Tunnels and tunnelling has joined a line of groups and people that have asked Ivor Thomas what his main aims are for his time as BTS chair. His answer: “survive it”.
“Taking the position of chair means a fair bit of additional responsibility and work, and I am keen to give the society the time and effort it deserves. The BTS is the society that I have enjoyed the most throughout my career in civil engineering. Where else can one spend an evening enjoying the company of a fellow tunneller who might be working in Mongolia with a burning desire to sell Mongolian Yurts into the European market, and even willing to quote in Mongolian tögrög? Where else can we all build a few rings over sausage and chips and a pint of beer?
“The great thing is that its only requirement for membership is an interest in matters tunnelling. If I had one objective in my two-year tenure that is to ensure that there is a clear message to all those working in our industry that the doors of the BTS are wide open to everybody – to engineer, to fitter, to electrician, to miner, to pony man, to project sponsor, to client, to designer, to academia – wide open.
“So, I would like to see an increase in membership and a broadening in that membership.”
CHANGES TO THE SOCIETY
The BTS is a group of 800 people and of course change is inevitable – standing still would be tantamount to going backwards, says Thomas, “but I do not believe we need major change.
“The BTS is about its members and people and I would like to see development in the way we get our message out and our use of media. We run an excellent web site and of course contribute to the excellent magazine Tunnels and Tunnelling. But is there more we can do in this world of instantaneous messaging and information and how should we set ourselves about it? We are on a course to answer these questions over the next two years and do something about it.”
OUTSIDE LONDON
Looking at the UK’s recent major projects of Crossrail and Tideway, observers could be forgiven for thinking that UK tunnelling is all about London.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” says Thomas, “we have had some fantastic jobs outside London, Shieldhall, York Potash, the Humber Crossing, Hinkley Point and even more in planning, design and procurement.
“It is vital then that BTS is active outside London and we are able to reach our members. We are developing plans for meetings outside London in our calendar. On the immediate horizon is the Tunnels and Tunnelling seminar on the use of concrete in tunnelling, to be held in October 2019 in Manchester, which the BTS supports.
“Our members punch above their weight in the world tunnelling market and are right at the front of pushing of standards. It’s vital that with our departure from the European Union that we are able to maintain and even grow our strength in the world market.
“And let’s not forget that the BTS is only concerned with UK tunnelling nothing could be further from the truth – nearly 20 per cent of our membership work overseas.”
BRITISH TUNNELLING AND YOUNG ENGINEERS
On the state of UK tunnelling, Thomas shares Mark Leggett’s concerns about contractor margins.
“I have no concerns whatsoever about the capacity of the UK industry to carry out the pipeline of work. I do have very big concerns about the sustainability of the UK Contractors market – I don’t believe that the margin that civil engineering contractors in the UK are being forced into is sustainable and I don’t see the answer is to procure contracting expertise from outside our shores.
“I am lucky enough to be working on Thames Tideway at the moment and enjoy the experience of working in a vibrant and active construction office. I never fail to be amazed by some of the great things our young engineers are doing. “In this open plan office that I work in I share space with an engineer developing his concept of Land Gantt Charts presenting his programming ideas in a visual computerised format building on a screen before building outside being able to predict dynamic clashes in programme then getting his boots on and going outside and building it.
“And I share space with another young engineer who is developing his ideas for a data management system for TBM planned preventative maintenance sending skilled tradesmen into the tunnel with tablet computers with all the information they need to carry out their daily tasks. These ideas are very much in their infancy and it is vital that the older engineers among us give the support necessary to the younger engineers to allow their ideas to develop. It is the young that have the clever ideas.”
The BTS Young Members group is also celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2018. Alongside the Norwegian Young Members, it is the oldest of the world’s young tunneller groups.
BREXIT
“As small islanders, I think Brexit will see great changes to the way we do things, whether that will be for the good or the bad is entirely in our hands. Those changes will not happen over the night of the 29th March 2019, but will be a gradual change into something else. I am afraid I have no idea what that change will be. What I can do is look back and see how EU membership has changed our workplace over my career. It is vital that we are o pen to the change that is coming, embrace it and exploit it. “One immediate concern is this: I am told that the vote in the referendum was prompted by concerns over immigration. British Tunnellers have always been very good at exporting their talent – go to many jobs overseas and you will meet a motley crew of British Fitters, Electricians, Miners and Engineers. I believe in a world post Brexit that we must find a way of being able to maintain that export of talent. It is the movement of people within our world market that refreshes old ideas and work practices with new and better ways of doing things.”
ANNIVERSARIES AND LANDMARKS
Next year, the Channel Tunnel will have been in operation for 25 years and the society is currently formulating plans to have a joint celebration with the Association Francaise des Tunnels et de L’Espace Souterrain (AFTES) in honour of this anniversary.
In 2021, shortly after Thomas has stepped down, the BTS will celebrate its 50th anniversary. There are plans to publish a book celebrating what the BTS, its members and their stories.
“I have had two spells of working on the BTS committee and each time it has surprised me how much we get up to and how much time our individual members give to the Society in terms of organising and running events,” says Thomas. “If I were to think of one person as an example of how members contribute to the Society that would be John Scholey who has just organised his 23rd Annual BTS Dinner – an event that ranks high on any tunnellers diary. I take my hat off to John and all our other committee members who do so much in helping the BTS thrive.”
FINAL THOUGHT
Thomas says that he has one message that he would like readers to take away from his interview: “Join the British Tunnelling Society. It is the membership that makes the BTS what it is. And don’t forget to look at our website, there is a tremendous amount of useful stuff on it that is growing day-by-day.” www.britishtunnelling.org.uk
