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Environmental considerations were at the heart of the route selection process for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Decisions were seldom clear-cut, but, with section I now built and operating, the majority seem to have proved right in environmental terms. With the benefit often years' hindsight this paper reviews the environmental input to route selection and how it worked in practice particularly the tough choices relating to Ashford, Boxley Valley and Medway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first 74 Km section of the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is entirely in Kent the `Garden of England'. This paper reports on the environmental management system that was set up to miminise the potentially huge environmental risks and impact of the scheme throughout its design and construction. In addition to management issues it reports on the approaches taken to relocating wildlife and controlling noise and vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the hybrid Bill process by which £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link received its necessary enabling legislation in the form of an Act of Parliament Even though the select committee became the longest-running ever to consider such a Bill, enactment took just two years. Petitioners achieved several minor changes to the project as well as 645 undertakings and assurances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is the largest project to date to adopt the popular partnering-based NEC Engineering & Construction Contract. This paper describes the strategy behind adopting a partnering approach and the detailed processes and behaviours that were necessary for successful implementation. It also reports on how the approach was taken a radical step further on contract 430 at Ashford, with the creation of a completely seamless team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complaints commissioner was appointed on the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link to act as mediator of last resort in judging the reasonableness of construction-related complaints. This paper explains how the role worked in practice and the benefits that it brought to the way the whole project has been built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is designed to carry up to 16 international passenger trains an hour travelling at speeds approaching 300 km/h, high speed trains and freight traffic. Safety is thus absolutely critical, but fortunately the project team had the perfect model just at the other end of the Channel Tunnel: there has not been a single passenger fatality on the French Ligne à. Grande Vitesse in 20 years. This paper describes the processes and systems that are enabling the project to achieve its all-important railway safety case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like any major project, quality management is at the core of the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. It operates at various levels, from the individual civil design and construction contracts to the design, commissioning and operation of the whole transport system. This paper describes the complex yet essential quality management structure that was established for the smooth delivery of this massive undertaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the community relations and public affairs activities on the £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link project since its implementation in May 1996. The fad that there have been no public protests or demonstrations since this vast project started on site in October 1998 is a testament to the success of the consultative process. Experiences on the project have now been embodied in a construction industry code of conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 109 km Channel Tunnel Rail Link required a vast amount of property to be compulsorily purchased, legally leased to the project and the surplus resold—and all done as fairly and as quickly as possible. This paper reports on the series of innovative strategies and processes adopted by Union Rail Property to ensure the scheme got the land it needed on time and without fuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is one of the world's largest public-private infrastructure projects ever undertaken. This paper describes the innovative funding and risk-sharing arrangements that were developed to lower the cost of capital— and maintain risk transfer to the private sector—despite the initial failure of Eurostar to meet revenue forecasts and the later failure of Railtrack. It could serve as a model for the future public-private procurement of major transport infrastructure projects worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the elaborate planning development and consultation process that successfully took the £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link scheme from four independent options in 1990 to a fully approved scheme in 1997. Learning from the failed 1980s planning process, it introduced several innovative approaches to consensus building, option refinement and consultation—providing a benchmark for future infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel opens in 2007, a full 13 years after the tunnel it is built to serve. As this paper shows, a detailed design was all but ready to be built in 1990—but a combination of heavy-handed consultation, loss of public confidence and lack of Government funds left it for dead. Nevertheless, some valuable lessons were learnt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]