National Highways has identified 182 outfalls and soakaways on the Strategic Road Network that will be remediated for polluted road runoff by 2030, following pressure from river and water quality campaigners. The published list covers priority discharge points where runoff currently enters sensitive watercourses without adequate treatment, enabling targeted design of retrofit SuDS, settlement ponds, filters and upgraded soakaway systems. For civil and geotechnical teams, this signals a pipeline of brownfield drainage works involving constrained verges, high-traffic possessions and complex ground–water interface design.

A 15m-diameter vertical shaft sinking machine, claimed as Europe’s largest of its type, has started excavating at National Grid’s Tilbury site to construct a new cable tunnel beneath the River Thames between Tilbury and Gravesend. The shaft will form the main access and cable route for replacing a 1960s transmission tunnel, enabling modern high-voltage circuits to be installed at greater depth and with improved flood resilience. Contractors will need to manage large excavation volumes, groundwater control and segmental lining tolerances for a very wide, deep vertical shaft in complex Thames alluvium and terrace gravels.

Knighthead Capital Management has unveiled concept images for a new 62,000‑seat Birmingham City FC stadium within the proposed Birmingham Sports Quarter at Bordesley Green. The large-capacity bowl will be the centrepiece of a wider mixed-use redevelopment, with the scale implying major transport, geotechnical and utilities upgrades on a constrained urban site. Early-stage design decisions on structural framing, roof span and crowd circulation will be critical for meeting Premier League and UEFA standards while managing buildability and phased construction around existing infrastructure.