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Latrobe Magnesium has reached 33 per cent completion on Phase 1B of its Stage 1 demonstration plant in Victoria, targeting first magnesium metal production in the second half of 2026. Structural, mechanical and piping (SMP) works are advancing, with major steelwork, equipment installation and pipe-rack construction already underway. The Latrobe Valley project is designed to process brown coal fly ash into magnesium, offering a potential low-cost, lower-CO₂ alternative to conventional dolomite or magnesite-based production for alloy and automotive supply chains.

Dandara has secured planning permission for 252 fully electric homes on a former industrial site in Bristol’s Fishponds, forming part of Bristol City Council’s Atlas Place Masterplan and including one to four-bedroom houses and apartments. The scheme incorporates an orbital cycle route linking directly to the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, more than 150 new trees, and play areas, with construction due to start later this summer and first occupations targeted for 2027. Dandara will contribute about £430,000 to local highway and public transport upgrades, and 100% of demolition material has been recycled, with some reused on site.

Builders Merchants Building Index data show April 2026 like-for-like value sales down 0.6% year-on-year, with volumes off 3.5% and prices up 3%, as Renewables & Water Saving fell 6.6% and Heavy Building Materials 1.9%, while Services grew 7%. Over February–April, volumes dropped 7.1% against a 4.7% price rise, and 12‑month like-for-like values to April were 0.7% lower. MRA Research notes Q1 new home registrations down 6% and 762 UK property-related insolvencies so far in 2026, more than 60% above last year.

McHale Plant Sales has taken over distribution of Terex Fuchs material handlers for both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from Blue Equipment Ireland, in a deal that transfers Blue’s dedicated Fuchs team into McHale. The move ties an established Fuchs customer base and product line of scrap and port handlers into McHale’s nationwide depot network, technical resources and aftersales operation. For contractors and recycling operators, the key change is a single, larger support organisation for machine supply, servicing and parts, with continuity from the existing personnel.

Dudleys Consulting Engineers has engineered the redevelopment of the historic Royd Edge Mills dyeworks near Huddersfield into 30 homes by tackling complex brownfield conditions including buried basements, wheelhouses, engine rooms, chimneys and steep bedrock. The firm designed a mixed foundation strategy of shallow trench, deep trench and piles tied into existing adopted drainage, while reconfiguring the landscape to relocate and cut back a former mill pond, removing leak risk and avoiding a high retaining wall. This approach increased garden areas, reduced off-site material waste and enabled new woodland walkways integrating the scheme with surrounding terrain.

Lawyers Geradin Partners and Hausfeld have filed a collective action at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal against major housebuilders on behalf of campaigner Mark McLaren and around 700,000 homebuyers who purchased since October 2015. The claim alleges coordinated behaviour in the new-build housing market, potentially affecting pricing and contract terms for large volumes of post-2015 stock. Developers, consultants and lenders involved in residential schemes may face closer scrutiny of sales practices, reservation agreements and information disclosure on build quality and defects.

Mott MacDonald has added North America president and CEO Dean Radeloff and northeast US division general manager Aimee Barwick to its executive board, increasing direct US and Canadian representation in group-level governance. Radeloff, who joined in 2022, brings heavy civil infrastructure, engineering, design and construction experience across multiple US and Canadian markets. Barwick, with a track record on large-scale infrastructure and urban development projects in New Zealand and North America, has been leading integrated regional teams and client relationships across the US northeast.

M Group has reported record full-year 2025/26 results, with revenue, profit and order book all at their highest levels since the business was formed. The infrastructure services provider has recently consolidated more than 20 historic brands into a single group structure, simplifying delivery across utilities, transport and energy frameworks. For contractors and consultants, the enlarged order book signals continued demand for long-term maintenance and upgrade programmes rather than one-off capital projects.

Munnelly Group has created a new group board director, people and culture role and appointed Matt Duck to lead a standalone function across its eight specialist trading businesses, including MacRail, Weston Analytics and Severn Partnership. Evolving from his 2023 position as group HR director, Duck previously built a high-performing HR team, relaunched the group-wide reward and recognition strategy and delivered leadership workshops. His remit now includes embedding the “One Group, One Mission, One Standard” value and overseeing HR operations across Munnelly Support Services, Guardior, Bishopsgate Group, City Calling and Bridgehead Consultancy.

Civil engineering contractor Clancy has partnered with training provider Baltic Apprenticeships, through the Energy & Utility Skills Partnership, to deliver structured digital and AI skills programmes for its workforce. The collaboration targets roles across Clancy’s utility and infrastructure projects, focusing on data handling, digital workflows and basic AI tools rather than traditional craft skills. For engineers and site managers, this signals growing expectation to work with data-driven planning, asset information models and AI-assisted analysis on day-to-day projects.

Buntingford First School in Hertfordshire, delivered by Morgan Sindall Construction in 2023, has become England’s first Passivhaus Trust-certified school, staying open during the recent heat wave while many others closed, with internal temperatures held below about 26°C using PV-powered cooling coils in the ventilation plant. The ten-classroom, cross laminated timber frame building cut embodied carbon to 50% below LETI’s 600 kgCO2/m² target, saved 1,160 tonnes of carbon via CLT and 200 tonnes via reduced concrete with 50% GGBS, and cut construction traffic by 90%. Operational energy use in year one was 39.44 kWh/m²/yr, over 20 kWh/m²/yr below LETI guidance, supported by 184 PV panels, air source heat pumps, U-values below 0.1 W/m²K, airtightness under 0.6 ACH, and elimination of façade thermal bridges.

Barhale has secured a Thames Water contract to reline the Southern Inlet abstraction tunnel at Ashford Common Water Treatment Works in Surrey, after five‑year inspections found inconsistencies in the existing glass reinforced plastic liner that threatened the underlying wedgeblock tunnel. Construction will involve a 3 m deep excavation to expose the chimney and riser, demolition of riser segments for safe descent to the 19.5 m invert, scaffold installation, GRP removal, grout and concrete breakout, and installation of a new reinforced concrete liner. The scheme follows an Early Contractor Involvement phase to resolve access constraints in congested, layered tunnel infrastructure and builds on Barhale’s earlier local repair in the Northern tunnel.

Holcim UK, working with Fibre Concrete Solutions, has supplied a heavy-duty concrete pavement for Kiernan Construction at Peel Ports Group’s Heysham facility to support hundreds of HGV movements per day. The engineered roadway is designed for high wheel-load repetition from port traffic, reducing surface distress and maintenance interventions compared with conventional pavement solutions. For geotechnical and materials teams, the project signals continued demand for fibre-reinforced, high-durability slabs in port hardstanding and logistics yards.

Waterside Bridge, an 87-metre-long, 160-tonne steel walking and cycling structure over the River Trent, has opened to connect Victoria Embankment with Colwick Park and unlock Nottingham’s 250-acre Waterside Regeneration Zone. Fabricated in British steel by Britons Ltd in Hucknall and delivered by Balfour Beatty with Ramboll and multi-disciplinary consultant Pick Everard under the SCAPE Consultancy framework, it is the first new Trent crossing since the 1950s. The scheme completes Nottingham City Council’s £160m Transforming Cities Fund programme, prioritising active travel links to major sports and residential areas.

Great British Energy – Nuclear has launched procurement for a delivery partner on its £1.08bn small modular reactor programme, with an initial focus on early UK sites such as Wylfa and a contract term envisaged at 14 years. The partner will provide technical, commercial and project management capability across design stages and gated milestones, with scope to expand as additional SMR deployments are added. An Incentivised Collaboration Agreement will tie fees to defined outcomes, with tender enquiries due by 20 July 2026 and full submissions by 6 August.

VASO Global has secured £5m from PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, UK Research Innovation and Eco Group to accelerate development of structural composite panels manufactured from recycled glass. The funding will support scale-up of panel production and validation of load-bearing performance, targeting use in building envelopes and other structural applications where composites can replace steel or concrete elements. For engineers, the move signals growing investor confidence in glass-based composites as a lower-carbon alternative material, pending full structural testing and certification.

Recent major earthquakes in Venezuela and the southern Philippines have exposed how delayed mapping of landslides and liquefaction can mask the worst damage for days, especially in remote mountain valleys and low-lying coastal plains. Geoscientists are pushing for rapid post-event zonation using satellite interferometry, UAV photogrammetry and pre-existing susceptibility maps to identify blocked river valleys, buried roads and lateral spreading along reclaimed or alluvial ground. For geotechnical teams, this means integrating near-real-time remote sensing with ground reconnaissance to prioritise slope stabilisation, bridge access and lifeline corridor repairs.

SiTration has completed a five‑week prototype trial with BHP Invent and Copper South Australia, applying its patented electro‑extraction process to local copper ore waste streams to recover both copper and gold. The campaign, run on site-specific tailings and low-grade material, produced bullion‑grade gold directly from solution, validating selective metal recovery without conventional smelting. For process engineers, the work points to potential retrofit options in existing hydromet and tailings circuits to monetise waste streams and reduce reagent‑intensive steps.

Liebherr has introduced the LMD 1200 dragline, engineered for both wet and dry raw material extraction in demanding surface mining conditions. The machine features a variable boom system tailored to dragline operation and a robust steel superstructure designed for high utilisation and harsh climates. Its configuration allows comparatively easy relocation within the pit, giving planners more flexibility in sequencing benches and adjusting to changing geotechnical or hydrological conditions without major civil works.

BSI has launched a public consultation on new guidance for digital data handover under BS 8544, which governs life‑cycle costing (LCC) for the in‑use phase of buildings and infrastructure assets. The proposals aim to standardise the information passed from design and construction teams to asset operators, linking LCC data with maintenance planning, condition monitoring and whole‑life performance. Asset owners, consultants and contractors now have a window to influence how cost, maintenance and performance data are structured and exchanged across common data environments and CAFM systems.

Shetland Islands Council has advanced a £1.5bn draft strategy to build fixed links, likely subsea road tunnels, to connect several currently ferry‑served islands to the Shetland mainland. The programme would replace or supplement ageing ferry infrastructure, demanding long-span rock tunnelling in complex North Atlantic geology with high in-situ stresses, saline groundwater and strict marine environmental constraints. Geotechnical and civil teams should expect extended ground investigation campaigns, durability design for chloride exposure, and challenging construction logistics in a remote, high-wind archipelago.

Government plans to consult on cutting the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), including potential cancellation of the A38 Derby Junctions upgrade and the A46 Newark Bypass, to help fund the £15bn Defence Investment Plan. The A38 scheme would have replaced three at‑grade junctions with grade‑separated interchanges, while the A46 project targets a key A1–M1 freight corridor bottleneck. Possible deferral or loss of these National Highways schemes signals reduced near‑term pipeline for major junction remodelling, earthworks and structures design.

Road and energy capital projects will be mothballed to help fund the prime minister’s £15bn Defence Investment Plan (DIP) announced on 30 June, signalling a reallocation of public spending away from transport and energy infrastructure. Schemes in early design or pre-construction are the most likely to be paused, with contractors facing potential demobilisation costs, supply-chain disruption and reprogramming of frameworks. Civil and geotechnical teams should prepare for delayed procurements, rebased pipelines and possible rebidding as departments revise multi-year capital budgets.

Fortuna Mining’s Diamba Sud open pit gold project in eastern Senegal now carries a post-tax NPV (5%) of US$1 billion, a 9.4‑year mine life and probable reserves of 20.5 Mt at 1.75 g/t for 1.1 Moz, based on a US$3,500/oz gold price. The feasibility study lifts total forecast production 25% to 1 Moz but raises initial capex 40% to US$398 million and all‑in sustaining costs to US$1,332/oz, cutting IRR to 60%. Early works, including an access road and camp expansion budgeted at US$73 million, could lead to full construction in Q4 2026 and first gold by Q2 2028.