A sinkhole roughly 8–10 m wide and several metres deep has opened on the AJ Burkitt Reserve sporting oval in Heidelberg, directly adjacent to the North East Link tunnel alignment in Melbourne’s northeast. Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority has confirmed the “surface hole” is in the vicinity of active tunnelling operations, leading to a work pause while engineers and emergency crews carry out geotechnical investigations and monitoring. No injuries or structural damage have been reported, but the area remains fully cordoned off pending cause determination and stability assessment.

A 10 August 2025 rockslide in Alaska’s Tracy Arm Fjord sent more than 64 million m³ of rock and debris into the water, generating a megatsunami with an estimated maximum run-up of about 481 m along the steep fjord walls, the second-highest recorded after Lituya Bay 1958. The failure was linked to support loss from South Sawyer Glacier’s retreat, with the narrow fjord geometry strongly amplifying wave heights. No casualties occurred, but the near miss for cruise traffic signals a rising landslide–tsunami hazard in deglaciating fjords that must be factored into navigation and infrastructure risk assessments.

Freeport Indonesia has pushed back Grasberg’s full production restart to early 2028, after a September mudflow in the Grasberg Block Cave killed seven workers, halted underground mining and triggered force majeure on shipments. The complex, which previously supplied about 3% of global copper (1.7 billion lb/year) and 1.4 million oz/year of gold, is currently operating at roughly 40–50% capacity, with copper output for 2026 now guided at 700 million lb versus a prior 1‑billion‑lb target. Ramp-up targets have been reset to 65% capacity in H2 2026 and 80% by mid‑2027, as additional logistics and ore-handling infrastructure work proceeds.

Transport for NSW is shortlisting engineering solutions to reinstate Mitchells Causeway on the Great Western Highway after a defect in the pavement over the structure forced closure of Victoria Pass on 12 March. Subsequent investigations identified serious stress fractures forming in the westbound lanes, prompting a $50 million New South Wales Government package to upgrade key detour routes now carrying diverted traffic. Geotechnical and structural options for the causeway will need to address cracking behaviour under heavy freight loads and steep Blue Mountains topography while maintaining network resilience during works.

BHP has been denied permission by London’s Court of Appeal to challenge a High Court ruling that found it liable under Brazilian law for the 2015 Fundão tailings dam collapse at the Samarco iron ore operation in Mariana, which killed 19 people and contaminated the Rio Doce for hundreds of kilometres. The decision clears the way for a two-year UK damages process, with a Stage 2 compensation trial scheduled for April 2027 and final awards potentially extending beyond 2030. BHP points to a roughly $32 billion Brazil settlement and remediation programmes that have already compensated more than 625,000 people, with about 240,000 claimants discontinuing UK claims after indemnification in Brazil.

A methane and coal dust explosion at the La Ciscuda underground coal mine in Colombia’s central Cundinamarca province has killed nine workers and injured six, only weeks after the national mining agency (ANM) warned of gas accumulation risks at the site. The mine, operated by Carbonera Los Pinos, had been subject to ANM inspection visits focused on methane build-up and dust control, which the agency says can become dangerous if not properly managed. The incident again exposes ventilation, gas monitoring and dust suppression weaknesses at smaller Colombian coal operations, despite the country’s status as a major thermal coal exporter led by Glencore’s Cerrejón mine.

Lion One Metals shares fell over 30% to C$0.14 after cancelling a C$15 million private placement with Arete Capital Advisors and announcing the exit of CEO Campbell Olsen just two months into the role. The Arete deal would have issued 44.26 million units at C$0.34, each with a warrant at C$0.39, and included a master services agreement making Arete operator of the Tuvatu underground gold mine in Fiji. Tuvatu, designed for about 331,400 oz/year over five years, produced only 4,200 oz last quarter amid equipment, power and development constraints, while Lion One faces a senior loan default notice from Nebari and a shareholder move to remove directors.

Flood and coastal defence assets are facing mounting maintenance backlogs as ageing embankments, culverts and sea walls are exposed to more frequent, higher-intensity storm events. Experts warn that current operational budgets and short funding cycles prevent timely renewal of critical structures such as tidal barriers, pumping stations and flap valves, increasing failure risk under extreme water levels. They call for a shift from reactive patch repairs to long-term, whole-life asset management with multi-year funding settlements to support planned inspections, resilience upgrades and adaptive design.

Boroo has entered a 90-day exclusivity agreement with receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers to negotiate the purchase of Victoria Gold’s Eagle gold mine in Yukon, about 375 km north of Whitehorse, after the June 2024 heap leach pad collapse released millions of tonnes of ore and at least 280,000 m³ of cyanide-bearing solution. PwC previously valued Eagle’s assets at about C$824.7 million and has Yukon government authorisation for C$220 million in clean-up spending. Boroo will now complete due diligence and negotiate restart terms with Yukon and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun.

The 1911 Tees Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough has been named on the Victorian Society’s 2026 Top 10 Endangered Buildings list, signalling serious deterioration in one of the UK’s last working transporter bridges. The 259m-long steel structure, which carries vehicles and pedestrians across the Tees via a suspended gondola, now faces major repair and corrosion-management challenges typical of century-old riveted trusses and mechanical lifting gear. For asset managers, the listing intensifies pressure to secure funding, define viable strengthening strategies and manage operational risk.

B2Gold’s Goose mine in Nunavut will cut Q2 gold output guidance to 18,000–20,000 oz. after an April 16 fire damaged the fixed crushing circuit, temporarily reducing throughput from the 4,000 t/d design capacity. Damage is confined to the crushing area, with the mill and power plant unaffected, and the company is switching to on-site mobile crushers plus additional hired temporary crushing capacity while repairs, budgeted at about C$10 million, run to Q3 alongside installation of a new run-of-mine bin and apron feeder.

A landslide in northern Peru has forced the evacuation of more than 170 residents after continued ground movement destabilised a hillside settlement, with local authorities warning the slope remains active and at risk of further failure. Civil defence teams report tension cracks and progressive deformation upslope of the initial slip, prompting a red alert and temporary closure of nearby access roads. Geotechnical teams are now monitoring displacement and rainfall, with short-term controls focused on exclusion zones rather than immediate slope stabilisation works.

A Worcestershire vehicle maintenance firm has been fined £30,000 plus £4,325 in costs after a worker was crushed beneath a one-tonne concrete block, sustaining what the court described as “devastating” injuries. The incident involved a precast block used on the company’s site, with inadequate control of lifting and securing operations identified as the core failure. The case signals continued regulatory pressure on small depots and workshops to apply full CDM- and LOLER-level rigour to handling heavy concrete units and temporary yard structures.

A parliamentary petition is demanding a full public inquiry into how national and local government managed the 2023 reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) crisis in public buildings. The move follows widespread emergency closures and propping of schools and other structures where Raac roof and floor planks, typically installed from the 1950s to 1990s, were found at risk of sudden shear and bearing failure. An inquiry could scrutinise inspection regimes, structural assessment criteria and decision-making thresholds used to classify Raac elements as critical.

Newmont has suspended underground operations at the Cadia gold mine near Orange, New South Wales, after a magnitude-4.5 earthquake struck west of the site overnight, triggering geotechnical inspections. The company is assessing ground support, backs and pillars in the panel cave and other underground workings before allowing personnel re-entry, while surface processing and other non-underground activities reportedly remain largely unaffected. The event will focus attention on seismic design criteria, rock mass characterisation and monitoring systems for deep block and panel cave operations in intraplate seismic regions.

A $4.7bn (£3.7bn) contract with WeBuild to construct an artificial lake at Trojena, part of Saudi Arabia’s NEOM winter sports resort, has been cancelled with around 30% of the works already completed. The scheme included a major dam and high-altitude lake intended as the centrepiece of a year-round ski and leisure development in the desert mountains. The termination raises immediate questions over sunk costs, re-purposing of partially built hydraulic structures and long-term water resource planning for large-scale tourism projects in arid regions.

Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice has reinstated criminal charges against former Vale CEO Fábio Schvartsman over the 25 January 2019 Brumadinho Córrego do Feijão tailings dam collapse, which killed more than 250 people and erased about US$19 billion from Vale’s market value in a single day. Federal prosecutors cited extensive internal documentation alleging Schvartsman assumed the risk of death by not acting on known instability issues at the upstream tailings structure, overturning a Minas Gerais court’s habeas corpus ruling. The decision restores 16 defendants, including ex‑Vale staff and TÜV SÜD consultants, with over 160 witnesses scheduled and hearings expected to run into next year, keeping corporate accountability for dam safety in sharp focus.

Huws Gray has been fined £2.2m plus full costs at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court after 56-year-old labourer Paul Coulson was fatally crushed by a three‑tonne pallet of timber on a conveyor at the Herringswell Sawmills site in Suffolk on 22 May 2024. HSE investigators found workers had entered the conveyor framework at least 19 times in five weeks despite warning signage, with no physical guarding or system change implemented until after the incident. Post‑accident measures now include fixed guarding to prevent access, unwrapping pallets before loading, and expanded CCTV coverage of all conveyor angles.

A coastal landslide on the East Devon coast at Branscombe has left multiple timber beach chalets tilted and partially cantilevered over the cliff edge, with foundations exposed after a major cliff recession event reported by the BBC. The failure occurred in weak, highly erodible cliff materials following prolonged wet weather and recent storms, accelerating existing coastal erosion. Local authorities have cordoned off the area and are assessing further instability risks, raising immediate questions over setback distances, slope monitoring, and long-term coastal retreat planning for similar soft-cliff sites.

Coastal erosion has destroyed a section of the A379 Slapton line in Devon, severing a key coastal route, but central government has offered only sympathy and no funding or technical commitment to reinstate it. The community, which depends on the road as the primary link between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth, now faces long diversion routes on minor inland roads not designed for current traffic volumes or heavy vehicles. For geotechnical and coastal engineers, the situation signals continued uncertainty over who funds long-term adaptation of low-lying coastal highways exposed to accelerating shoreline retreat.

SSR Mining has agreed to sell its 80% stake in the Çöpler gold mine in eastern Anatolia to Cengiz Holding for US$1.5 billion in cash, sending SSR shares up 5.3% in pre-market trading and valuing the company at about US$5 billion. The transaction covers the mine, licences and all associated assets and liabilities, following a 2024 heap leach failure and landslide that left at least nine miners missing and was later linked to a third-party design flaw. SSR has already spent nearly US$150 million on reclamation and remediation, and analysts say the sale removes a major operational and reputational risk overhang.

A Rail Accident Investigation Branch report on a Port Glasgow possession details how a Kirow rail crane slewed unexpectedly and crushed two track workers between the crane and a wagon, leaving one with serious injuries. Investigators found the crane operator and controller were using unclear hand signals, with no agreed communication protocol, and that inadequate task lighting on the wagon meant the operator could not reliably see staff positions. The findings point to the need for formalised crane communication plans, better illumination of work areas, and stricter exclusion zones around on‑track plant.

A 19-year-old labourer, Renols Lleshi, died after stepping onto a ventilation shaft on the 12th-floor roof garden at the Ark Soane Academy residential block in Mill Hill Road, London W3, where the opening was covered only with plasterboard and roofing foam before he fell six floors. Jerram Falkus Construction Limited admitted breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £42,200, plus a £2,000 surcharge and £5,000 costs at City of London Magistrates Court. HSE found routine site inspections excluded the roof garden, so the fragile, non-loadbearing cover and fall hazard were never identified or controlled.

Balfour Beatty Group has pleaded not guilty at High Wycombe Magistrates Court to two Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 charges following the July 2023 death of construction worker Stuart Cook, 58, at AWE’s Aldermaston nuclear site in West Berkshire. The company denies breaching Section 2(1) regarding its duty to protect its employee and Section 3(1) concerning risks to non-employees arising from construction activities on the Atomic Weapons Establishment site. ONR is prosecuting as a conventional health and safety case, with no radiological risk reported and no trial date yet set.

Local roads in England and Wales now carry a record £18.62bn maintenance backlog, with the 2026 Alarm survey warning it would take more than 10 years to restore networks even after the government’s reallocation of HS2 funding to local transport. Councils report accelerating carriageway deterioration, with more potholes forming on ageing asphalt surfaces that are already beyond typical 20–30 year design lives. For highway engineers, the figures signal continued pressure to triage works, prioritise structural resurfacing over patching, and justify asset-management-led interventions.

FP McCann has been fined £110,000 at Antrim Crown Court after subcontractor William Houston died at the company’s Loughside Quarry cone crushing plant in Larne in April 2023. A 45kg stone, manually removed from a blocked cone crusher and carried along a raised conveyor catwalk about 15ft above ground, fell through the railings and struck Houston as he walked below. HSENI’s major investigation team stressed the need for controls to prevent falling objects, citing simple measures such as exclusion zones beneath elevated work areas.

BHP has secured a UK Court of Appeal ruling that terminates contempt of court proceedings over allegations it funded Brazilian litigation via mining lobby group Ibram to stop municipalities joining UK lawsuits arising from the 2015 Samarco tailings dam collapse, which released about 50 million tonnes of waste into the Rio Doce. The decision comes as BHP seeks permission to appeal a separate High Court finding of liability, ahead of a London damages trial set for October 2026 and a further compensation phase in April 2027. BHP, Samarco and Vale continue implementing a ~$32 billion remediation agreement in Brazil, with over 625,000 people having received about $6.5 billion to date.

Artemis Gold has halted processing at its Blackwater mine in central British Columbia after a ball mill gearbox failure forced a production outage expected to last 8–10 days, though mining activities continue and a replacement gear is on hand. First-quarter output will be below plan, but full-year guidance of 265,000–290,000 oz remains unchanged as the company brings forward second-quarter maintenance to use the downtime. The shutdown briefly knocked Artemis’ market capitalisation below C$9 billion, despite Blackwater having produced 192,808 oz of gold in its first eight months of operation in 2025.

Two firms have been fined after a cherry picker struck an 11kV overhead powerline at the Willand Biogas anaerobic digestion site in Cullompton, Devon on 1 June 2020, killing 34-year-old Carl Parsons and leaving colleague Luke Madavan with life-changing injuries. Willand O&M Ltd, advised by both its contractor and Western Power Distribution to divert or bury the line, failed to act or install controls such as height restrictors or exclusion zones, and was fined £51,000 plus £28,467 costs. New Wave Marine Ltd, whose risk assessment and supervision were deemed inadequate, was fined £30,000 with £8,000 costs.

SSR Mining will sell its 80% stake in Turkey’s Çöpler gold mine and associated eastern Anatolia licences, assets and liabilities to Cengiz Holding for $1.5 billion in cash, sending SSR shares up 15% in New York pre-market trading. Operations at Çöpler have been suspended since a 2024 heap leach failure and landslide that left at least nine miners missing, with an independent review blaming a third-party engineered design flaw. SSR is now concentrating its portfolio in the Americas, including the Cripple Creek & Victor mine, and is reviewing its 20% interest in the Hod Maden project.

Assessing dam failure risk with WTW takes centre stage in the latest Engineers Collective podcast, focusing on how insurers and engineers jointly quantify breach probabilities and downstream consequences for large embankment and concrete gravity dams. Discussion covers use of probabilistic risk assessment, portfolio-level screening tools and event trees to evaluate failure modes such as overtopping, internal erosion and spillway degradation under extreme rainfall. The episode also examines how updated risk metrics influence capital maintenance planning, emergency drawdown provisions and prioritisation of dam safety upgrades.

Precast manufacturer Tobermore Concrete Products has been fined £160,000 at Londonderry Crown Court after production team leader Colin Thomas was fatally crushed on 26 April 2023 at the HESS1 block manufacturing line at its Lisnamuck Road plant. Thomas entered a fenced pit area for cleaning when a horizontal latch conveyor restarted, trapping him between the moving conveyor and fixed structure because the line had not been fully isolated and locked out. HSENI found unclear interlock zoning, absence of safety light sensors on HESS1 despite their use on similar lines, and inadequate supervision of cleaning and maintenance practices.

A Scottish contractor, Ipsum Drainage (Scotland) Limited of Hillington Park, Glasgow, has been fined £183,000 after 28-year-old employee Ross Hanratty died in October 2022 falling 24 feet through a fragile warehouse roof at Seafield Industrial Estate, Edinburgh, while clearing gutters. Hanratty was working alone on the second block roof, wearing a harness with no suitable anchor point, and fell into a unit occupied by Rembrand Timber. Investigators found no suitable and sufficient risk assessment, no safe system of work for fragile roofs, and inadequate information, instruction and equipment for a new worker at height.

A 23-year-old grounds worker, Kamil Grygieniec, was killed when a ride-on mower without its roll-over protection system (ROPS) descended a steep slope and overturned into a village pond at North Stainley, near Ripon, on 8 October 2021. HSE investigators found the factory-fitted ROPS had been removed and that no suitable, site-specific risk assessment for mowing on sloping, uneven ground had been carried out. Employer MHS Countryside Management Limited, of Bishop Auckland, was fined £27,000 plus £11,166 costs at York Magistrates’ Court for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Trial dates have been set at Bristol Crown Court for two Office for Nuclear Regulation prosecutions over incidents at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station site, including the November 2022 death of worker Jason Waring and an August 2022 rebar mesh wall collapse that seriously injured slinger Paul Dunne in a prefabrication yard. NNB Generation Company (HPC), Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke Delivery all plead not guilty to breaches of CDM 2015 Regulations 13(1) and 15(2). A separate case adds alleged failures under Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, with trials scheduled for October 2027 and January 2028, each listed for four to six weeks.

Multiple sinkholes along Summit Avenue near Lewis Street in Phillipsburg, New Jersey have triggered a local state of emergency after one collapse swallowed a loaded dump truck and undermined adjacent properties. Authorities have evacuated several homes, closed the affected road section, and are investigating suspected subsurface voids linked to ageing water or sewer infrastructure beneath the asphalt pavement. Geotechnical teams now face urgent stability assessment, utility leak detection, and staged backfilling or grouting in a constrained urban corridor with active buried services.

A High Wycombe contractor, Bow Tie Construction Limited, has been fined £24,000 plus £4,101 costs at Southwark Crown Court after a worker fell 1.65 metres from the top of a five‑foot stepladder while using a gas‑powered nail gun on temporary timber formwork for a new concrete staircase in an Islington refurbishment. The fall caused crush injuries to both elbows requiring multiple surgeries, a fractured forearm, dislocated wrists and leg and knee damage. HSE found no safe system of work for height, inadequate edge protection, incorrectly assembled tower scaffolds and uncontrolled ladder use, despite a prior prohibition notice one month earlier.

Albert Bridge in west London has been closed to motor traffic after a routine inspection found a cracked cast iron component at one of the bridge abutments, Kensington and Chelsea council confirmed. The 1873 Grade II* listed structure, a hybrid cable‑stayed and suspension bridge over the Thames, remains open to pedestrians and cyclists while engineers assess the defect. Structural investigations will focus on load paths through the affected abutment detail and the implications for fatigue and brittle fracture behaviour in the historic cast iron.

A Croydon Crown Court judge has jailed 56-year-old sole trader Israel Jackson for 12 months after he illegally installed a gas boiler for a 90-year-old homeowner in May 2022 while falsely claiming to be Gas Safe registered and issuing a fraudulent gas safety certificate. The installation triggered gas smells, loss of hot water and two separate “immediately dangerous” notices from British Gas and BT Heating and Property before the boiler was finally replaced in June 2023. HSE found Jackson had continued unregistered gas fitting work despite a 2015 conviction, and served U-Works Services Ltd with a prohibition notice for failing to verify his Gas Safe status.

Rainfall 64% above the February average has triggered widespread flooding and landslides across Colombia, killing at least 13 people and affecting more than 10,000, with Antioquia, Cundinamarca and Valle del Cauca among the hardest-hit departments. Rivers including the Magdalena and Cauca have overtopped banks, damaging road embankments, bridge approaches and hillside settlements, and forcing evacuations in multiple municipalities. Geotechnical teams face saturated slopes, debris flows and scour at culvert and retaining-wall foundations, with authorities warning of further failures if intense rainfall persists.

Construction of the $16bn (£12bn) Hudson Tunnel Project beneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey has been paused after federal funding disbursements were halted mid-programme. Developer entities backing the new twin-bore rail tunnel, designed to add capacity and resilience alongside the existing 1910 North River Tunnels on the Northeast Corridor, have filed suit against the White House alleging breach of contract. The stoppage raises immediate risk of contractor demobilisation, schedule slippage on critical underground works, and cost escalation for major civils and geotechnical packages already procured.

Fire enforcement notices have been served by the Office for Nuclear Regulation on all five MEH alliance contractors at Hinkley Point C – Altrad Babcock, Altrad Services, Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick, Cavendish Nuclear and NG Bailey – following a December 2025 inspection of the Unit 1 HF electrical building. Inspectors found no suitable fire risk assessment, inadequate means of escape with too few emergency exits for current workforce numbers, and combustible materials stored in a designated emergency stairway. The firms must now embed compliant fire arrangements, while main works contractors Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke Delivery are separately facing court action over safety breaches.

More than 140,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying towns and rural communities in northwestern Morocco after extreme rainfall and emergency releases from multiple upstream dams caused major flooding along several river valleys. Rapid drawdown and high downstream discharges are stressing ageing embankment protections, inundating agricultural terraces and damaging road and bridge approaches, with several river crossings reportedly overtopped. Geotechnical teams now face urgent inspections of dam abutments, spillway structures and saturated slopes, alongside rapid debris clearance to reopen key access routes for relief and repair works.

A Manchester-based grab hire firm, Salford Grab Hire Limited, has been fined £10,000 plus £3,475.90 costs after a one-tonne excavator bucket, used to prop a raised tipper truck body during repair, became dislodged and crushed a mechanic in October 2023. The worker sustained multiple fractures to his hand, shoulder blade, ribs, shin and thigh, a crushed ankle and foot, and a pulmonary blood clot. HSE found the bucket lacked a quick hitch or retaining pin and that no appropriate tipper body support equipment or safe system of work had been used.

Robertson Partnership Homes has installed a new five-man board – managing director John Baggley, operations director Craig Smith, commercial director Ed Parry, finance director Paul Gray and pre-construction director Andy Park – to steer its Scottish affordable and public sector housing work. The governance change follows defects identified in more than 700 Robertson-built homes across 12 Edinburgh sites, which forced residents out and raised serious safety concerns. The new board is tasked with standardising housing designs for greater consistency, reliability and quality, while supporting local authorities and registered social landlords under acute delivery pressure.

Spey Viaduct’s collapsed spans over the River Spey will be cut and lifted out in sections under a Moray Council plan to create safe access for structural and geotechnical investigation following the 14 December failure. The segmented removal will allow close inspection of critical elements such as bearings, pier foundations and connection details that are currently submerged or unstable in the river channel. Findings are expected to inform both the viaduct’s future and any revisions to inspection and scour management regimes on similar river crossings.

Near 50% more UK construction firms are on the brink, with Begbies Traynor’s Red Flag Alert reporting 9,981 companies in ‘critical’ distress in Q4 2025 (up 46.1% year-on-year) and 108,213 in ‘significant’ distress (up 10.9%). The worst-hit segments include ‘Development of building projects’ (14,968 firms, +12.7%), ‘Construction of Domestic Buildings’ (12,121, +9.9%) and ‘Specialised design services’ (6,666, +15%), alongside sharp rises in electrical and MEP trades. BTG warns stalled projects, high input costs and HMRC tax enforcement are squeezing cash flow, raising counterparty and supply-chain risk.

A self-employed contractor has been jailed for 12 months after 19-year-old labourer Thomas Neate died from head injuries sustained when he fell through an opening while stripping tiles from a domestic garage roof in Staines-upon-Thames on 16 August 2023. HSE investigators found the demolition was carried out directly from the roof with no scaffolding, decking or fall-prevention system, alongside unsafe mini-digger use and unrestricted public access to the site. Asbestos cement sheets were also broken up and removed by hand with no prior survey, exposing three other workers and the household to fibre risk.

Blyth Marble Limited has been fined £50,000 plus a £3,750 victim surcharge after 61-year-old worker Steven White was fatally struck by two granite slabs with a combined weight of more than 900 kg during offloading from a lorry loader at its Larkhall, Lanarkshire premises on 4th September 2024. HSE investigators found vertical safety posts, intended as a physical barrier to prevent slab toppling, had been removed despite custom and practice to leave them in place and no explicit requirement in the safe working manual. The Safe System of Work also failed to distinguish between single and multiple slab lifting and was breached when White worked alone despite a two-person offloading requirement.

Tarmac Building Products has been fined £633,300, plus £5,583 costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge, after an HSE investigation into a 22 July 2022 incident at its Linford, Essex block production line where an employee’s legs were crushed between moving steel frames on a trackway. The interlocked access gate to the fenced frame-cleaning area did not isolate power to preceding track sections, allowing a loaded frame to enter the “safe” zone while manual cleaning was underway. HSE found prior near misses on the same section and a historic risk assessment identifying extra guarding and control measures, which were only implemented after the life-changing injury.