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CONTENTS 02.04.09
NewCivilEngineer
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New(IVIEnglneer lst Floor,GreaterLondonHouse HampsteadRoad,LondonNWl 7EJ EDITORIALINQUIRIES Tel: (020) 77284544 (fax4666) Email: prefixplus@emap.com EDITOR1AntonyOliver (020)77284541 antony.oliver DEPUTYEDITOR1JackieWhitelaw (020) 77284542 jackie.whitelaw CONTENTEDITOR1MarkHansford (020)77284543 mark.hansford NEWSEDITOR1JohnMcKenna (020)77284544 john.mckenna SENIORREPORTER1AlexandraWynne (020)77284540 alexandra.wynne SENIORREPORTER(WEBJ!EdOwen (020)77284545 ed.owen
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NEWS
Clyde Arcdefence lodged MacalIoy rejects daims that it was to blame for last year's rie bar connection failliTe.
19
GREATESTADVANCE The winner
CAD/CAM has corne out on top as construction's greatest advance.
'GJNEER3
28
MIDDLE EAST REPORT Business
Construction companies are now turning their attention to Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.
Aisein thisissue
06 News
First Crossrail con tracts are awarded
08 News
1-3SW bridge inspectaIs sued over colIapse
10 News
Shard foundations take shape
14 Specialreport
Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau Bridge
16 Letters
Transport, structures, energy, infrastructure 39 ICENews
Welshminister pledges f6sM to flood defence
Comment
Antony Oliver 1
PPAEditorofthe Year"Underliningvalue,notjustasa stimulusin a downturn,butasthe backboneto the nation'sweil being"
Recession shouldn'tbethe onl, lime formega-projects
The list of inspirational mega-projects on the go around the world continues to grow.
Economie crisis or not, it's a veritable engineers' playground out there.
This week NCE features the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macau crossing, the Fehmarn Belt bridge between Denmark and Germany and Crossrail. AlI are progressing to the start Hile.
They are not alone. Hong Kong's Stone- cutters Bridge is also nearing completion, Edinburgh's Forth replacement crossing is fast becoming a reality. ln London, piling started last week on Renzo Piano's Shard skyscraperwhile NewYork's Freedom Tower is surviving the recession.
There are maTIrmore such mega-projects underway and on drawing boards around the world. AlI are designed to improve living standards and increase business efficiency.
These projects must surely also bear testi- mony to the accepted wisdom of investing in infrastructure when the going gets tough.
Tangible, long-Iasting investment that reaps economic reward now and continues to reap economic reward for decades to corne,
Meanwhile the leaders of the world's 20 most powerful economies met in London this week, hoping to hammer out some sort of united response to the economic crisis.
Sadly, as NCEwent to press the general view was that the chance of achieving any such agreementwas remote. No marrer how globally entwined our lives now are, economic policy is still rooted in national interest.
Yet for aIl this, the need for decent modern infrastructure remains constant.
The economic value of the ability to travel, to cross natural divides and to have decent accommodation in which to live and work.
For the UK, Crossraillooms most heavily with con tracts being let and start of construction set firmly for 2010.
And as Transport for London commis- sioner Peter Hendy told NCEs Crossrail
conference this week, such decent modern infrastructure projects have a "transforma- tiQuaI effect on the whole community" and should not be one-offs but part of a continuaI programme of upgrading.
So hopefulIywe are reaching a tipping point where governments now recognise this transformational effect and appreciate that Crossrail should be folIowed by, say, High Speed 2 and Crossrail2.
Let's hope so because developing this stream of major infrastructure projects is vital to developing the skills and supply chains that will make future delivery more efficient and effective.
The job oflobbying and persuading government of the value of infrastructure investment is faTfroID over. Underlining value, not just as a stimulus during an economic downturn, but value as the back- boue to the nation's weIl being aIl the rime.
. Antony Oliver is NCE's editor
