Engineering Focus

In 2018 Transport for Wales Rail Services took over the franchise to operate Wales and Borders services, which were previously operated by Arriva Trains Wales. Transport for Wales Rail Services the company initially owned by a Keolis Amey joint venture managed day-to-day running of rail services, as well as overseeing the development of South Wales Metro and the introduction of new trains. Transport for Wales was established as the government body to oversee road and rail transport, whilst TfWRS would have been best described as a railway company owned and operated by KeolisAmey. When TfWRS took over the franchise, several promises were made, including the introduction of new trains, investment in existing rolling stock, as well as service improvements and station upgrades. On the face of it, TfWRS has so far appeared to have started to come good on some of its promises. £700m has already been spent or earmarked for the South Wales Metro scheme and orders for new trains have been plac

The Mersey Gateway opened in October 2017 providing improved links from the M56 and Runcorn across the Mersey to Widnes and on to Liverpool. The £600m project which took 3 years to complete, comprised of a new 6 lane cable-stayed bridge spanning the river Mersey and substantial upgrades to the A553 which runs through Runcorn connecting the M56 to the new bridge. The new crossing received a mixed reaction from locals and motorists when it first opened, as for the first since the Silver Jubilee Bridge opened, motorists would have to pay to cross the Mersey from Runcorn to Widnes. There were also teething problems with the barrier-less toll system. People complained that signage warning people that they must pay online to use the bridge was poor, this in part lead to almost £20m worth of fines being issued within the first 20 months of operation.  Mersey Gateway bridge viewed from Wigg Island in Runcorn Other problems occurred with people using rental vehicles, who thought they were payi

Parc Adfer is the name given to a £800m waste to energy facility located on the Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, North Wales. The plant which became fully operational in December 2019 can process up to 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per year and generate up to 17MW of electricity which is fed to the national grid, enough electricity to power up to 30,000 homes. The facility was built through a public-private partnership (PPP), with Wheelabrator Technologies chosen to deliver and manage the project, Wheelabrator which operates other waste-to-energy facilities in the UK and US will operate the plant for 25 years. The company processes over 8 million tonnes of waste per year across its 25 sites, generating 732 MW of electricity, enough to power 671,000 homes.   The building itself seems relatively modest for a plant capable of proccessing 200,000 tonnes of waste a year Five Welsh authorities worked in collaboration with assistance from the Welsh Government to develop the pr