Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

BBMCE wins preservation category for A3 Hindhead Tunnel at Tunnelling Awards

20 January 2012

BBMCE, in conjunction with Mott MacDonald, has won the Preservation Award at the 2011 Tunnels and Tunnelling Awards.

The A3 Hindhead Improvement Project was delivered by UK road operator the Highways Agency to overcome severe congestion and improve road safety near the village of Hindhead, Surrey, where the old A3 skirts the dramatic natural amphitheatre and renowned beauty spot, the Devil's Punch Bowl. In relieving congestion, the project has reduced journey times, improved air quality, brought economic advantages for local businesses and seen regeneration of heathland flora and fauna through removal of the old A3 road.

The award recognises the project's substantial environmental mitigation measures, the most significant of which was the decision to build the route's central 1.8km in tunnel beneath Hindhead Common - an extension of the Devil's Punch Bowl with the same protected status, and helped win widespread support for the project from local people and environmental experts.

Key mitigation measures included onsite reuse of tunnelling spoil and balancing of cut and fill; the use of SCL (Sprayed Concrete Lined) tunnelling in ground conditions where bored tunnelling would be the normal choice, and the innovative use of the primary sprayed concrete lining as part of the permanent works. This meant that the total thickness of the tunnel lining could be reduced, resulting in a smaller diameter of the excavated tunnel.

The Judges commented: "The Hindhead project clearly went beyond the demands of the client to protect the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and reduce wider environmental impacts by using a less resource-intensive construction method and minimising movement of materials on and off the site".

Highways Agency senior project manager Paul Arnold said: "Building a new road that not only protects, but enhances the surrounding environment is a real achievement, and is testament to the world class performance and partnership working that made this major road improvement such a success. Balfour Beatty and Mott MacDonald should be rightly proud of this deserved win."

The project opened on time and on budget in July 2011.

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