September 2024
Despite the recent rise in inflation, the United Kingdom’s economic outlook is brighter than expected — particularly within construction and public infrastructure.
While the country’s construction industry took a hit in 2022, things are now beginning to look up. It’s predicted that the construction sector will experience 8% growth in 2024, followed by another 7% in 2025. In turn, this growth is supporting the development and continuation of several major infrastructure projects across the UK.
Home to some of the largest construction projects, such as the High Speed Rail or Battersea Power Station Redevelopment, the UK is no stranger to impressive feats of civil engineering. This year, we’re covering seven new megaprojects currently breaking ground in 2024.
7 Mega Construction Projects Underway in the United Kingdom
Here are the top seven megaprojects to watch this year and beyond.
1. Liverpool Street Station
The Liverpool Street Station is a historic railway station located in central London, serving about 135 million passengers annually. Recently, Sellar Property Group and Network Rail announced a controversial £1.5 billion redevelopment plan to overhaul the property into a “new landmark destination.”
The developers now intend to dramatically transform the station by constructing a 20-storey tower above the Grade II* listed station and the equally historic Victorian hotel next door, a significant scale-up from the previously mentioned 10-storey hotel and office block. This has escalated the controversy among several preservation groups, which argue the plan would severely alter a historic landmark and now, the concern extends beyond threatening views from neighbouring St. Paul’s Cathedral to potentially obliterating the station and hotel facades from view.
While construction on the station has yet to begin, Sellar and Network Rail argue that the plans would relieve congestion and enhance the passenger experience by covering some £450m worth of improvement work to the station, last redeveloped in the 1980s and now running well over capacity. The project also includes pedestrianising Liverpool Street itself and adding a significant entrance canopy that would dramatically change the station’s appearance and interaction with its surroundings.
Critics of the plan, including notable conservation groups and local communities, have raised alarms about the profound impact on the historical integrity of the area and the precedent it could set for future developments in historic urban settings. The planning application is to be decided by the City of London, with the Victorian Society, among others, calling for Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to intervene.
2. New Hospital Programme
During his time as prime minister, Boris Johnson garnered some positive press after promising to build 40 new hospitals across the country by 2030. The planned £3.7 billion New Hospital Programme would allow National Health Service (NHS) Trusts to bid for funds that would go toward large infrastructure projects and improving existing facilities.
However, with a rapidly increasing cost overrun, the programme and its promises were on the verge of falling through in 2022. Several projects ran significantly over budget, including the Royal Crown Hospital, Watford General Hospital, and facilities in Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans. Meanwhile, a £2 billion budget shortfall and ongoing inflation have caused officials to delay proposed projects.
As of February 2024, updates to the funding and progress of the New Hospital Programme indicate significant adjustments and ongoing developments. The Treasury has now indicated that the maximum funding for 2025/26 to 2030/31 will be £18.5 billion, bringing the total funding to approximately £22.2 billion, addressing earlier concerns of budget shortfalls. Despite challenges, including cost overruns and the impact of inflation, progress has been made with several hospitals already opening or part-opening, and others, such as the Dyson Cancer Centre in Bath, are expected to open in spring 2024.
As the nation’s economy continues to recover, it will be interesting to see how the delivery and completion of this ambitious project will pan out, especially with adjusted timelines and budgets reflecting the government’s commitment to addressing the evolving challenges of the programme.
3. Tideway Sewer System (London)
The Thames Tideway Sewer System is a 25 km tunnel designed to collect, store, and transfer over 95% of the waste out of the River Thames. Construction on the tunnel has already begun, with a completion date set in the first half of 2024 and an estimated cost of £4.5 billion.
Once finished, Tideway aims to assist London’s currently overloaded sewer infrastructure by creating an additional 1.6 million cubic metres of storage. This would drastically reduce the tens of millions of tonnes that spill into the River Thames each year, along with providing significant environmental benefits, including the reduction of sewage-related litter, the creation of habitats for aquatic wildlife, and the generation of renewable energy from collected sewage waste.
4. Heathrow Airport Expansion (London)
Since 2009, there have been plans to construct a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport — previously the busiest airport in Europe. Proponents argue the £14 billion expansion would generate significant economic growth and employment opportunities, with earlier projections around 2016 estimating £61 billion in economic benefits and 77,000 local jobs. However, environmental groups have long opposed the plans, criticising the potential impacts on the UK’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
While there was some movement before 2020, the expansion plan faced a significant setback due to pandemic-related losses and was challenged by environmental and local groups, leading to a judicial review. In February 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled the government’s approval of the runway unlawful for not considering the Paris Agreement commitments. However, in December 2020, the UK Supreme Court overturned this decision, allowing planning to proceed.
Despite this legal clearance, as of 2023, the expansion’s progress appears to be stalled, reflecting broader concerns about investment costs and environmental impacts in a largely post-COVID context.
5. Crossrail Project (London)
Although London’s Crossrail (also known as the Elizabeth Line) opened to passengers in May of 2022, the project has yet to finish the final major customer upgrade. Set to start in May 2023, the end of this last phase will mark the completion of London’s 23-year, £25 billion railway project.
Once completed, the Crossrail project will span all 42 km of the Elizabeth line, taking travellers from Paddington to Liverpool Street Station in around 20 minutes. The route will connect with 41 stations, serving an estimated 200 million passengers annually.
6. Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station (Somerset)
As one of eight new nuclear power stations announced back in 2010, Hinkley Point C is the only one currently under construction. While it won’t be a source of renewable energy, the low-carbon power plant will produce an estimated 7% of the UK’s total electricity.
However, delays, supply chain disruptions, and inflation have all contributed to an estimated £46 billion construction cost in 2024 prices. Meanwhile, the earliest date for electricity generation from Unit 1 has also been pushed back, with recent updates indicating a delay to the start date of electricity generation to potentially as late as September 2028 or even further delayed by up to three years. Regardless, the completion of Hinkley Point C will mark the first new nuclear power plant to open in the UK in over 20 years.
7. High Speed 2 (London to Manchester and Leeds)
High Speed 2 (HS2) is one of the most expensive megaprojects in the UK’s history. Compared to the California High Speed Rail project, which comes in at around $77 billion, HS2 is expected to cost as much as £98 billion (this figure is subject to change and should be verified with the latest estimates due to the evolving nature of large-scale infrastructure project costs).
Whereas High Speed 1, Britain’s first high-speed rail project, connects London to the Channel Tunnel, HS2 will connect stations spanning from London to Manchester with initial focus areas including the West Midlands, London, and the Southeast, significantly improving connectivity between Britain’s largest cities, particularly Birmingham and London. The project is split into multiple phases, with significant progress and peak construction already underway, aiming for an opening in the early 2030s.
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