TUCSS Monthly Seminar no. 259

Event details

TUCSS Monthly Seminar No. 259 – Thursday, 13 March 2025, 6.30 pm

Lessons and Reflections from two Challenging Projects

By Leslie Pakianathan, Advisor - Changi East Terminal 5 Development

Abstract

Two tunnelling projects at the turn of the century attracted the attention of the industry worldwide. Both were completed successfully but with substantial cost & time overruns and losses to insurers. These also had significant influence on how future tunnelling projects were planned and implemented in the UK and Hong Kong. In the aftermath the International Tunnelling Insurance Group published “Code of Practice for Risk Management of Tunnel Works” for better management of the risks and it is still in use today.

The two projects are the Heathrow Express (HEX) Railway tunnels in the UK and Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) Stage 1 (previously called the Strategic Sewage Disposal Scheme) in Hong Kong. HEX is a fast rail service between Heathrow Airport and central London while HATS is a deep level sewage collection and transfer scheme on both sides of the Victoria harbour. The presentation will cover the background to these projects as well as the lessons and reflections from the speaker’s personal observations and first-hand experiences. The HEX project was the first ever large project to adopt the New Engineering Contract (NEC) which is aimed at better project management whereas HATS Stage 1 was based on the traditional Government Conditions of Contract (GCC). The presentation will also compare how the two different types of contracts influenced the manner in which the projects were managed when they were in crisis and the learnings therefrom.

Left Picture: Heathrow Express Tunnel Collapse

Right Picture: Harbour Area Treatment Scheme Stage 1 - Hand excavation at >100m depth below the sea

Speaker

Leslie Pakianathan is at present member of the Safety Advisory Panel for the Changi East Terminal 5 project. From 1991 to 1995 he was engaged on different roles in the HEX project; initially as core team leader for civil & structural concept and preliminary designs followed by instrumentation and monitoring on site of a Trial Tunnel to study the first use SCL method in London Clay and finally on the main construction contracts, coordinating and managing the value engineering initiatives proposed by the contractor as well as providing technical support on site. He was seconded to the site supervision team from 1995 to 2002 on the HATS Stage 1 project in Hong Kong where he initially supervised the shafts construction contract followed by the supervision of the initial phase of Tunnels F and G. When the first two tunnel contracts were forfeited, he became engaged in the repackaging of the two contracts into three before re-tendering. Finally he supervised the construction of Tunnels A and B (Chai Wan to Kwun Tong) to completion and participated in the commissioning of the system.

He is at present a committee member of TUCSS and a member of the ITA Governance Council.

Time and Place

The presentation will take place at Stephen Riady Auditorium at NTUC Centre, Level 7, One Marina Boulevard Singapore 018989 on Thursday, 13 March 2025 at 18:30 hrs. The presentation will take approximately 45 minutes, follow by 15 minutes of questions/discussion.

Programme

6.00pm            Registration

6.30pm            TUCSS Monthly Seminar 259 on “Lessons and Reflections from two Challenging Projects”

7.15pm            TUCSS Annual General Meeting 2025

8.00pm            Refreshments and Networking

Invitation

This is the 259^th in a series of presentations by TUCSS and is open to current TUCSS Members only. Seats are on first-come-first-served basis and limited to 500 persons.

Registration

Valid TUCSS members can register via the registration link: click here. The deadline for registration is on Wednesday, 5 March 2025 or when total registered participants reaches 500 whichever comes earlier.

*TUCSS Corporate Members limited to 3 registrations only. 

PDU/STU

Points have been applied and pending approval.

Speaker

Leslie Pakianathan

Advisor - Changi East Terminal 5 Development