The Channel Tunnel Rail Link 20 Years On – Lessons from our Archive

Summary

The Victorians were the first to attempt seriously to build a Channel tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, way back in 1880. Given the gestation period of this extraordinary project it’s no wonder that successfully delivering it towards the end of the 20th Century was fraught with problems: change of ownership, funding issues, temporary interruption of the project.

As part of our series to celebrate 40 years of the Major Projects Association, Tayo Oyetan, Transport Sector Lead at Moorhouse Consulting, reviewed the Association’s report on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from 1999 and offers his 2021 perspectives on the project in a series of three videos.

Read the original Channel Tunnel Rail Link Seminar Report from 1999 (Members Only)

What happens when a project that dates back to 1880, finally delivers

In this first of three videos, he reminds us just how challenging this proved to be as a project, and shares his enthusiasm for being transported back in time to revisit one of the iconic projects of the 20th Century.

How outcomes-based specifications transformed major project quality assurance

In this second of three videos, he looks at how quality assurance techniques weighed heavy on the project schedule and how things have changed since then.

Environmental concern is increasingly becoming the King of this country!

In the final of three videos, he selects a couple of soundbites from the report that remind us very vividly, how far we have come, on the one hand, and on the other, that we’re not going anything like fast enough.

View the complete series of Lessons from our Archives interviews