, regardless of grade or
location. The nomination system is equally
universal and unrestricted – anyone can
put a colleague forward.
Encapsulating Halcrow’s values, the
criteria for selection include inspiring
confidence, rising to the challenge and
exceeding expectations. Full details will be
communicated over the coming months.
Fluent in finance – Alan Saffer
38
Vox | issue one

Act now!
does it again
Gaining EXPOsure
in Bucharest
£000
Recycling record – Edinburgh’s
Natalie Cunningham and Lauren Fenty
orcester realised £103,000 of
savings by improving its processes,
W
particularly increasing awareness
of how to log changes on projects. “We’re
doing things now that we didn’t do last
year… and it works,” said Mark Teague, a
design team leader.
Simon Casey, who heads up the Worcester
team, added: “We’ve been able to perform
above target thanks to the engagement of
employees and their increased awareness of
change control and commercial issues.”
West First’s £120,000 of savings have
been achieved through improved project
performance, with project contribution up by
26 per cent from the same time last year, and
an upswing in the number – and value – of
project extensions.
150
120
90
60
30
0
This success has been driven by better
project communications with enhanced
planning, regular reviews and applying
lessons learnt to other commissions.
Aligning itself to one of Halcrow’s top
priorities – and in response to feedback from
employees – the Edinburgh team has focused
on sustainability as a way to slash costs. One
of its most popular measures has
been its ‘switch it off’ campaign to ensure
that computer screens are turned off when
not in use. Edinburgh has also promoted
video and tele-conferencing facilities
Worcester and Burderop
Park West First have become
the latest Act now! teams
to celebrate exceeding the
£100,000 savings mark. And
Edinburgh – the other
location in this second stage of
the revised programme – is also
seeing strong results.
to reduce travel, and has worked with LEEP
Recycling to halve the amount of waste
sent to landfill since July 2008. “We have
been greatly encouraged by everyone’s
enthusiastic response and their increased
awareness of practical sustainability
measures,” said team member Ellie Mills.
These sustainability measures are set to
net £10,000 in savings by the end of 2008,
with more savings achieved through project
delivery and cash flow improvement. So
successful have these
measures been
that the team
has upped its
target savings
figure to a
staggering
£150,000.
Take a look
at the Portfolio
of benefits on the
Act now! Halnet site
for a detailed account
of how these savings
were made.
Act now! office savings
Bristol £119,429 (realised)
Crawley £97,000 (realised)
Exeter £99,000 (realised)
Worcester £120,000 (projected)
Burderop Park West First
£120,000 (realised)
Edinburgh £150,000 (projected)
And when the offices complete their yearlong
programme, these improved behaviours
will become part of everyday working life,
bringing ever increasing efficiency savings.
Following the recommendation of
consulting’s operations director Tony
van Emst, the transport planning team
in London’s Vineyard House has become
the latest group to take up the Act now!
challenge. In October, the team began a fasttracked,
four month cascade programme to
improve cash flow management, building on
the experiences of other Act now! teams.
Halcrow rubbed shoulders with Romania’s
most influential water industry decisionmakers
at the Romanian Water Association’s
(ARA) recent annual exhibition.
Now in its tenth consecutive year,
EXPO APA attracts the country’s biggest
names in water supply and management.
Representatives from government
departments, regional water companies
and authorities, consultancies, contractors,
academia and equipment suppliers mingled
in the stately surrounds of Bucharest’s
Parliament Palace.
EXPO APA serves as an ideal forum to review,
benchmark and set targets for Romania’s
infrastructure development. Having gained
European Union (EU) member status,
Romania is facing a looming 2018 deadline to
implement European regulations and water
quality standards.
Over £12.5 billion will be pumped in to the
water sector to modernise and upgrade the
country’s drinking and wastewater facilities.
A third of the population stands to benefit
directly from improved access to better
services if the 2018 targets are achieved.
Above: Halcrow’s team – Andreea Pana, Ara Krikorian,
Andrei Iorga, Paul Constantinescu, Jeni Ionita and
Gheorghe Pana
manage more...
As Halcrow grows, so do the opportunities
for employees. Manage more is the latest
leadership and management development
programme offered by Halcrow to fine tune
managers’ skills.
The full programme leads to internationally
recognised qualifications with the Institute
of Leadership and Management (ILM) and
also provides an opportunity to brush up
on specific aspects of management with a
series of modules open to all. The courses
provide practical skills to managers,
improving performance, focus and
effectiveness.
Find out more on Halnet under people /
group training or email training@halcrow.com

Longbridge Business beat Birmingham:
Development Setting the agenda begins...
Moving on up
New Warrington office to tap into
UK’s nuclear new build programme
Halcrow’s presence in the north west of
England recently doubled with the opening
of its Warrington office.
L to r: Cathy Stubbs, Alison Mort,
Dianne Parrington and Damaris Pitcher
Major boost for UK’s nuclear ambitions
fter an uncertain summer and several false starts, nuclear development
A
in the UK is making emphatic progress. EDF’s £12.5 billion takeover
of British Energy – although yet to pass competition hurdles – heralds
a projected £20 billion investment plan by private industry. The twin spectres
of climate change and energy insecurity are driving nuclear development, and
Halcrow is poised to play a leading role.
EDF’s £12.5 billion takeover of British
Energy heralds a £20 billion investment plan
With floor space becoming an increasingly
scarce commodity in the existing Handforth
office, additional room was required to
accommodate planned regional growth in the
water and power sector.
With a cluster of power
clients in the area and
a pool of highly skilled people
to draw on, the business
case for Warrington was
highly persuasive
Already a nuclear stronghold, the region
is likely to see increased activity in both
decommissioning and generation as the UK
presses on with its nuclear new build plans.
40
A new office in Warrington provides a dedicated regional base from which Halcrow
can cement its place at the heart of the UK’s nuclear industry. From this strategic
position, Halcrow has launched itself into the nuclear debate: undertaking
preparatory studies, supporting industry bodies in engaging with government, and
injecting measured opinions into the wider dialogue.
As part of this initiative, operations director Colin Robertson took centre stage at
two formative events – Building’s ‘Gearing up for nuclear new build’ at the end of
June and ‘Nuclear: the next generation’, held in September by New Civil Engineer.
Britain’s capacity and capability to meet proposed generation targets formed
the crux of both conferences, ahead of the 2017 timeframe for energy supply to
the grid. Well-placed to discuss the supply chain and available skills pool, Colin
reiterated the potential snagging points that could derail the UK’s progress.
Limited worldwide capacity for very
large forgings may yet result in a
shortage of critical components –
although there are signs that global
capacity will increase – while a flurry of
global activity could create competition
for technical skills. These concerns
reflect the international dimension of
the UK market – a potential abundance
of work, with a shortage of skilled
people and resources to call on.
But Colin anticipates a central role
for Halcrow, drawing on extensive
international experience and a
substantial skill base across many
aspects of nuclear development.
Vox | issue one
The nuclear renaissance
• 14 million tonnes – anticipated
CO 2 emissions saved per year
• eight – number of sites currently
operated by British Energy
• five – number of British
Energy sites scheduled for
decommissioning within the next
ten years
• 13 per cent – estimated proportion
of the UK’s energy demand
generated at EDF-run sites by 2020
• £20 billion – forecasted level of
investment in Britain’s new build
infrastructure
With a cluster of conventional power clients
based in the surrounding area and a pool of
highly skilled people to draw on, the business
case for Warrington was highly persuasive.
A modern, aesthetic space was sought to
showcase Halcrow’s skills and differentiate
the business from the pack.
Recently awarded a British Council
for Offices accolade, the impressive
1,200m 2 office is designed to the highest
specifications. The flexibility to adapt to
future growth across all business groups was
a key priority for the new building, which was
designed for up to 135 employees.
Company directors mingled with clients
and employees to celebrate Halcrow’s
new outpost at the official opening of the
Warrington office on 30 September.
Regional director John Daly with chief executive
Peter Gammie at the launch party

L to r: Cathy Stubbs, Alison Mort,
Dianne Parrington and Damaris Pitcher
Transported
Australian acquisition cements transport planning team’s growing reputation
H
alcrow recently seized pole position in the Australian
transport planning market by acquiring highly respected
consultancy Masson Wilson Twiney (MWT).
The deal, signed on 8 September,
gives Halcrow a leading position
in one of its priority growth
sectors, strengthening its global
traffic modelling and software
development capability. Sydney
becomes one of the company’s
largest transport planning offices
and chief executive Peter Gammie
declared it “an outstanding
achievement for everyone
concerned”.
Sydney and Brisbane-based
transport planning consultancy
MWT has a robust domestic
reputation as a high-end leader
in transport planning, strategy
modelling, microsimulation and
software development.
with delight
MWT and Halcrow celebrate: l to r – Chris Wilson, Bruce Masson, Kim Hannan,
Stephen Moore and Bill Austin
Established in 1994, MWT has a large share of the regional traffic
market, and brings Halcrow around 35 seasoned professionals. The
firm has worked on a range of high-profile projects across many
different disciplines including the £850 million Brisbane Gateway
upgrade, for which it provided
strategic modelling forecasts
and microsimulation operational
analysis. Other impressive
projects include Sydney Harbour
Bridge and Tunnel Toll Booths.
Commenting on the move, the
consulting business group’s
managing director, Mark Brown,
said: “MWT has achieved an
exceptional level of technical
excellence in the critical
field of traffic modelling and
development, which will greatly
add to our global potential in
this area. The acquisition also
establishes Australia as one of
the transport planning team’s
main global markets.”
Royal assent for planning team
alcrow has recently been recognised
as a ‘learning partner’ by the Royal
H
Town Planning Institute (RTPI).
Applicable to both UK-based employees and
those working overseas, this prestigious
accolade recognises Halcrow’s commitment
to professional and personal development for
its planning and design team.
Halcrow employs 43 chartered planners and
a number of graduates working towards
chartered status.
Specific areas singled out for
praise by the institute included
Halcrow’s business principles,
Project Excellence programme
and approach to career
progression. The planning
team’s community of practice and its annual
strategy day were also highlighted.
Learning Partner status provides a firm
foundation for future partnership with the
Royal Town Planning Institute, placing
Halcrow at the leading edge of the profession
and in a key position to influence
its future development.
Chief executive Peter Gammie congratulates Iain Paton and Stefano Smith
Yes, minister
With increasing numbers of women
re-entering the workforce after starting
a family, demand for flexible working is
greater than ever.
Highlighting the contribution that working
mothers make to the UK’s economy,
chancellor Alistair Darling hosted a
Women Like Us reception at 11 Downing
Street on 25 June.
Halcrow’s Mandy Clarke and Dawn Morton
joined GMTV Today’s Fiona Phillips at the
chancellor’s official residence.
Halcrow in the driving seat at transport conference
Halcrow’s transport planning team delivered a number of papers at the UK Transport
Practitioners Meeting (TPM) in July and European Transport Conference in October.
Halcrow presented topics ranging from emissions policies to demand management.
Liz Eccles, Astha Balwani, Annabel Bradbury, Robin Hickman, Olu Ashiru and Elizabeth
Chandley gave talks focusing on distance based charging, appraisal guidance and
promoting mobility. Specialists from Halcrow also chaired 15 sessions, making it one of
the most prominent consultancies at both events. Alan Shirley and Robert Jones were
joined at TPM by their clients – Transport Scotland and City of Swansea respectively.

Longbridge Birmingham:
Development begins...
Sir
William
Halcrow
2008 has seen Halcrow striding
forward with characteristic
vigour – but it also marked
the 50 th anniversary of the
death of founder Sir William
Halcrow and the company’s
140 th birthday
– a portrait of quiet brilliance
ir William was one of the most
S
notable British civil engineers of
the 20 th century, with a career that
spanned the height of the British Empire, two
world wars and the ‘second industrial age’.
Born in Sunderland in 1883, William Thomson
Halcrow began his career in 1900 as a
trainee with the London-based consulting
engineering business, PW and CS Meik.
The origins of the firm date back to 1868,
when it was founded by Thomas Meik
in Edinburgh. It specialised in maritime
work – mainly docks and harbours – and in
transportation, predominantly railways. Both
disciplines remain major sectors of Halcrow’s
business today.
Thomas Meik’s son Charles, a civil engineer,
inherited and expanded the firm with
projects in India, Burma and Mozambique.
In Scotland, the company distinguished
itself with the design of the first major
hydroelectric scheme at Kinlochleven.
During World War I, Sir William was involved
in the construction of the King George V
Dock in Singapore, followed by the causeway
between Malaysia and Singapore. He also
designed and constructed the submarine and
land defences at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.
After the war, Sir William briefly returned to
the Far East to lead the construction of the
Johor Causeway.
In 1926 – the year of the General Strike – he
returned to work on Scotland’s ambitious
Lochaber hydroelectric scheme. The same
year he became a partner in the renamed
firm of CS Meik and Halcrow.
Sir William was
one of the most
notable British civil
engineers of the
20 th century
But it was during World War II that Sir
William’s reputation was secured. Protecting
London from flooding, building air raid
shelters and saving works of art were just
some of his more high-profile achievements.
And his contribution to the success of the
Dam Busters’ mission and the Allied offensive
demonstrated the pivotal role engineers had
to play supporting the front line.
After the war, Sir William’s attention
turned once again to Scotland,
supporting a new generation of
hydroelectric schemes. In Wales the
firm contributed to a number of dams,
while railway tunnels were designed
at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and
work began on a new Victoria Line
underground route for London.
Overseas, the company took part in a wide
range of engineering projects, including
roads, bridges and harbours in Ghana, Libya
and Mozambique, and dams in Venezuela.
The company’s workload expanded to such an
extent that Sir William appointed a number of
partners. In 1941 the firm was renamed WT
Halcrow and Partners and then in 1944, Sir
William Halcrow and Partners in recognition
of the knighthood bestowed upon him that
same year. In the late 1950s, Sir William
retired. He subsequently died in Folkestone,
Kent, in 1958 leaving behind a thriving
business to carry on his name.
A decade after the Victoria Line work,
Halcrow Ltd was appointed joint consulting
engineer on the London Jubilee Line
(1971-78) – a project that involved delicate
underground manoeuvres below Trafalgar
Square around Nelson’s Column.
The 1970s was also the company’s Middle
Eastern era – when capital works were
being designed, contracted and built at a
rate exceeding £1 million a day for
more than four years. At its peak
42
Vox | issue one

in 1979 Halcrow’s work in the Middle East represented around 95 per cent of annual revenue, and employee numbers
swelled to 2,700. The early 1980s saw engineering investment in the region fall dramatically, and Halcrow was forced to
significantly reduce its workforce.
By 1990, the UK accounted for 79 per cent of the firm’s earnings and employee numbers started to
rise again. When the British government embarked on a major programme of road building,
Halcrow was awarded years of motorway building work. The business was also
involved in the Queen Elizabeth II bridge building project at Dartford and the
major second Severn Bridge.
In 1979, Halcrow’s work in the
Middle East represented
95 per cent of annual revenue
Among its high-profile global successes, Halcrow helped construct
one of the 20 th century’s greatest engineering feats – the Channel
Tunnel. Its key role in managing the scheme involved fielding
more than 50 engineers at the tunnelling and maritime sites
in Dover.
In the last five years the company has successfully
expanded into the North American market, with
one tenth of its 8,000-strong global workforce
now based there. An achievement of which its
visionary founder would be justly proud.
World War II
Britain’s finest hour was also Sir William’s
A member of the War Cabinet’s engineering advisory
committee, Sir William was also consultant to the secretary of
state for war on ports and adviser to Bomber Command.
To help shield London’s residents from the forthcoming horrors of
the Blitz, eight new deep-level air raid shelters were built under stations
such as Goodge Street and Camden Town. Goodge Street, designed by
Sir William, became the most important of the shelters – it was from there that
US president Eisenhower directed the D-Day Normandy landings.
His tunnelling knowledge helped London Underground construct floodgates at
strategic stations to protect the city from flooding. He also became a hero of the arts when
he identified the Manod slate quarry in north Wales as a safe haven from war-torn London
for the National Gallery’s treasures. And Sir William’s knowledge of dam construction was
used by Barnes Wallis to help perfect the bomb used by the Dam Busters in 1943.
Elsewhere, the company was involved in designing the reinforced concrete caissons that made
up Mulberry Harbour – a vast prefabricated port built in Britain. This was towed across the
channel after D-Day to create two great harbours – Arromanches
and St Laurent. Their construction allowed the Allied armies
to be supplied by sea and ultimately liberated France from
the Nazis. The towing operation moved King George VI to
remark that this was “the greatest combined operation the
world has ever seen, perhaps the greatest it will ever see”.
In 1946, Sir William became president of
the Institution of Civil Engineers, a fitting
recognition for his wartime contribution.
Sir William’s
knowledge
of dam
construction
was used to
help perfect
the bouncing
bomb used
by the
Dam Busters

Aping around
Longbridge People parade Birmingham:
Development Taking a breakbegins...
Captain
Pugwash hits Latvia
There was a clear whiff of brine in the air
as Halcrow’s Riga office hosted a special
photo-based orienteering event with a
distinctly piratey flavour.
The goal was to find stolen treasures and
return them to the ‘old pirate’ through
examining pictures of the Latvian landscape.
Held in the western region of Kurzeme, the
Breton-shirted hearties were tasked with
taking photos of their finds.
Other challenges included some fiendishly
difficult questions worthy of a fox with a
degree in cunning – log-rolling, crossing a
river via a rope, puzzles and singing – all of
which led players to the stolen treasures. Once
the motley crew had finished the tasks, the
winners were announced. At sunset, competitors
‘returned’ their stolen bounty by burying it on the
beach. A barbecue and convivial chatter lasted
well into the night.
The event is one of several planned
by the Riga office throughout the
year, as a way to unite employees
and demonstrate that good
teamwork conquers all.
Fortunately, the perilous one way ticket
to oblivion – walking the plank – did not
feature, much to the relief of all.
Pirates ahoy!
The Riga team
gets into the
spirit of things
Leeds employees tuck into the barbeque spread
It was a case of up, up and away for several
employees at Halcrow’s Brisbane office
when they took to the skies in a Cessna
172 aeroplane at a recent Redcliffe Aero
Club event.
Employees and their families hired aircraft
and an instructor pilot for the day to
undertake a series of trial flights, where they
were able – under supervision – to take the
controls and fly like a bird.
Those not wishing to embark on such a
hands-on role could simply sit back and
feast upon the visual delights unfolding
below them such as the iconic Glass House
Mountains, north of Brisbane.
Everyone was unanimous in agreeing that it
beat the ‘usual golf day’.
Surf’s up
for the
Inverness
team
Beach
party
Ready for
take off – the
intrepid
team
take to the
skies
View of the
Glass House
Mountains
at 300m
A party of over 70 Halcrow employees from
Inverness, their partners and offspring
enjoyed a family day and barbeque at
the edge of a windswept Loch
Morlich in the Scottish
Cairngorms in August.
Summer fun in Leeds
Halcrow’s Leeds-based employees enjoyed
the perfect combination for summer fun
– or a visit to accident and emergency –
barbeque, beer and three-legged racing.
A regional staff survey workshop held in
April highlighted the desire for more social
activities, and regional director Neil Grant
obliged with an impressive spread.
Inspired by the Beijing Olympics, employees
and their families competed in egg and spoon
races, ‘wellie whanging’ – hurling rubber
boots to the uninitiated – and tests of football
prowess. Prizes for the winners and
runners-up ensured a gentle sporting rivalry.
Among the many activities enjoyed by all
– and bolstered by the breezy conditions –
were dinghy sailing, sail boarding, canoeing
and numerous examples of falling into the
loch with varying degrees of style.
The children were captivated by the timeless
wonder of making sand castles on the beach,
while a decidedly wet and somewhat frantic
surfboard relay race concluded the
afternoon’s frolics.
44
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

There was some serious monkeying around
for a number of the York’s signalling and
telecomms engineers when they swung into
action at the ‘Go Ape’ adventure course at
the Dalby Forest visitor centre in Yorkshire.
On yer bike
Burderop Park (BP) employees dragged their
bicycles out of storage and dusted off their lycra shorts to
win the Swindon Workplace Cycle Challenge.
The Go Ape attraction saw the team fooling
around on rope bridges, Tarzan swings and
zip slides all suspended from the forest
treetops. Once back on terra firma, they
enjoyed a range of other activities such as
mountain biking and walking.
In 2007, Halcrow won both an
award and a commendation at
the British Construction Industry
Awards for the Halcrow Yollesdesigned
Dalby Forest visitor centre,
also scooping the prime minister’s
better public building award. The
visitor centre serves as a learning
facility to enhance awareness of the
environment and the forest itself.
Monkey business
Open to all organisations in the area,
the competition aimed to get the largest
number of people on two wheels. Halcrow’s
employees ditched their cars in favour of
bikes in impressive numbers, with 13 per cent
leaping into the saddle – a grand total of
65 hardy riders.
Many participants were reacquainted with
their bicycles after long absences, with the
challenge serving to coax people back to
leg-power. Efforts ranged from a one-way
slog from Bristol to four keen riders from the
geotechnical team who each clocked up over
160km. One brave cyclist took to the road on
a 50-year-old relic, wheeling into the BP car
park after a bone-shaking commute through
Swindon’s streets.
Swindon rises to the challenge
The Swindon Workplace Cycle Challenge got 850 people
out of their cars and into the saddle. Participants
collectively cycled 56,500km, saving
3,157 litres of fuel and
£3,630 by leaving their
cars at home. Some
35 million kilojoules
of energy were burnt
– that’s roughly
equivalent
to 1,060kg, or the
total weight of ten
heavyweight
sumo wrestlers.
Burderop Park’s two-wheeled crew
(Table) Socc it to ‘em
Visitors to Burderop Park on 15 August could
be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled
down a rabbit hole, ending up in C S Lewis’s
Alice in Wonderland.
A life-size table-football pitch – with
humans replacing the traditional plastic
men – dominated the outdoor space, and the
shrieks of teams frantically kicking the ball
towards the opposition’s goal pierced the air.
With Ian Roland wearing the captain’s
armband, ‘Smelly Trainers’ passed and shot
superbly in the closely contested match.
But it was ‘Damage Limitation’ that took top
honours in BP’s table football tournament,
with skipper Alan Warren leading the charge.
Winners: Alan Warren, Tom Bryant, Robin Wood,
Matt Scott, Alex Lane, Charles Grice and Sam Warren
Runners-up: Ian Roland, Laura Thompson,
Gemma Harris, Annie Virgilio and Claire Mackenzie
Make mine
a pint
Selfless souls at Halcrow’s Glasgow City Park office have
donated almost 200 pints of blood in the last year, following
several visits from the Scottish Blood Service’s mobile units.
Organiser Mary Love said: “So far this year, we have donated
a fantastic amount of blood and the response has been
overwhelming. We started off sharing a bus with
another company, but now there are now so many
of us willing to give, we get a dedicated one.”
Connections | July 2008
Donating blood
takes just
15 minutes.
Three different
patients could
be helped from a
single donation
and just three
teaspoons of
blood can save
the life of
a premature
baby.
Glasgow team-mates roll up
to help others

Longbridge People parade Birmingham:
Development Taking a breakbegins...
Let freedom ring
an Clabon’s signature jostled for space
I
with Nelson Mandela’s scribe
when he received the Freedom of
the City of London on 27 June.
With his wife and father proudly looking on,
Ian joined an illustrious list of Freemen as
he accepted the title in the Chamberlain’s
Court at Guildhall.
Reflecting on seeing Mandela’s signature,
Ian said: “If I had been told about that before
signing, my scribble would have gone all over
the page! It made the hair on the back of my
head rise and it made me feel very humble.”
Ian celebrates the honour with his wife,
Heather, and father, John
Gaining the Freedom of London brought Ian’s acceptance as a full member of
the Worshipful Company of Farriers within grasp, and he slipped on his liveryman’s
robes for the first time on 25 September. Ian is the latest in the Clabon’s farrier
lineage, following in his father, grandfather and great-grandfather’s footsteps.
One of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in existence today,
the Freedom of the City of London is believed to have begun in 1237.
Traditionally, it gave recipients the freedom to earn money and own land
– a privilege usually reserved for feudal lords.
Today, the title is largely ceremonial as the bulk of the privileges
associated with the freedom – to drive sheep across London Bridge, be
hanged with a silken cord, go about the city with a drawn sword, be
married in St Paul’s Cathedral, and to be drunk and disorderly without
fear of arrest – have long since disappeared.
Rescue me
eeds-based engineer Roger
Swainston recently found himself in
L
front of Graham Maxwell, the chief
constable of North Yorkshire in the UK. His
audience with the county’s top police chief
was not for any legal transgression or minor
misdemeanour – but to receive an award
for his selfless work with the Swaledale
mountain rescue team.
Nominated by fellow rescuers, Roger has
been an active member of the organisation
for six years and is currently its surface
rescue leader, responsible primarily for
incident coordination.
Roger – also trained in mountain rescue
advanced casualty care – attended the
ceremony at Solberge Hall, Northallerton,
alongside a number of local dignitaries, such
as the Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire
and chair of the county’s police authority.
Like all UK mountain rescue teams,
Swaledale is run entirely on voluntary
contributions. The team works within the 999
emergency system to deliver timely help to
those lost and in distress across some of the
remotest parts of the North Yorkshire Dales.
Recent call-outs include large scale
searches for missing persons, a helicopter
crash and the rescue of a climber who fell
into an isolated gill.
Himalayan heights
Roopkund, the mysterious Himalayan frozen lake, has yielded its secrets
to Varsha Agarwal from Halcrow’s Delhi office.
As summer beckoned, the senior bridge engineer and her party of six hardy
climbers – including her adrenaline-charged son Tanmay, aged
just seven – set off on the glacial climb. With Roopkund
their destination, the seven day ‘vigorous’ trek sent
the group meandering along the Himalayan ridge,
nearing an altitude of 4,800m.
After walking through meadows ablaze with
wild-flower colours, they approached
Kaluvinayak Pass, the gatekeeper to Roopkund.
Thirty melting glaciers now stood between Varsha’s
group and the semi-frozen lake. After an exhausting
walk plodding across the ice sheets the group arrived
at the impenetrable spring and its ancient temple.
Four degrees centigrade gave
way to 40 degrees as the weary
but jubilant trekkers
descended and worked
their way back to Delhi.
Skeleton
Lake
Nestled in India’s
Uttarakhand state, Roopkund
is an inaccessible resting place
for 300-600 human remains.
Discovered in 1942 by a park
ranger, those at the bottom of
the lake lived between
the 12 th and 15 th
centuries.
Recent call-outs include
large scale searches for
missing persons, a
helicopter crash and the
rescue of a climber who
fell into an isolated gill
Having received the award and a £3,000
donation, Roger said: “Being part of
mountain rescue gives a great sense of
belonging. It is the teamwork that has
produced the high standards that have been
recognised and developed over the last
75 years. The award is a credit to all those
who give their time, effort and dedication in
difficult circumstances.”
For more information or to make a donation,
visit www.swaledalemrt.org.uk
46
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

Soapbox scribe
In order to give the numerous letters and emails we receive a
suitable forum, we’re launching a letters page to coincide with
the first issue of Vox. Write in and share your thoughts – anything
from your take on a Halcrow project to your opinions on the US
presidential election. Whatever you’ve got to say, this is your chance
to get it off your chest. Each edition, the best letter will be printed
and will win a £25 book token for its author.
We’re kicking things off with a
letter from 83-year-old Dave Smith.
The Halcrow pensioner gives us
a fascinating insight into his life
prior to joining the company.
Dear editor
I was born in Chiswick, London, to a modest family, with a younger brother and three
sisters. We lost our mother to cancer when we were all quite young. My father brought us all
up on his own – I realise how difficult it must have been for a man to do this.
Then came the war, up-rooting countless families. When a raid started one night, my dad
sent us all to the air-raid shelter in his sister’s back garden, along with our grandmother.
As it was quiet, I went to visit my friend, promising I would be back later. But the air raid
got worse: his family made me stay until it quietened down, so I stayed the night with
them. They said they would explain it to my dad in the morning.
But as it turned out there was no explaining to do as the shelter received a direct hit, killing
most of my family. When I was allowed to go home my father must have thought I was a
goner, as he had no idea I had left the shelter that night. My dad had my family buried in
five individual coffins – what was left of them. That wasn’t to be the end, as on the day of
the burial there was a raid and we were machine gunned at the grave-side.
As I got older – I suppose I was seeking revenge – I put up my age and joined the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve, not telling my dad. I was still just a boy. I gained a bit of experience
during my years of service: Atlantic convoys; Russian convoys; mine-laying at Norway;
D-Day landing, then on to the Pacific when the war finished. I was based in Australia, and
visited Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped – I was in Tokyo Harbour when the war peacetreaty
was signed. When I got home I got married.
What made me come out of the navy after all that was that I could not claim marriage
allowance as I was under 21 – this is after 11 campaign medals! Otherwise I would have
made it my career – I loved every minute of my service. I suppose I can’t grumble: I have had
63 years of marriage, and congratulations from our Queen. We have ten grandchildren
and six great grandchildren, so life ain’t that bad. I only wish England was the same as
before the war – it seems we are losing all our traditions and heritage.
I did enjoy the years I spent working for Halcrow. I met some very clever people – it proves it
by the way the company has progressed over the years.
Yours truly
Dave Smith
Ex Halcrow maintenance department
Hiroshima – two days later
Lily and Dave Smith,
21 May 1946
Roger, over and out
Stuffed with residence visas and adorned with a
customs stamp rainbow, Roger Hoad’s passport
has rarely been out of action for long.
After spending more than half his life at Halcrow,
Europe and Central Asia’s regional managing
director has retired, bringing to a close a
distinguished career spanning three decades. Not
one to sit still, Roger’s career has taken a steady
trajectory – and a distinctly international flavour –
since he joined the company in 1977.
Naming a Calcutta sewer-cleaning pilot among his
toughest projects, Roger contemplates the iconic
schemes that didn’t quite make it off the drawing
board: “Baghdad Metro, the original Jubilee Line,
and Birmingham tunnel network come to mind.”
Rapid transit schemes pepper his CV – passengers
shuttling around Bangkok, Cairo, Manila and
Singapore now come into close contact with
Roger’s work during their daily commute. A raft
of senior positions followed, namely regional
managerial roles in Europe, Asia and the Gulf.
Officially signed off on 2 October, Roger received
words of thanks from Peter Gammie, Halcrow’s
chief executive, at a gathering of colleagues.
Reflecting on his time steering parts of the
Halcrow ship, Roger said: “Over the years I’ve
worked with a great bunch of people, who have
demonstrated huge personal commitment to
ensuring projects were won and then delivered on
time and to budget.”
To remember...
Mrs Violet Stares passed away on 29 May at the
age of 80. Violet was a postroom supervisor at
Burderop Park from 1976 to 1987.
Robin Goodwin died on 23 May, aged 65. Robin was
an associate director of Halcrow Fox and worked
as a project director and transport planner on
major transport modelling projects in the UK and
overseas between 1986 and 1995. He is survived by
his wife, Linda.
Dave with his friend, Fred,
in Hyde Park, Sydney
Lynne Harbin died on 21 April 2008, aged 49. She
worked in the transportation team from 2003 to
2005 in Darlington. She is survived by her adult
children, Christopher, Jonathan and Kathryn.
To send condolences, email pensions@halcrow.com

Giving generously
Spread a little happiness
Musical efforts in Scotland help
rebuild New Orleans
Surviving Katrina – the facts
• over 1,800 people lost their lives
• the devastation covered a 160km
radius from the storm’s centre
• it was the world’s sixth strongest
hurricane ever recorded
• it was the costliest US hurricane
causing £45 billion of damage
Source – the Discovery Channel
Show your support
To donate from the US, visit www.
secure.toolsfororgs.com/habitat-nola.
org/donate/donateonline.php and
select ‘Lorraine’s project’. Or send a
NOAHH project-addressed cheque to
Lorrraine at City Park, 368 Alexandra
Parade, Glasgow, Scotland, G31 3AU.
Painted by Lorraine’s sister,
Aileen Dickie-Adams, the
Saltire-embossed violin –
decorated with signatures from
Scotland’s finest musicians and
conductors – will be gifted to
NOAHH to help its fundraising
Glasgow-based health and safety adviser
Lorraine Johnston was moved to action by
the plight of friends in New Orleans, after
Hurricane Katrina pummelled the city in
August 2005 with catastrophic floods that left
thousands homeless.
Three years after the hurricane flooded
80 per cent of the city, many of its homes and
businesses still sit abandoned and blighted.
Over 60 per cent of those made homeless
by the hurricane are still living in temporary
trailers which lack water and electricity.
The Wilders, Lorraine and a guitar
winner bust out a tune
Wanting to show her support for the city’s
recovery, Lorraine has hosted a number
of fundraising events in support of the
New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity
organisation (NOAHH), which builds
affordable houses in the area.
At a cost of £20,000 each, NOAHH
is building basic family homes that
meet Florida’s hurricane standards.
New Orleans has always been famous for
its music. NOAHH is currently working hard
to re-house its homeless musicians in a
purpose built village, and has recently opened
a music school.
“There’s a fierce love of music in New Orleans
that’s reflected in Scotland. There’s nothing
like music for moving people to take action,”
said Lorraine on a recent local radio show,
where she highlighted the ongoing plight of
the city’s residents.
Three guitars were donated by RGM music
shop in Kilmarnock, which Lorraine raffled
over three events, the first held at Halcrow’s
City Park office. Another raised £415 at a
gig with Kansas City’s renowned bluegrass
quartet, The Wilders. And world-famous
New Orleans blues musician, Chris Smither,
gamely took part in the last raffle held at
Brookfield Hall – his signature on the guitar
emptying the ticket book.
Together these efforts have raised over
£1,200 for Lorraine to deliver to NOAHH,
along with generous online donations, when
she visited her friends in New Orleans
for Thanksgiving.
Lorraine and blues legend
Chris Smither hand over
the signed guitar
For Lottie, with love
Environmental ecologist Max Bloomfield was
inspired by the plucky determination of his
friend’s five-year-old daughter Lottie and
her relentlessly cheerful approach to fighting
leukaemia. So much so that he decided to
get on his bike and cycle over 2,000 gruelling
kilometres, the length of the UK.
Max trained for the event by ditching the
booze and taking part in the London to
Brighton Bike Ride on a tandem bicycle.
48
Connections Vox | issue one
| July 2008
Max riding for Lottie
The Crawley-based 29-year-old’s solo twowheeled
bid to raise £2,000 for Leukaemia
Research kicked off in Land’s End, Cornwall
– Britain’s most south-westerly point. Max
arrived somewhat lighter and leaner in
Scotland’s John O’Groats ten days later.
His parents – who live in Inverness – were on
hand to receive him bearing plates heaving
with smoked salmon sandwiches and a bottle
of thoroughly deserved champagne.
www.justgiving.com/maxbloomfield

eople hobble down the mud tracks
P
dissecting the Naivasha slum in
Kenya’s Rift Valley on spindly,
malformed legs that buckle under their
weight – evidence of excessive fluoride in
the region’s water. Other symptoms include
mottled tooth enamel and warped bone
joints, causing sufferers considerable
pain and discomfort.
In February, Water and Sanitation for the
Urban Poor (WSUP) – a not-for-profit
organisation of which Halcrow is a founding
member – launched a project to reduce
fluoride levels in the drinking water to
internationally-recognised safety standards.
Given the lack of established infrastructure
and prohibitive maintenance costs, the
fluoride removal processing plant had to tick
price, simplicity and sustainability boxes, in
addition to fulfilling mandatory performance
requirements.
Intended to eventually provide water,
sanitation and hygiene services for 600,000
residents of the Mirera-Karagita district, the
initial rollout will serve a pool of 5,000 locals.
Halcrow’s David Best – working closely
with the UK-based WSUP project
team – was called in to support the
on-site project manager, shouldering
technical responsibility for reviewing and
recommending treatment options.
Crushed cattle bones
were recommended as
an ideal filtering media
Currently water is pumped via a borehole to storage tanks,
then collected and sold to villagers on donkey carts
Naturally occurring and readily available,
crushed cattle bones were recommended
as an ideal filtering media for use in the
treatment plant. As the water passes through
this media, the fluoride is absorbed onto the
‘bone char’, making the water safe.
With clods of red earth turned to lay
foundations for a pilot plant and Halcrow’s
ongoing support, Naivasha will soon turn on
the tap to clean, fresh and safe water.
A basic right
Over one billion people worldwide live
without clean drinking water and twice as
many lack basic sanitation. As a
founding member of WSUP in 2004,
Halcrow pledged to help meet the United
Nations’ Millennium Development goal to
halve these staggering statistics by 2015.
Some 27 Halcrow employees from
Glasgow donned their trainers for a
Sunday morning workout, courtesy of the
Mens Health Forum Scotland 10km run.
The sponsored race took place in the city’s
Bellahouston and Pollok parks in June.
Leading the pack was Stuart Andrew
who completed the course in a highly
impressive 39 minutes.
The dreaded ‘C’ lurks in every family, in every
genetic history. Few have escaped cancer’s
reach – most of us have relatives and friends
who have battled with the disease.
Halcrow’s Ranjit Nair is one of the lucky ones,
having undergone treatment for leukaemia
several years ago. Now recovered, he has
been working unrelentingly to raise money
for the Christian Medical Mission Hospital’s
Cancer Foundation in Vellore, India.
Acute health care is prohibitively expensive
in India. Without an adequate state-funded
service, treatment for leukaemia and other
blood conditions typically runs into tens of
thousands of rupees – more than a lifetime’s
wages for India’s labourers.
Healing hands
When the Cancer Foundation’s work
blipped across Halcrow’s radar, local
employees stepped in to the tune of £640.
This contribution will help the haematology
department continue to perform free and
subsidised bone marrow transplants and
other specialist treatment to some of its
poorest patients, many of whom are children.
But it’s only the start of Ranjit’s mission to
raise funds for this most worthy cause. Those
wanting to contribute should contact him at:
nairrb@Halcrow.com
The other 26 runners all finished in
respectable times – given their varying
levels of fitness – raising well over
£3,000 for Cancer Research.
Ranjit’s close contact with the hospital proved
the impetus for his fundraising quest, after
witnessing families’ excruciating struggle to
pay for life-saving treatment.
Ranjit presents a cheque to Dr Mammen at the hospital
www.justgiving.com/halcrow10k

Achieving ambitions
Raising the bar
Gap-year
glory
Emma Mathias-Jones
hile some of her peers spent their
gap year backpacking around Brazil
W
or slumped in front of daytime
television, Emma Mathias-Jones was hard at
work in Halcrow’s Burderop Park office, UK.
A former pupil of Godolphin School,
Salisbury, Emma improved on an existing
model for a water supply reservoir feasibility
study using the MISER software package – a
new release for Halcrow. From the results of
the model runs undertaken for the schemes,
Emma was able to determine the ideal
reservoir size and estimate the optimum
scheme’s carbon footprint.
Recognition for her efforts came in the
form of a chance to represent the south
west region at the national Contribution to
Business Awards finals. Emma made it
through to the semi-final stage – one of
three held to pick out the regional finalists
– where she was pitted against five other
students on 26 June.
Burderop Park hosted the event – which
celebrated the achievements of young
people on ‘year in industry’ placements –
with Halcrow’s Kunle Akande delivering
the welcome address.
A panel of independent judges sized up the
contestants’ written entries and listened
to a five minute presentation from each
semi-finalist before ten minutes of probing
questions. The judges were impressed
with the quality and professionalism
demonstrated by the entrants.
Michael McCulloch
Budding
captain of industry
Michael McCulloch flew the proverbial flag for Scotland
at the national Contribution to Business Awards finals –
held on 11 September – having blitzed the competition at
the regional heats.
The UK-wide regional heats celebrated young peoples’
first forays into the business world and marked the
culmination of a ‘year in industry’ placement.
Identified as a ‘future captain of industry’, Michael
completed the Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
course in business management at Perth College,
in conjunction with an in-house project at Halcrow’s
Edinburgh offices.
Michael pocketed £500 prize money in recognition of
his outstanding flood risk assessment appraisal of
development sites. His work explored various options
to safeguard areas while minimising any detrimental
environmental impact.
Michael was thrilled by his ‘excellent’ experience and the
tangible rewards of his focused and driven approach to his
work. Although he did not go on to win the ultimate prize
in the UK final, Michael’s Edinburgh-based colleagues are
proud of his impressive achievements to date and look
forward to seeing him again following the completion of
his degree.
IN BRIEF
Glasgow-based assistant
structural engineer Steven
Hoffin has passed his MSc
in structural engineering
and mechanics at Glasgow
University. Steven completed his
course, funded by the Halcrow
awards programme, on a parttime
basis over three years while
keeping up his Halcrow day job.
Bristol-based senior structural engineer
Tong Sun has gained chartership with the
Institution of Civil
Engineers (ICE). Tong
was presented with his
award by David Orr,
president of
the ICE, at an
award ceremony
in September.
Glasgow’s water and power business
group’s Lindsay Renfrew and Kirsteen
Nixon have both successfully passed their
chartership interviews for the Chartered
Institution of Wastes Management. Both are
now chartered wastes managers (correction
from Connections issue 26).
Transport planner James Purkiss, based in
Bristol, celebrated gaining chartership to the
Royal Town Planning Institute in June.
50
Vox | issue one

Katherine makes a Pitt stop
Katherine Pygott – the water and power business group’s chief scientist for catchment processes
– has been elected to the national rivers and coastal group of the Chartered Institution of Water
and Environment Management (CIWEM).
Katherine has already been invited to take up a role as its national consultations
coordinator, and has since drafted the group’s response to the Pitt Report
– the government’s study into the 2007 floods that wreaked havoc across the UK.
The group provides a professional voice for flood risk management
practitioners, as well as responding to government consultations and
producing policy position statements.
Protecting our
rivers and coasts
Formed over 50 years ago, CIWEM’s
rivers and coastal group boasts over
1,000 members. Organisations such as
the Department for the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs, the
Environment Agency and the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency
have joined forces with consultants,
contractors, local authorities and the
academic world to promote excellence
in the sustainable management of
rivers and coasts.
The complete Worcs
The UK’s Worcester office has shown itself to be a hotbed of academic and professional
industry with its latest crop of personal achievements.
Studying at GLOSCOL in Gloucester, highways technicians Matthew Holliday, Sam Ihle and
Leigh Palmer passed their BTEC higher national certificate (HNC) in civil engineering. Leigh
and Sam each gained a distinction and Matt secured a merit.
Monitoring engineer Natalie Jones passed her HNC building studies at the University of
Wolverhampton, bridges engineer Jinliang Zhu achieved a merit for his MSc in construction
management from the University of Birmingham, and highways technical assistant Jenni
Bridgens passed her NEBOSH construction certificate in health and safety with credit.
The Glasgow
and west of Scotland
region of the ICE covers more
than half of Scotland. It represents
the interests of 3,500 fellows, various
grades of members, graduates and
students in the area, providing a
conduit for information and feedback
between ICE headquarters in
London and the other regions
around the country.
ICEing on the cake
Graeme Forsyth’s time within the Institution
of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) corridors of power
is set to continue, having risen to the heady
heights of honorary secretary of the Glasgow
and west of Scotland regional committee.
From his Glasgow base, the water and power
business group director has served on the
committee since his election in 2005. The
exhibition and archive sub-committee also
attracted large chunks of his attention, and
he ended his three year term as its chairman.
When invited to take on the role of honorary
secretary, Graeme leapt at the chance
to influence the
institution’s workings
from an infinitely more
strategic position.
A Project Excellence
mentor, Graeme also
heads up the Nuclear
Decommissioning
Authority’s client team.
Graeme Forsyth
Senior bridge engineer
Mike Green from Swindon
gained a credit for the
National Examination
Board in Occupational Safety and Health
(NEBOSH) national certificate in construction
health and safety. It covers managing and
controlling hazards in construction activities,
as well as the areas required for a competent
construction, design and management
(CDM) coordinator.
Transportation engineer David Wells is
swapping the delights of Halcrow’s York
office for the sunnier climes of Australia,
having graduated from Glasgow Caledonian
University with a BSc in railway operational
management. Having been sponsored by
Halcrow in his studies, David is now based
in the Sydney office, helping to develop
the rail business, in between sampling
the Antipodean delights of Vegemite and
Christmas on the beach.
Isam Zaheer from Halcrow’s India team
has scooped a ‘gold medal’ for an
outstanding performance in his
M.Tech structural engineering
course at the Aligarh Muslim
University. His dissertation on
predictions of wind loads
earned him an honours
degree, presented by
former president
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Longbridge Sporting success Birmingham:
Development Field of dreams begins...
Life’s a beach
t first glance, Glasgow’s unyielding
A
concrete surfaces may not seem an
obvious choice of venue for a beach
volleyball tournament.
But first impressions often deceive. After
truckloads of sand transformed the Scottish
Exhibition and Conference Centre into a
passable replica of Copacabana, Halcrow’s
team stepped up to do battle in the Urban
Beach Tour.
With abilities ranging from those who had
never set foot on a court to former national
league players, nine representatives from
Halcrow’s City Park office took on all-comers
in the four-a-side competition.
The confidence of Halcrow’s two teams
took an early battering on arrival, having
discovered that their rivals had enlisted the
help of ex-Scotland and UK national players.
Proving that experience is no obstacle,
Halcrow’s outfit brushed aside any lingering
doubts to dig, set and spike its way through
the group stage.
Halcrow’s outfit
brushed aside any
lingering doubts to dig, set
and spike its way through
the group stage
Having faced each other in the opening
round, the crew reformed for the semi final
bout. After a bruising last-four encounter,
the eventual tournament winners triumphed
over the City Park battlers.
Urban Beach Tour
The tour has been successfully
established over the last three years
to make the rapidly growing sport of
beach volleyball more accessible to the
British public.
Tonnes of sand bring the beach to the
city, with man-made courts springing
up in towns across the UK.
Alongside the main spectacle – elite
athletes fighting it out for the coveted
tour title – kids’ coaching sessions and
a beach fours competition give locals
the chance to join
the fun.
Hot on their heels
Bristol’s streets resounded with the
rhythmic thud of 15,000 runners winding
their way through the historic city on
14 September.
Amongst the throngs of athletes competing
in the Bristol Half Marathon were seven
uber-fit Halcrow employees, trading their
work shoes for trainers to complete the
21km course.
They dug deep to finish the route in
unseasonably balmy conditions, each raising
donations for their chosen charities.
The Bristol runners included Eleni Pappa,
Tendayi Munyebvu, Ryan Anthony and Gavin Hall
They shoot, they score
Friendly office rivalries have been
transposed to the football pitch, with a
Burderop Park (BP) 11 a-side team taking on
all-comers over the British summer.
The BP outfit triumphed 2-1 over a well
organised side from the Reading office before
coming up against an Oxford-based House of
Fraser team. After 90 action-packed minutes
the scores stood at 3-3, with penalties to
decide the match. After a nail-biting shootout,
BP sent all of its five spot kicks into the
back of the net to prevail 5-4.
A 6-1 drubbing of a spirited Bristol side
capped off a successful season for the BP
team, emerging proudly unbeaten from its
three encounters.
To Tahiti or bust
Halcrow’s seafaring Jill
Morgan braved the Pacific
Ocean’s vast expanse to
take part in the revived
Los Angeles to Tahiti
yacht race.
Returning after a 14 year
hiatus, the 3,700 nautical mile race surged
into action on 22 June. Part of the 15m-long
Fortaleza’s hardy crew, Jill encountered a
cornucopia of sea creatures. Shoals of giant
tuna rammed the hull, while flying fish and
squid launched themselves onboard.
King Neptune made a customary appearance
as the sloop powered across the equator, and
five pollywogs re-emerged as shellbacks.
Seventeen days after bidding farewell,
Fortaleza’s intrepid crew disembarked at
Papeete to regain their land-legs.
Jill Morgan
52
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

The
longest
day
Humble marathons pale into
insignificance next to the
latest feats of endurance
by John Sreeves
A 28 hour, 153km test of stamina
saw runners traversing the full
stretch of the West Highland Way
on 21 June (the UK’s longest
day), linking the starting line at
Milngavie, Glasgow, with the
finishing tape at Fort William.
John finished the gruelling race
69 th out of a field of 132. This
achievement came hot on the heels
of a 483km bike ride, with pedal
power taking hardy riders through
three European capitals in three days.
Beginning in London, the bridge
engineer and his fellow participants
rode to Harwich, then from the
Hook of Holland to Amsterdam
before heading to Brussels.
John’s two-wheeled adventure and
Scottish mega-run raised money
for the Mines Advisory Group (www.
maginternational.org), a humanitarian
organisation that clears post-conflict
zones of landmines. John will happily
accept any retrospective donations –
email sreevesjc@halcrow.com.
Stuart Innes, David Clee, Norman
Johnston and Katie Courtnadge
Four to the fore
Forty-four budding Tiger Woods from
Halcrow’s Scottish offices teed off on
13 September in pursuit of golfing glory.
Callander golf course’s slopes and greens
played host to thrilling drives and precision
putts from singles handicap winner Stuart
Innes and scratch victor Graeme Young, while
Kate Courtnadge swept the ladies’ field.
The afternoon saw new alliances form in the
pairs’ competition. Iain Salisbury claimed first
place with partner Stephen McCarron.
Get your motor running
With petrol fumes wafting around Dubai’s
Al Ain raceway and the squeal of tyres on
tarmac providing an appropriate soundtrack,
30 teams screamed towards the chequered
flag in the EMC Summer Karting Challenge.
Nessie takes centre
stage in Monster Challenge
Four hardy Halcrow employees took on the
Monster Challenge – a mammoth 120km test
of endurance circumnavigating Loch Ness –
on 13 September.
Representing the Glasgow office, Kyle Wilson,
Brian McCrear, Mark Welsh and Scott
McMillan completed the gruelling run and
cycle combination in a respectable time of
7 hours 53 minutes, finishing 78 th in a field
of 185 – well ahead of the stragglers, who
limped home 11 hours after the start gun.
Hawks kick
Hustlers into touch
Braving a tropical downpour, Halcrow’s
Edinburgh and Glasgow counterparts did
battle for the unofficial title of Scottish Touch
Rugby Champions on 31 July.
Star (la)crossed in Finland
Strapping on their helmets, Halcrow’s
Dave McCulloch and his England
team-mates stormed to victory in the
European Lacrosse Championships.
Lahti, Finland, reverberated with the
sound of clashing sticks and body
checks between 6-16 August, as
18 well-drilled teams competed
for the title.
The English men’s team blitzed
the field in the group stages,
trouncing Switzerland
40-0 to open their
account. Wins
against Ireland,
Latvia, Spain and
Wales followed as
England topped
group A.
England surged past
Finland and Sweden
in the next rounds
to book its place in
the final against the
Netherlands, which it
won 14-4.
Dave basks in well-deserved glory
Racing under the moniker ‘Roadkill’,
Halcrow’s Colin Morris and
Fadi Azzam sped to second place
in the endurance event, organised
by Evolve Motor Club.
A four hour final
came hot on the
heels of six
hours of solid
racing, broken
into three
heats. Roadkill
finished the
event on 85
points –
a bumper’s
width
behind the
winning team.
Office pride and bragging rights were at
stake when the Halcrow Hawks, hailing from
Glasgow’s City Park, faced off against the
home team – Edinburgh’s Hustlers.
With the game tied three-all and eight
minutes left on the clock, Glasgow’s secret
weapon and the slowest
winger in modern rugby
– Keith Bodel – made a
barnstorming charge
for the try line from
1m out, diving to
the end zone for
his first try of
the summer
campaign.
The Hawks capped
off an impressive
Hawks and Hustlers maintain their friendly rivalry
display with an additional try, Glasgow
ending the match triumphant at 5-3.
Players and supporters adjourned to the
welcome shelter of the Cumberland to
relive the match highlights, celebrate and
commiserate. Light refreshments preceded
tales of Keith’s try and how he ran the length
of the park to score.
Colin and Fadi
on the podium

Longbridge Wedding wishes Birmingham:
Development Tying the knotbegins...
2 3
1
5
4
6
7 8
1) Lucy Bishop (nee Harris) from
Swindon married Simon on 24 May 2008
in Dorset. They started their married
life by touring the west coast of the
United States and relaxing in Hawaii.
2) Gill Bright, training manager for the
consulting business group, and Ian Ross
jetted off to Venice to get married on
12 July 2008 after 20 happy years together.
3) Ludmila Fadejeva from Halcrow’s Riga
office married Vasily Postnov on
5 July 2008 amidst family and friends.
4) On a sunny 5 July 2008, Amanda King
became Mrs Harris when she wed Martyn
in a ceremony held at the Aerodrome Hotel
in Purley. The couple then jetted off to the
Seychelles and Dubai on honeymoon.
5) James Hawthorne, associate director
at the Reading office, was showered
with petals after marrying his beloved
Alida Casey on 15 August 2008.
6) Christopher Hoskin and Amy Carolan
were joined in matrimony at the King’s
School Chapel at North Parramatta,
Australia, on 16 August 2008.
7) Helen Jackman from the Worcester
office married Stuart Vale in a
ceremony on 23 August at St Stephen’s
Church, Worcester. The happy couple
honeymooned in Hawaii and the US.
8) Kate Knight of Inverness married
Andy Courtnadge, a fellow engineer,
on 24 May 2008. The sun was out as
they left St Mary’s church in Monmouth
to celebrate with their guests.
54
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

9
10
11
12
13 14
9) Julia Krohn from London’s Vineyard
House office married Kushan Nammuni
in a traditional ceremony complete with
three Halcrow bridesmaids, dancers and
a dressed elephant. They tied the knot in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 8 August 2008.
10) On 16 August 2008, London’s Anna
Mann wed Ben Fowler at a chateau near
Paris, France. Their son, Orlando, muscled
in on the action as they made their vows in
a sunny courtyard before a French mayor
and a large Anglo-American contingent.
11) Paul Mulvany of Halcrow’s Crawley office
married Yuliana Huseynova on 11 April
2008. After tying the knot in the English
seaside town of Brighton, the honeymooners
enjoyed a trip to idyllic Borneo.
12) Paul Reid of Edinburgh’s Performance
Audit Group married Donna on
29 August 2008 at Luss Parish Church.
13) Vijesh Sequeira, from the Dubai office,
and Lavina Britto were surrounded by
family and friends when they celebrated
their engagement on 18 August 2008.
14) Jim Westcott and Laurina tied the
knot on 29 August 2008 at Linlithgow
Palace. Jim is a member of Edinburgh’s
Performance Audit Group.

Longbridge Baby boom Birmingham:
Development New arrivals begins...
3
2
1
5
4
6
7
1) Dinesh Ahuja from India and his wife,
Pooja, celebrated the birth of their second
son – Shubham – on 31 July 2008. He tipped
the scales at 2.93kg.
2) Swati Garg, from the
Delhi office, and his wife,
Priyank, are the proud
parents of baby Arnika,
who celebrated her
first birthday on
28 November 2007.
3) ‘Busy little man’ Finlay Thomas Baines
was born on 25 March 2008 to Andy and Julie
in Winchester, weighing 3.2kg.
4) Bilal Mahmood and his wife, Ambreen,
were delighted to welcome a baby girl into
the world on 28 August 2008. Little Ayesha
Bilal was born in Islamabad, Pakistan,
weighing 2.4kg.
5) Isaac was born to Exeter’s Richard Brooks
and his wife, Rebecca, on 17 August 2008,
weighing 3.8kg.
6) James Dudfield from
Birmingham and his wife,
Ruth, became proud parents
to their daughter, Linnea,
who arrived in time for tea
on 3 March 2008, weighing
just over 4kg.
7) Danielle Renee was born on
20 July 2008, weighing 3.13kg,
to happy parents Rami Eid
of the Halcrow Yolles
Toronto office, and
his wife, Souheir.
56
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

8) Kelvin Foo from Halcrow’s Kuala Lumpur
office and his wife, Huiqing, celebrated the
birth of their baby girl, Fion, weighing 4kg,
on 25 June 2008.
9) Little Sydney Gray was born a healthy
3.6kg on 28 August to ecstatic parents Laura
and Steven, who works in Toronto.
10) Vicki Hart recently introduced her new
baby, Bethany, born on 1 August 2008, to the
Glasgow office.
11) A smiley Chelsea Margaret Kaw
was born on 30 June 2008 to proud
parents Ednalyn and Alexander, from
the Dubai office.
12) Trent Miller from the Las Vegas office
and his wife, Krista, are still rejoicing after
the birth of their son, Christian Trent. He
arrived on 19 August 2008, weighing 3.7kg.
13) Matthew Powell was born to
Marc and Laura on 20 June 2008 in Reading.
His sister, Ella, found his 3.1kg to be ideal
to cuddle up with.
14) Andy Wallace, from the Bristol team, and
his wife, Jo, are the happy parents of baby
Isla, born on 17 June 2008 and weighing just
about 3.5kg.
15) Susan Teoh from the Kuala Lumpur
office and her husband, Sam Lee, celebrated
the birth of their baby girl, Zoe Lee Yeau, on
3 March 2007.
8
9
10
11
12
15
14
13

Longbridge Out of officeBirmingham:
Development A day in the life begins...
When he isn’t working as part of Halcrow’s nuclear
environmental team, Jon Dolphin’s activities are
rather more challenging than a game of footie or a
night in front of the television.
Life in the
terror zone
Tackling the Taliban in Afghanistan’s deadliest region
n October last year, the 29-year-old
I
environmental consultant swapped
his Warrington desk for the hellish
heat of Helmand province – Afghanistan’s
bloodiest and most dangerous region.
Before his call-up papers arrived, Jon had
spent six years in the British Territorial Army
(TA) – successfully ‘passing out’ of the Royal
Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 2004. He
then completed his training as a specialist
infantry officer and then as a demolition
officer and assault pioneer – the latter being
the engineers of the infantry.
“On mobilisation, I joined a 146-strong
infantry company of both regular and TA
soldiers,” Jon explains. “I commanded a
platoon of 31 soldiers, with a secondary
role as media escort which provided some
interesting moments.”
The company was deployed to Afghanistan
in October 2007, and the platoons were soon
dispatched to patrol bases in the notorious
‘green zone’ and forward operating bases
(FOBs) around the province.
On Christmas Eve, Jon’s platoon was sent
to FOB Edinburgh on the outskirts of Musa
Qalah, a city in the north of Helmand. Days
before they arrived, the city had been retaken
from Taliban control in a joint operation
between the UK and Afghan national armies
which had left the base uninhabitable.
Jon’s platoon spent Christmas Day filling
sandbags to provide some protection against
attack. He patrolled the countryside, talking
to locals through an interpreter and finding
numerous signs of the Taliban. “We had
a couple of close shaves with road side
bombs,” he remembers. “One device was
unfortunately triggered by a local on his
tractor. Hearing the explosion from some
distance away, we were able to save his life,
but he was badly injured.”
“The only comfort left
is in comradeship,
confidence in your own
abilities and a sense of
moral courage to do
the right thing”
During his six month tour of duty, there
were 12 fatalities. “I was in Camp Bastion
for one of the repatriation ceremonies,” said
Jon. “The memory of the coffin, covered by
the Union Jack, being carried onto a C130
Hercules plane will stay with me forever.”
In one violent example of the Taliban
response to British workers assisting the
Afghan government to rebuild infrastructure
in the city, a local man was found beheaded.
The £3.50-a-day construction worker had
been warned by the Taliban to stop working
on one of the development schemes and
had refused. “The Taliban are a pretty nasty
bunch and in many cases the only way they
can control the local population is through
fear,” says Jon.
Local Mullahs – religious leaders – showed
Jon threatening letters that had been nailed
to the doors of mosques by the Taliban,
warning locals not to assist the British.
“It’s a difficult situation out there,”
Jon explains. “Although the locals see
improvements to their quality of life as a
result of our intervention, it’s a daily struggle
for them. Without going deep into the
reasons why we’re in Afghanistan, I think we
need to be there. I saw and did things so far
out of my usual comfort zone that the only
comfort left is in comradeship, confidence
in your own abilities and a sense of moral
courage to do the right thing.”
Escorting BBC and ITN news teams and
journalists around the province was a
risky proposition. “On one occasion, I took
a journalist on a battle group clearance
operation, riding in the back of a Warrior
armoured personnel carrier (APC). During
the mission, the APC in front was blown up
by a mine, and we were shot at with air burst
rocket propelled grenades,” says Jon.
Returning to work after seeing action was
an understandably strange experience. “My
colleagues have been very supportive,” he
says. “I don’t think I’ve changed much, but
my time in Afghanistan has certainly made
me realise what’s important in life.”
58
Connections Vox | issue one | July 2008

Who do you
admire the
most?
If you think one of your colleagues exemplifies
Halcrow’s values, put them forward for the employee
recognition scheme. It’s universal – anyone can
nominate, and everyone’s eligible.
Our values
Live them. Share them. Celebrate
those who personify them.
• Bring imagination to all you do
• Deliver on our commitments
• Advance your skills and experience
• Enjoy what you do
Halcrow employee recognition scheme – coming soon!

What would
you do with £10,000?
Help Halcrow discover the hottest talent, find your friends
new jobs, and earn yourself some extra cash in the process.
If you’re a permanent, UK-based Halcrow employee, take part in the
revised candidate referral scheme and you could be sunning yourself
in the Caribbean.
Payments range from £500 for grades one to three to £5,000 for grade
nine and above. These amounts will double for ‘hot’ jobs – especially
hard-to-recruit positions – leaving you plenty of spending money.
Bon voyage – and don’t forget your sunscreen!
Further information
• Visit Halnet under support services/personnel/vacancies and recruitment/UK candidate referral
• For information on referral schemes outside the UK, contact regional human resources teams