On 17 November, Ken Spiby was awarded the James Clark Medal. This medal is the highest honour awarded by the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) and is usually awarded annually. It is judged upon criteria that include major contributions towards tunnelling and the tunnelling industry, innovation and/or responsibility for a major tunnelling project. The medal perpetuates the memory of James Clark, who worked for Charles Brand & Sons on many well-known projects.
The award to Ken was introduced by Bob Ibell, one of the founders of London Bridge Associates (LBA), who provided a precis of Ken’s career and contributions.
Ken trained as a mining engineer and spent his pre-university year working in the deep gold mines of South Africa, and then post-graduation he started work on the Lee Valley Thames Water project.
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Bank project followed, and then a much longer than anticipated period on the Brighton Stormwater project. His reputation already preceded him, and he was considered to have an ability to rapidly understand the requirements and the work to an appropriate level of detail for the job at hand, no matter how difficult.
After a period seconded to Carillion in a senior role on the Copenhagen Metro, he returned in 2001 to join LBA and to assist in the management of the tunnelling for the Stratford Box to Barrington Road section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) for Costain- Skanska-Bachy JV. With Ken’s assistance, this section was delivered by the London Tunnels Alliance ahead of programme and on budget.
While working at Stratford he started looking for improvements in TBM information management and, with software designer Ben Ibell, he developed what was at the time known as the TOPs package. Post CTRL, this developed into the package known today as Tunnel Information Management (TIM), a web-based data repository that is designed to provide all of the information that the tunnelling team need to manage a drive.
Ken was appointed as a Director of LBA in 2008 and turned his skills to a variety of work including Tunnel Manager on the Refurbishment of the M25 Holmesdale and Bell Common Tunnels, Tunnel Manager for Costain on the Brighton and Hove Wastewater scheme, National Grid Power Tunnels, and the Counters Creek scheme development for Thames Water, and Metrolink Development in Dublin with Jacobs.
Although Ken has stepped back from major project roles today, he is still considered to be a reliable and invaluable source of advice and information to LBA and its clients. All through his time at LBA he has also been very strongly involved in the development of the younger team, particularly in their skills in construction planning.
Outside of his project contributions Ken has supported the industry in other ways. In May 2008 he was elected to serve a 3-year term on the BTS Committee after which he has continuously served as a co-opted member with particular responsibility for the BTS website up until 2020. It was his drive that transformed the website from ‘managed’ to a ‘self-drive’ site, producing a much-expanded site at a lower cost to the BTS.
In mid-2017 he proposed that the BTS produce a book containing personal tales from those within the tunnelling industry, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BTS in 2021. This idea has proven to be tremendously popular within the industry, but getting things done in any committee is never easy and it has required Ken’s tenacity and drive to compile, at the right level of detail and interest, what has now developed into an awesome tome.
The book will soon be published but it has required a concentrated level of planning, organisation and “badgering” over many years to enable a wealth and breadth of contributors to furnish a real reference source for people and projects over the last 50 years.
Ken has not only made a contribution to the tunnelling industry in the UK (and in Denmark) but has ceaselessly helped young people in the industry and made a very special contribution to the BTS and to tunnelling. He ceased full-time work at the end of 2020, continuing his personal battle with Parkinson’s Disease to maintain mobility that he is reluctant to admit that he will eventually lose. Having spent a lifetime climbing mountains around the globe, he is now spending time with his family and taking the occasional break from the relentless energy required to corral the contributions for the BTS 50th anniversary book.
