Good News (Eastern Green Line 2, Silent Hangar, Planning Regulations),
Not So Good News (Finance Problems, Rolls Royce, Skills Shortage, Project Delays),
Not All Bad News (SaxaVoid Spaceport), Signs of Things to Come, Payback Time,
Rewilding, Give Way to Hedgehogs, Nature’s Project Managers
and Dormice Protection
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
The long, cool and usually wet (but not this year) British Summer is officially over as we had our final Public Holiday at the end of August. Events big and small have taken place at home and abroad so the Great British Public have been well entertained. After the press-fest that was the General Election, matters are settling down and decisions affecting the project world are being taken.
The other major attraction to keep us on the edge of our seats is the party conferences, I doubt that we will learn anything new, but it is always interesting to see how those with their snouts newly in the trough will justify their pet schemes. Rest assured, though, should anything of project interest come up, you will see it here.
GOOD NEWS
Eastern Green Link 2. There is always good news out there but sometimes you have to look pretty hard and this month is no exception. Regular readers will no doubt recall previous stories about energy transfer schemes. These are aimed at transferring industrial levels of power from their generating sources to locations where the power can be fed into the National Grid. We have reported schemes covering oil, gas (of various types) and electricity. Some link up UK to European sources such as France (electricity) and Denmark (oil and a new one for electricity) but a new project has just been approved to join Peterhead, near Aberdeen, and Bridlington in East Yorkshire. Designed to transfer renewable energy between Scotland and England, most of the 310 miles of cabling will be laid under the North Sea.
The cable will be underground from where it comes ashore and will connect to Drax, the vast power generator near Selby in North Yorkshire. The £3.4 billion package of funding is described as the largest investment in UK network infrastructure and will be the longest subsea cable in Britain, the builders expect inflation to push the full cost towards £4.3 billion. It is expected that thousands of jobs will be created during the construction phase. Work on laying the land-based section is scheduled to start next year with the subsea elements following in 2028, and first transmission in 2029.
Silent Hangar. Under a new £20 million contract issued by the Ministry of Defence, QinetiQ will build a radio frequency, anti-jamming test facility at the Boscombe Down site in Wiltshire. This ‘silent hangar’ will be large enough to fit some of the biggest military assets, including Protector drones, Chinook helicopters, and F-35 fighter jets – a far greater capacity than existing UK facilities.
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2024). UK Project Management Roundup, report, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pmwj145-Sep2024-Shepherd-UK-Project-Management-Roundup.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Dr. Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He is currently Chairman of the British Standards Institute project management committee. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
