Budimex has been selected as preferred contractor for deep foundation works on the passenger terminal of Poland’s planned Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK), part of the £27bn Port Polska hub between Warsaw and Łódź. The package will focus on large-scale piling and ground improvement for the main terminal superstructure, a critical early works phase on the greenfield site’s challenging alluvial and glacial deposits. Geotechnical contractors and designers will be watching for CPK’s chosen pile types, installation methods and monitoring regimes, which are likely to set benchmarks for subsequent airside and rail interfaces.

Construction of a 6km offshore breakwater with Europe’s deepest foundations is pushing marine geotechnical limits, with caissons and foundation elements installed in exceptionally deep water using heavy-lift vessels and precision positioning systems. Complex offsite fabrication of large concrete units, likely in a dedicated casting yard with slipform or match-cast techniques, is being coordinated with narrow marine weather windows and high-capacity barges to maintain programme. For designers and contractors, the project stresses accurate seabed characterisation, robust scour protection detailing and tight control of tolerances during submerged placement.

Excavation is under way 1.5km below ground at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility in South Dakota to create three caverns, each roughly cathedral-sized, to house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment’s liquid-argon detectors. The 1,300km-long beamline from Fermilab to the former Homestake gold mine demands tight control of rock mass behaviour, with extensive pre-grouting, cable bolting and shotcrete linings in complex, stressed Precambrian formations. Construction sequencing, spoil handling through deep shafts and long-term groundwater management are central geotechnical risks for the multi-year programme.