Geomechanics.io

Four Earth Pressure Balance TBMs from China Railway Engineering Group, each over 100m long and just over 7m in diameter, are being procured for the northern twin tunnels of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop East, delivered by Webuild’s Terra Verde JV. All four machines, powered by 100% renewable electricity, will launch from a 19m-deep box at Burwood, driving nearly 10km of parallel tunnels between Box Hill and Glen Waverley with 39 cross passages, two station boxes and an intervention/ventilation shaft. EPB configuration tailored to the corridor’s mixed geology signals complex ground control and settlement management requirements for designers and contractors.

The UK government has approved a 3km Docklands Light Railway extension from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead, including a new Beckton Riverside station, twin-bore tunnel under the River Thames, and an elevated terminus at Thamesmead. The scheme is costed at about £1.7bn, with most funding via Transport for London and Greater London Authority borrowing, supplemented by long-term central government support and potential “innovative financing” mechanisms. Construction could start around 2027, with passenger services targeted for the early 2030s, setting a tight window for tunnelling design and consents.

MossIA, the Acciona–Implenia joint venture, has handed over the northern Sandbukta open-cut zone, Moss Tunnel portal and northern tunnel stretch on Norway’s Sandbukta–Moss–Såstad double-track railway, part of Bane NOR’s Intercity programme on the Østfold line. The 10km scheme includes two main tunnels – the 2.7km Moss Tunnel and 2.3km Carlberg Tunnel – plus two escape tunnels, with MossIA designing and building 9km using drill-and-blast, scaling, shotcrete, waterproofing and cast in situ concrete. Delivered works include drainage, cable ducts, two technical buildings, surface landscaping and foundations for track switches and light masts.

AFRY, as part of the IG AI consortium, has been appointed owner’s engineer for the Lötschberg Base Tunnel expansion, a 40km section of the Lötschberg Base Line between Frutigen and Raron being upgraded to double track under Switzerland’s Rail Expansion 2035. IG AI will handle quality assurance for all railway engineering equipment, including design reviews, technical assessments and commissioning oversight, to meet defined capacity and safety targets across the NEAT corridor linking with the Gotthard and Ceneri base tunnels. The contract is worth about SEK118m (SEK38m to AFRY) and runs from October 2024 to December 2035.

Northern Star Resources has signed a 25‑year power purchase agreement with Zenith Energy to develop the Eastern Goldfields power projects for the KCGM operations near Kalgoorlie, anchored by 256MW of wind, 138MW of solar and a 138MW/300MWh battery system, with commissioning targeted from mid‑2027. The solar farm will use more than 230,000 5B Maverick-mounted panels, while Goldwind turbines up to 150m high with 182m rotors will be installed about 10km from Kalgoorlie, taking Zenith’s contracted generation above 1.3GW. A parallel joint venture adds 120MW of Wärtsilä dual-fuel thermal generation and a 132kV transmission network, with RJE Global supplying transformers and EPC services.

Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS), owner of the Pilgangoora hard rock lithium operation in Western Australia and the Colina project in Brazil, has appointed Alex Wilcocks as its new chief financial officer following a global search. Wilcocks brings more than 20 years’ experience and joins from Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers, where she was CFO and held governance roles over the Covalent Lithium integrated mining and chemical conversion joint venture. Interim CFO Flavio Garofalo will retain senior finance responsibilities, with Wilcocks to commence on 25 May 2026.

Fortescue has installed its first large-scale BYD Battery Energy Storage System at North Star Junction in the Pilbara, a 250MWh, 50MW installation using 48 Blade Battery containers designed for high-temperature, heavy-duty mining conditions. The system will charge from daytime solar and feed Fortescue’s Pilbara Energy Connect network overnight, forming the first stage of a planned 4–5GWh storage rollout under its Real Zero strategy. A further 120MWh BESS is scheduled for Eliwana by early 2026, alongside the 190MW Cloudbreak Solar Farm now nearing 50% completion.

Vulcan Energy has secured a €2.2bn financing package, including €1.18bn in senior debt from 13 institutions, €204m in German Government grants and €528m from an equity raising at €2.24 per share, enabling a positive FID for phase one of its Lionheart lithium and geothermal project in Germany’s Upper Rhine Valley. Phase one targets 24,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate from geothermal brines using Vulcan’s VULSORB adsorption-type DLE, plus 275GWh of power and 560GWh of heat annually over a 30-year life. Key infrastructure will include geothermal-lithium production wells, substations, pipelines, a renewable power and heat plant, a lithium extraction plant and a central lithium plant, with commercial output planned from 2028 and lithium offtake fully contracted for the first ten years.

Artisanal and small-scale mining now involves an estimated 315 million people worldwide and supplies about 20% of global gold plus roughly 25% of both tantalum and tin, yet remains largely informal with significant social and environmental risks. Pan American Silver’s Brent Bergeron told the Resourcing Tomorrow 2025 audience that around half of the company’s sites now face artisanal activity, citing Peru where an estimated $8bn of gold leaves the country annually through opaque channels. Pan American is piloting on‑concession cooperatives, including a 98‑member group in Peru, and backs World Gold Council schemes where central banks buy artisanal gold in local currency to formalise supply chains.

Vale plans to expand its autonomous haul truck fleet to 150 units within two years, building on deployments at its Carajás and Brucutu iron ore operations using OEM systems from Caterpillar and Komatsu. Announced at Vale Day 2025 in London by CEO Gustavo Pimenta, the programme is framed around reducing high-potential incidents in ultra-class haulage and stabilising production in complex pit geometries. For geotechnical and mine planners, larger autonomous fleets will tighten haul road design tolerances, ramp geometry control and berm maintenance standards.

Lucara Diamond Corp has awarded Group R Mining and Exploration Botswana the lateral development contract for the Karowe underground project, covering all horizontal access from the production and ventilation shafts to the orebody. The scope includes excavation of primary and secondary development drives, connection of the two main shafts, and construction of associated ore-handling and ventilation infrastructure. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, the award signals progression from shaft sinking to full underground access development at Karowe’s high-value diamond orebody in Botswana.

Fortescue is reshaping its Pilbara decarbonisation strategy by shifting battery pack manufacturing for its electric haul and mining fleet away from Fortescue Zero while retaining Fortescue Zero for power systems architecture and integration. CEO Dino Otranto says the company is diversifying its EV supply chain across multiple OEMs and battery suppliers as it pushes towards its “Real Zero” operational emissions target, including large battery-electric haul trucks and ancillary equipment. The move signals tighter focus on systems engineering, interoperability and vendor risk management for high-capacity mine electrification.

SKF’s Quick Collect handheld sensor is giving mine maintenance teams without in-house vibration experts a low-barrier entry to condition monitoring by streaming live vibration and temperature data from rotating equipment. The pocket-sized device pairs via Bluetooth with a mobile app, enabling on-plant checks of pumps, conveyors and crushers and basic diagnostics without full-scale online systems. For reliability engineers, it offers a way to extend condition-based maintenance to remote assets and smaller sites where full vibration analysis capability is not justified.

National Highways has started procuring one of the world’s largest tunnel-boring machines for the Lower Thames Crossing, as the project’s forecast cost rises to £11bn for the new road tunnel beneath the Thames Estuary. The TBM will be sized for twin-bore highway tunnels carrying dual carriageway traffic, demanding large-diameter excavation, high face pressures and complex segmental lining logistics in soft estuarine ground. Contractors and designers will need to manage settlement control, water ingress risk and spoil handling at a scale comparable with only a handful of global road tunnel schemes.

Mott MacDonald has been appointed by Iarnród Éireann to lead Ireland’s national Connect rail programme, a multi-corridor upgrade of intercity routes linking Dublin with key regional cities. The commission covers programme management, systems integration and multidisciplinary design for track, structures, stations and digital signalling across the existing heavy rail network. For civil and geotechnical teams, the role points to upcoming packages involving corridor capacity works, bridge and formation upgrades, and staged construction on live lines under Irish and EU interoperability standards.

A new survey of UK rail sector leaders reports a sharp fall in confidence, with 64% of respondents expecting market contraction and most suppliers either freezing recruitment or cutting staff. Contractors and consultants cite delayed enhancements, uncertainty around Control Period 7 workbanks and paused major schemes such as HS2 phases beyond Birmingham as key drivers. The findings signal tighter competition for renewals frameworks, pressure on design and project management capacity, and potential delays to geotechnical and civils packages on secondary routes.

Drypool Bridge in Hull has reopened to traffic after a 10.5-week full closure, as Esh Construction completes the initial phase of a major repair and strengthening programme on the key river crossing. The works form part of a staged refurbishment to extend the operational life of the movable bridge structure and improve reliability of its mechanical and structural components. Engineers and contractors now shift to the next phase while maintaining traffic flow, which will influence access planning and inspection regimes for similar ageing urban bridges.

Homes England has awarded Transport for London a £23M grant to deliver a new bus link that will unlock the proposed Docklands Light Railway extension to Thamesmead, a key growth area in east London. The bus corridor is expected to establish passenger demand and safeguard a future DLR alignment, reducing risk for subsequent rail and geotechnical works across challenging former industrial and riverside land. For civil engineers, the funding signals early-stage transport-led regeneration, with phased surface transport preceding higher-capacity rail infrastructure.

A proposed £5bn merger between two UK-listed infrastructure investment trusts has collapsed after key shareholders objected to the combined vehicle’s perceived risk profile. Investors were reportedly concerned about increased exposure to higher-risk assets within the trusts’ mixed portfolios of transport, energy and social infrastructure. The failure of the deal may constrain capital available for large, long-duration projects and signals that institutional backers are currently wary of structures concentrating construction and demand risk.

Sealants & Pavement Adhesives, led by Managing Director Kevin De-Simone, is positioning itself as one of the few Australian suppliers offering both pavement sealing machinery and bituminous sealant products from a single source. The family-run business provides crack sealing equipment alongside hot-applied joint sealants and pavement adhesives, targeting road maintenance crews seeking tighter integration between plant and consumables. For asset owners and contractors, the combined supply and training model is aimed at improving seal performance and consistency on sprayed seal and asphalt rehabilitation works.

Grassroots road safety funding in Victoria will see 316 local football and netball clubs share $700,000 through the Transport Accident Commission’s Club Rewards Program, with each AFL Victoria‑aligned club able to earn up to $10,000. The grants support community‑led campaigns on issues such as speed, drink‑driving and seatbelt use around regional and metropolitan grounds, where match‑day traffic and informal parking often create high‑risk conflict points. For road engineers and planners, the programme may generate local data and partnerships useful for targeting low‑cost safety treatments near suburban and rural sports precincts.

Miller Homes Scotland West has acquired the 33-hectare former Clydesdale Steelworks brownfield site in Bellshill to deliver the Hawthorn Green residential development, the first phase of a wider regeneration exceeding 430 homes. Phase one will comprise 97 three-, four- and five-bedroom semi-detached and detached units, with initial site preparation starting this month and main construction scheduled for next year. First completions are targeted for early 2027, signalling long-term remediation, groundworks and infrastructure demands on a large ex-industrial site in North Lanarkshire.

WHC Hire Services in the West Midlands has become the first UK firm to offer an electric Kubota mini excavator by converting a conventional diesel unit using its in-house Requip Electric Retrofit system. The retrofit replaces the original engine with a battery-electric powertrain, allowing contractors to use familiar Kubota compact excavators on zero-tailpipe-emission sites and in low-noise, enclosed or urban environments without waiting for OEM electric models.

Southern Water has signed a £7m, six-year framework with Dutch firm Samotics to roll out its SAM4 electrical signature analysis (ESA) condition monitoring system across around 600 wastewater and clean water sites in southern England. A one-year trial on 1,458 critical assets detected 63 failures on submersible sewage pumps and other pumping equipment, avoiding an estimated £5m in damage and penalties by catching blockages, air locks and mechanical faults early. SAM4 analyses real-time current and voltage signals, with AI plus human-in-the-loop validation delivering 97% fault-classification accuracy and under 1% false positives via a remote dashboard.