A 15‑year review of the Environment Agency’s Thames Estuary 2100 (TE2100) Plan finds sea levels in the estuary are rising faster than earlier design assumptions, putting additional pressure on the 520‑square‑kilometre flood risk management area. The findings are expected to trigger earlier or more extensive upgrades to defences including the Thames Barrier, raised tidal walls and embankments, and secondary barriers on tributaries. For geotechnical and civil engineers, this signals a need to revisit crest levels, overtopping criteria, and foundation performance under higher hydraulic loading over the plan horizon to 2100.

Fourteen illegal chrome miners were found dead and at least eight injured after a cave-in near an abandoned shaft by the Nkaneng informal settlement, close to Marikana in South Africa’s North West province, with the collapse estimated around 21:00 on Monday. Police have intensified action against illegal chrome operations in the province, seizing 20 trucks and 15 excavators over the past two years and arresting survivors on suspicion of illegal mining. The incident underlines ongoing geotechnical and safety risks where informal miners re-enter abandoned gold, platinum and chrome workings without ground support or regulated access control.

A worker at the Sellafield nuclear decommissioning site “died suddenly” during the week commencing 6 July, prompting an immediate review by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). ONR has confirmed the death was not work-related and that there was no radiological or conventional safety incident affecting the wider site. Routine regulatory oversight of Sellafield’s legacy waste facilities, spent fuel management and construction activities continues unchanged, with no impact reported on nuclear safety cases or site operations.