Geomechanics, Streamlined.
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Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
Seddon is installing a 1,800m² solar farm at its Plodder Lane estate in Edge Fold, with 190 rooftop PV panels, 400 ground-mounted panels and a 122 kW battery system to cut grid reliance by almost two thirds across its 1,913m² office, storage facilities and EV chargers. The scheme includes doubling onsite EV charging capacity, directly supporting electrified fleet and staff vehicles. A redeveloped 630m² garden with a vegetable patch and two beehives adds a small but visible biodiversity and staff-wellbeing component to the wider decarbonisation upgrade.
Across our Infrastructure coverage, Seddon repeatedly appears in low‑carbon schemes – from the carbon‑neutral homes in Derker (Oldham) to this Bolton solar roll‑out – signalling that its housing and estate work is being positioned as a regional demonstrator for practical net‑zero measures rather than one‑off pilots.
The combination of 190 rooftop and 400 ground‑mounted panels plus a 122 kW battery at Plodder Lane estate and Edge Fold effectively turns these Bolton sites into micro‑grids, which could give Seddon operational experience it can re‑use on future brownfield regeneration and business park projects such as Cheshire Oaks.
Given Seddon’s role supplying Instagrid portable battery units to CW Plant Hire, the embedded storage at these Bolton estates suggests the company is building a vertically informed understanding of both fixed and temporary off‑grid power, a useful differentiator as more UK clients demand low‑emission site energy solutions.
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Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Strabag and Group company Züblin have secured the design-and-build structural works for the ABS Gäubahn Nord/Pfaffensteig Tunnel in south-west Germany, centred on an 11km twin-bore rail tunnel linking Stuttgart Airport station directly to the Gäubahn line towards Switzerland. About 9.8km will be driven by two TBMs, with conventional tunnelling for the A8 motorway undercrossing and airport connection, plus a 240m cut-and-cover section, retaining structures, railway underpasses and a grade-separated crossing. A 3km surface section will be upgraded and partially realigned for 200km/h operation, delivered under an integrated project delivery model with Ed. Züblin, Wayss & Freytag and Strabag AG sharing tunnelling, structural and earthworks packages.
A 271.5‑tonne Herrenknecht Mixshield TBM, Caroline, has started driving a 2.2km electricity cable tunnel with a 4m internal diameter beneath the River Thames in Essex for National Grid’s Grain to Tilbury project, delivered by the Ferrovial BEMO joint venture. The drive will pass through variable Thames estuary ground conditions between 35m‑deep launch and reception shafts of 15m and 12m diameter, with tunnelling continuing into 2026 and overall scheme completion targeted for 2029. The new tunnel will replace the 1969 Thames Cable Tunnel and carry new high‑voltage circuits between Grain and Tilbury substations.
A 13.46m diameter Herrenknecht Mixshield TBM has broken through into the future Balboa station on Panama Metro Line 3 after completing the first-ever TBM undercrossing of the Panama Canal at depths exceeding 60m below sea level. The 5,600kW, 26,616kNm machine, fitted with an accessible cutterhead and more than 4,500 sensors linked via the Herrenknecht.Connected platform, has achieved peak advance of 150 segment rings (about 300m) per month through mixed sandstone, tuff, breccias and basalt. Around 1.5km of the 4.5km twin-track tunnel remains to final breakthrough.
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