The Scottish Transport Awards 2017

The best of Scotland's transport industry were honored at this year’s 15th Annual Scottish Transport Awards, recognizing excellence, innovation and progress across all areas of transport in Scotland.

The Most Innovative Transport Project Award was won by Network Rail Infrastructure Projects and the ScotRail Alliance for work on the Glasgow Queen Street Tunnel, part of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP). The EGIP aims to enhance train capacity of the main line between Edinburgh and Glasgow and has included upgrading the Victorian tunnel running from Glasgow Queen Street Station. 

Jacobs was part of the EGIP Alliance working on the design and construction of upgrading works in the 900-meter long tunnel. Jacobs provided a range of multi-disciplinary resources that included design from civils, permanent way, electrical & power, geotechnical and tunneling. This was extended to include design support during the construction consisting of geotechnical supervision of the excavations, full-time, on-call support from the design lead, and tunnel stability monitoring.

Queen Street Station is the third busiest station in Scotland, and the tunnel was closed to allow for the safe delivery of the largest piece of engineering undertaken on the Edinburgh and Glasgow line since the railway was built. The work was continuous 24/7 over a planned 20-week schedule, and was handed back two days early, with train services commencing to coincide with the first weekend of the Edinburgh Festival. With an alliance team of almost 3000 people, work comprised replacement of the existing concrete slab running the length of the tunnel with a new track slab system, along with new drainage, and an overhead electrification system through the tunnel.