Start of Transcript
John Hicks
The government wants to achieve 24 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050. And Hinkley and Sizewell together are about six gigawatts.
Nick Cottman
The first round of questions that came through from the examining authority, numbered 2,229 questions. And that was a record at the time for any DCO.
Nick Cottman
There were 1,282 affected parties that had submitted relevant representations through the process as well. If you look today, there are four... there are nearly 4,400 documents on the Planning Inspectorate’s website that relate to the application. And many of these, of course, are enormous documents in themselves.
Nick Cottman
The Secretary of State's decision letter that was issued on 20 July with the decision was 194 pages itself that sat alongside 1,500 pages from the Planning Inspectorate inspectors report.
John Hicks
When I started on it, it frightened me to death, frankly. The scale of it is unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.
John Hicks
A normal project would be doing the Sizewell Link Road, but we're doing the Sizewell Link Road, the green rail route, the Two Village Bypass, two Park & Rides, a freight Management Facility, etc, etc, all at the same time.
John Hicks
This dominated my life for 10 years really and yeah, you live and breathe it, you live and breathe it.
ALEX
Welcome to Engineering Matters. I’m Alex Conacher and I’m Rhian Owen. In this episode, we have partnered with WSP to learn how the complex transport requirements of projects like a new nuclear power station can be planned and modelled, and at a new process used in the UK that allows for comprehensive stakeholder engagement, with a tight schedule for examining plans.
RHIAN
The UK is caught on the horns of the energy trilemma.
ALEX
That is, the challenge of balancing energy cost, security, and sustainability.
RHIAN
Disease and war have rocked global energy markets, causing prices to skyrocket.
Countries around the world face difficult choices between buying fossil fuels from rivals or uneasy allies, or enduring blackouts. And this continued reliance on fossil fuels threatens Net Zero goals.
ALEX
Nuclear power looks likely to be a key element in resolving these challenges. It will allow power to be reliably produced, without requiring fossil fuel imports. It will provide baseline power, supporting national demands that cannot be met at all times by renewables like wind and solar power. In conjunction with renewable energy, it promises a reliable and affordable source of power, produced locally.
RHIAN
As this episode was being written, the UK government confirmed its support for the construction of a new nuclear power station being developed by EDF on the UK’s east coast, Sizewell C. As well as helping meet the UK’s energy needs, it will employ thousands of people in its construction. Across the country as a whole, it will support the creation of around 70,000 jobs.
ALEX
Any project of this scale will have complex transport requirements. Millions of tonnes of construction materials must be brought to the site. Hundreds of very large or heavy loads must be transported. And thousands of people will have to get to the site each day.
RHIAN
Sizewell A was one of the first nuclear power plants built in the UK, opening in 1966. A second plant, Sizewell B, was added to the complex in the 1990s. And a third, Sizewell C, has now been given the go-ahead to begin construction, with power generation expected to start in the mid-2030s.
ALEX
Like all nuclear power plants, Sizewell is in a rural location, close to the sea. This has some advantages: many loads can be transported by sea. But it means too that the engineers working on the project must find ways to accommodate vastly increased road and rail use, in an area with limited existing infrastructure.
RHIAN
Many local people welcome the jobs that the project will bring. But there are also reasons for them to be concerned about the transport impacts.
ALEX
Traditionally, projects like this have had to go through a years-long planning inquiry process. The process used to plan Sizewell C, called a Development Consent Order, or DCO, was relatively new when planning started. This sets clear timetables for the examination of a project, allowing project owners to engage with stakeholders and answer all of their questions. At the end of the process, the government gives a clear decision on all aspects of the plan.
RHIAN
We’ll look in more detail at the advantages of the DCO process later in the episode. While the example we’re looking at today is in a rural location, other major projects in cities and other densely populated areas also stand to benefit from this streamlined approach.
John Hicks, of WSP, has worked on the project for more than a decade, and has a comprehensive understanding of the landscape and communities around Sizewell C.
John Hicks
Suffolk, which is actually where I live, is a very rural and largely agricultural environment, of predominantly small towns and villages with relatively poor transport infrastructure, particularly on the east side of the county where Sizewell is.
John Hicks
The site itself is within an area of outstanding natural beauty. And the site itself is adjacent to a triple-S I, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
John Hicks
This is gently rolling countryside, very picturesque, strong tourism industry, quite remote, and therefore, in a sense an ideal location for a nuclear power station. You don't build them in the middle of Birmingham, you build them in remote locations next to the sea.
ALEX
This might be a rural area, but Sizewell has many neighbours, with diverse interests, and it was important that their voices are heard in the planning and approval process.
John Hicks
The two largest towns in Suffolk are Ipswich to the south, about 45 kilometres away, which has a population of 140,000, and Lowestoft to the north, about 40 kilometres away, with 75,000 people living there. But the nearest small town to the Sizewell site is Leiston, which has a population of about 6,000. And that's three kilometres to the west. So it's a predominantly rural environment, but one that's familiar with nuclear because Sizewell A started generating power in 1966, and Sizewell B, which is still operational, in 1995.
John Hicks
When you talk to people about the job opportunities, young people are really excited. I've done a fair bit of engagement with schools in the area. And you know, the opportunities that this presents are tremendous for young people, because lots of young people like growing up in Suffolk and want to stay there. But they can't stay there unless there are good job opportunities.
John Hicks
Yoxford is a community that has a lot of retired artists, writers, that sort of thing, and probably not as supportive in principle of the idea of nuclear energy, but still wants to make sure that they could minimise the impact through mitigation measures where appropriate.
ALEX
Planning the project, and the transport infrastructure that would enable its construction required engaging with multiple local stakeholders.
RHIAN
Many local people would welcome the careers the site would bring.
ALEX
Some would have concerns about the impact of traffic and construction on the local tourism sector.
RHIAN
And others did not want to see their peaceful retirement disrupted.
ALEX
To address all of these stakeholder concerns, EDF needed a clear picture of transport requirements, They asked John and the consultant team at WSP to help them understand and model this.
John Hicks
There are two key requirements.
John Hicks
We think about the workforce and what the requirements are for moving 1000s of people to work each day. And what are the requirements for materials, freight, that we have to move, and there are millions of tonnes of materials to import to the site to construct a nuclear power station.
John Hicks
The peak workforce is about 7,900 workers. And we're expecting that to happen in about 2028. So one of the things we've always wanted to do, and even the start of the transport strategy, was to reduce the travel demand for them by building some accommodation next to the site. So we got to an accommodation campus of about 2400 spaces adjacent to the site, which means those 2400 people effectively get out of bed, have their breakfast and walk to work, and don't impose any travel demand on the local network.
RHIAN
Sizewell C is the second of two plants being built in the UK by EDF. The first project, Hinkley Point, provided a model for how the site would be built, and the materials that would be needed for its construction.
John Hicks
We know about, well just over 12 million tonnes of materials will need to be imported to build the project. And that's made up of, about 40% of that is material that we use for building, making reinforced concrete effectively. So cement and aggregates, which are coming from various sources from South Wales and the Southwest in particular.
John Hicks
And that might seem a bit counterintuitive,
John Hicks
but the reason for that is that...
John Hicks
...we want to replicate what we're doing at Hinkley Point. So at Hinkley Point they went through a very long process of getting the right concrete mix with the right characteristics and behaviours to work in a nuclear power station. And that process took them two to three years before they satisfied themselves they had the right mix.
John Hicks
What we didn't want to do is replicate that for two to three years at Sizewell. Instead, what we want to do is replicate the same mix that we used at Hinkley at Sizewell and that means importing materials from South Wales, Somerset, Dorset and the Southwest generally.
ALEX
As well as the bulk materials that will be used to build the plant, it also requires a firm and well-engineered foundation to stand on. That means rocky material, with well-understood properties, not the soft and inconsistent material found on a seaside site.
John Hicks
About a quarter to 30% is what's called backfill material. So there's lots of material that we have to excavate at Sizewell, which isn't suitable for use in a nuclear power station, and we call it unsuitable material. So that has to be taken away and disposed of and replaced by what we call suitable material.
John Hicks
And that comes from various sources: Scotland, Norway, the Lake District, and parts of Leicestershire and again, that's the same materials that would have been used at Hinkley and the majority of that backfill material will actually come by sea to the temporary beach landing facility that we have in the scheme now.
John Hicks
Most of that concrete and material is coming by rail.
John Hicks 20:13
These are significant, significant trains, they're a locomotive and 20 waggons. So they're circa 350 metres long, carrying about 1,250 tonnes each time.
RHIAN
With limited scope for trains to pass each other on the local East Suffolk railway, which is a single track for many stretches, new rail infrastructure must be built. The UK is already building one major railway, HS2. While considering some major changes to the existing line, they realised that the UK rail agency Network Rail might struggle with another major project.
John Hicks
So we're actually doing two things. One is, in most of the early years of the project, before the Sizewell Link Road and all the rest of the stuff is completed, we'll be taking two trains a day into some new sidings we're going to create just to the east of Leiston.
John Hicks
And whilst we're doing that, we'll also be building something called the Green rail route, which is a four and a half kilometre long, private siding from the branch line, right into the construction site, to the concrete batching plant where the materials are needed.
John Hicks
That's for two things, one is to reduce the impact of HGVs on the road because each train takes away 70 HGV movements a day. And secondly, to give EDF greater certainty about the deliveries of materials they're going to get each day.
ALEX
As well as these bulk materials, construction will require the movement of vast numbers of ‘Abnormal Indivisible Loads’, or AILs.
John Hicks
There are two elements to the abnormal indivisible loads. Firstly, there are what are called, the permanent AILs, which are the large components of the power station, which will come along right at the end or near the end of the construction period. And will form the components of the power station that will go in there, and they will come by sea.
John Hicks
We think there are about 400 of those permanent AILs probably in the circa last four years of the construction period.
John Hicks
The other element is what's called temporary and effective. This is the contractors’ equipment really, to build the power station. So this is things like porta cabins and modular buildings and cranes and dumpers, and excavators and steel fabrications, and bits of the tunnel boring machine and that sort of stuff. So all the stuff that you need to build a power station.
John Hicks
It varies a little from year to year.
John Hicks
but typically, you'd get about 750 of these a year. It varies between about 500 and 1000 a year Hinkley over the period they've had so far.
John Hicks
About half of them are what are called construction and use wide loads. So these are things which are more than 2.9 metres wide, and therefore outside the normal regulations. So that's about half of them. So they're not particularly heavy, they're just wide.
RHIAN
But there are some really substantial loads that will need to be moved. These are covered by the Department for Transport’s Special Transport - General Order, or STGO, regulations. These allow larger loads to be moved, without every journey requiring specific permits.
John Hicks
And then you get increasingly heavy things called STGO loads, up to 50 tonnes, then up to 80 tonnes, and then up to 150 tonnes. And they make up pretty well all of the rest of the 50%.
John Hicks
And then you get very, very few, what are called special order VR 1 loads. And these are the exceptionally big things which are more than six metres wide, or more than 150 tonnes and these are the ones where they'll try to transport them by the beach landing facility. But on some occasions you might not be able to do that, you have to do it by road. So they're very rare. It's probably a couple of those a year maybe.
RHIAN
Bringing all of these people, and all of this material, to the site will require extensive use of road, rail, and sea infrastructure.
ALEX
Richard Bull is the head of DCO delivery for the project leading from the client side. He was involved in developing the transport proposals throughout the public consultation stages and describes the existing infrastructure around the site.
Richard Bull
Sizewell itself is a challenging site. It's serviced in the main by the A12, travelling from north to south or south to north. But the current main access route to the station is via the B1122, which was the main access road for the construction of Sizewell B, and there are communities along that route, Theberton and Middleton Moor, and Yoxford, that that we have paid particular attention to, in developing our proposals for the DCO.
Richard Bull
The application for the development consent order includes a number of transport schemes to reduce impacts on those B roads specifically, and the A 12 for example, bypassing certain local communities to reduce those transport impacts.
Richard Bull
If you look at the scale of the construction for Sizewell C, which is essentially a replica of the Hinkley Point C construction, there is a significant volume of materials that need to be transported to the construction site and a significant sized workforce required to deliver the construction process. And that requires appropriate infrastructure to ensure that happens. And as part of our, as part of our application, we have proposed enhancements to that infrastructure along the major route corridors for that for those materials. So the A12, and B1122. And also introduces the capability for importing materials by sea and also importing large, large pieces of equipment that are needed for the construction itself, that are an integral part of the station as well to be delivered on a beach landing facility.
Richard Bull
We've been quite rightly put under a lot of pressure through the consultation stage to minimise the number of HGVs on the road. So despite the fact that we're actually enhancing the road, we do understand that road transport should be minimised and we should deliver a broad freight management strategy that provides a modal split across more environmentally-friendly means to get materials to the site.
RHIAN
One key way of doing this was to develop local rail infrastructure to handle as many freight moves as possible. But the existing infrastructure was not sufficient without specific upgrades.
Richard Bull
We focused on developing a capability to deliver materials by rail. And we’ve worked very closely with Network Rail throughout that process to establish what’s possible noting the fact that the Suffolk line is constrained by a single line north of Woodbridge and south of Saxmundham so the capacity for moving materials by rail during the day whilst the passenger services operating is minimal, but there is potential to move materials overnight which is where we focused our attention.
Richard Bull
The Suffolk line is an operating railway. For us to use it overnight, it still will need some enhancements to some level crossings and signalling, that we’re working with Network Rail on. The major work that Sizewell C will be undertaking is to enhance the Sizewell branch line, which hasn’t been used for the last couple of years, but has been used previously for taking materials in and out of Sizewell A, so the nuclear flask service.
Richard Bull
That track needs to be upgraded to accommodate heavier trains, longer trains, and a more regular service. So, you know, we would aim to deliver up to five, five trains in and out of the construction site at peak construction and obviously the infrastructure needs to be able to support that. So we’ll be utilising in the early stages of construction an upgraded Sizewell branch line. So the track will be uplifted and re-laid and we will create a new, early years railhead in Leiston. And we will deliver up to two trains a day into that temporary railhead, whilst we are constructing a major rail link from that branch line into the main construction site.
Richard Bull
Once that new temporary rail spur is constructed, then we will be able to increase the number of rail services we run on a daily basis into the site.
ALEX
Alongside these improvements to road and rail infrastructure, two new facilities will be needed for marine transport.
Richard Bull
Adjacent to the construction site, we’ll have two facilities that we’ll be constructing. There will be the MBIF, the Marine Bulk Import Facility, which will be specifically used to import construction materials and aggregates to the site, and they will be transported to the main point of use, using a conveyor system. We also will be constructing a permanent beach landing facility, which will be used for the larger abnormal indivisible loads.
RHIAN
The DCO process comes to a crunch at the examination stage. At this point, an appointed Examination panel look at every aspect of the project, over a six-month period. Their report is then passed to the Secretary of State, who makes a final decision.
ALEX
Before the examination clock started ticking, EDF and WSP needed to make sure they had a robust model in place that allowed them to answer stakeholders’ concerns and examiners’ questions. This needed to address both transport of materials and AILs, and passenger transport.
John Hicks
It's fair to say the project will have an impact on accommodation in the area. And one of the things that we did early on was build what's called a gravity model. And that's looking at where people are likely to live, who were working on the site, and again, splitting it into home-based and non-home-based workers.
John Hicks
We had some information from Sizewell B from the 1980s. And we tried to calibrate our model to reflect travel behaviour, at that time, and it was a little bit crude. But that's the way that we tried to determine where people are likely to live whilst working on the site. Because obviously, you need to know where the origin of journeys is before we can model what the behaviour is on the network, and what the demands are on the network.
RHIAN
This initial modelling and verification created a starting point for the planning process. The next step was to build a strategic model that could be used to see the impacts of Sizewell C construction workers and freight traffic around the region.
John Hicks
We then built a strategic traffic model in a piece of software called Visum, 'V I S U M'. And that extends from Lowestoft in the north to Ipswich in the south, and about 35 kilometres inland. And it doesn't model every road in the highway network. But it models all the important ones.
John Hicks
And we use that to try and firstly, replicate what we see on the ground now. So if a particular road is carrying 10,000 vehicles a day, our model has to show it carrying something like 10,000 vehicles a day, not 50,000 or, or, 500. So we have to calibrate the model, so it reflects existing conditions.
John Hicks
And only then can we use it to forecast what might happen in the future, when we introduce all these new workers going to Sizewell.
John Hicks
We gather lots and lots of data and synthesise that into a model to try and reflect what's observed on the ground. And once we've met certain criteria, which are checked by the county council, once we've satisfied them that the model is reflecting the conditions on the ground, we can then apply the additional workforce and additional freight movements from Sizewell on top. And that's how we assess where the impacts are. And that leads us to how, where do we need to mitigate and how do we need to mitigate the impacts?
ALEX
The VISUM model allowed for a robust, accurate, model of the impacts of each possible infrastructure plan.
John Hicks
This was a direct response to what happened to Hinkley and at Hinkley, they use what's called a spreadsheet model, a much more simple approach. And it got a fair bit of criticism from the examining authority at the time. And therefore EDF's response was, ‘We're not going to do that again, at Sizewell we're going to build a bespoke model from scratch.’
John Hicks
And one of my colleagues, Sally Powell, has worked on that, throughout the project for about the same length of 10 years. And she has actually been away and had two children during the course of it and was still working on it when she came back the second time.
John Hicks
So it's a huge undertaking, huge, but really important because it gives us the information to assess where the impacts are, not only from a sort of transport perspective, but also we use that information to assess changes in air quality, changes in the noise environment, and that sort of stuff as well. So it informs a lot of the environmental assessment that we do as well.
ALEX
John had joined the project in the middle of his career. While he has taken on some smaller, but still significant, projects in this time, Sizewell has dominated his working life for more than a decade.
RHIAN
As the examination stage of the process loomed, he handed over the reins to Nick Cottman.
Nick Cottman
The Planning Act of 2008 brought in new procedures around large major, nationally important infrastructure. and created a new consenting process called the development consent order process that put strict timescales on the overall application process and the examination process to get to a decision. So it certainly focuses everyone's mind, all the applicants, the developer themselves, the stakeholders, and the various authorities involved in the process, to work towards reaching a decision on the application itself.
Nick Cottman
There was an enormous amount of consultation that was carried out in the eight years prior to the application actually being submitted. And there were four rounds of formal consultation with stakeholders in the community around those proposals. And the scheme evolved and developed and responded to the feedback from through those consultation stages before reaching the application submission itself. And then, of course, the process puts interested parties, key stakeholders in the process, front and centre, really and core to the examination process.
Nick Cottman
So, the consultation process, although the timescales are tightly constrained, is really all configured around the stakeholders having an opportunity to influence the process and the proposals and for them to be scrutinised in an appropriate way.
ALEX
The Examining Authority consisted of five members, from a variety of backgrounds. One of the examiners paid particularly close attention to the impact of the project on vehicle mileage.
RHIAN
EDF had considered five potential routes for the new Sizewell Link Road that would bypass the B1122, reducing disruption to local communities.
John Hicks
We determined that we needed to effectively bypass the B1122 to reduce the traffic volume on it.
John Hicks
The furthest south one was the one that dated back to the 1980s. And then we looked at a number of other routes and variations on routes further north, the route that we eventually chose being the furthest north of all of them.
John Hicks
We came up with various alternatives and looked at what the highway geometry standard required us to do. So did some initial planning. And then we did what's called a multicriteria assessment of the five routes. And that looked at, for example, 'land take', the length of the scheme, the impact on drainage, the impact on the number of landowners affected, the need to cross rivers or the railway in this particular case, and a whole host of other stuff.
John Hicks
We had five routes, and there were some of them that, once we did the multicriteria assessment, really weren't going to be the winner. So once we'd narrowed it down a bit, we started to look at using the model to try and predict what the traffic effect of the route would be. And what we found is, fairly quickly, was that the northern route, which is the one that we eventually picked, was by far the most effective at reducing traffic on the B1122.
ALEX
But this route did not reduce vehicle mileage as much as some of the other routes, and so drew questions from the examiner. WSP’s model was able to help EDF show that it was still the best option.
John Hicks
That was fine. And that's clearly a factor that you need to consider. But it's not the most important factor, because your objective is to reduce the impact on the B1122. And if you pick a scheme, which minimises mileage, but actually doesn't really reduce traffic significantly on the B1122, why would you be doing that?
John Hicks
We persuaded the examining authority that the route that we had chosen was the right one, it didn't minimise mileage, but it was the most effective in reducing the impact on the B1122, which was the reason in the first place that we wanted to produce a Sizewell Link Road.
RHIAN
The DCO process is all about balancing different goals and metrics like this. Rather than the long drawn out planning processes used on prior national-scale projects, its tight timetable and comprehensive approach ensure that stakeholders’ concerns are addressed, and project owners have a clear and final decision.
ALEX
Helping a client make sure they are ready for the examination stage takes some serious engineering firepower. All of this work was originally scheduled to come to a head as the first Covid lockdown came into effect. The examination stage was delayed, and when it did take place, restrictions were still in place.
Nick Cottman
A feature of the DCO process, and particularly of major projects of this scale, is the level of coordination required across various technical disciplines: environmental and engineering disciplines, as well as planning and legal disciplines. And, of course, they require a lot of meetings, and what was a massive opportunity, really through the lockdown period, was that everyone became very adept at working online and working in a virtual way and in a hybrid way on Teams calls and virtual meetings. And we were able to assemble teams and have meaningful coordination meetings in a virtual way, at very short notice in a way that would have been impossible in working face to face and all coming together at a single venue.
Nick Cottman
The first round of questions that came through from the examining authority, numbered 2,229 questions. And that was a record at the time for any DCO. And, and substantially ahead of the previous record for the number of questions in the first round of DCO.
RHIAN
The scope of the documentation required was huge.
ALEX
But it was essential to ensure all stakeholders’ concerns were heard and considered. This allowed the examining stage to be kept to a tight schedule.
Nick Cottman
That was followed by two subsequent rounds of examiner's questions through the process. And so that gives some scale of the number of questions that needed to be responded to across the project team. And of course, as I said, that happened, there were three rounds of questions. Typically, there was something like three or four weeks available to respond to those question rounds.
Nick Cottman
The examiners had a vast amount of experience and did an excellent job really of understanding where the most important areas of examination lay.
Nick Cottman
They were certainly very experienced in the process, and in major infrastructure projects. And they, I felt, knew the right questions to ask.
ALEX
The examiners knew to ask the right questions. But would EDF and WSP be able to provide the right answers?
Nick Cottman
I think one of the reasons that WSP has been involved for so long on this project is purely our scale, and our ability to field a large team that has all of the breadth of knowledge and experience to be able to respond to these projects in a very short timescale. So, certainly, it was my it to get my head around the project very quickly, and then coordinate the various inputs required and lead on various aspects as we work towards finalising the application submission, and then the various changes, through the DCO process.
Nick Cottman
I've been working very closely with Suffolk and East Suffolk national highways in particular, but also with many parish councils in and around Suffolk and around some of the key pieces of infrastructure that support Sizewell C. And around the main development station itself and the key routes, via which sites will see traffic arrive to and depart the station itself. So we've had monthly meetings with most of these groups, most of these traffic and transport working groups over many years too, to work to hear their concerns and to collaborate on developing measures that helped to both mitigate potential impacts but also to provide a legacy benefit and an improvement in those villages and towns.
RHIAN
A key way of minimising impacts on the communities around Sizewell is through the adoption of a Construction Traffic Management Plan (produced by WSP) and a Delivery Management System (developed by EDF). This will see HGVs, or Heavy Goods Vehicles, corralled at a Freight Management Facility close to the A12. They will then travel on a closely planned schedule, so material arrives at the site when needed, without causing congestion or disruption on the B1122.
ALEX
It is complemented by two Park & Ride schemes, which will allow workers driving to the site from farther away to park at two locations North and South of the site and complete their journey by bus.
RHIAN
The impact of these measures will be monitored as work progresses, allowing stakeholders and authorities to ensure the plan is being implemented properly.
Nick Cottman
In the construction traffic management plan, for example, one of the key features is it sets caps on the number of HGVs that can travel to and from the site. And it can, it defines the routes over which those vehicles can travel. And they will, of course, be closely monitored using GPS, tracked using GPS and scheduled using a delivery management system. So there are very tight and strict caps on that. And of course, there are penalties if those caps are exceeded.
ALEX
Meeting the requirements of the DCO process has taken years of work from Richard, John, and Nick, as well as colleagues like Sally Powell. But, Nick says, it has proven worthwhile and acts as a model for how projects of this scale are planned and approved, around the world.
RHIAN
With some adjustments, it could also be an efficient way to plan and approve smaller, but still nationally significant, projects.
Nick Cottman
I think the DCO process certainly supports the timescales required to reach decisions about nationally important infrastructure. And from that point of view, I think it would be seen as a success there, and a process that supports those outcomes.
There has been a lot of discussion recently in the media and within government, about the efficiency of the process and the timescales required for various different projects and, of course, DCOs, although they're all nationally significant infrastructure, they all vary in size but are all constrained to the same strict timescale. So there is some waiting on an announcement from the government about opportunities to streamline the process. So we may see some further changes coming to the DCO process in the near future.
Nick Cottman
The other advantage of the DCO, which I think is a real strength is that...
Nick Cottman
...at the end of the process, the applicant has an all-encompassing consent to move forward with the development that incorporates all of the land acquisition rights, all of the consenting rights, the planning, consenting rights, various orders that are wrapped into the DCO process, so that it is a sort of a one-stop-shop or an all-encompassing consent to move forward.
End of Transcript
ALEX
Engineering Matters is a production of Reby Media
This episode was written and produced by Will North
Edited and hosted by me, Alex Conacher
My co-host was Rhian Owen
Sound Engineering by Ross MacPherson
Series supervision by Jon Young
And our own man with the all encompassing plan is Rory Harris
Special thanks to our episode partner, WSP
Thank you for listening! You can find us on all podcast apps, on our website engineeringmatters.reby.media, on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
