Award win for Hindhead Tunnel
The A3 Hindhead tunnel in Surrey has been recognised as the best of its type in the world.
The project, which when it opens later this year will be the UK’s longest underland road tunnel, won best in class at the New Civil Engineer International Tunnelling Awards at a ceremony in London in December.
The win capped a successful year for engineers working on the major road scheme, part of a four mile bypass being built on the A3 at Hindhead. The new road will eliminate a notorious traffic bottleneck on the main route between London and Portsmouth. It will also lift the daily blight of heavy traffic in the village of Hindhead and remove the A3 from the famous Devil’s Punchbowl, an environmentally sensitive area, and reunite hundreds of acres of heath land in the Surrey Hills.
The contract for the Highways Agency scheme was awarded to Balfour Beatty following a competitive tender process in 2002, with a design by Mott MacDonald.
In presenting the award, the judges commended the planning and execution of the project and said that the innovations introduced during the scheme were a “tremendous step forward for UK tunnelling”.
Highways Agency project manager Paul Arnold said:
“I am delighted that the judging panel has recognised the hard work and world class innovation that has brought this major scheme to life. The entire contract has been an exercise in collaborative working, using a new type of contract to bring the parties involved in building the tunnel together at an early stage. Balfour Beatty has been exemplary in its execution of the tunnel works. The Mott MacDonald design was thorough, innovative and with safety at the forefront. Four years in, main construction on both the tunnel and the new stretch of the A3 has been successfully completed on time and on budget.”
Paul Hoyland, project director at Balfour Beatty said:
“We are delighted that the innovative approach across all disciplines to the planning and execution of the A3 Hindhead tunnelling scheme has been recognised at this prestigious industry event.”
Construction on the £371m project started in 2007. Tunnelling work started in 2008, achieving breakthrough just under a year later. Civil engineering work on the project is now nearly complete, before the tunnel’s safety and electrical systems are installed. The new road will be open to traffic next summer.
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