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THE TRANSPORT ISSUE rics.org/modus GLOBAL GATEWAY The growing importance of airport cities p14 NEED FOR SPEED Rail projects in the UK and worldwide p22 TRAINING ROUTE Crossrail’s new tunnelling skills academy p30 MODUS 05.12 // RICS.ORG / MODUS THE TRANSPORT ISSUE 05.12 //

RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

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#RICSModus, May 2012 — the TRANSPORT issue.

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Page 1: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

THE TRANSPORT

ISSUE

rics.org/modus

GLOBAL GATEWAY The growing importance of airport cities p14NEED FOR SPEED Rail projects in the UK and worldwide p22TRAINING ROUTE Crossrail’s new tunnelling skills academy p30

MOD

US 05.12 // R

ICS.OR

G /MO

DU

STH

E TRANSPO

RT ISSUE

05.12 //

MODUS_May_p01_Cover.v2.indd 1 16/04/2012 13:42

Page 2: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

Surveyors Professional Indemnity

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Page 3: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

NO 1705.12 //

THE TRANSPORT ISSUEWith the start of Crossrail tunnelling, High Speed 2 given the go-ahead, the launch

of a government air capacity review, and the Olympic Games bringing forward major

infrastructure upgrades, 2012 heralds a new era for UK transport. This month, we

look at the rise of the global city as ‘aerotropolis’ (page 14) and the challenges of

delivering an effi cient and economically viable HS2 (page 22), as well as other

high-speed projects taking place or in planning around the world (page 27). We

visit Crossrail’s new Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy, which

is training the next generation of tunnelling specialists (page 30), consider the

transport challenges before, during and after the London 2012 Games (page 36),

and meet a chartered surveyor involved in various major projects (page 20).

VICTORIA BROOKES EDITOR

05.12 // MODUS 03

3020

05.12 05.12 05.12 05.12 05.12 05.12 05.12 05.12 //// MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS / MODUS 03

27

Contents

Regulars04_FEEDBACKYour views on Modus and the profession, and the latest poll

06_INTELLIGENCEGlobal news, plus opinions, reviews and reactions

35_LAW ADVICENational planning regulations for local authority highway projects

41_BUSINESS ADVICEReducing the environmental and fi nancial impact of business travel

Features14_THE RISE OF THE AEROTROPOLISWhy the successful global cities of the future will be airport hubs 20_10 MINUTES WITH…Andy Dixon MRICS, commercial director of Costain’s rail sector

22_HIGH SPEED 2Can the project really deliver on its promised benefi ts?

27_ON TRACKA roundup of high-speed rail projects in Europe, China, the Middle East, US and Australia

30_TUNNEL VISIONTraining the next generation of underground specialists at TUCA

36_SMOOTH RUNNINGWill transport be the cloud on the London 2012 horizon?

In formation43_RICS NEWSNews and updates, plus a message from the President

51_EVENTSTraining and conference dates for your diary

55_RECRUITMENTThe latest job opportunities from across the industry

58_THE MEASURERecord-breaking transport infrastructure around the world

MODUS_May_p03-5_Content & Letters.indd 3 17/04/2012 10:54

Page 4: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

FOR SUNDAYEditor Victoria Brookes // Art Director Christie Ferdinando

// Contributing Editor Brendon Hooper // Sub Editor

Samantha Whitaker // Creative Director Matt Beaven //

Account Director Stephanie Hill // Commercial Director

Karen Jenner // Commercial Manager – Display Lucie Inns

// Commercial Manager – Recruitment Charlotte Turner

// Senior Sales Executive Faith Ellis // Sales Excecutive

Dorlisa Purkiss // Managing Director Toby Smeeton //

Repro F1 Colour // Printers Woodford Litho and Ancient

House Press // Cover Adam Softley // Published by Sunday,

207 Union Street, London SE1 0LN sundaypublishing.com

FOR RICSEditorial board Ian Fussey and Jaclyn Dunstan

RICS, Parliament Square, London SW1P 3AD

Feedback//

04 r ics.org

The MODUS team//

JOIN THE DEBATE

:EMAIL YOUR FEEDBACK TO [email protected]

Views expressed in Modus are those of the named author and are not necessarily those of RICS or the publisher. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the publisher. All information correct at time of going to press. All rights reserved. The publisher cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. RICS does not accept responsibility for loss, injury or damage or costs that result from, or are connected in any way to, the use of products or services advertised. All editions of Modus are printed on paper sourced from sustainable, properly managed forests. This magazine can be recycled for use in newspapers and packaging. Please dispose of it at your local collection point. The polywrap is made from biodegradable material and can be recycled.

92,028 average net circulation 1st July 2010 – 20th June 2011

Visit rics.org/modus now to vote in our next poll: ‘Where do you get most of your business leads from?

Due to the volume of correspondence we receive, we regret that we are unable to print all letters or respond to every one individually.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITYWhat a well put together article by Andrew Heywood. The UK has a serious and long-term housing problem that few in ‘authority’ recognise and the public majority refuse to help to be corrected. It would have been interesting to see any link between the government move over recent decades to rely on developers to provide affordable housing and the more recent economic hit on the property industry. Novating its social responsibilities to a third party must have had a real impact on delivery alongside a removal of any general expectation that the government has some responsibility. Caroline Green

MAKING THE GAMESI have just read the Olympics feature [in the March issue] and wish to congratulate you on what I found to be a most informative and comprehensive piece. The article highlights the involvement of the many hundreds of

chartered surveyors behind the success of bringing about the Olympic Park, or ‘theatre’ as it is being called. This can only be of benefi t in highlighting the expertise and professionalism of RICS members.May I also suggest how fi tting it might be to also mention in due course the role and contribution made by chartered surveyors who have volunteered to play a part in helping to make what we all hope and expect to be the greatest show on earth. This would perhaps highlight the wider community-based contributions that complement those which are perhaps more evident.

I am delighted to be an Olympic Games Maker volunteer, and believe I am but one of many surveyors who have off ered their time and skills to this once-in-a-lifetime event. In my view, we should not miss the opportunity to highlight this different but critical complementary role played by our members.Michael Knight FRICS

PUBLIC PROBLEMSI refer to your article in [the March edition of] Modus about the lack of public sector housing development. Your writer fails to identify the ugliness and inappropriate design of the public realm not only highlighted in the photographs but in a recent lecture by [architect and urban planner] Andrés Duany at the University of Hertfordshire. Much post-war planning created large, inappropriate ghettos and have left a social imbalance legacy. Later efforts at Milton Keynes of mixed-use and tenure neighbourhoods have proved to be a better way forward.

The problems were caused by the use of compulsory powers and cheap industrialised building forms that characterised the worst of early post-war planning, which the public sector might revert to. With improved sustainability and thermal requirements, there is an added cost that successive governments have failed to address in more recent times. The funding gap situation will worsen unless new forms of subsidy or tenure are considered. There is no reason why developers cannot be obliged to build a certain number of units at a lower value to fi rst-time buyers for example, however RSLs also need to be assisted with funding in order to deliver.

The housing backlog will only be solved by the easing of planning restrictions, a greater pipeline and a supply of funding. The delivery vehicle is not relevant to the causation of shortage. Where local authorities have been responsible for housing provision, there are not enough beacons of excellence.Neil Aitchison FRICS, Hertfordshire

FeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedback

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THE MODUS POLL :WHERE SHOULD GOVERNMENTS BE FOCUSING INVESTMENT IN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE?Total votes: 344

Air 5.5%

Rail 55.8%

Equally 38.7%

MODUS_May_p03-5_Content & Letters.indd 4 18/04/2012 15:19

Page 5: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

At Bose weDON T call

this a TV.’

Find your local authorised Bose® dealer at www.bose.co.uk/dealer

Bose® VideoWave® entertainment system. High-definition picture. Home cinema sound. No visible speakers.

The complete home cinema experience dazzles visually as it surrounds you with sound.

While HD flatscreen TVs deliver on the picture, the sound all too often leaves something

to be desired. The only way to really immerse yourself in the thunderous roar of an F1 race,

or catch the telltale snap of a twig in the latest thriller, is to install a separate home cinema

sound system. Until now.

The Bose® VideoWave® entertainment system is the only HD flatscreen with a complete Bose®

home cinema system built inside. Through exclusive Bose technologies, it reproduces sound

from places where there are no speakers, delivering an experience you may never have thought

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Bose Modus Magazine 274x202.indd 1 10/04/2012 12:12MODUS_May_p03-5_Content & Letters.indd 5 17/04/2012 10:54

Page 6: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

Intelligence :NEWS :REVIEWS :OPINIONS :REACTIONS

MODUS_May_p06-7_Intel_opener.indd 6 16/04/2012 15:16

Page 7: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

Most people are content to drive their new car away from their local dealership. Volkswagen’s customers, though, have the option to go one better by driving it straight off the production line. Opened in 2000 adjacent to its factory in Wolfsburg, Volkswagen’s Autostadt (car city) visitor centre attracts around 2m visitors a year. Many come to explore the history of the world-famous company, or take a tour through its factory, while others come to pick up their freshly made car from one of the two 60m-high Autotürme (car towers), which store up to 400 new models each. The towers are connected to the VW factory via a 700m-long underground tunnel through which cars are transported on a conveyor belt, and automatically ‘shelved’ by a series of hydraulic lifts. There, the happy customer can watch as the same system picks up their car and delivers it down to them – with zero mileage on the odometer. Architect Gunter Henn also designed the Autotürme to allow visitors to experience the same procedure, so a special glass shuttle has been made to raise six guests and a guide up to an observation deck at the top. autostadt.de

:VW AUTOTÜRMEWOLFSBURG, GERMANY

MODUS_May_p06-7_Intel_opener.indd 7 16/04/2012 15:16

Page 8: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

08 r ics.org

Intelligence//

08 r ics.org

UK construction fi rms are being encouraged to get involved in a private fi nance building boom in Colombia, following the government’s plans to quadruple its investment in infrastructure projects to £5.3bn by 2015. With GDP growth of 5-6% last year, Colombia is a key target market for the UK, particularly in the rail

sector and in the redevelopment of federal buildings in Bogotá. Under a new public private partnership (PPP) law, private sector-proposed infrastructure projects can go ahead for the fi rst time. It’s expected that PPP concessions will be tendered to construction fi rms in the third quarter of this year.

Gleeds has been appointed to two major projects at Birmingham Airport. The consultancy fi rm will provide cost management services for the procurement phase of the extension of the airport’s runway, and will be the project manager, cost manager and CDM coordinator for the construction of a new air traffi c

control tower. ‘Gleeds has extensive experience within the aviation sector,’ said managing partner Stuart Senior FRICS. ‘The team has provided support to clients on projects both airside and landside, and has a considerable knowledge of civil engineering works, so we feel well placed to handle this scheme.’

Colombia // BUILDING BOOM UK // AIR CONTROL

Opinion

LOCALISM IS THE ONLY TRANSPORT GAME IN TOWN

The coalition government believes in devolving decision-making and dispersing power – giving people a genuine say over the services and issues

that affect their lives and their communities. In short, we’re committed to localism.

Localism works. And when you consider that around 80% of the journeys we make in this country are local in nature, it especially works for transport. Greater local control, participation and accountability is the most effective way to enhance the sustainability of local transport systems so they can boost economic growth, minimise the environmental impact of travel, improve public health and tackle social exclusion.

We’re taking a number of important steps to make localism in transport an everyday reality. We have simplifi ed funding, cutting the number of separate local transport grant streams from 26 to just four. The end result of this radical reform is that local communities will have greater fl exibility and freedom to decide their own priorities.

Cutting red tape and ending pointless top-down bureaucracy is another way to spread and embed localism. Take our review into Britain’s traffi c signing system, the biggest for 40 years. We have published a new framework that will empower local councils so they can remove expensive and unsightly clutter from our roads – a reform that will save money and improve the local environment.

We’ve also recently launched a consultation setting out proposals to give local communities and businesses control of decisions and budgets for major local transport

schemes in their areas. The new system could potentially see decisions on capital funding for local schemes – including new local roads, public transport schemes, better pedestrian routes, and new rail stations – devolved to democratically accountable local transport bodies.

Traditionally, central government funding for most schemes over £5m has been allocated through a centralised bidding system. Under our proposals, from 2015, local transport bodies will receive devolved budgets, so they can decide for themselves how to spend their money on priorities best suited to their local needs without Whitehall approval. Put simply, we want to give local authorities real power to deliver real improvements.

The age of the one-size-fi ts-all approach to transport is well and truly over. Today, the best transport services are those that are individually tailored, rather than off-the-peg. So, while localism is certainly a challenge to the old ways of thinking and working, in our modern world it really is the only transport game in town.

NORMAN BAKER MP is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. dft.gov.uk

Norman Baker UK government transport minister

Under devolution plans, small communities such as Grosmont in North Yorkshire will have more control over local transport

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MODUS_May_P08-13_Intel.indd 8 16/04/2012 15:33

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01.11 // MODUS 09

115,000The total number of planning permissions granted

in the UK in 2011 – Westminster council alone received more than 12,000 applications

:ONE BIG QUESTION ARE YOU IN FAVOUR OF OR AGAINST THE UK’S PLANNED HIGH SPEED 2 RAIL LINK?

05.12 // MODUS 09

Take part in discussions by joining the RICS group at linkedin.com

Manchester I can’t help thinking that the multibillion investment would be better spent on a nationwide super-fast broadband network, so that people would not need to move around so much.

North West Roll on a privatised HS2 line that caters for the public and can provide an alternative route to major sporting events at Wembley when Network Rail maintenance blocks existing lines.

Yorkshire Apparently overcrowding on the West Coast line could be overcome by reverting back to 12-carriage trains. This seems a much quicker, less disruptive and more far-reaching solution.

Jim Hobbins FRICS, CBF Chartered Surveyors

Howard Klein MRICS, Klein Consult Ltd

Roderick Quentin Jeff erson MRICS, EWH Consulting Limited

London From my experience of the West Coast Main Line, there is not a lack of capacity, just an imbalance of fi rst- and standard-class accommodation with empty seats in fi rst class and a shortage in standard.

North East HS2 will do nothing for the North East, as with most infrastructure investment in this country. We can’t even get a dual carriageway linking us with Scotland. Too much power and infl uence in London.

Gary Beckwith, Building Needs

Michael Pinker FRICS, Synergy Construction & Property Consultants

UKTHAMES LINKCostain Group has commenced work on a road bridge to connect Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton. Designed by Atkins, the £32m bridge will be the fi rst over the Thames to be constructed using carbon instead of weathering steel. The Department of Transport has approved £23.8m for the project, with the remainder from Surrey County Council. Scheduled to complete next year, it will provide improved access for several schools, companies and shopping centres in the area.

GermanyWEIGHTY ISSUE

Contractor HochTief is facing a €40m (£33.4m) lawsuit from the city of Hamburg over escalating construction costs of the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Elbphilharmonie. Originally set to complete in 2010, HochTief stopped work on the concert hall last November after fears were raised over the stability of the existing building’s roof, upon which a prefabricated 2,000-tonne steel and concrete structure has been built. The completion date may now be moved to 2014.

LatviaBALTIC AIRA project team headed by UK/Norwegian fi rm Haptic, in collaboration with Narud Stokke Wiig Architects & Planners and Griff Arkitektur, has won an international competition to design a new airBaltic terminal at Riga International Airport. The fi rst phase will accommodate 7-8m passengers per year, with an eventual aim of 14m per year.

1,000MWThe growth in total solar power from

panel installations on homes, schools and fi elds in the UK since the Feed-in Tariff

was introduced in 2010 – there was just 26MW before the scheme began

MODUS_May_P08-13_Intel.indd 9 16/04/2012 15:33

Page 10: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

08 r ics.org10 r ics.org10 r ics.org

UNDER DEBATEAlthough the proposed multibillion-pound High Speed 2 line has been given the green light, it faces strong opposition

Debate

SHOULD THE NEW HIGH SPEED 2 RAIL LINK GO AHEAD?

YESDavid Baker MRICS MCILT Baker Rose Consulting

HS2 is crucial, but the simplistic time-traveller savings argument has confused the debate. It’s really about the capacity of the entire network. By

moving the high-speed services to a dedicated line, the slower commuter, cross-country and freight trains would get a huge increase in capacity as well. This would mean fewer cars and lorries on the road, and would help to keep our economy become more sustainable.

It’s down to train pathing. High-speed trains need much more headway than slower trains, further complicated by restrictions on services crossing the high-speed train path. The solution is to split the pipework, and run the low-pressure and high-pressure systems separately. The West Coast Main Line is a vital rail artery, which runs through highly populated areas that are struggling to expand their local and regional rail capacity to meet demand. Also, although the regeneration catalyst at Old Oak Common is a welcome bonus, let’s be clear – HS2 to Birmingham is not enough. The capacity constraints for freight to and from the North West, as well as regional and local traffic across the North, means that HS2 is seriously needed beyond the West Midlands.

The EU White Paper on transport costs and the UK government’s sustainability agenda recognise that fuel poverty and our dependency on oil are major threats to our future and that of our children. We procrastinate at our peril. New transport systems and ways of working will have to be developed, with larger numbers of people and freight using shared systems (and combinations of shared systems) until the fi nal miles of their individual journey.

It is undoubtedly diffi cult for those whose homes and businesses are disrupted – or indeed, removed – and it is imperative to seriously address this concern. Along with a high-speed rail system, a high-speed CPO compensation system is also required to encourage positive engagement and reward for agreement, and take the abortive costs of appeals, tribunals and judicial reviews out of the process. HS2 is not a political toy, and nor is it the only investment that is required by any means.

NOWill Abbott FRICS WJA Rural Practice

There is a fi rm belief among a sizeable proportion of the residents of the shire counties of Buckingham, Northampton and Warwick that, by having to

accommodate the HS2 proposals, they are paying the price for the fact that a third runway at Heathrow is an even less politically attractive proposal. The line will sear through and under the Metropolitan Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and, aside from relatively minor alterations to the route, no protection has been given to the designated areas of High or Attractive Landscape Value or to the Sites of Special Scientifi c Interest along it.

The shrill clarion calls for investment in infrastructure made by the various Chambers of Commerce in the Midlands and the North are dismissed by critics as both unquestioning and blinkered. After all, if HS2 is ever built, it will only attract or be available to the wealthy few, and those in the vicinity of the route whose lives have already been adversely affected will in due course be forced to travel fi rst to a city centre in order to access the service. Can this be either effi cient or environmentally friendly?

There is a real worry, too, that with an enormous price tag, the business case for the scheme has not been proven. Clearly there might be a consequential benefit in that existing rail infrastructure will be liberated to accommodate extra capacity, but experience suggests that there is only a febrile defence to the potential for cost overrun with a construction project of this magnitude. Until the hybrid bill to ratify the scheme is placed in front of parliament, we will not know what provisions will be made for compensation for those affected. Can a fair price ever be placed on the disruption caused by the injurious effect, severance or, at worst, demolition of a dwelling, farmstead or land that has often been in the hands of the same family for generations?

It is ironic that the preferred route initially proposed was designed to follow the ‘London extension’ to the Great Central Railways: a service from London to Sheffi eld and Manchester that was discontinued in 1960 and has gone down in the annals as ‘the shortest lived intercity railway line’. Do we really want to risk history repeating itself? Im

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MODUS_May_P08-13_Intel.indd 10 16/04/2012 15:33

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Books :REVIEWS

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As well as buildings, this deals with broader aspects of design such as materials, acoustics and lighting, with general data on human dimensions and space requirements.19108 // £39.99

This ninth edition of David Chappell’s bestselling guide has been revised to take into account changes made in 2011 to payment provisions.19156 // £24.99

The new standard text on the topic, this introduces designers to the principles and practice of designing for all people.TBC // £50

05.12 // MODUS 11

$600mThe loan amount (US$) the World Bank has

agreed to fi nance the upgrading and greening of the Rio de Janeiro Urban Rail System

Australia123 GO123 Albert Street, also known as the Rio Tinto Tower, has been completed in Brisbane’s central business district. Designed by Hassell and owned by Dexus Property Group, the 35-storey, premium-grade commercial tower includes around 38,000m2 of offi ce space and has been awarded a six-star Green Star Design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia for its host of energy-effi ciency measures. As well as a high-performance façade system that helps to regulate solar gain, the building features energy-effi cient artifi cial lighting, rainwater harvesting, and tenant waste and recycling management systems.

ChinaMASTER HUB

The city of Zhengzhou is one of China’s most important transportation hubs between Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. Architecture fi rm BDP has been selected to design a new station for a major high-speed rail link to the cities. Named the Zhengdong Transit Hub masterplan, the 3m m2 mixed-use scheme will handle more than 200,000 passengers per year, while the designers hope its innovative layout will help encourage effi cient pedestrian movement and social interaction through its retail, commercial, residential and cultural spaces.

$186mThe amount (US$) the

US Department of Transportation has granted

for the Joliet high-speed rail extension in the

Midwest

QatarONE VISIONAtkins has been selected by the Qatar Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning to support its multibillion-dollar transport and infrastructure programmes. Qatar’s 2030 vision for infrastructure development includes programmes for education, health, science and sport, with multimodal transport a priority. Atkins will establish a central planning offi ce to maximise cost-eff ectiveness and coordinate road, rail, metro and other major projects, some of them for the FIFA 2022 World Cup.

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NEWS BITES

Height guideIndia’s Environment Ministry has issued new guidelines to ensure roads outside high buildings have sufficient access for emergency fire services. The guidelines are in response to the increased pace of construction of high- rise buildings in urban centres, and a recent spate of fatal fires.

Mega healthEC Harris has been appointed as project manager on the £550m Hamad Medical City in Qatar, one of the world’s largest health schemes. The global consultancy will manage the development of around 250,000m2 of the 482,200m2 project with a team of 15 full-time staff.

Copper cleverAntimicrobial copper material has been installed on handrails, counter tops and lift guardrails in Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, to help reduce bacterial contamination levels. Tests have proved that bacterium is weakened when its electro micro-current comes into contact with a copper surface.

Green highwaysThe UK Highways Agency has launched a Sustainable Development Plan to develop and operate the road network more effectively and help protect the environment. One example cited is its M25 widening scheme, which has resulted in more than £15m being saved by recycling around 70% of waste.

12 r ics.org

Opinion

TRANSPORT SCHEMES MUST BE WELL DESIGNED AND IN THE RIGHT PLACESimon Rubinsohn RICS Chief Economist

It is almost inevitable that any big transport infrastructure development will provoke a backlash from one group

or another. You only have to look at the level of opposition to both High Speed 2 (HS2) and the ongoing proposals to increase airport capacity in the South East to see that this is as true today as it has been in the past. And while it is easy to fall back on the NIMBY (not in my back yard) tag to describe those in the vanguard of the protests against such projects, it would be wrong to completely ignore the economic arguments that are raised.

After all, a key challenge in attempting to assess the value of such projects is that, while the costs tend to be both large and very visible in the near term, the benefits only really accrue some years down the road. Moreover, the benefits tend to be very sensitive to the assumptions that underpin the analysis. This is clearly the case in the current example of HS2, with opponents questioning fundamental issues, such as the assumed income elasticity of demand for rail travel.

Predictably, a debate over the value of big infrastructure projects isn’t only found in the UK. Back in 2010, the US Department of the Treasury produced a report looking into this very subject. Among the conclusions was that well-designed investments in infrastructure have long-term economic benefits. In truth, this is a fairly uncontentious conclusion; even opponents of HS2 or the Heathrow expansion could happily go along with that. But determining what is a well-designed investment is more problematic.

I believe that, in most cases, the big UK infrastructure projects do end up being long-term successes, as well as providing a nearer-term boost for the economy in terms of job creation. However, it is critical that they are the right projects in the right areas. The Japanese response to its own crisis in the early 1990s provides a useful warning. Bridges built to nowhere in particular and unused roads now litter the countryside, and the economic recovery two decades later is still not convincing while gross public sector debt has ballooned to an unbelievable 200% of GDP.

ChinaAIR POWERChina is planning to build the world’s largest and busiest airport just outside Beijing at a reported cost of around US$15bn (£9.5bn). The new international airport will have nine runways when complete in 2017, with the capacity to serve up to 200m passengers and process 5.5m tonnes of cargo annually. Foster + Partners, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and HOK are just some of the firms shortlisted to design the project. Beijing International Airport is already the world’s second-largest airport in terms of passenger traffic, overtaking London Heathrow last year.

UKSOCIAL PARTNERSHIP

Barking and Dagenham council is to partner with Laing O’Rourke and asset developer Long Harbour in a private-sector partnership deal to build 477 affordable homes in the William Street Quarter. Under the £76m deal, the scheme will be self-financing from rents paid over the term of the lease, with houses reverting back to local authority control at a later point. The housing scheme is expected to complete in 2015. Anne Mews (pictured), designed by architects AHMM and Maccreanor Lavington with Rider Levett Bucknall as QS, is the first phase of the William Street Quarter masterplan, providing 31 new small-scale family council houses.

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Page 14: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

THE RISE OF THE

AEROTRO POLISIN A GLOBALISED WORLD, THE AIRPORT CITY THRIVES. AND THOSE THAT CANNOT COMPETE WILL STAGNATE, SAYS CHRISTOPHER CHOA

Air Lines, an art project by Mario Freese, tracks the paths of scheduled airline routes. Hubs such as New York’s JFK and Dubai create knots where multiple lines converge

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THE RISE OF THE

AEROTRO POLISAirport cities//

In many ways, cities are becoming more important than nations. If the 19th century was the age of empires, and the 20th century the age of nations, in the 21st century we are witnessing the rise of cities. This phenomenon

has profound implications for the way cities will develop in the future. In particular, we will see increasingly strong reciprocal relationships between traditional cities and their airports, and the emergence of a new urban typology: the airport city.

Globalised culture is changing the way residents of cities relate to each other. Thanks to the internet, the increasing accessibility of air travel and worldwide supply chains, residents of cities are becoming more temperamentally attuned to each other. More people live in cities than ever before, and they will have more in common with their urban peers thousands of miles away than with their neighbours in national hinterlands only a few hundred or even just a few dozen miles away.

We are deeply social creatures – we can’t avoid our inclinations to constantly establish new relationships and to exchange. Cities consolidate people, wealth and virtually all of global innovation. Above all, they allow us to trade. Virtually every other desirable urban possibility – stability, cultural offerings, social opportunities, coherent governance – is in one way or another dependent on the city’s role as an economic marketplace. The rise of cities in an increasingly globalised world affects the way they will develop in the future. If a city can leverage the connectivity of its global gateways to trade and exchange, the future looks bright. If it fails to establish mutual benefi ts for its gateways, its industries and its communities, then the city risks stagnation. In this globalised world, every city that seeks international relevance needs to focus on its core global strengths and connectivity to other cities, and less on regional relationships and limitations.

Throughout history, the dominant form of transportation of the time predicates the form and ultimately the infl uence of any city. In particular, the commercial activity has an intimate and reciprocal relationship with the transportation network that serves it. As the movement of people and goods becomes easier, the commercial and cultural activities of a city fl ourish. As the urban core evolves, it creates demand for additional and easier movement. In the age of camels and shoe leather, we saw the slow evolution of new urban forms: caravanserai along the Silk Road, the compact markets within the citadel of Jerusalem, the walled blocks of Chang’an in China. London’s 14th-century settlement was scarcely larger than its Roman-era footprint. Pre-industrial settlements very rarely exceeded a diameter of three miles, roughly no more than 40 minutes’ walking time from any point to the market centre.

In the age of maritime expansion, we saw how great coastal seaports such as Lisbon and Venice and the inland waterways of London and Amsterdam faced the shoreline and allowed these cities to dominate Atlantic and Mediterranean trade. >>

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The opening of the Erie Canal in North America created cities such as Syracuse and Buffalo from scratch, the urban cores of their entrepôt economies physically orientated towards the locks of canal barges.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution and the innovation of railway networks exploded the dimensions of the city. In 1830s London, new railway lines terminated at the edge of the city. But by 1860, within the span of a single generation, the area of London engulfed these gateways; the city formed itself around the stations, seeking to maximise access to them. Entire cities in North America grew up around rail hubs. The grid pattern of Chicago, centred around Union Station, recalls the expansive growth of rectangular stockyards made possible by railways. The evolving productivity and wealth of the city in turn created demands for more train and station capacities.

The automobile and the related development of express motorways exploded the traditional city. Cheap energy and mechanical innovation made it possible to dislocate functions and land uses that had always been closely clustered together. The traditional value of proximity, expressed as urban density, was replaced by the ease of private rapid movement. The dominant transport gateway, once marine port or train station,

was now the motorway slip road and the car park. The diameter of a typical large city, once no more than three miles in pre-industrial times, now ballooned up to 30 miles across – a hundred times the land area of its antecedent. Interestingly, while the physical dimensions of these two examples are vastly different, the dimensions as measured by time remain approximately the same – still roughly 40 minutes’ travel from most points to the centre.

CITY AIRPORT TO AIRPORT CITYNow, in the age of global air travel, like the ports and railway terminals that came before it, the airport is increasingly the principal economic gateway for a city’s trade and exchange. Once banished to the peripheral limits of the city – like London’s railway stations in 1830 – airports are now becoming increasingly centralised both in a city’s commercial patterns and absorbed within the form of the city itself. High-value activities that are part of time-sensitive global supply chains are drawn to the airport; the airport city consolidates peripheral development into a coherent urban core adjacent to the airport limits, and occasionally into the very centre of the airport.

The presence of these activities creates demand for additional aviation movements, which in turn stimulates additional high-value activity. Virtually every land use that can be found in a traditional downtown has a counterpart in the airport city. The growth rate of real estate values in the airport city is greater than in most traditional downtowns. In some cases, for example Amsterdam, the absolute values of airport city real estate is equivalent to or greater than rents in the traditional downtown. The city airport becomes the airport city.

Airport cities//

‘Throughout history, the dominant form of transportation predicates the form and infl uence of any city’

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The reciprocal benefi ts between the airport and the airport city, between ‘airside’ and ‘landside’ developments are important. If airside activities increase – more destinations, more passengers, more cargo – then landside developments become more valuable as they benefi t from the increasing demand of additional visitors. If landside developments grow in variety, breadth and scale, then they become a destination for travellers and cargo, which in turn encourages the growth of airside capacities. The airport city leverages the connectivity of the airport, and transforms the traditional hinterland city into an aerotropolis.

Aviation will play an increasingly important role in global trade and urban growth patterns; the increasing centrality of aviation in our global life closely infl uences a city’s economic outlook and its competitive priorities. Worldwide, passenger movements continue to grow steadily at around 5% per year – with some regions, including Asia and the Middle East, increasing well above that rate, even during the current global recession. When measured by weight, less than 2% of global trade travels in the belly of a plane. But when measured by value, we know that 40% of global trade now moves by air – an astonishing fi gure. These high-value, low-weight products (technology components, pharmaceuticals, perishables) are part of complex and extended production/assembly/distribution/consumption networks.

Independent components of consumer goods are increasingly produced by a wide range of sources, combined or assembled in specialised zones before being transhipped to fi nal destinations. Professional services, tourism, leisure, entertainment, cultural offerings and higher education are also part of global networks, with key resources in one city catalysing and leveraging the work of others in another distant urban centre. Any city that seeks to derive comparative advantages by producing and consuming products and services through these evolving and dynamic supply chains will inevitably embrace aviation gateways.

The airport provides international access to the city. If the number of international destinations served by the airport grows, then we can appreciate that the presence

of the airport will continue to be a factor for international companies when they choose where to base their enterprises. These businesses in turn generate economic activity and diversify the regional economy.

Every one million passengers per year that travel through an airport can support up to 3,000 direct, indirect or catalytic jobs. If an airport can transform itself from regional destination into global hub, it makes itself even more valuable; every regularly scheduled fl ight that travels through a hub airport supports around 2,000 direct and indirect jobs. These are fi gures that should be of interest to those in government, who genuinely seek to create employment opportunities for their constituents. Related cargo operations are also a major factor in the creation of economic value, because they also create employment related to the transhipment of goods. Memphis International Airport is not a major passenger destination, but it is the global cargo hub for FedEx and a wide range of other freight forwarding companies. It is one of the largest commercial logistics centres in the US, with a base of international corporations that are served by the city and airport, and serve the city and airport in return.

As competitive cities continue to develop their respective comparative advantages in a globalising world, the city and its airport will increasingly rely on each other. If the airport does well, then the region’s economy benefi ts. If the regional economy does well, then the airport will grow. A 10% increase in passenger throughput creates a 2% growth in the regional economy. A 1% increase in regional growth rate produces 2.7% more passengers. The future prospects of the city and the airport are inextricably linked.

In a globalising world, cities compete worldwide by cooperating with each other. They seek comparative advantages through specialisation – producing a surplus of what they are good at, and trading with other cities that produce other things that they seek to consume. That’s true whether the urban economy creates sub-components for products, grows exportable foods, assembles kits from other places or simply tranships material. It’s true if a city’s media industry makes >>

Aecom’s masterplans for Hyderabad, India (left), and Brisbane, Australia (above left), cities that are using airport hub strategies to raise themselves into the global top tier

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movies or records music, its academics develop the intellectual capacities of university students or professional consultants fl y out to distant projects.

The most successful cities are globally relevant urban hubs, important nodes in the global economic system. Their activities have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means. But the premium positions of global cities are not guaranteed; their rise and fall is directly attributable to how socially and politically cosmopolitan they are, and how they leveraged the global transportation networks of their time. Alexandria in Egypt and Xi’an in China have fallen from the ‘global hub’ top tier, as have Venice and Moscow.

Some cities, such as Amsterdam and Frankfurt, have declined but are rising again, largely due to their ability to leverage their aviation capacities. Others, such as Dubai, have entered the top tier through their single-minded devotion to becoming an aeronautical hub – a city of just two million people becomes globally relevant primarily because it’s a place that people pass through on their way to somewhere else. Other cities, from Cairo and Hyderabad to Brisbane and Madrid, are using airport city strategies to leapfrog themselves into the upper global tiers. We know this intimately because as

economists, planners and urban designers, we are looking at how to best plan new urban cores in the centre of their hub airports, creating new central business and industrial districts than will transform their traditional downtowns into aerotropolises.

LONDON’S FUTURELondon has been a global city through the age of empire and the age of nations. It created critical advantages for itself by forming and adapting around dominant transportation gateways. Inland maritime ports, expansive railway terminals, extensive underground stations, motorway networks and dispersed airports all boosted London’s economic potential to trade and exchange, and created the original foundations for innovation and wealth. In this era of globalisation, when cities around the world pull away from nations and seek more direct links with each other, London faces a new challenge: can it remain connected to the rest of the world? More specifi cally, can London connect effectively to the emerging economies of the world and in particular to the scores of rising new cities that are themselves creating new foundations for growth and innovation? Right now, the answer is no.

London will always be a signifi cant destination. But London’s (and the UK’s) primary international hub and Europe’s busiest airport – Heathrow – is constrained. It no longer has the capacity to connect to the economies of emerging cities, and genuinely risks stagnation as a result. China Southern, China’s largest airline, currently does not have a single fl ight landing at Heathrow; there is no room – the airport is operating at 99.2% capacity at a time when other Continental airports such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are actively and strategically

Airport cities//

‘Every regularly scheduled fl ight that travels through a hub airport supports around 2,000 jobs’

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:ULTRA EFFICIENT HEATHROW’S PRT SYSTEM

Driverless ‘pod’ cars whizzing along a track high above the ground – it’s a scene more reminiscent of a theme park or futuristic movie. Since September, passengers travelling between Heathrow’s business car park and Terminal 5 have been experiencing a similar vision of the future, by hopping into their very own ULTra personal rapid transit (PRT) vehicle.

Built for BAA by Arup and ULTra PRT, a transit systems developer in association with Bristol University, the world’s fi rst commercial and public PRT system began development in 2005, and has launched with 21 automatically controlled vehicles. Whereas most mass-transit systems in airports move people in groups over scheduled routes and times, Heathrow’s PRT system aims to increase effi ciency by moving smaller groups quickly and non-stop, and by being available for use whenever the passenger requires.

‘It’s a quirky system,’ says Austin Smith, a chartered civil engineer and associate director at Arup. ‘We were charged with delivering the track layout and infrastructure against some tough objectives – not only did it have to be easy to construct and be as lightweight as possible, BAA wanted us to make sure the operation of the airport wasn’t aff ected.’ To ensure this, Arup developed a 3D testing model for the guideway, and came up with an alignment and span arrangement that avoided impacting on existing infrastructure. Passenger feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and business car park use has risen as people are also drawn to it as an attraction.

A similar PRT system, developed by 2getthere, has been operating in the Masdar eco-city in Abu Dhabi since 2010 to serve the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. This year, ULTra will collaborate with Fairwood Consultants to build the world’s fi rst urban PRT system in Amritsar, India, to serve up to 500,000 people who visit the city’s Golden Temple on religious festival days.

building operating capacity. Other airlines from emerging economies would like to add new routes at Heathrow, but are also unable to do so because of a lack of take-off and landing slots. There are 21 emerging market destinations with daily fl ights from Continental European hubs but not from Heathrow; a fact that costs the UK economy £1.2bn a year in lost trade.

London is an aerotropolis, for now – until recently, its global air connectivity and its strong transport connections from airport to city have leveraged the productive and innovative capacities of residents and visitors. But in the long term, even incremental expansion of Heathrow will not be enough to allow London to maintain its privileged opportunities as a hub; it is losing out to strategic competitors on the Continent. And with the migration of connectivity to Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam go many of the industry and services that require the competitive advantages a hub gives them.

There are proposals for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary, powerful long-term solutions that will create world-class opportunities for London in the age of cities. And it’s not just about the airport. Locating a new hub in the estuary creates other synergies that are impossible to achieve even if Heathrow could expand – 24-hour operations (essential for cargo), multimodal connections with the maritime port, comprehensive development of a new airport city that can reinforce London’s strength as an aerotropolis, economic development of the region. But given the political dimensions and planning policy in the UK, even the best of the estuary plans are still at least 20 years off. There are some short-term fi xes (maybe an additional runway) but no medium-term ones.

Will London position itself for the next wave of innovation, or will it stagnate? Should it start preparing to become just another Alexandria or Venice? In the globalising age of cities, with the world’s centre of gravity and new opportunities shifting eastwards, will London thrive?

Christopher Choa is an architect and urban designer, and a principal with Aecom Design + Planning. aecom.com

05.12 // MODUS 19

Architects Foster + Partners’ proposal for the Thames Hub (nicknamed ‘Boris Island’) in London’s Thames Estuary (left) and Aecom’s design for an airport hub in Cairo, EgyptIm

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Rail commercial director, Costain

Interview by Cherry Maslen Photograph by Nick Ballon

ANDY DIXON1o minutes with…

‘The Bond Street Tube station upgrade is one of the most complex and challenging projects I’ve ever worked on. It’s a six-year, £150m design and construct scheme right on the corner of Oxford Street and Bond Street, the busiest shopping area in Europe. This is a station used by 155,000 people every day, and it has to be kept open no matter how difficult that makes the project. The ground conditions are incredibly complicated, not least because of the extensive utilities in that location, but also the need to limit settlement of adjacent buildings and the existing tunnels. There are also heritage issues in this part of central London to consider.

The upgrade is essential to relieve congestion and increase capacity, improve accessibility and create the interchange with Crossrail. There are enormous time pressures on a public infrastructure project like this, more so this year because of the Olympics. But it’s also exciting, and I like the buzz of working with a big co-located team of upwards of 100 people, including engineers and construction managers as well as QS. What has made a massive difference is using building information modelling (BIM). We’ve used this 3D tool for up to 10 years, but it’s become much more sophisticated and user-friendly. BIM is extremely important when you’re

working on a transport site like Bond Street where there are major utilities and existing building services to coordinate with – it adds enormously to the robustness of the design and construct transition, improving our cost, time and safety performance.

Apart from Bond Street I look after eight other live jobs, including major redevelopments at London Bridge and Farringdon stations. Nearly all my work is in London, which I’m very happy with. I live in the city so can cycle to work, though it’s rare for me to be in one place all day – I have desks in several of our offices. On a typical day… well, there just isn’t one. Each day is a mix of demands, more strategic and relationship focused than technical these days. I’m rarely reading a contract, more often working with teams to improve performance on live contracts and during the tendering process.

I really enjoy working for a contractor because you’re close to the decision-making process and you have to be very creative at finding solutions to problems. The power of a team working well never ceases to excite me. I’ve worked in other sectors, but in a way I’ve come full circle since my first student summer job with a local building contractor in Norwich where I grew up. I started doing odd jobs in the drawing office, helping with

estimates and ordering materials, and progressed from there. I remember working on my first spreadsheet on an Amstrad – I wrote the payroll software! I stayed with the company for three years while I did my QS qualifications with RICS. Working at the grassroots level was good experience; I liked the cut and thrust of helping the firm make money in a very competitive environment.

I’d like to see a wider cross-section of people entering the industry – we lack ethnic diversity at senior level, and women are hopelessly under-represented – it’s important that our industry reflects society so we can properly understand where we’re going. I don’t think young people realise how interesting and rewarding this sector can be, so we have to be much bolder about promoting the benefits. I’m on an RICS infrastructure board where part of our remit is to think about the future role of the institution and its members. The work of a QS has already changed so much that the term is no longer accurate. Once it was about taking measurements and ‘billing’ them, now it’s more about multitasking as a business manager, accountant and project leader. Anyone prepared to be flexible and adapt to whatever is needed can have a really interesting and rewarding career using a very wide range of their skills.costain.com ’

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Alan Willby FRICS outside the Velodrome – one of the venues

he has helped deliver as head of cost management for the ODA

Profile//

As commercial director of the rail sector at Costain Group, Andy Dixon MRICS

is responsible for a number of current station redevelopment projects in London

MODUS_May_P20-21_Profile_v2.indd 21 16/04/2012 16:58

Page 22: RICS Modus, Global edition — May 2012

THE UK’S HIGH SPEED 2 LINE HAS BEEN GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT. BUT WILL IT BE A SMOOTH RIDE?

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It’s 2026 and you’re boarding a brand-new train in Birmingham. You settle into your seat, fire up your solar-powered 10th-generation iPad, and a few emails later you’re 140 miles south in London. Welcome to the UK’s high-speed future. Reaching

speeds of 250mph, the proposed £32.7bn High Speed 2 (HS2) line, which was given the go-ahead by government in January, will cut the journey time from London Euston to Birmingham city centre from one hour 24 minutes to just 49 minutes. After phase one completes in 2026, phase two would see the line extended further north, dividing into a Y shape to reach Leeds and Manchester, and potentially Scotland, as well as incorporating a spur to Heathrow Airport, by 2033.

Alison Munro, chief executive of High Speed Two Limited (HS2 Ltd), the company set up by government to deliver the line, says the project is great news for RICS members. ‘It is good for the country and for the construction industry,’ she says. ‘HS2 will create 9,000 jobs directly during the peak construction period, and a huge amount of further work will be sparked around the new stations and from regeneration projects.’ It’s also ‘the largest transport infrastructure project this country has seen for years’. Indeed, the project’s price tag is double that of Crossrail, and its scope has been compared to building Britain’s motorways. Little wonder, then, that the scheme, conceived under the last Labour government, enjoys cross-party support.

Despite this, questions remain over whether HS2 will happen, or happen in full. It faces fierce opposition, which is par for the course for a project on this scale, but more worryingly for its supporters, there are concerns over its economic viability. ‘High-speed lines around the world are notorious for not making money,’ says Manish Gupta, a partner in the infrastructure advisory at Ernst & Young, which has worked on the business case. ‘All rail networks are subsidised, and high-speed lines are particularly costly because they require specialist technology and are geared to carry fewer passengers over longer distances.’

The need for the line to be as straight as possible adds to the cost, too. It will have to cut through the UK’s hilly countryside, making high-speed rail even more expensive here than it is in countries such as France, where more of the landscape is flat. ‘HS2 will lose money on a cash basis,’ Gupta says. ‘It will not be able to recover its capital cost and operating costs. Based on experience from other countries, we would expect fares to cover running costs and some capital costs, maybe not in excess of 30%. So the business case will rely on strategic, economic and environmental benefits.’

While HS2 does seem likely to deliver the environmental benefit of cutting domestic flights, the idea that it will boost the national economy is far from proven. ‘The benefits are hard to prove,’ says Nigel Harris, managing director of independent firm The Railway Consultancy. ‘The argument is that more people will travel to Birmingham, giving the city an economic boost. But it is possible it would only benefit London.’ For instance, a company headquartered in the capital might choose to close its Birmingham office once it becomes possible to travel to the UK’s second city more quickly. Equally, while saving travelling time would in theory give people more time to work, Harris says that many work on the train. If a bullet-proof economic case is to be >>

Words by Roxane McMeeken

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‘It will not be able to recover its capital cost, so the business case will rely on strategic, economic and environmental benefits’

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HS2 Ltd’s design for Birmingham Curzon

Street Station, which it hopes will kick-start

regeneration in the surrounding area

established, then more debate would help. ‘I would like to see more intelligent discussion,’ says Don Ward, chief executive of Constructing Excellence. ‘What is HS2 there to do? The benefits are a bit vague at the moment.’

The good news is that the economic and financial case appears to be winnable. Over the past 15 years, the number of long-distance journeys within the UK has doubled – even increasing by 14% during the past three years of economic stagnation, according to HS2 Ltd. This pace of growth means that the West Coast Main Line, which runs from London to Scotland, is forecast to be overloaded in 15 years. ‘A new line is needed, so why not make it high speed, shrinking the distance between cities and expanding the markets and labour that businesses can access?’ says Munro. ‘This will also increase the UK’s attractiveness for investors. In short, HS2 is an opportunity to make a real step change for the UK economy.’

A critical factor in this argument will be keeping within budget. Stan Hornagold FRICS is a director of management consultant Marstan Group, and advised the UK and French governments on assessing bids for the Channel Tunnel. ‘On these types of projects, people get squeezed into trying to cope with an impossible figure,’ he says. ‘They inevitably can’t keep to it and the project is branded a failure halfway through construction.’ This can be avoided, he says, by ‘coming up with a figure that is feasible and includes a massive contingency. This is what they did with London 2012 – once they got the figure right – and it stayed where it was. Now the project is seen as a huge success.’

The other key project to learn from is the on-time and on-budget High Speed 1 (HS1), formerly known as the

Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Paul Chapman MRICS, chief executive of sustainable products start-up Matilda’s Planet, is its former managing director. ‘It’s important to plan backwards,’ he says. ‘You have to think about how you want the railway to operate and work back from that to ensure a smooth transition from the construction phases to the operation phase.’ In his experience, there are a number of pressure points where such projects are most at risk of busting the budget or programme, so particular attention must be given to ensuring these stay on track. This will be down to surveyors, he says. Unlike others on the project who are focused on one aspect, such as design or tunnelling, surveyors ‘see and understand the whole project in all its different manifestations’. This gives them a unique opportunity to ‘identify where a risk is likely to materialise and mitigate it’.

The pressure points to watch out for include the interface between the new line and the existing network. ‘Putting two different rails together is hugely complex, especially because each has its rules and signalling systems,’ Chapman says. The procurement of the power supply from National Grid is another tricky area. ‘A good supply of power to the line is critical, so you have to work closely with National Grid to get the substations in the right place along the route and ensure continuity of power in case of outages.’

The surveyors on the project will also have to break down the construction and engineering into finely balanced packages. ‘The interfaces between the packages are another risk – the more you have, the greater the risk of lack of coordination between the firms appointed,’ Chapman explains. ‘But if the packages are too large this will hinder competition, as few firms will have the scale to be able to bid.’ On HS1 the optimal size was deemed to be around £150m.

Deciding what to bundle up into a package involves another delicate balance. ‘One of the most challenging aspects of any project is the M&E package, because it is so integral. On HS1 we had to decide whether to put elements like ventilation, lifts, tunnel lighting and fire safety into separate packages with a single specialist devoted to that

HS2//

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one element, or bundle them into a single package, which would reduce risk.’ HS1 opted for the latter. ‘It was right for that project because we had a continuous length, but as HS2 has a number of different tunnelling sections it may be that more than one contractor is right. Either way, it does need to be thought about.’

Indeed, key differences between the two high-speed projects mean that HS2 cannot follow HS1’s approach entirely. A crucial factor is the slower speed of HS1, which reaches a maximum of 140mph. ‘The greater speed of HS2 brings smaller tolerances, for example in the vertical alignment of the rail, so an even greater degree of precision will be required for the project,’ says Chapman. This will necessitate using highly specialist plant and equipment. Some of this is in short supply globally, meaning surveyors will have to manage the supply chain carefully to avoid delays. The technology will be different, too. ‘HS2 will have potentially more technology risk due to the higher speed and different type of signalling equipment.’

Fortunately, both risk and cost control are already off to a good start. In January HS2 Ltd appointed programme manager CH2M Hill as delivery partner, with construction scheduled to start in 2017. ‘We are working with our development partner to really get to the bottom of the cost estimate and produce a targeted approach to ensure we stick to the figure. The aim will be to manage by reference to the cost throughout,’ says Munro. Contingency figures are also being fleshed out. ‘We will need to set aside contingency pots for certain risks, and we are working out exactly what those risks are now. Further ahead we will be doing work to identify the best contractual structures.’

As the work progresses, opportunities for surveyors will multiply as an array of further costs and risks require managing. ‘There will be huge opportunities spread throughout the country for RICS members,’ says Gupta. Many of the surveying and project management firms appointed in January to the HS2 professional services framework (see panel right) will be recruiting. CH2M Hill, for instance, has said it will hire 90 professionals.

There will also be myriad opportunities for companies outside the framework. These range from advising

landowners on how to deal with the line, to work linked to HS2 Ltd’s compulsory purchase powers (which it is due to have after gaining Royal Assent for a hybrid bill, targeted for 2015), to the spin-off regeneration projects. Birmingham and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham are likely to be regeneration hot-spots.

The final element in making HS2 a success will be its funding model. ‘The funding of the railway itself is expected to come largely from government, but they will be looking at opportunities for private sector contributions,’ says Munro. Gupta believes investors could be attracted to developing individual stations, while discrete elements such as rolling stock or signalling equipment could be delivered by the private sector. There may also be bonds issued and taxes on businesses and domestic flights, though these ultimately amount to government debt, he adds.

So with the bulk of the scheme being funded by the taxpayer, the project will only really stack up if it brings tangible benefit to the national economy. ‘The solution is to promote usage, create economic regeneration around the development, and promote policies that drive people to public transport,’ says Gupta. A key part in this will be extending the line northwards. ‘The full benefits will accrue when you can shrink a really significant journey, such as London to Glasgow.’

A successful HS2 project will also enhance UK construction’s exportability. ‘With HS1, [London] 2012 and Crossrail, the UK is developing an enviable track record for delivering these types of infrastructure projects,’ says Ward. HS2 could cement that. But whether the line will make it as far as Scotland is uncertain. Ward says he is ‘moderately concerned’ that this final part of the equation, scheduled for 2033, won’t happen, due to the vagaries of the future. ‘Who knows where we’ll be in 20 years?’ Let’s hope the answer is boarding a high-speed train for Edinburgh, 20th-generation iPad in hand.

Share your views on HS2 by emailing [email protected] or tweeting @modusmag.

:THE LONG LIST CHOSEN HS2 CONSULTANTS

CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL DESIGN SERVICES (Lot 1)Arup Aecom-Hyder WSP Mott MacDonald JacobsAtkins Capita Symonds-Ineco

RAILWAY SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES (Lot 2)Parsons Brinckerhoff Mott MacDonald Arup-Systra JACOBS

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (Lot 3)Arup Jacobs Atkins ERM WSP

LAND REFERENCING SERVICES (Lot 4)TerraQuest Mouchel Mott MacDonald Miller & Bryce

Design consultancy Priestmangoode’s concept for the Mercury, a double-decker high-speed train that

it believes could become a British design classic

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High-speed rail//

WITH THOUSANDS OF KILOMETRES OF LINES ALREADY IN OPERATION, EUROPE AND CHINA LEAD THE WAY

IN THE GLOBAL RACE TO HIGH-SPEED RAILWords by Samantha Whitaker Illustration by Adam Softley

ON TRACK

SPAIN IS LEADING THE WAY in Europe, with a total of 2,056km of high-speed lines in operation. The Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is the second-longest network in the world after China and accounts for 35% of all European high-speed lines.

The acronym translates as ‘bird’ in Spanish, and the bullet trains fl y along at speeds of up to 330kph (205mph), with a punctuality score of 98.8%. Unlike Spain’s conventional 1,668mm wide-gauge tracks, the AVE features a standard European track width of 1,435mm, signalling the

country’s enthusiasm for European involvement.

In total, the network connects 21 cities and transports 11,500 passengers a day. The 471km Madrid to Seville line was the fi rst to open in 1992, with the aim of helping develop the Andalusia region as a tourist destination. The popular 621km Madrid to Barcelona line opened in 2008, ferrying passengers between the capital and second city in less than three hours, and taking a huge volume of traffi c away from the world’s busiest air shuttle.

The delivery of high-speed rail in Spain is managed under

a public private partnership, and there are currently 1,767km of lines under construction. At an estimated cost of €12.5bn (£10.4bn), the 940km Madrid to Levante line will be the country’s most expensive high-speed rail project. Construction has also already begun on the Spanish side of the Madrid to Lisbon line, which will reduce travel time between the two capital cities to around three hours. Also, the LGV Perpignan to Figueres high-speed rail line, which opened in December 2010, linking Spain and France, is being extended to Barcelona.

Other high-speed projects in Spain include extensions to the Madrid to Valladolid and Madril to Seville lines, and the Basque Y line, which will link the three Basque capitals – Vitoria-Gasteiz, Bilbao and San Sebastián. There are also plans for an interconnecting tunnel between Madrid’s Atocha and Chamartín stations, which will allow services a non-stop route between the northern and southern cities. Currently, the only option is for trains to bypass Madrid or for the driver to walk from one end of the train to the other, both of which impact on journey times. >>

SPAIN // 2,056km in operation, 1,767km under construction

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CHINA’S FIRST high-speed line opened just before the August 2008 Olympics, delivering a 30-minute passenger service between Beijing and Tianjin. Around 69,000 people now use the service daily. The world’s fastest line, from Wuhan to Guangzhou, opened in January 2011, with trains travelling 968km non-stop at an average speed of 313kph (195mph). China’s two largest cities, Beijing

and Shanghai, were connected in June 2011 with a 1,318km high-speed link capable of ferrying passengers in four hours 48 minutes – compared to around 10 hours on the previous railway.

With a population of just under 1.4bn, China has some of the world’s most densely populated areas. The State Council’s Mid and Long-Term Plan (MLTP) for railway development, adopted in 2004 and revised upwards in

2008, aims to increase the total rail network to 120,000km by 2015, including the construction of 16,000km of high-speed lines. China will then have more high-speed railway than the rest of the world put together.

Total investment in high-speed rail to 2020 has been estimated at around US$300bn (£190bn). Currently, 4,339km of high-speed lines are under construction and a further

2,901km planned. However, a corruption scandal, and a fatal crash in July 2011 that killed 40 people, have led to increasing public anger and concerns about the safety of the network, casting a shadow over the development of railway projects. Trains on the Beijing to Shanghai line, for example, have been slowed from 380kph (236mph) to 300kph (186mph) to improve safety and reduce operating costs.

EXPECTED TO OPEN at the end of 2012, the 450km Haramain High Speed Rail Project (HHR) will link the Muslim holy cities of Medina and Mecca, cutting the journey time to around two hours. The US$1.8bn (£1.1bn) contract for phase one of the project, which began in 2009 led by the Al Rajhi Alliance, a consortium of China Railway Engineering and Saudi’s Alstom Transport, includes civil works, such as construction of

bridges, retaining walls, tunnels and embankments. Phase one also includes the US$38m (£24m) construction of five passenger stations in Mecca, King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Medina and two in Jeddah. Due to the fast-track construction schedule, designers Foster + Partners have adopted a modularised approach for the stations, with a high degree of prefabrication.

Phase two of HHR was awarded to Al Shoula, a Spanish-Saudi consortium, and involves the construction of railway tracks, signalling, operation and maintenance over the next 12 years, and the procurement of 35 high-speed electric trains capable of running at 360kph (223mph). The track will be designed to handle temperature fluctuations, which range from 0-50°C in the region.

Each year the city of Mecca attracts around 2.5m Hajj pilgrims and more than 2m Umrah performers during Ramadan and seasonal holidays. And with a resident population of 1.7m there is already heavy traffic, particularly on Fridays. The high-speed service will significantly relieve the pressure on the roads and drastically reduce energy consumption and pollution levels in Saudi Arabia.

SAUDI ARABIA // 450km under construction

CHINA // 6,299km in operation, 2,901km planned

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05.12 // MODUS 29

THE US IS LAGGING BEHIND when it comes to high-speed rail. With only one 362km line currently in operation, it has looked on with envy at high-speed development elsewhere in the world. Opened in 2000, the Acela Express runs between Washington DC and Boston via New York City. Although the trains are capable of maximum speeds of 241kph (150mph), they only average around 126kph (78mph) as the

track is shared with lower-speed passenger and freight services.

This year should see construction begin on the first phase of a 1,287km network in California, administered under the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which will connect the San Francisco Bay area with Los Angeles, reducing travel times to just two hours 40 minutes. From here, extensions to San Diego and Sacramento are also

planned. Initially, the network was estimated to cost US$40bn (£25bn), with construction costs provided by the federal government and through P3 (public private partnership) funding. However, the authority has recently released a business plan estimating that the cost will be US$98.5bn (£62.4bn) – more than double the initial estimate – due to extended construction schedules and the need to match

possible future inflation. Also, the 2008 estimate expected construction to be complete by 2020, but the revised plan has pushed this back to 2033.

The region is an earthquake zone and prone to dense fogs, making the already congested roads even more hazardous. And with California’s population expected to grow from 35m to 48m by 2030, the high-speed line will be a welcome addition.

NEARLY 10M PEOPLE live along Australia’s east coast between Brisbane and Melbourne. In September 2010, Infrastructure Partnership Australia and Aecom launched a A$20m (£13.5m) study to identify possible land corridors that could support a high-speed railway network.

Phase one of the study found that the network would cost A$61-108bn (£41-73bn) and cover around 1,600km, passing

through Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, the NSW Southern Highlands, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Tullamarine Airport and Melbourne. Trains would travel at up to 350kph (217mph), reducing journey times to just three hours between Sydney and Brisbane, and carry around 54m passengers a year by 2036, massively easing the pressure on the Sydney to Melbourne air corridor, which is

currently the fifth busiest in the world. And with each full train of 450 passengers equivalent to taking 128 cars off the roads, levels of carbon pollution would be drastically reduced. A high-speed line linking Sydney and Canberra airports, which is part of the proposed network, would provide an effective and much-needed second airport for Sydney.

In response to the study, design practice HASSELL has

developed a pioneering new concept for the Australian High Speed Vehicle. The proposed low-carbon, double-decker train looks very different to current designs, and inside would offer spacious, open-plan seating, with private berths for business meetings and luxury travel.

Phase two of the study, which will be far more detailed, has now commenced, and is scheduled for completion in late 2012.

AUSTRALIA // 1,600km proposed

US // 362km in operation, 1,287km planned

High-speed rail//

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TUCA//

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VISIONTUNNEL

STUART WATSON VISITS THE ACADEMY TRAINING A NEW GENERATION OF

UNDERGROUND SPECIALISTSPhotography Peter Guenzel

05.12 // MODUS 31

VISIONTUNNEL

Photography Peter Guenzel

Over the next two decades, the British construction industry will be going underground. Starting with Crossrail, a string of huge infrastructure

projects will require many miles of tunnel – but the expertise required is in desperately short supply. A new government-sponsored academy is aiming to address that deficiency and train a homegrown workforce fit to take on the challenge.

The Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) lies beside the railway tracks not far from Ilford station, between the London boroughs of Newham and Redbridge. Its hulking black form is designed to look like a tunnelling machine emerging from the ground. TUCA welcomed its first students in September 2011, as part of a phased opening programme, and over the lifetime of the project will offer training to 3,500 people in underground construction alone, and to many more in a variety of other building-related disciplines.

In the first years of its existence, the academy will focus on providing skilled workers for the £15bn Crossrail project, which will deliver a new east-west railway line beneath the streets of central London in 2018. Further tunnelling-related infrastructure projects will follow: the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel, designed to prevent sewerage discharges into the river, will extend for 25km under central London; National Grid is planning a further 32km of tunnel to carry electricity cables beneath the capital; the HS2 London to Birmingham rail project will require more than 35km of tunnel; and if phase two of Crossrail is given the go-ahead, another length of tunnel will be needed to link Hackney to Chelsea.

At present, the UK lacks sufficient skilled workers to deliver these projects. ‘One of the reasons for the academy was that it was felt that tunnelling as an occupation was a dying industry,’ explains Claire Parry, head of skills and employment at Crossrail. >>

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Parry claims that the facility is probably the only soft-rock tunnelling academy in the world. Previously nearly all training for tunnelling-related activities in the UK took place in the workplace, but TUCA provides a space to practise and make mistakes in an atmosphere that is both much safer and less time-pressured than a tunnel environment.

Students will come from a variety of backgrounds. Some will be experienced tunnel workers seeking to bring their skills up to date, or receive formal endorsement of those they already possess. Unlike other branches of the construction industry, tunnellers often have little in the way of formal qualifications, in many cases because they do not yet exist. New qualifications in tunnelling will be developed by the academy as part of its programme. In addition, all employees working underground on the Crossrail project will have to receive health and safety training in order to be issued with a mandatory Tunnel Safety Card.

Safety is a high priority for Crossrail in an industry where workers’ lives are at risk on big projects. ‘It is a very dangerous job,’ admits Parry. ‘It’s why the culture has been to work in close teams, often families or whole villages. Traditionally, they haven’t been keen to introduce new entrants because they are very reliant on each other. If you haven’t got the ground conditions right, or you haven’t sprayed the concrete properly, or you haven’t supported the roof, it will kill you.’

The academy will also train young and unemployed people in tunnelling and general construction skills. With work on Crossrail only just beginning, TUCA’s efforts up to now have focused on pre-employment training, funded through the European Social Fund. So far around 400 people have undertaken courses of this kind at the academy. Paul Jackson, 25, from Harrow, and Max Price, 21, from Walthamstow, are two of them. Both

were referred to TUCA through their local job centres, and after studying courses including manual handling, steel fixing and health and safety, they have been offered jobs by Crossrail contractor BBMV (a consortium made up of Balfour Beatty, ALPINE BeMo Tunnelling, Morgan Sindall and VINCI Construction). They will be ‘chainmen’, assisting surveyors in carrying out measurements.

‘We’ll be among the first chainmen down there,’ says Price. ‘It’s good being involved in something so big, and in London as well. I can see big potential with the Crossrail project. There will be a lot of opportunities in the future, hopefully leading towards engineering or surveying. Without qualifications you have to start somewhere.’

After leaving school Jackson worked as a building site labourer, before a lack of construction industry qualifications forced him into warehouse work, which he found tedious. ‘I’d like to think if we stick at it, and work hard, we can get the training through Balfour Beatty and become engineers ourselves,’ he says. ‘Crossrail guarantees at least five years’ work, and I’m sure there’ll be opportunities to go elsewhere afterwards. Maybe we can work in another country one day.’

In February, Prime Minister David Cameron visited TUCA during National Apprenticeship Week. Over the lifetime of the project, Crossrail has pledged to create 400 apprenticeships, with 73 trainees already placed in the past year. Crossrail obliges its contractors to take on at least one new entrant to the industry for every £3m of contract value: ‘While the contractors don’t have an obligation for the people they take on to be apprentices, we encourage them to explain why it shouldn’t be an apprenticeship,’ says Parry.

Training is provided by the National Construction College. Parry explains that one

‘There were probably only about 500 tunnellers left in the UK, and most of them were working abroad or are elderly and leaving the industry. The age profile is well over 50. There has been little work [in recent years] except for the Jubilee line extension and Channel Tunnel Rail Link. You get peaks and then troughs where there is no sustainable work for people. They are out in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Middle East, all over the world, because the work hasn’t been here.’

Crossrail has needed to import know-how from overseas. Tunnelling contractors for the early stages of the project include Spanish firms Ferrovial and Dragados, Austrian specialist ALPINE BeMo Tunnelling and French-based multinational VINCI. ‘Tunnelling is an industry on a world scale. It demands very specific expertise,’ says Martin Rowark MRICS, head of procurement at Crossrail. ‘We need to invest in the future. Growing our own tunnelling resources in the UK means that we can take the opportunity to export our expertise, like we did after we invented the railways in the 19th century.’

When the Crossrail Act received Royal Assent in 2008, the publicly funded company set up to run the project was charged with delivering an employment and skills legacy. The idea of creating an academy was championed by Crossrail chairman Terry Morgan, former chief executive Douglas Oakervee and London Mayor Boris Johnson. TUCA received £7.5m in capital funding from Crossrail and another £5m from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), plus corporate sponsorship, including donations of plant and equipment.

It was built on land owned by Transport for London, of which Crossrail is a wholly owned subsidiary, in a location chosen because of its proximity to the tunnelling work taking place at the eastern end of the Crossrail line.

Previous page: A 40m-long tunnel simulator provides

a realistic environment in which to train.

Right: The academy is designed to resemble an

emerging tunnelling machine. Far right: TUCA’s flexible workshops for practising

underground construction skills, and a mock gantry

crane used to lift equipment in and out of the pits

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05.12 // MODUS 33

TUCA//

WE NEED TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE. GROWING OUR OWN RESOURCES MEANS WE CAN EXPORT OUR EXPERTISE

of the most challenging aspects of setting up the academy has been finding skilled instructors. Few construction industry trainers have specialist tunnel-building skills, and few expert tunnellers have training qualifications. Contractors and the training provider will need to work together to train instructors while the academy is in operation.

During the period since its opening, TUCA has been functioning at around half of its eventual capacity. The fit-out of some of its key facilities was only completed a few months ago following a process of redesigning them as a result of construction industry feedback. These include a spray-concrete training area where ‘nozzlemen’ will practise spraying concrete on the walls and ceilings of four tunnel sections. Next door, a Balfour Beatty-sponsored concrete testing lab is in the final stages of construction. It will test the quality and consistency of the concrete sprayed in the training area, as well as acting as the testing lab for concrete sprayed at the Crossrail site itself.

One of the academy’s most striking features is a 40m-long tunnel mock-up, complete with railway track and functioning locomotives of the kind that carry materials in and out of tunnels. It will be used for training workers to fit services such as lighting and ventilation, to learn to work safely with the locomotives and for underground emergency training. TUCA also boasts a gantry crane like those used for lifting equipment in and out of the pits at a tunnel’s head. Other workshops are designed to be flexible so that they can be used for practising the wide variety of skills that will be needed at different stages of Crossrail’s construction.

After Crossrail is complete, TUCA will continue to operate as a national academy for tunnelling skills. ‘We are the golden client at the moment, but within the next two or three years the academy will become a standalone organisation. We will let go of the apron strings and it will be freestanding in terms of its ongoing sustainability,’ says Parry. Other major infrastructure projects, contractors

and universities are represented on the academy’s board so that it serves the needs of the industry as a whole. It will seek to secure money from government and European training funds as well as further private sector sponsorship.

Parry claims that talks are under way with BIS to channel more funding into the academy with the aim of supporting the UK in becoming a leader in tunnelling technology and skills. That homegrown talent can then be used to win contracts in overseas markets. ‘If we can drive expertise we then have much more competitive UK companies that can then export that to tunnelling projects across the world. That only benefits UK plc,’ she says.

Meanwhile the model of an academy that is supported by an industry, and providing a programme driven by its needs, is one that could be applied in other sectors. ‘If you look at [Business Secretary] Vince Cable’s speeches, he has named the Crossrail academy and asked what we can do in other industries to learn from it,’ says Parry. ‘Retail or manufacturing could harness this approach to increase the status of their entire industry.’ tuca.ac.uk

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MODUS_May_P34-35_Law+Ad.indd 34 16/04/2012 17:35

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Blocks of Flats • Multiple Tenure • Commercial Property

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Law advice//

The pitfalls of

HIGHWAY PLANNINGIllustration by Dale Edwin Murray

05.12 // MODUS 35

On 23 December 2011, the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) accepted the first application for a highway scheme, the proposed Heysham to M6 link road promoted by Lancashire County Council. The project consists of a 4.8km stretch of dual carriageway and an upgrade to junction 34 of the M6 motorway. By accepting the application, the IPC agreed that the local authority scheme is a ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’ (NSIP) – in other words, one of a variety of large projects that support the economy and vital public services, including railways, large wind farms, power stations, reservoirs, harbours, airports and sewage treatment works. This means that, although Lancashire County Council will be the highway authority for the new road, the project falls under the IPC regime as it connects to a motorway for which the Secretary of State is the highway authority. According to the Planning Act 2008, new highways constructed ‘for a purpose connected with a

Secretary of State highway’ are classed as NSIPs.

Certain improvements or alterations to highways made by local authorities may also be captured under other provision of the Planning Act, where these involve or are for a purpose connected with a Secretary of State highway, including

link roads and bypass schemes, which often have junctions with a Secretary of State highway. While some local authorities may not even be aware of the change in law, which occurred in March 2010, even projects that have already been granted consent but were applied for after 1 March 2010 are subject to this test. (A map of the extensive network of motorways and A-roads for which the Secretary of State is the highway authority can be found at highways.gov.uk.)

Under the Localism Act, the IPC was abolished on 1 April 2012 and the Planning Inspectorate took over its work, but the provisions remain the same. The relevant Secretary of State will be the decision-maker on all national infrastructure applications for development consent. At the end of the examination of an application, which will still need to be completed within a maximum of six months, the Planning Inspectorate will have three months to make a recommendation to the relevant Secretary of State, who will then have a further three months to reach their decision.

The Planning Act regime is considerably more onerous than the standard procedure of a planning application – usually made to the local authority promoting the scheme – as it includes a series of orders and schemes authorising parts of the project and seeking compulsory purchase powers. On the plus side, however, planning permission is not needed for an NSIP, and the series of applications can be combined in a single ‘development consent order’. Applications are also likely to be decided more quickly than before, given the timescales laid down in the Planning Act.

Whether or not a particular project is an NSIP is a matter of law, and the consequences for failing to use the Planning Act for a project that is an NSIP are severe. Building an NSIP without a development consent order is an offence punishable with a fine of up to £50,000 in a magistrates’ court, or an unlimited fine in a Crown Court. It is vital, therefore, that local authorities review any highway schemes they are intending to promote (or any for which they have applied for permission since 1 March 2010) to ascertain whether or not they fall under the definition of an NSIP.

ANGUS WALKER is a partner at Bircham Dyson Bell, which advised Lancashire County Council on its IPC application. bdb-law.co.uk

THE PLANNING ACT REGIME IS CONSIDERABLY MORE ONEROUS THAN THE STANDARD PROCEDURE OF A PLANNING APPLICATION

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IS TRANSPORT THE POTENTIAL CLOUD ON THE LONDON 2012

HORIZON, ASKS TIM ABRAHAMS

SMOOTH RUNNING‘What you need to understand is that during the Games bad things will happen.’ So said Sir David Higgins, former head of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and now chief executive of Network Rail, in February. He went on to list track circuit failure, overhead line breakages, cable theft and suicides as some of the problems that could dog transport during London 2012. Coming from a man who was also managing director of Lend Lease, the firm that built Sydney’s Olympic Park for the 2000 Games, it all sounds rather pessimistic. As the capital’s already stretched infrastructure struggles to soak up a predicted additional three million daily journeys, does London have the capacity to operate as a functioning city and major sporting event host?

James Bulley MRICS is director of venues and infrastructure at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG). Previously a partner at Drivers Jonas, he joined

the London 2012 bid team in 2003, nearly two years before the announcement of its successful candidature, to conduct feasibility work on venue location. Transport considerations were key. One of the fundamental principles of the bid, he says, was ‘sport at heart’. This meant that the athletes had to be at the centre of what was planned. ‘You have to give the athlete the platform to do his best,’ he says. ‘So when we started to think at a strategic level, we realised the importance of having venues close to the village so that athletes were close to the events.’

One of the fundamental organising principles was transporting athletes from their accommodation in Stratford to their venues; siting all the venues together in one location would cause a massive transport bottleneck. Another key aspect of the bid was showcasing London itself. ‘Of course we wanted to wow the International Olympic Committee with fantastic images of venues with backdrops,’ says Bulley, ‘but we also had to be sure we could deliver these venues in a way that made them part of a workable infrastructure.’ The whole make-up of the Olympic venue plan is determined by transport concerns. There are three centres: around central London, the Olympic Park, and between Greenwich and Woolwich, including the ExCeL exhibition centre and the Greenwich (or O2) arena.

Swift responses to transport issues have also been key to the planning and delivery of the event. One of the

fundamental differences between this and previous Olympics is the amount of temporary seating being used – indeed, London 2012 will have more than the previous three Games put together. LOCOG is responsible for far more overlay than previous bodies, hence Bulley has been ‘swimming in a sea’ of transport logistics. The building of temporary structures in sensitive sites such as Horseguard’s Parade and Greenwich Park must be quick. ‘The principal difference with a temporary build is that when you’re tracking the programme, you’re tracking the materials to ensure they are on site at the right moment,’ Bulley says. ‘When you’re building a major construction project, the materials are slower and more constant, whereas in a temporary project they’re faster and must be controlled.’

Given the detailed planning that has taken place, why is there so much pessimism? ‘All Olympic cities face stresses,’ says Hugh Sumner, head of transport at the ODA. ‘It’s not every day that you get three peaks of intense usage on the transport system, but then, as the Vancouver Olympics strapline put it, “Life is unusual.”’ His solution is a reductive one, convincing Londoners to avoid travelling. >>

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London 2012 transport//

05.12 // MODUS 37

SMOOTH RUNNINGSHOULD SOMETHING

HAPPEN, STATIONS CAN REACT FROM A PRE-DEFINED

CONTINGENCY PLAN

Imag

es C

orbi

s

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38 rics.org

message, the story that has been left to one side is the massive investment in infrastructure that the Games has prompted. This is perhaps partly down to the complexity of funding the various improvements. For example, on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), a major boost in capacity has been provided by a change to three-car rather than two-car trains on the majority of the network. The ODA co-funded 22 of the 55 new DLR rail cars. In addition, the extension of the DLR track from Canning Town to Stratford, which provides a direct link between the ExCeL centre and the Olympic Stadium, was part- funded by the ODA.

Mark Evers is director of Games transport for TfL. In the run-up to the event, it is understandable that there is a degree of apprehension as to how the infrastructure will operate, he believes. ‘We’re not at a stage where people are focusing on the legacy. In terms of transport, though, we’re already benefiting,’ he says. He adds that, while it is often difficult to account for who did what, this is actually a strength. ‘What we’ve managed to do is provide a better transport solution for the Games, and then a meaningful benefit afterwards,’ he says. ‘This is better than a lot of benefit from something that looks temporary and is temporary. It is difficult to disentangle who has done what between TfL and the ODA because it’s been a strong relationship.’

For what it’s worth, Sumner believes he has a rigid definition of which costs have been incurred by the ODA. ‘Do all of the transport improvements that have occurred in the last seven years come under the Olympics bracket? Not all of them, no,’ he says. ‘The Victoria line improvements, for example, don’t. The improvements on the Northern line don’t. It has to be directly relevant to the delivery of the Games.’ As a result, the improvements

THE BEST THING TO DO IF YOU’RE HERE ON THE DAY OF

AN EVENT IS HAVE A BEER BEFORE YOU GO HOME

Indeed, one of the main legacies of the Games, Sumner believes, could be the way in which the public use alternative means of commuting and are permitted to radically overhaul their work patterns. ‘It’s all about how you express alternatives to people,’ he says.

This emphasis on Londoners’ responsibility to rethink their transport decisions is being made across the bodies responsible for delivering the infrastructure for the Games. In October 2011, Transport for London (TfL) commissioner Peter Hendy was asked by the London Assembly’s transport committee what regular users of the underground station at London Bridge should do. ‘The best thing to do if you happen to be here on the day of the equestrian event in Greenwich is to have a beer before you go home,’ he replied.

And what if things do go wrong? Each station has a playbook, a sum of all the accumulated planning work that has taken place from the bid stage up to now. ‘The software we’ve set up looks at the Games in 15-minute segments,’ explains Sumner. ‘It creates a backdrop so that, should something happen, we can react from a pre-defined contingency plan.’ Contingency is almost a philosophical state within LOCOG, according to its director of transport Richard George. ‘Every venue has to have its contingency plan of how it would relocate,’ he told the transport committee of the Greater London Authority. Plans exist to move major events to other places if the worst happens.

Persuading London’s inhabitants to avoid potential hot-spots on the transport system is just the last line in a layered response to the complexity of hosting the Games in a working global city. While TfL and LOCOG are focusing on communicating this

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London 2012 transport//

As a delivery mechanism, the ODA may add complexity to the costing and practical delivery of new capital projects, but the fact that it is granted powers by an act of parliament, such as the ability to grant itself planning permission, means that it super- charges the delivery of complex transport projects. The east of London has made a generational leap in terms of its transport – does that mean there won’t be much more there for another 20 years? Not at all, says Sumner. ‘Crossrail is being built out. Tottenham Court Road is being improved and there is an extensive Underground upgrade programme.’

To date, improvements have been hampered by the fact that London Underground, London Overground and the DLR have had separate control centres, making it difficult to coordinate traffic flows for upgrades. ‘For Games time and subsequently this will be coordinated from a single Transport Co-ordination Centre, which will operate in all modes across the transport network,’ explains Sumner. ‘We will be coordinating systems, but just as importantly we will be coordinating the information that goes out to the public.’ For a month during the Games, the public will have to deal with the unexpected – as the planners and deliverers of London 2012 have all along.

Matt Randall is project director at Mace for the Emirates Air Line cable car project

‘The £60m Emirates Air Line is the first urban cable car system in the UK. Pedestrians, including wheelchair users and cyclists, will be able to cross the Thames within five minutes. The 50m-high crossing, sponsored by Emirates and operated by Transport for London, will carry up to 2,500 people per hour between terminals at Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks.

‘So far, the biggest hurdle has been constructing the South Tower, the tallest of three steel towers to be erected. It was a challenge to deliver the iconic “helix” design, and to do it in the middle of the Thames, 60m from the river wall. We had to use the largest crawler crane in the UK, which has a 1,350t capacity and an operating radius of 120m, given the proximity of the tower from the river wall and the need to lift loads of up to 80 tonnes. During the construction of the towers, not only have we piled down into tidal waters on one of Europe’s busiest rivers, but we’ve also worked above the road network and Docklands Light Railway, and below the London City Airport flight path. This has required careful logistical planning, and close relationships with the key stakeholders, to deliver the project quickly, safely and successfully.’

that are already being felt across London’s network are not necessarily being seen by the public as directly attributable to the Games.

Sumner also plays down the way in which Games traffic will be given priority during the event. Yes, there are special lanes, but rumours that operators will be able simply to turn lights green to allow traffic to pass is a myth, he says. ‘You wouldn’t ever want to do a green wave, because for everyone on a permanent green, someone else is on a permanent red. The traffic phase control systems are being adjusted to reflect volumes.’ London, he insists, already has the most advanced traffic monitoring systems in the world, and will expand thanks to the Olympics impetus.

Some £40m has been spent on improving traffic signalling through a system called SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique), which allows traffic flows through junctions to be monitored and optimised in real time. Over the past two years it has been added to 514 additional locations. TfL aims to have 50% of London’s 6,000 transport signals using the system by 2014. ‘It also maximises traffic throughput through a whole traffic corridor,’ says Evers. The technology means, on average, a 12.7% reduction in delays to vehicles. ‘Londoners who use road networks after the Games will notice greater available traffic capacity.’

According to Sumner, the Games’ effect on London transport has been to bring forward the delivery of infrastructure that would have otherwise taken another 20 years.

:READY FOR TAKE-OFF

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Review your

BUSINESS TRAVEL

Business advice//

How much do you really spend on business travel? Punitive last-minute rail transactions are easy to spot on a balance sheet, but have you considered the lost productivity through irritation and stress, unseen environmental impact and crucial opportunity costs? The status quo in most companies is detrimental to people, profi t and planet. Yet travel policies are frequently perceived as the enemy of productivity, particularly in smaller organisations where fl exibility is critical. Bottom-up reviews – ‘Is our travel company giving us the best deals?’ – are one place to start, but rarely deliver transformative, sustainable practice. The hardest step is arguably the fi rst: are you committed? Travel habits die hard, and alternatives are easily dismissed. While every change brings downsides, a fair appraisal of current practice often provides a compelling argument.

WALKINGMake two feet your default mode of business travel. It sounds trite, but is remarkably simple and effective. Events such as Walk to Work Week, from 14-18 May (livingstreets.org.uk), can motivate and inspire. Walking makes sense

throughout the working day, too: travelling on foot to a meeting allows for focused, uninterrupted preparation. Meetings held while walking are remarkably productive (and refreshing). Costs are cut, travel is predictable again and everyone improves their health. Don’t allow yourself to focus on those occasions when it’s not practical: fi nd ways to weave it into your business practice.

CYCLINGThe government’s popular Cycle to Work scheme encourages staff to hire a new bike from their employer, usually with the option to purchase it at the end of a set period. It’s free to employers (cycletoworkalliance.org.uk), but you’ll need to make sure you have adequate changing facilities and a secure place to lock up bikes.

CARSIn 2007, the RAC Foundation found that 80% of SMEs consider car travel to be business-critical, yet company car drivers wasted 11 days each year stuck in traffic. Congestion remains a multibillion-pound concern, but business owners are now better placed to substitute some of those journeys and reduce the impact of others. Take a fresh look at ICT solutions such as video conferencing

and screen-sharing; the quality, availability and pricing of broadband and superfast broadband has now tipped the balance in their favour for many companies.

Car clubs have corporate schemes that may suit you: there are now six operators across the UK (carplus.org.uk). When ownership is unavoidable, effi cient motoring is encouraged through capital allowances on low-emissions and electric-only cars, company car tax rates and London’s Congestion Charge. New hybrid and longer-range electric cars are an attractive proposition, but if you want an easy way to cut your motoring costs in half, share journeys with a colleague.

RAIL AND BUSWith the right mindset, these are often viable alternatives. Rail is greener, and with plenty of room it’s more productive than either car or plane. Walk-up rail fares are notoriously expensive, however, making advance booking a must (try bestvaluefares.co.uk). Travel management companies and new rail retailers want your business and offer a variety of value-added services, from management information to credit accounts. Larger businesses can sometimes negotiate corporate discounts; season ticket loans and bulk purchase of day tickets for resale to staff are other options.

PLANEShort-haul business-class travel is on the wane, but short hops on budget airlines are still a popular choice. Campaigns such as WWF’s One in Five Challenge persuade businesses to cut air travel by 20% – which BT did in just a year – but for smaller companies taking a few fl ights to see major clients, the risks are seen to outweigh the benefi ts. This is one area where it’s likely to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Just be sure to question the assumptions that previously made the plane a foregone conclusion.

For more information and advice on business travel from Business in the Community, visit ways2work.bitc.org.uk.

80% OF SMES CONSIDER CAR TRAVEL TO BE BUSINESS-CRITICAL, YET DRIVERS WASTE 11 DAYS A YEAR STUCK IN TRAFFIC

05.12 // MODUS 41

Illustration by Dale Edwin Murray

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Modus_19012012.indd 1 1/19/2012 2:21:43 PM

MSc in I n t e r n a t i on a lC on s t r u c t i onM a n a g e m e n tAccredited by the RICS and the JBM

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Applications are welcomed from graduates and professionals in the built environment. Individual modules are also available on a free standing basis for continuing professional development.

Tel: +44 (0) 1225 383850Fax: +44 (0) 1225 383255E-mail: [email protected]: www.bath.ac.uk/ace/icm

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Advancinglearningandknowledgeinassociationwithbusinessandindustry

Now offering a 15 month ‘acceleratedstudy route’

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01.11 // MODUS 09

INFORMATION :RICS NEWS :DIARY :BENEFITS :RESOURCES

The expertise of RICS members has gained recognition from the largest consumer body in the UK. As part of its commitment to providing unbiased advice, Which? has recommended that consumers commission RICS members to carry out surveys on property, a further confirmation of RICS as the mark of property professionalism worldwide. Having a survey carried out by a chartered surveyor makes good sense – and could save thousands in costly repair bills. Research shows that the average cost of unplanned repairs is £1,800. Find information on home surveys for members and the public at rics.org/homesurveys.

WHICH? ADVICE USEFUL NUMBERSCONTACT CENTRE +44 (0)870 333 1600

General enquiriesAPC guidanceSubscriptionsPasswordsLibraryBookshop

REGULATION HELPLINE +44 (0)20 7695 1670

CONFIDENTIAL HELPLINE +44 (0)20 7334 3867

DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICES +44 (0)20 7334 3806

SWITCHBOARD +44 (0)20 7222 7000

IT SEEMS THAT THE UK COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SECTOR IN GENERAL IS CONTINUING TO STRUGGLE

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist, quoted in The Daily Telegraph

05.12 // MODUS 43

of homebuyers who do not have a survey

undertake unplanned building works

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Who manages design delivery?

FACTS, STATS & SURVEYS

RICS news//

44 r ics.org

Managing design delivery is an activity of project management, but is not always carried out by a project manager. In fact, it is a process often carried out by more than one member of the team. RICS has published guidance on design delivery management, with specific

recommendations on each part of the process. Design is rarely completely linear, and often involves experimenting and revisiting previous solutions. Getting design right is therefore a process that requires insight, flexibility and collaboration. Planning and managing design

delivery inherits these considerations, too. The guidance includes where design starts and finishes, defining best practice, the importance of hard and soft skills, and the art of design team management. rics.org/designdelivery

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With little prospective tenant interest, new development starts

remained in negative territory

Although new starts are continuing to fall, they

are declining at the slowest pace for

five years

5 YEARSOccupier demand and available space (+4)

were both largely unchanged in Q1

+3 -7

The public sector is under constant pressure to cut costs and release capital. At the same time, service delivery and quality expectations are increasing, requiring more efficient and effective use of all resources, which inevitably involves property changes. In the context of these challenges, RICS has released new public sector asset management guidelines: the senior decision-makers’ guide and the quick-start guide, which together complement the main guide on the business-related benefits of property asset management. Advice includes how to create a plan, deliver a portfolio of space in accordance with that plan, and then track the post-occupational results. The guidelines have been endorsed by the Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland governments. ‘I’ve already used the draft guidance to compile a plan for my authority. It consolidates all previous information and I commend it to the membership,’ says Samuel Partridge MRICS. Visit rics.org/publicsector for more information.

In response to the UK government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) announcement in March, RICS Head of UK Policy Jeremy Blackburn commented: ‘RICS supports the government’s vision of reforming the guidance to the planning system. However, we would also like to see government address the serious problems currently affecting the UK housing market, such as the lack of affordable mortgage and development finance. However, the NPPF provides a robust framework and we are optimistic that sustainable development can be delivered. Carefully targeted professional guidance will be central in supporting the process – a job for RICS and the other professions. The time has come to stop talking and start delivering.’ rics.org/policyandinfluencing

HOUSING CRISIS

BEST PRACTICE

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01.11 // MODUS 0905.12 // MODUS 45

more respondents predict rents to fall and, overall, rental

expectations remain downbeat

14%more surveyors predicted falls

rather than rises in rental values

Availability of commercial floor

space remained flat

+4Highlights from the RICS UK Commercial Market Survey

Q1 2012. rics.org/economics

28%

See Lian Ong FRICS RICS President

‘Today’s excessive use of digital communication is bringing us closer together yet further apart’

Access to information and data is no longer a luxury, but a normal expectation of daily life. Precisely the same applies to the many communication channels available to us that have changed the way we live and work beyond recognition. There are many of us who remember when the long-distance call was a premium service. Ten years ago it was almost inconceivable that teams of professionals could work on the same project, at the same time, from multiple locations around the world. Nowadays it is established practice for businesses to adopt remote technologies such as video conferencing and other web-based systems.

As a direct result of the digital revolution, it is predicted that more new information will be created and documented this year than the last 500 years combined. To give some context to this, the pace of change means that, on average, more than 50% of the information a current university student will learn in their first year will be outdated by their third year of study.

However, all these amazing channels only achieve their true potential if we remember the number one rule of communication – listen! The danger with lazy usage of digital communication is that we bombard audiences with what we think they want, often in excessive volumes with little thought or time spent on listening to what they actually do want. It is my experience that the wisest people spend more time on ‘receive’ than they do on ‘send’.

Those who master the use of modern ICT tools to communicate complex information effectively will find themselves ahead of the pack. In the case of quantity surveying, for example, ICT now underpins the very essence of what we do; standardising and

During my working life I have never underestimated the importance of effective communication. Many may

say this, but I wonder how much time any of us spend actually thinking about what good communication really means.

There is no doubt that the digital communication revolution has made the world a smaller and slicker place.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

improving the reliability of our work. Take building information modelling (BIM) software, which is revolutionising the way building surveyors collect, record and present the information that they use on a day-to-day basis.

It’s with this in mind that RICS is in the process of a complete overhaul of its digital offering to members and the public, focusing first and foremost on the website and email communication. The new platform will allow us to filter the information that is most relevant to you, reduce the volume of unwanted email traffic and encourage greater interaction.

This is the time to engage with your professional body but, sadly, there are still 30% of members who have not provided us with their email address. It takes two to communicate, and RICS is listening. So please give us your email details and enjoy all that your institution has to offer.

ARE YOUR DETAILS UP TO DATE?Are you one of the 30% of the membership who has not yet provided RICS with an email address? Keeping your contact details accurate and up to date ensures that you get the most out of your RICS membership, and enables the institution to contact you with important information. Email [email protected] with ‘Update my email address’ in the subject line and include your membership number in the body of the email, together with your contact details, and we will update your records accordingly. You can also amend your contact details online at rics.org/mydetails. Here you will be able to say how you like to be contacted and what type of information you would like to receive.

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RICS news//

New RICS research: why are cities important?

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My work mainly entails surveying houses for clients buying expensive properties in central London, and I’m becoming increasingly accustomed to those clients being from overseas. In fact, it has reached the point where I’m now surprised if I speak to a new client on the phone and they have a British accent. But recently I had a new experience – my first wealthy foreign buyer purchasing a property outside London; in this case a Georgian ‘country residence’ in Sussex. During our chat, the client freely admitted that they were after somewhere safe to invest their money and saw the UK as a safe haven – and central London doubly so. They then explained that they had been unable to find anything they liked within the M25 and wanted to expand their target area.

I wonder whether this will become the next big trend – I’ve heard of Scottish estates being snapped up by Chinese billionaires, so perhaps it is. Now that we have (presumably) sold off most of central London to wealthy foreigners, I suppose it is only logical that they are starting to look further afield. It did lead to a problem that I haven’t encountered for a while – a lack of comparables when preparing a valuation for the property. In central London, finding five comparables to base your valuation on is easy, but suddenly none of my databases came up with anything similar. Instead I had to phone around local agents for details of recent sales to come up with a figure that I not only thought was correct, but one that I could justify (including to m’lud if I’m later sued).

It was, however, pleasant to be out in the countryside for the day – the only minor setback coming after I was advised by the farm manager to look out for the dogs, which apparently dislike blond-haired men. Being more strawberry blond, I thought I would be fine – but unfortunately the Alsatians did not appreciate the distinction, and chased me around an outbuilding. I lost my Dictaphone in the process, but luckily had a spare in the car – my two golden rules of surveying being: first, always carry a spare; and second, if outside, wear a hat. It’s a shame I only obeyed the first…

Agree? Disagree? Or interested in being a secret surveyor? Email [email protected].

‘OVERSEAS BUYERS ARE BEGINNING TO WIDEN THEIR SEARCH OUTSIDE LONDON’

Secret Surveyor

The rise of electronic communications has not diminished the importance of cities as the location of wealth- generating business activity. The proportion of the world’s population living in cities, as opposed to rural areas, is now more than half and increasing all the time. Some mature cities are considered in danger of becoming abandoned due to economic rebalancing, but it is increasingly the case that city centre locations are sought by innovative businesses.

By definition, cities are physical spaces with buildings and infrastructure, but to understand them and how they operate, it is essential to understand how they work. This means understanding the human communications and movements within them and, increasingly, between them. This distinction has been called the difference between the ‘space of places’ (physical places) and ‘the space of flows’ (the functional activity created by interactions between people and firms and the movement of information and people). For policymakers to decide where to allow new buildings and changes of land use, where to build infrastructure, or where to provide subsidies/incentives, etc to create sustainable development, it is essential that they understand how cities function through relations that extend beyond the local scale.

A challenge for policy is that the social and economic vibrancy

of cities is bound up with what is happening in other cities, other parts of the country and other parts of the world – activities and relations that can be completely off policymakers’ radars and apparently beyond their control. Even remote parts of the country are impacted upon by the economic health of major cities whose functional boundaries are very different from those of metropolitan administrative areas and local communities.

A relatively new concept, but a very powerful and important one, is the mega-city region. An area that appears to operate economically as an individual city may in reality be a whole region, with one or more major cities within it, where the economic operation of ‘the city’ actually includes many urban centres.

Perhaps the most surprising example of this phenomenon is the London ‘mega-city region’, where what is functionally part of ‘London’ must include activity taking place within and between Reading, Southampton, Milton Keynes, etc. London would not operate as it does without its surrounding urban constellation, and the South East would not operate as it does without London – they are all bound up with one another.

Taken from a report on locational investment written for RICS by Kathy Pain, ALDAR professor of real estate development at Reading University. Download the report in full from rics.org/research.

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Read case studies and check the decision tree at rics.org/ethics.

05.12 // MODUS 47

Act with integrity

Always provide a high standard

of service

Act in a way that promotes trust in

the profession

Treat others with respect

Take responsibility

No 2

No 4

No 1

No 3

Behaving ethically goes to the heart of what it means to be a professional, and distinguishes us from others in the marketplace. RICS has published a set of professional and ethical standards for members and member firms to ensure they remain relevant in today’s marketplace. The previous 12 standards have been replaced with five, stating that members must…

DISCUSSION POINTS

New ethical standards

Be honest and straightforward in all that you do.

Ensure that your client, or others to whom you have a professional responsibility, receives the best possible

advice, support or performance of the terms of engagement you have agreed.

Both in your professional life

and private life, act in a manner that promotes you, your firm or the organisation that you work for, and the profession in a professional and positive way.

Treat people with courtesy, politeness and consideration,

no matter their race, religion, size, age, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

It also means being aware of cultural sensitivities and business practices.

Be accountable for all your actions – don’t blame others if things go wrong, and if you suspect something isn’t right be prepared to do something.

No 5

If you are in a position where you have concerns then you will want to:

∫ Gather the facts that you have. Do you have enough facts to come to a decision?

∫ Speak to someone about your concerns. In the first instance you may want to raise your concerns with someone with whom you feel comfortable.

∫ If you still have concerns then you will want to raise these more formally with, and take advice from, an appropriate person, for example the people involved in the situation, your manager, a colleague, another RICS member, another professional, a community leader, or RICS or any other appropriate organisation, including the police.

∫ Once you have taken advice you will want to make a decision and ensure that something is done. This may mean that you actually take the issue forward, or it may mean that someone more appropriate takes it forward.

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Benefitsrics.org/benefitsplus

Europcar is the leading car and van hire company in Europe, with locations in 150 countries worldwide. We have 200 locations in the UK, including cities and airports, so you’re never far away from us. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and Luton airports all offer 24-hour express services. And for added convenience, customers at Heathrow T1 and T5 can now collect and drop off hire cars from right outside the terminal with our Arrive and Drive product.

Whatever the journey, whether for business or leisure, Europcar has the vehicle to match. Europcar has 130 different models from 27 different manufacturers. Cars range from small

city run-arounds to larger hatchbacks, saloons and MPVs, as well as hybrid and electric vehicles. All the cars in the Europcar fleet are maintained to manufacturers’ specifications and covered by 24-hour breakdown assistance for added peace of mind.

Europcar also offers a wide selection of hire vans, from the Vauxhall Combo for smaller jobs to the large Ford Transit Luton, which is equipped with a tail-lift to make even the biggest tasks easy to handle. And for times when impressions count, hiring from the Europcar Prestige range is the answer. From the fun MINI Cooper S to the seriously sporty Porsche Boxter, and the luxury Range Rover Vogue,

Europcar Prestige offers a first-class service in luxury car hire.

Europcar offers a wide range of hire options to suit everyone. Only need to hire one way? Hire vehicles can be picked up at any Europcar location and delivered to another – handy if you’re going to the airport. Only need a car for a few hours? Europcar offers a hire-by-the-hour service. Hourly van hire is perfect to quickly pick up materials or drop off large items. With extras such as Sat Navs and different child seats to suit all ages, Europcar always has the right solution for you.

To make the hire as enjoyable and stress-free as possible, we also offer a delivery and collection service for all our vehicles to a UK home address – and if you live within 15 miles of a Europcar Station, the service is free. Or if you prefer, you can pick up or drop off your hire vehicle from any of our 200 stations across the UK, even outside working hours, with convenient out-of-hours drop-offs.

Europcar and RICS have teamed up to bring you a fantastic double discount offer. Book any car or van hire in the UK before the end of June, to collect on any date this year, and we will automatically apply a massive 20% discount – that’s double the normal discount for RICS members! To check prices and to book, simply click the Europcar link on the RICS website or go to: partner.europcar.com/royal-institution-surveyors.

Double discount offer

Advertorial//

To view all the latest offers, new partners and monthly and seasonal promotions, visit rics.org/benefitsplus.

48 r ics.org

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Membership

05.12 // MODUS 49

Governing CouncilGoverning Council was held in Beijing on 26-27 March, part of a series of events to strengthen RICS’ presence in Asia. The results of the member survey, the next iteration of RICS’ corporate strategy, the launch of

new global professional and ethical standards, and a progress report on the new RICS website were all on the agenda. Louise Brooke-Smith was elected as Senior Vice President and the appointments of Alan Collett as President

and Michael Newey as President Elect for 2012-13 were confirmed. All three will take up their new titles at the next Governing Council meeting in July. Watch the film and read the report at rics.org/governingcouncil.

2 MAYValuation of hotelsThis information paper provides detailed guidance on the valuation of a specific group of trade-related property, namely hotels, with regard to the trading potential of the individual property.

16 MAYValuation of care homesThe intention of this information paper is to provide a general approach on the valuation of individual independent healthcare properties in the UK – nursing and residential care homes – that are valued with regard to their trading potential.

18 MAY IRLVS3 Valuation of residential propertyA Red Book chapter developed specifically for use in Ireland when preparing valuations for residential property for mortgage purposes, The RICS Valuation – Professional Standards (the Red Book) applies to the provision of valuation advice for residential mortgages. Specific attention is drawn to the requirements in VS 1, Compliance and ethical requirements, and VS 4.2, Valuations for secured lending.

27 JUNEValuation of individual new-build homesA revision of guidance from 2009, this guidance note is designed to assist the valuer in approaching the valuation of a new-build property in a logical and systematic way.

3 JULYComparative construction and engineering contracts Guidance on how to use the common industry forms of contract most effectively, depending on the project (JCT, NEC, FIDIC). It also covers strategies that can be put in place to help the project complete on time, and keep to specification and budget.

6 JULY Managing mixed-use developments This guidance note builds on the information paper published in 2009 on the issues of managing mixed-use developments. It brings the guidance up to date and expands it to assist commercial surveyors who are less regulated by statute than residential surveyors. It also provides valuation information for management surveyors.rics.org/standards

NEW STANDARDS

SHAPE THE FUTURE OF MODUSModus is for and about our members, and we strive to ensure it’s both relevant and engaging. In response to last year’s reader survey feedback, we’ve covered a number of topics in the past year:

‘More coverage of the issues facing small businesses, and advice for facing the downturn’ – the October 2011 ‘Small’ issue looked at SMEs and sole practitioners, and the

regular advice pages address issues facing firms of all sizes.

‘Advice on how to make the most of networks and how best to look for work’ – the upcoming June 2012 ‘Communication’ issue will cover how to network successfully, both online and in person.

‘Include more members’ letters and the opportunity to use Modus as a forum for debate’ – where space

allows, we’ve included more letters, plus Tweets and comments from LinkedIn discussions.

This year’s survey is another opportunity to tell us what you’d like to see covered. It will be available to complete online from mid-May, and will contain questions related to the content of this issue. Look out for an email with a link to the survey soon.rics.org/modus

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50 r ics.org

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01.11 // MODUS 09

practical case studies.£75 + VATrics.org/westmidlands

East Midlands CPD Conference18 May, LoughboroughMembers can attend up to six sessions in one day on a variety of topics covering land, property and construction, including a dilapidations update, commercial landlord and tenant, dispute avoidance and expert witness.£115 + VATrics.org/conferences

RICS Building Control Conference24 May, LondonThe annual RICS Building Control Conference will provide technical guidance and a legislative update, focusing this year on the value of building control. £220 + VATrics.org/bcconference

RICS Sustainability Conference29 May, LondonThis conference will examine sustainability in construction, the challenges of implementation and planning for the whole life cycle of a building. £250 + VATrics.org/sustainability2012

RICS Machinery and Business Assets Conference31 May, WeybridgeThis conference will provide a practical guide to business growth and professional valuation standards, with with an afternoon guided site tour of Mercedes-Benz World.£210 + VATrics.org/mba2012

RICS National Rural Conference21 June, GloucestershireThis annual one- day conference focuses on business advice and growth, energy, economic reviews and professional standards. The programme includes 13 experts sharing essential advice for professionals in the rural surveying sector.£125 + VATrics.org/ruralconference

SCOTLANDLunchtime CPD SeriesMay to June, Glasgow and EdinburghPresentations will include property rates, energy efficiency in historic buildings, the green deal and contract administration.£26 + VATrics.org/lunchtime

APC Prep Day17 May, EdinburghDesigned for those working towards sitting their final assessment in autumn 2012, this event will provide attendees with a valuable insight

job opportunities in the real estate industry. Organised in collaboration with IZ Karriereforum and ADI. Limited free admission for RICS students. ricseurope.eu/de

RICS Belux: Annual Realty Lunch 22 May, BrusselsRICS Belux is again hosting the official opening lunch of the Belgian Real Estate Exhibition Realty with RICS Vice President Louise Brooke-Smith as keynote speaker. The lunch will also be the stage for the ‘Best Belgian Valuer’ award initiated by leading real estate magazine Expertise. RICS will also have a stand at the exhibition.realty-brussels.com

RICS Netherlands: Dutch Real Estate Exhibition Provada5–7 June, AmsterdamRICS will have a stand at the

exhibition, which is a valuable meeting point to discuss and promote new RICS standards. There will also be a reception for new members and candidates on 6 June.Free of charge.provada.nl

RICS COBRA11-13 September, Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, USIn partnership with the School of Construction, Arizona State University, RICS presents the world’s leading annual construction, building and real estate research conference, dedicated to providing stimulating debate and discussions between researchers from around the world, and providing the basis for new areas of research. rics.org/cobra

Eventsinto what you can expect in the lead-up to the interview.£120 + VATrics.org/scotlandevents

Scotland CPD Conference24 May, GlasgowDelegates can attend up to six sessions in one day on a variety of topics covering land, property and construction, including a dilapidations update, commercial landlord and tenant, dispute avoidance and expert witness.£115 + VATrics.org/scotlandevents

INTERNATIONALShape Your Future: Third German University Symposium for RICS trainees and students 12 May, GermanyA platform for young professionals to inform themselves on career paths and

FOR RICS EVENTS BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES [email protected] // +44 (0)20 7695 1600

RICS NATIONAL QUANTITY SURVEYING AND CONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE 22 May, London

A key conference for cost managers, analysing

all the aspects of the chartered quantity surveyor’s role in helping to meet the government’s targets to measure, analyse and build more efficiently and cost-effectively. £220 + VATrics.org/qsconference

ENGLANDRICS Red Book SeminarsMay to June, various dates and locationsAn essential update on the new revisions to the RICS Valuation Professional Standards (the Red Book) 2012 edition and the issues and challenges currently affecting valuation.£150 + VATrics.org/redbook seminars2012

RICS Dilapidations Roadshow May to July, various dates and locationsLaunch of the 6th edition dilapidations guidance note for England and Wales. This seminar is a must-attend for anyone practising in the field of dilapidations, covering new endorsement obligations, new requirements and the dilapidations protocol.£150 + VATrics.org/dilapsroad show2012

Building Defects Part II – The Hidden Defect16 May, BirminghamSessions will include condensation and mould, rising damp and other forms of moisture ingress. How to observe defects will be illustrated by

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the logo is intended to bleed off the top left hand corner of the page. the dots should line up withthe page edge, allow 3mm bleed and pull in the picture box to hide the dots.

PASSIONATE ABOUT THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT?We are … and we have been for 90 years. Our industry expertise allows us to provide specialist courses for property and construction professionals, by supported distance learning.

We offer diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Degree courses are awarded by the University of Reading and the Open University, and accredited by RICS, CIOB and other professional bodies.

• BSc(Hons) in Building Services Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying, Construction Management, Estate Management, Property Management and Quantity Surveying

• Diplomas in Construction Practice, Surveying Practice and Shopping Centre Management

• MBA in Real Estate and Construction Management

• MSc in Real Estate

• Postgraduate Diploma in Adjudication

• Postgraduate Diploma in Arbitration

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Conservation of the Historic Environment

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Facilities Management

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Property Investment

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Surveying (Graduate Development Programme)

• RICS Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management

To further your career call 0800 019 9697 (quoting ref. MD11), email [email protected] or visit our website.

MODUS_May_P43-53_Info_v1.indd 52 17/04/2012 11:28

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01.11 // MODUS 09

EASTERNEric Thomas Allin MRICS1914-2012, WoodbridgeStanley Ernest Cadge MRICS1916-2011, CambridgeMichael Alan Ralph Cooper FRICS1935-2012, St Albans

LONDONHarry Finlay FRICS1921-2012, LondonGeoffrey Prout FRICS1946-2012, Orpington

NORTH WESTPeter Leach FRICS1929-2012, Grange-Over-SandsDavid Stuart Ross FRICS1931-2012, Liverpool

SOUTH EASTMichael John Curtis FRICS1942-2012, SurbitonDavid Victor Harvey FRICS1928-2012, Chipping NortonEdwin Robert George Lanham FRICS1912-2012, Horsham

SOUTH WESTWilliam Richard Berry MRICS1945-2012, GloucesterRonald C Evans FRICS1921-2012, ChristchurchWilliam Oliver Peter Miles FRICS1919-2012, DorchesterFrederick Henry Stickley MRICS1918-2012, Chipping Campden

WEST MIDLANDSAnthony Frederic Birtles FRICS1931-2011, Solihull

EAST MIDLANDSThomas Joseph Hackney FRICS1923-2012, Hinckley

YORKSHIRE & HUMBERRoy Ernest Dixon Arnold FRICS1927-2011, LeedsDonald William Carr FRICS1924-2012, Harrogate

SCOTLANDBernard Foreman MRICS1912-2011, Peebles

MENEARobin Brooks FRICS1942-2012, Dubai

Obituaries

05.12 // MODUS 53

RICS Geomatics mourns the loss of two former presidents

Members of RICS Geomatics, as well as the wider surveying and

geodetic global communities, were greatly saddened to learn of the loss of Mike Curtis FRICS and Professor Mike Cooper FRICS, both former presidents of the RICS Geomatics Division.

Mike Curtis [pictured top] was President of the Geomatics (land and hydrographic survey) Division in 1999, and became the first chairman of the

newly formed geomatics faculty in 2000. Mike remained an integral part of the geomatics executive and faculty boards until his retirement in 2008. He joined the Directorate of Overseas Surveys in 1963, after graduating in geography from the University of Bristol. After a year at the Royal School of Military Survey, he accepted an overseas assignment in Sarawak, Borneo, followed by tours of duty in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Mike joined Ordnance Survey (OS) GB in 1988, and worked as area manager in Yorkshire before a further overseas assignment in Yemen. He returned in 1993 to become OS’ region manager for London and the South East, where he remained until 2000 when he set up his own consultancy business. He remained an active member of RICS – training as an NVQ assessor and verifier – and was instrumental in setting up the RICS qualification scheme for the Land Registry.

Emeritus Professor of Engineering Survey Mike Cooper [pictured bottom] was President of the Geomatics (land and hydrographic survey) Division from 1999 to 2000, and was a long-time supporter of RICS. Indeed, Mike took the lead in demonstrating an early version of ‘virtual reality’ technology to HM the Queen during a visit to RICS in 1998. Mike was an early proponent of digital close-range photogrammetric techniques, as well as a published historian on surveying and the life and works of Robert Hook. But Mike was also a skilled and experienced surveyor, having worked in Nigeria for several years where his theoretical physics knowledge put him in good stead in repairing and coaxing the best out of the early electronic tellurometer EDMs [electromagnetic distance measurement devices]. Later years saw him take the first chair of Engineering Surveying at City University. Mike was a frequent speaker at RICS events and conferences and a stalwart of the evening lecture series.

They will both be very sadly missed.James Kavanagh MRICS, RICS Land Group Director

Conduct rics.org/conductcases

DISCIPLINARY PANEL 22 FEBRUARY 2012

Richard Bannister MRICS, SuffolkSummary of finding: contrary to Rules 8 & 9 of the Rules of Conduct for Members 2007Penalty: reprimand/conditions

Bannisters (the firm), SuffolkSummary of finding: contrary to Rule 8 of the Rules of Conduct for Firms 2007Penalty: reprimand

DISCIPLINARY PANEL 7 MARCH 2012

Andrew Davies, Shropshire

Summary of finding: contrary to Bye-law 5.2.1 (a)/contrary to Rule 9 of the Rules of Conduct for Members 2007Penalty: expulsion/costs

Davies White & Perry (the firm), Shropshire Summary of finding: contrary to Rule 8 of the Rules of Conduct for Firms 2007/contrary to Rule 10.1 of the Rules for the Registration of Firms 2009 Penalty: de-registration/costs For full details of each case, including charges heard and the determination, visit rics.org/conductcases.

the logo is intended to bleed off the top left hand corner of the page. the dots should line up withthe page edge, allow 3mm bleed and pull in the picture box to hide the dots.

PASSIONATE ABOUT THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT?We are … and we have been for 90 years. Our industry expertise allows us to provide specialist courses for property and construction professionals, by supported distance learning.

We offer diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Degree courses are awarded by the University of Reading and the Open University, and accredited by RICS, CIOB and other professional bodies.

• BSc(Hons) in Building Services Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying, Construction Management, Estate Management, Property Management and Quantity Surveying

• Diplomas in Construction Practice, Surveying Practice and Shopping Centre Management

• MBA in Real Estate and Construction Management

• MSc in Real Estate

• Postgraduate Diploma in Adjudication

• Postgraduate Diploma in Arbitration

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Conservation of the Historic Environment

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Facilities Management

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Property Investment

• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Surveying (Graduate Development Programme)

• RICS Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management

To further your career call 0800 019 9697 (quoting ref. MD11), email [email protected] or visit our website.

MODUS_May_P43-53_Info_v1.indd 53 17/04/2012 11:28

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Go further with a Masters from the UK’s premier School of the Built EnvironmentFull-time, part-time and distance learning study options available. All assessment is by coursework.

Construction related Programmes:

MSc Quantity Surveying* – For aspiring new entrants

MSc Quantity Surveying (M&E)*

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MSc Sustainable Building Design – Explore environmental sustainability and performance in relation to buildings, including the role of digital technologies

MSc Urban Design and Regeneration – Combinesexploration of Urban Design processes and community based Regeneration practice

MSc Digital Architectural Design – Learn to apply state ofthe art, Digital and Media technologies to design

MSc Accessibility and Inclusive Design – How to improvelife for all building users

MSc Building Information Modelling and Integrated Design – Explore the full potential of BIM technologies

APPLY NOW for September 2012 or January 2013 start. PgCert and PgDip options available. We welcome applications from students without formal qualifications but significant relevant experience.* Professionally accredited

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54 r ics.org

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92,028 average net circulation 1st July 2010 – 20th June 2011 05.12 // MODUS 55

The June issue will be published on 8 June

Recruitment copy deadline Tuesday 15 May

RICSRecruit.com Check out the newly updated recruitment platform of RICS. With more enhancements and user-friendly features, it caters for all your online recruitment needs. Contact Charlotte Turner +44 (0)20 7871 5734

RECRUITMENTFor recruitment advertising please contact Dorlisa Purkiss +44 (0)20 7871 2663 [email protected] or Charlotte Turner +44 (0)20 7871 5734 [email protected]

All boroughs are unique. Many are vibrant and multicultural. Some have a rich historical background. Others have a modern edge. Tower Hamlets is all of these - it’s got the TH buzz

that’s felt by those who live and work here...

To lead and manage the Council’s statutory Building Control service.This includes taking responsibility for building relationships withexternal organisations, promoting the service internally andintegrating the service within the Directorate, defining, promotingand delivering a customer service focussed approach and co-ordinating the full range of service duties ensuring delivery tobudget while promoting the Council’s vision and values.

To be Head of Section exercising delegated authority and acting asthe Council’s expert on all building control matters.

To manage the Building Control Trading Account and the business ofthe service to ensure full cost recovery.

To ensure the provision of a comprehensive Building Control serviceincluding applications, site inspection, dangerous structures, Street Naming and Numbering and demolitions.

Eligibility for chartered membership of the Royal Institution ofChartered Surveyors, Association of Building Engineers and/or otherrelevant professional qualification.

Comprehensive Building Control experience and knowledge andunderstanding of the statutory and legal framework, national policyand current thinking within Building Control.

Willing to travel to various sites and locations and work at differenttimes including weekend and evening meetings and to respond toout of hours dangerous structure call-outs.

We shall ensure fairness and equal opportunities throughout ourworkforce and in service delivery. We welcome applications fromsuitably skilled candidates regardless of ethnicity, gender, disability,sexuality, religion or age.

Closing date: 17 May 2012.

For more information and to apply for this and othercareer opportunities, please visit the Tower Hamletswebsite.

www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/careers

Head of Building Control Reference Number: DEV00127

£57,111 - £59,982 plus essential car user allowance

RESIDENTIAL VALUATION, HOMEBUYER AND BUILDING SURVEYOR

Opportunity for contract surveyors/consultants to joina nationwide firm of surveyors. Opportunities exist in specific postcodes throughout England and Wales.

Please forward your CV and contact details by email to:[email protected]

EXPERIENCED RESIDENTIAL VALUATION SURVEYORSURGENTLY REQUIRED – All areas within Greater London, M25 and Home Counties.

Plus, Aylesbury, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Watford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bradford, Aberdeen, Dumfries.

Several of the industry’s leading surveying firms and employers have instructed us with immediate and permanent vacancies. You must be MRICS, a registered valuer and have experience of mortgage valuations, Homebuyer reports (and building surveys ideally) in the locations shown. Attractive salary, bonus and benefits packages are available.

Please email your CV in complete confidence to [email protected]

Or call Jeff Johnson on 07940 594093 to find out more.

If your location is not shown, register now to be kept advised of new opportunities.

For all MLA’s latest permanent and contract positions, see our regular job listings on www.ricsrecruit.com

MODUS_May_P54-57_Classified.indd 55 17/04/2012 11:37

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56 r ics.org

To view more jobs online visit ricsrecruit.com

CONSTRUCTION Cathedral Architect LondonCompetitive Ref: RICS0047The architect will be responsible for overseeing all major repair and conservation works to this Cathedral and its surrounding precinct and for any maintenance work which would materially affect or permanently alter the fabric. The successful applicant will be a registered architect or a member of RICS with an understanding and genuine enthusiasm for complex historic and ecclesiastical buildings.

BUILDING SURVEYINGBuilding Surveyor ScotlandCompetitive Ref: 12#052This role is primarily concerned with the reinstatement of a wide variety of domestic and commercial properties following damage attributable to a range of perils, primarily fi re, impact and fl ood. The role also includes dealing with Party Wall and CDM (Construction – Design Management) issues.

VALUATION SURVEYING Valuation Surveyor Middlesex £41,000 + commission Ref: RICS0048A multi-disciplined surveying and estate agency practice based in Surrey and Middlesex is looking for a client-facing RICS Registered Valuation surveyor with a minimum of three years PQE who is looking for excellent career prospects.

CONSTRUCTION Claims Consultant HungaryNegotiable DNC6243An international fi rm of Construction and Engineering Claims Consultants now seeks an experienced Claims Consultant who must speak fl uent Hungarian and English for a contract position for around six months based in Hungary and possibly also in Germany.

TO VIEW THESE JOB DESCRIPTIONS in full and to apply online, please visit ricsrecruit.com and enter the reference number in the keyword box.

ricsrecruit.com

Is your career on the right track?As the world’s second largest technical recruitment agency Randstad CPE is well placed to supply a wide range of technical and construction sta� to companies on the HS2 frameworks.

Covering all aspects of the rail environment, including; design, commercial/programme management, project delivery, health & safety, engineering and construction, Randstad CPE can help you with your next role.

For more information please visit www.randstadcpe.com/rail or call 0800 169 0863.

Assistant Chartered Building SurveyorAn exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, Chartered Building Surveyor to join a well established firm of property consultants.

Based in Darlington and as part of a small Architectural and Building Surveying team, you will be working with a variety of national institutional and private clients and private rural estates. The successful applicant will be involved with a range of construction projects including maintenance and repair, alteration, conversion and refurbishment, through to new build/development schemes.

With a keen interest in, and knowledge of, traditional construction, historic and Listed buildings, you will be required to work on projects from inception through to completion. A good knowledge of current Building Regulations, health and safety and other statutory requirements is required together with proficiency in the use of CAD software, the preparation of detail/working drawings, specification writing, tendering and contract administration. Proficiency in undertaking building surveys, defect diagnosis and report writing is also required. In addition to being a committed team player, you will be required to have good organisational and communication skills.

Salary – Negotiable and commensurate with the skills of the successful candidate.

Please forward CV and covering letter stating current salary level marked strictly private & confidential to:

Mark Watt, Smiths Gore, 26 Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, DL3 7JX or e-mail: [email protected]

smithsgore.co.uk

Opportunity to join the management team of a small established practice in Switzerland. Good knowledge of German essential.

Only applications in German (letter and full CV) will be given consideration.

Workplace: Ebmatingen, Switzerland

Contact: Marianne Duffy ECAS AGLohwisstrasse 468123 Ebmatingen

SWITZERLANDChartered Quantity Surveyor / Project Manager

Tel.: +41 44 982 10 30 Fax: +41 44 982 10 37 Mail: [email protected] www.ecas.ch

MODUS_May_P54-57_Classified.indd 56 17/04/2012 11:37

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ricsrecruit.com

Missing an experienced surveyor or graduate?

RICS’ recruitment advertising solutions – Modus, ricsrecruit.com and our specialist journals – offer an unrivalled surveying audience for all your recruitment needs.

RICSRecruit.com• Reaching 30,000 candidates• Covering more surveying specialisms than any other jobs board• Access to RICS members and new up-and-coming talent• Tailor-made recruitment campaigns.

To reach these candidates contact Dorlisa Purkiss or Charlotte Turner today:+44 (0)20 7871 2663 or [email protected]+44 (0)20 7871 5734 or [email protected]

MODUS_May_P54-57_Classified.indd 57 17/04/2012 11:37

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127.3m Busiest airport (system): London (combined annual passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend)89m Busiest airport (standalone):Hartsfi eld-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, US (passengers)

12.1km Longest runway: Edwards Air Force Base, California, US (NASA)5.5km Longest runway: Qamdo Banga Airport, China (commercial)

505,715Mt Busiest port by tonnage and containers (2009): Port of Shanghai, China

42.5km Longest sea bridge:

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, China

970km2 Largest artifi cial island:

Flevopolder, Netherlands

580km Longest undersea power cable: NorNed, Norway/Netherla

nds

137km Longest tunnel:

Delaware Aqueduct,

NY, US

270mHighest bridge: Millau Viaduct,

Tarn River Valley, France

164.8km Longest bridge:

Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge,

China

450,000Busiest

highway: Highway 401,

Ontario, Canada

(average daily traffi c count

2008)

212,433kmLargest railway

network: US

37.9kmLongest undersea

rail tunnel: Channel Tunnel,

UK/France (50.5km overall)

57kmLongest rail tunnel: Gotthard Base

Tunnel, Switzerland (2017)

44 Largest station (by number of platforms): Grand Central Station, New York City, US1,072m Longest platform: Kharagpur, India

3.64m Busiest passenger station: Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan (passengers per day 2007)

47,958km Longest road system

: Pan-American Highw

ay, Americas

9,289km Longest railw

ay: Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia-Korea

Sources: guinessworldrecords.com,

wikipedia.org

58 rics.org

Illustration by Ian Dutnall

Measure//

ON THE MOVERECORD-BREAKING INFRASTRUCTURE

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“ I HAVE ENOUGH ON MY PLATE WITHOUT HAVING TO CONSIDER WHETHER WE’VE CHOSEN THE RIGHT SUBCONTRACTORS”

Duncan Pierce, Director, Page Associates

ECA electrical contractors are periodically assessed to ensure their technical competence

ONE LESS THING TO WORRY ABOUT.

To find an ECA contractor that’s right for you: www.eca.co.uk

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If you already have a Hiscox Home insurance policy, you can still enter by emailing your policy number and contact details to [email protected] by 30th June 2012. Policies are underwritten by Hiscox Underwriting Ltd on behalf of Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd, both of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. 9962 04/12

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If you already have a Hiscox Home insurance policy, you can still enter by emailing your policy number and contact details to [email protected] by 30th June 2012. Policies are underwritten by Hiscox Underwriting Ltd on behalf of Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd, both of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. 9962 04/12

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Simply get a home insurance quote from Hiscox by 30th June 2012 for your chance to win.

For full terms and conditions visit hiscox.co.uk/RICS/dinnerparty or call 0845 365 1734.

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MODUS_May_p60_Hiscox_Ad.indd 6 16/04/2012 15:40Hiscox.indd 1 19/04/2012 17:29