Description
TLC Zoom
Wednesday 24th April 2024 @ 18:00 BST
“Why do we have problems in delivering major infrastructure projects?”
Bob Ibell & Tim Smart
We all celebrate the great Victorian Engineers who could be said to have put the ‘Great” in Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution was fuelled by their brilliance.
So where did it all go wrong? Why does everything take so long and why are the budgets always blown. HS2 says it all but there are plenty of other examples.
Fortunately, The Leaders Club has many brilliant members and if we needed advice on the subject then naturally I turned to Bob Ibell and I asked Bob if he could give us the benefit of his knowledge and experience. Our pleasure is doubled as he is joined by his colleague Tim Smart.
So, I asked Bob for his approach and he responded
“I would hope to show that when the competent people get in the act we do deliver as well as anybody but we do have real issues in the way the Projects are led and managed. The problems are in a number of areas which we shall explore as well as some possible solutions”
Bob Ibell
Started his career building Nuclear Power stations in the 60s, he went on to projects such as the M27 Funtley to Portsmouth and the Heathrow Central Tube Station. He moved into underground works in the 1970s at the Tyne and Wear Metro and after other adventures onto the Piccadilly Line Extension to Heathrow Terminal 4.
He was the tunnelling representative in the Channel Tunnel Group which won the Concession to build the Channel Tunnel and he worked on the scheme in number of roles until 1990.
The next project was the Jubilee Line Extension (to Canary Wharf) where he was in charge of the construction of the London Bridge Station and the Northern line Safety works.
In 2000, the company he worked for, Taylor Woodrow, decided to get out of heavy civil engineering and so Bob and his team left amicably and formed their own company, London Bridge Associates(LBA). Almost immediately they were employed to lead the tender and, on winning, the subsequent execution of a tunnelling contract on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) Section 2 (now part of HS1) and also provide major support to KBR on the Dublin Port Tunnel.
CTRL was a highly successful project carried out under a collaborative agreement (of which Bob was a key architect) between all the contractors and the Client christened the “London Tunnels Alliance” which embraced 8 contractors in four Joint ventures and the Client Union Railways. This alliance delivered the works on budget and on programme.
Today LBA is an established provider of construction planning advice and support on major projects including HS2.
Bob attempted to retire but the phone call from Clients wanting an independent but challenging view has kept him at his desk. He therefore established the London Bridge Consultant Network(LBCN) which harness the wealth of engineering and management talent available in the UK. Using this he has, with others, led work in New York, Tel Aviv, Chennai and closer to home currently looking at the application of underground methodology to the demolition of Nuclear Pressure Vessels.
Tim Smart
Holding both a Bachelor and Master’s degrees in engineering Tim Smart is a chartered civil engineer with over forty years’ experience in the design, construction and management of major infrastructure projects. His experience also encompasses managing the engineering and maintenance functions of operational high speed and classic rail.
Tim’s early career started in consultancy with highway and tunnel engineering leading both design and construction supervision. He moved to railways for the construction of the Jubilee Line Extension Project for London Underground and followed that up by joining Railtrack as head of asset management and maintenance for the busiest sections of the national rail network.
Tim returned to his construction roots in 2002 joining the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project (CTRL) for the highly successful delivery of the UK’s first high speed railway. He headed the client function for the design and construction of significant sections of the route, most notably St Pancras International station. Following the completion of CTRL he joined the Board of the newly created HS1 Ltd Infrastructure Company as Engineering Director on the team that took CTRL from a construction project through to an operating InfraCo. Having established HS1 InfraCo Tim continued on the Board that guided HS1 through obtaining investment grade financial rating to enable the ultimate sale of the HS1 operating concession to a Canadian pension fund Joint venture.
Tim moved to US engineering company CH2M (now Jacobs) in 2012 to head their international highspeed rail function which involved projects in the UK, US, Sweden and Malaysia. He moved to HS2 initially as Chief Engineer and then Managing Director of Phase 2. Tim has also served as engineering expert witness in the UK Houses of Parliament for all the HS2 Hybrid Bills which create the enabling legislation for the HS2 route.
Tim has represented the UK on a number of railway engineering working groups in Europe as part of the European Infrastructure Managers forum including the UK mirror group to co-ordinate the UK input to the revised European standard for safety in rail tunnels. He has also carries project peer reviews on behalf of the UK’s Infrastructure Projects Authority.
