MAX Power Mining has signed an MOU with the City of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to advance natural hydrogen commercialisation in the Regina–Moose Jaw Industrial Corridor, centred on the Lawson Natural Hydrogen system near Central Butte, about 80 km northwest of the city. Core desorption tests from nine samples in Cambrian Basal sands above the Basement Complex discovery returned helium values up to 8.7%, averaging 4.4%, indicating a potentially valuable hydrogen–helium system. The partners aim to leverage existing regional infrastructure and policy support to move the project towards commercial validation.

Water scarcity and multi‑year permitting delays—often two to four years for discharge and dewatering approvals in the western US—are increasingly stalling otherwise bankable mines, with water risk now affecting project schedules, financing and national credit profiles. Consultants such as Woodard & Curran report that “credible water stories” are becoming as critical as ore grades, pushing operators towards closed‑loop recycling and non‑traditional sources. US firms Genesis Systems and Atoco are deploying atmospheric water generation units, including Genesis’ containerised WaterCube systems producing over 1,000 gallons per day off‑grid, now trialled at mine sites.

Nearly half of 72 recent mining projects missed delivery deadlines and about 62% of permitting delays were linked to environmental concerns or community opposition, with social conflict costing up to US$20 million per week in lost production. As Washington deploys more than US$30 billion in loans and strategic initiatives to rewire critical mineral supply chains, Andrew Bogrand of Oxfam argues that weak traceability, poor Indigenous engagement and attacks on human rights defenders are now core supply risks. He calls for binding use of IRMA and IFC Performance Standards, free, prior and informed consent, and full mine-to-market transparency.

Aspire Housing has appointed Novus Property Solutions and Anglian Windows to replace ageing doors and windows across approximately 200 social homes in Staffordshire and Cheshire, many of which have units more than 10 years old. The programme targets improved thermal performance, airtightness and occupant comfort, which should cut space-heating demand and extend building fabric life. Novus says works will be sequenced to minimise disruption for residents, signalling a rolling retrofit model that asset managers can replicate across wider housing portfolios.

Sustainability specialist Phil Kelly has rejoined Ramboll as head of department for buildings advisory and consultancy in the UK & Ireland buildings unit, based in the Leeds office. The role covers strategic advice on low‑carbon building design, whole‑life carbon assessment and retrofit strategies across commercial, residential and public sector portfolios. His appointment signals continued demand for consultancy support on embodied carbon, energy performance and compliance with tightening UK regulations such as Part L and emerging net‑zero frameworks.

Legendre UK has been appointed main contractor for Berkeley Estate Asset Management’s 135,000 sq ft redevelopment of 50 Stratton Street in Mayfair, designed by Stiff + Trevillion as an all-electric office building. The scheme targets BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Gold, with a stated zero embodied carbon approach using lightweight steel and four new cross-laminated timber floors. Works include new stone-clad façades with aluminium-framed windows and curtain walling, with construction due to start in June 2026 and complete by mid-2028.

Water scarcity is constraining UK civil engineering growth as contractors face tighter abstraction licences, reduced summer reservoir yields and more frequent temporary use bans despite wetter winters. Major infrastructure schemes are being redesigned with lower non-potable water allowances for concrete batching, dust suppression and earthworks compaction, forcing greater use of closed-loop recycling and on-site treatment plants. Consultants report clients bringing forward demand management, leakage reduction and dual-supply strategies, with early-stage planning now stress-testing projects against prolonged low-flow conditions rather than historic average rainfall.

Australia’s 2026–27 Federal Budget is drawing support from the mining sector for measures to bolster fuel security, including backing for domestic refining and storage that reduces exposure to imported diesel and marine fuels. Industry groups are also welcoming commitments to streamline project approvals, with a focus on faster environmental permitting and clearer timelines for major resources projects. Exploration companies, however, are pressing for stronger direct incentives such as expanded flow-through shares or targeted tax credits to sustain greenfields drilling.

Larvotto Resources’ initial flotation testwork on tailings storage facility 1 at the Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales reports 80–95% antimony and 40–75% gold recoveries from about 1.4 million tonnes of legacy tailings. The material, deposited over ~20 years from an antimony-focused plant, also carries significant gold and tungsten, with earlier work showing 90% tungsten recovery and a 16-fold grade upgrade into a saleable concentrate. Larvotto plans to run the same conventional flotation circuit in its upgraded plant from August 2026, coupling metal recovery with rehabilitation of a facility beside a 500-metre gorge.

BME’s General Manager for Operational Excellence & SHERQ, Dr Ramesh Dhoorgapersadh, told the SAFEX International Congress XXI in Portugal that sustainable mine safety demands a “critical evolution” towards integrating health, wellness and broader human factors into risk management. His research links operational safety performance not only to traditional controls around blasting, explosives handling and SHERQ systems, but also to workers’ physical and mental health status. For mine operators, this points to embedding wellness metrics and human-factor diagnostics alongside conventional lagging and leading safety indicators.

Modul-System UK has staged a van demonstration day for gas distributor SGN, showcasing a Ford Transit 350 RWD L2 H3 in repair specification, two 100 kW Ford E-Courier Trend vans (including a ‘Safe & Warm’ build), and a Renault E-Master L2 H3 demonstrator. Fleet leads, front line teams and union representatives compared diesel and electric configurations against SGN’s existing service vans. Modul-System’s Modul Connect platform was also demonstrated, giving mixed-fleet visibility on vehicle location, driving behaviour and diesel versus EV performance during the transition period.

A £1.2bn Beach Management Framework has been let by the Environment Agency to Van Oord UK and the VBA Joint Venture to deliver beach nourishment and coastal maintenance along multiple stretches of England’s coastline. The long-term framework will cover works such as shingle recycling, sand replenishment and repair of hard defences, supporting schemes that typically involve millions of cubic metres of sediment movement and regular re-profiling of flood defence beaches. Contractors will need to plan around tight tidal working windows, nearshore dredging constraints and integration with existing sea walls and groynes.

A new performance evaluation under the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard now lets buildings that are not yet fully compliant benchmark operational and embodied carbon using the same metrics as aligned assets. The framework standardises reporting of whole-life carbon, enabling consistent comparison of energy use, material emissions and retrofit performance across mixed portfolios. For engineers, this supports more granular targeting of fabric upgrades, services optimisation and low‑carbon materials, while still working within existing design, occupancy and budget constraints.

Cameron Homes has secured East Staffordshire Borough Council approval for a £39m residential scheme delivering 119 homes on the former Bamford Works factory site in Uttoxeter, in partnership with JCB. Redevelopment of the brownfield industrial plot will require remediation of legacy manufacturing ground conditions and reconfiguration of existing utilities and access. The scheme signals further intensification of housing on ex-factory land in the Midlands, with geotechnical investigation and contamination management likely to be key early packages.

M Group has appointed Andrew English as managing director for energy infrastructure to expand its delivery of complex, large-scale engineering solutions across the UK network. English will oversee programmes to modernise critical assets and integrate battery storage, EV charging infrastructure and solar power into existing grids, supporting net-zero transition and grid resilience. He brings senior delivery experience from Skanska and John Holland in UK and Australian utilities and transport, signalling a push to scale M Group’s Energy Infrastructure and In-Home business lines in rapidly changing energy markets.

BHP president Americas Brandon Craig describes a “massive opportunity” to lift copper output from Tier‑1 assets such as the Escondida open pit in Chile and the Olympic Dam underground operation in South Australia. He points to latent capacity in existing concentrators, debottlenecking of haulage and crushing circuits, and incremental leaching projects as lower‑risk growth options compared with greenfield builds. For geotechnical and mining teams, the focus is on optimising pit slopes, underground ground support and tailings storage to sustain higher throughput without major new footprints.

Fortescue has joined the CoRE Learning Foundation as a garnet-level sponsor, backing its national STEM education program aimed at building a future workforce for mining, resources and renewable energy projects. The partnership supports CoRE’s project-based learning model, which links school curricula to real-world mine planning, orebody modelling and decarbonisation challenges faced by operators such as Fortescue. For geotechnical and mining engineers, this signals stronger pipelines of graduates familiar with digital geology tools, pit design concepts and energy-transition technologies before entering tertiary study or apprenticeships.

Australian Power Equipment is reframing mine-site optimisation around transformer reliability, availability and lifecycle performance rather than lowest upfront cost, supplying B&D transformers filled with FR3 natural ester fluid instead of mineral oil or diesel-based coolants. The FR3 ester offers higher fire point and biodegradability, enabling compact substation layouts closer to plant and reduced bunding requirements, which can simplify brownfield expansions. For engineers, the shift pushes whole-of-life asset modelling, factoring in longer insulation life, fewer unplanned outages and reduced supply chain risk for critical electrical equipment.

Guardian Metal Resources has expanded its Tempiute tungsten project in Nevada by staking 193 additional claims, increasing its mineral rights footprint by more than 375% to capture what it believes is the full extent of historical tailings from the former Emerson mine. The skarn-type tungsten-zinc-copper-silver operation, located less than 250 miles from Guardian’s Pilot Mountain project, contains tailings from Union Carbide’s 1977–1984 production and has also shown gallium occurrences. CEO Oliver Friesen plans an auger drilling programme to characterise subsurface tailings for near-term tungsten recovery and reclamation, as tungsten prices hit record highs under tightened Chinese export controls.

Amnesty International accuses Nevada’s three major lithium projects – Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass, Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge and Surge Battery Metals’ Nevada North – of proceeding on ancestral lands without free, prior and informed consent, exposing a gap between US consultation-based permitting and UNDRIP standards. Ioneer cites 328 documented contacts with 13 Tribal Nations, voluntary cultural monitoring agreements and a Nevada District Court decision upholding its federal permit, while Lithium Americas plans US$1.3–1.6 billion capex for Thacker Pass Stage 1. Amnesty warns that advancing large, long-life assets such as Rhyolite Ridge, now scoped at 1.92 Mt LCE over 95 years with US$1.67 billion capex, without consent raises long-term reputational and regulatory risk.

First Quantum Minerals has filed an NI 43-101 Technical Report with an updated copper Mineral Resource estimate for the La Granja project in northern Peru, where it holds 55% alongside Rio Tinto’s 45% stake. The development concept leaves corridor and power design flexibility for future trolley-assist haulage, signalling potential partial electrification of the truck fleet on the steep pit ramps. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, early allowance for trolley lines, substations and ramp geometry could materially influence slope design, haul profiles and overall pit layout.

Titan Mining has signed a cooperation agreement with Teck Resources to assess recovering about 13,000 kg/year of germanium from existing process waste streams at the Empire State Mine zinc operation in New York, using Teck’s Trail Operations in British Columbia as the potential processing hub. The partners will test upgraded ESM process streams as germanium-bearing feedstock and negotiate volumes, payability and possible long-term offtake, targeting a capital-efficient flowsheet that avoids new mining. With US warehouse prices at US$5,800–8,600/kg and minimal domestic output, successful recovery could add significant incremental cash flow and establish Titan as a US germanium supplier.

Defra and Natural England have launched a call for evidence, open until 22 May 2026, asking developers and construction contractors to share practical experience of great crested newt protection on housing and infrastructure schemes. Supported by consultants LUC and ICF, the review targets on-site measures such as exclusion fencing, pitfall trapping, seasonal timing of earthworks and licensing delays. Responses could influence future mitigation licensing, survey requirements and design-stage constraints on sites where newt habitats intersect with foundations, drainage and earthworks.

Boliden’s Somincor zinc and copper operations in Portugal are about to trial their first battery-electric production support unit, a Normet Variomec XS 035 Crew SD mine service vehicle delivered this week after being showcased at The Electric Mine in Lisbon. The compact XS 035 platform is configured for crew transport and general services, targeting reduced diesel emissions and heat in deep workings. Results from this trial will inform Somincor’s wider electrification strategy for auxiliary fleets and associated ventilation load reductions.

The £34.8M decarbonisation programme at Nottingham City Hospital, the UK’s last coal-heated hospital, has eliminated 16,000t of carbon emissions and is delivering £1.4M in annual energy savings. Works included replacing coal-fired plant with low-carbon heating and power systems, alongside extensive upgrades to building services and controls. For engineers, the project shows the scale of carbon and cost reduction possible from deep retrofit of legacy NHS energy infrastructure.

Leguan has launched a fully electric power train option for its all-terrain spider lifts, using the in-house Avant Power OptiTemp battery with liquid-immersion thermal management to keep cells at optimal temperature for consistent output in hot and cold conditions. The electric system is offered alongside, not instead of, existing diesel variants, with lift structures and user interfaces unchanged, simplifying fleet integration and operator training. First public demonstrations of the electrified models are scheduled for the Apex exhibition in the Netherlands in June.

Wandle Housing Association has awarded Travis Perkins Managed Services a three-year materials supply contract from 1 April, covering more than 7,000 homes across nine south London boroughs via core branches in Croydon and Peckham plus seven additional outlets. The deal uses TPMS’ TPgo Data platform to give real-time visibility of purchases, product locations and spend, supporting first-time fix targets and tighter control of responsive repairs logistics. Procured through the Cirrus Framework and aligned with Lumensol’s repairs process review, the arrangement aims to cut stockouts, shorten lead times and lower both operating costs and carbon from van mileage.

RPS Group has agreed an £8.2m partnership with Vico Homes to install photovoltaic panels on more than 2,000 social homes across West Yorkshire. The programme is part-funded through the UK government’s Warm Homes: Social Homes Fund, targeting lower energy bills and reduced fuel poverty for tenants. For asset managers and designers, the scale suggests significant rooftop structural checks, electrical integration with existing low-voltage networks, and coordination with planned maintenance cycles on a large, dispersed housing stock.

Heidelberg Materials UK has resurfaced 1,600m² at the Kent entrance to the Eurotunnel service tunnel and emergency vehicle garages with 140 tonnes of Tufflex asphalt using a CarbonLock bio-binder and CleanAir additive, cutting CO₂ by more than 25% versus the original SMA specification. The Era 140 warm mix process enabled production at up to 40°C lower temperature, reducing plant emissions by up to 15%, improving on-site conditions and shortening possession time. Biogenic CarbonLock permanently stores absorbed CO₂ even after recycling, while CleanAir cuts specific gas and particulate emissions by up to 40%, critical for tunnel air quality.

Government plans to nationalise British Steel aim to preserve domestic production of structural sections, plate and rail steel used in major UK infrastructure, but raise questions over long‑term subsidy levels and exposure of public finances. Civil contractors reliant on BS EN 10025 and BS EN 10210 compliant sections could see short‑term supply stability, yet face potential cost volatility if state ownership drives changes in pricing, energy cost pass‑through or decarbonisation investment. The move also concentrates risk for large public works pipelines such as HS2, road bridges and offshore wind foundations.

First Quantum Minerals’ updated NI 43-101 for the La Granja copper project in northern Peru outlines 4.8 billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources at 0.48% Cu (23.0 Mt contained), plus 5.2 billion tonnes inferred at 0.40% Cu (20.7 Mt), based on 832 diamond holes totalling 370,000 metres. The company plans pit-side comminution and slurry transport via a 7 km tunnel to a processing and tailings complex on a flatter Pacific coastal plain ~100 km away, using desalinated seawater as primary supply. Engineering focus centres on managing arsenic as discrete, “packageable” mineral phases to maintain saleable concentrate through a conventional flowsheet under Peru’s strict ESIA regime.

Rosh Pinah Zinc and Appian Capital Advisory have commissioned a new process water treatment plant at the Rosh Pinah mine in Namibia as a core element of the RP2.0 expansion. The plant is engineered to retreat and recycle process water from multiple circuits across the operation, cutting freshwater draw and reducing discharge volumes to the site’s TSF and evaporation facilities. For mine planners and process engineers, the scheme tightens the site water balance and may enable higher throughput under existing abstraction permits.

Fortescue has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay more than A$150 million (US$108 million) to the Yindjibarndi people for “significant damage” to cultural heritage sites caused during operations at its Solomon Hub iron ore mine in the Pilbara. The ruling, which also includes A$100,000 for economic loss, follows a native title dispute dating back to a 2003 claim and the Yindjibarndi’s 2017 grant of exclusive rights over a 2,700 sq km, iron ore-rich area. For miners, the case signals materially higher native title compensation exposure and ESG risk where projects pre-date or contest Indigenous land determinations.

BHP and Rio Tinto have formed a Tailings Management Consortium (TMC) and issued joint guidance focused on improving tailings dewatering and storage facility management. The collaboration targets higher degrees of dewatering to move operations away from conventional slurry dams towards safer, lower‑footprint options such as thickened, filtered or dry‑stacked tailings, in line with emerging global standards. Both miners state they will share operational learnings and design practices across industry, signalling more open benchmarking of tailings performance and risk controls.

British Land has awarded McLaren a £99m design-and-build contract to retrofit and expand the late-1970s West One building above Bond Street Underground Station into 93,517 sq ft of premium offices over seven storeys. The scheme retains around 60% of the existing concrete frame, adds three extra office floors using a lightweight steel structure from second floor upwards, and reconfigures the block to two retail levels (basement and ground) with offices from first to seventh floors. Targeting NABERS 5*, BREEAM Excellent, EPC A and WELL Enabled, the project is constrained by a dense tunnel network, limiting new foundations to a single concrete core.

Thames Water has appointed Barhale to deliver Phase Three of the £17m Greenwich Trunk Main, installing the final 1km of ductile iron pipeline by open-cut from the Blackwall Lane roundabout to the O2 arena and connecting 350mm–800mm diameter sections to the existing 800mm main at Croon’s Hill. Barhale and specialist contractor Suez will commission the 4km main using ice pigging rather than swabbing and high-velocity flushing, saving about 1.8m litres of water and cutting required pits from 25 to six. The approach trims project costs by roughly £800,000, reduces carbon and brings forward commissioning of Phases Two and Three to May 2027.

L&Q has appointed Cardo as a delivery partner on its 15‑year, £3bn Major Works Investment Programme, which covers all L&Q rented homes and communal areas in mixed‑tenure blocks. Cardo will focus initially on fire remediation from 2026/27, then wider planned works including mechanical and engineering upgrades, fire safety works, and energy efficiency measures to lift all homes to at least EPC C through insulation and other fabric improvements. More than 21,000 homes have already been upgraded, with Cardo joining nine existing partners including Kier Places, Morgan Sindall Property Services and Wates Property Services.

A UK Government research paper concludes that Nature-based Solutions such as floodplain reconnection, riparian woodland and leaky barriers are most effective when planned and modelled across whole catchments rather than as isolated site schemes. The study stresses integrating NbS with existing hard defences, using hydrological and hydraulic modelling to quantify peak flow attenuation and downstream level reductions under design storm events. For civil and drainage engineers, this points to earlier basin-scale option appraisal, multi-landowner agreements and long-term monitoring of storage volumes, infiltration rates and sediment behaviour.

Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority has recommended environmental approval for Covalent Lithium’s expansion of the Earl Grey lithium project at Mt Holland, a key hard‑rock operation feeding the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery. The proposal covers increased open‑pit mining and associated waste rock and tailings storage, with conditions likely to focus on groundwater drawdown, waste landforms and biodiversity impacts in the northern Yilgarn. For geotechnical and environmental teams, the decision signals tighter scrutiny of pit dewatering regimes, TSF design and long‑term rehabilitation performance.

Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation will start construction of the Jinbi solar project in Western Australia after securing a power purchase agreement with Rio Tinto to supply renewable electricity to its Pilbara iron ore operations. The Indigenous-led project will feed solar power into Rio’s existing network that supports mines, rail and port assets, reducing reliance on gas-fired generation and cutting Scope 2 emissions. For mine planners and asset managers, the deal signals further integration of large-scale renewables into remote, islanded mining grids in the Pilbara.

The Federal Government will invest an additional $387.4 million over four years in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to accelerate mining-related R&D as the sector shifts towards lower-emission, higher-automation operations. Funding is expected to support work on ore-sorting technologies, advanced sensing and data analytics, and low-carbon processing routes, alongside environmental monitoring tools for tailings and water management. For operators and contractors, the move signals stronger backing for technology pilots and scale-up in areas such as remote operations centres and electrified mobile fleets.

BHP and Rio Tinto have jointly released new research on large‑scale filtered tailings technology, focusing on improving filtration, stacking and water recovery performance for major iron ore and copper operations. The work examines scaling filter presses and dry‑stack systems from current capacities of tens of thousands of tonnes per day towards ultra‑large installations, addressing challenges such as filter cloth wear, cake consistency, stack stability and conveyor handling. For geotechnical and tailings engineers, the collaboration signals stronger backing for filtered and dry‑stacked designs over conventional upstream or centre‑line tailings storage facilities.

Ionic Rare Earths has led a UK–European collaboration with Less Common Metals, GKN and Ford UK to complete what it calls the Western world’s first end-to-end recycled rare earth supply chain for EV motor magnets, using “made-in-Belfast” long-loop recycling technology. Recycled neodymium, dysprosium and terbium oxides at >99.5% purity were converted by LCM into strip alloy, then into GKN magnets that passed Ford Dunton rotor durability tests with performance equivalent to production magnets. The Belfast commercial recycling plant will feed LCM alloy production for Ford’s UK EV facilities, directly supporting the UK Critical Minerals Strategy target of sourcing 20% of mineral needs from recycling by 2035.

Network Rail will undertake major upgrades in the Severn Tunnel and wider Bristol area later this month, tackling what it describes as one of the harshest operating environments on the UK rail network due to high groundwater inflows and aggressive corrosion conditions. Works are expected to focus on track renewals, drainage improvements and asset protection within the 7km tunnel, where persistent water ingress and chloride-laden spray have historically driven intensive maintenance. The programme will require tightly planned possessions on this key London–South Wales corridor, with implications for geotechnical drainage design, waterproofing systems and long-term durability of steel and concrete elements.

HSE has banned dry cutting of engineered stone in the UK and ordered a shift towards lower-silica materials after two worker deaths from silicosis in the sector. The guidance requires wet cutting or on-tool extraction with high-efficiency local exhaust ventilation for any remaining high-silica products, bringing practice closer to controls already used on tunnelling and concrete cutting. Fabricators and contractors now face mandatory process changes, material substitution reviews, and likely revisions to COSHH risk assessments and respiratory protection programmes.

Fox Group has acquired surfacing contractor DSD Construction and concrete producer Moore Readymix, in a Stellex Capital Management-backed deal aimed at building a circular economy-focused construction materials business. The move expands Fox’s footprint in asphalt surfacing and ready-mixed concrete supply, integrating upstream materials with contracting services. For civil and highways projects, the combined group signals tighter control of aggregates, asphalt and concrete logistics, with potential for increased use of recycled materials in pavements and structural concrete mixes.

UK Steel has strongly welcomed the prime minister’s plan to take British Steel into public ownership, calling it a decisive move to secure a “strategically vital” part of the UK steel supply chain. Nationalisation of British Steel’s integrated works at Scunthorpe and associated rolling and finishing facilities is expected to stabilise domestic supply of structural sections, rail and plate for major infrastructure schemes. For civil and geotechnical contractors, a more secure UK steel base could reduce procurement risk on long-lead items and support tighter control of material specifications and certification.

Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation has reached financial close on the Jinbi Solar Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara and signed a 30‑year power purchase agreement with Rio Tinto to supply renewable electricity to the miner’s operations on Yindjibarndi Ngurra. The Indigenous-led project will now move into construction, adding large-scale solar generation into Rio Tinto’s Pilbara grid, which is currently dominated by gas and diesel. For miners and project engineers, the deal signals growing long-horizon offtake certainty for utility-scale renewables integrated with remote, heavy-industry loads.

SANY Group has delivered its 1,000th electric excavator and moved its 5G remote-controlled excavator fleet into commercial deployment across construction, quarrying and mining sites. The company has also put an unmanned paving-roller fleet into service and brought integrated “smart port” and “smart mine” solutions online, combining electric mobile plant with centralised remote-control centres. For operators, the key shift is towards zero‑tailpipe‑emission earthmoving and compaction equipment that can be run from offsite control rooms, reducing on-bench exposure and enabling continuous operation.

A former Ibstock extraction site, Dalton Quarry, is being converted by Green Earth Developments Group into a biodiversity “bank” of engineered habitats to generate tradable biodiversity net gain (BNG) units for UK infrastructure schemes. The project will create a mosaic of habitat types on previously worked quarry land, allowing developers to purchase pre-accredited BNG units rather than delivering all ecological uplift within constrained project footprints. For civil and geotechnical teams, this model could influence land-take, earthworks design and long-term aftercare obligations on major road, rail and housing projects.