Knighthood for Doug Oakervee

Direct by Design HONOURS and AWARDS

TunnelTalk reporting

A Knighthood for Sir Douglas Oakervee

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eading project delivery engineer Doug Oakervee CBE FREng FICE FHKIE has received a Knighthood in the Queen Elizabeth II 2022 New Year’s honours list for his services to transport and infrastructure delivery.

Born in London in 1940, Oakervee, 81, adds the Knighthood to his CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, awarded by Queen Elizabeth in 2010 for his contributions to civil engineering and an OBE in the diplomatic list of the 2000 Queen’s New Year’s honours list for services to civil engineering overseas.

Jan 2022

fourth immersed tube link across Victoria Harbour providing a four lane road and twin track extension of the Hong Kong MRT metro between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. He then became lead tunnel engineer for the MRT managing different line extensions of the Hong Kong mass transit metro network. His last major post in Hong Kong in the 1990s was as Project Director for construction of the Chek Lap Kok Airport off Lantau Island towards its opening in June 1998.

As well as the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the UK and in Hong Kong, where he lived and worked Sir Douglas Oakervee for many years at different times through In Hong Kong in the 1980s Oakervee was involved with his career, Oakervee reached a high note in his profession the concession consortium led by Kumagai Gumi of Japan when elected as the 139th President of the Institution of to build and operate the Eastern Harbour Crossing, the Civil Engineers in 2003.

Top: Kowloon portal of the immersed tube road link of the Eastern Harbour Crossing in Hong Kong.

Below: the Chek Lap Kok Airport on reclaimed land off Lantau Island

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Fig 1. Route of the 118km long Crossrail railway with its underground route and stations under central London (insert)

In the UK, he was involved in a design-build section of the London Underground Jubilee Line and most recently on two of the country’s largest rail projects - Crossrail and HS High Speed 2.

As Chairman of delivery authority Crossrail Ltd between 2005 and 2009 he prepared the project’s blueprint for its Hybrid Bill passage through Parliament to its Royal Assent to proceed with construction in July 2008. He became Non-Executive Chairman during the project transition from planning to construction, and the hand over to Rob Holden as Chairman. After leaving he joined construction company Laing O’Rourke as Non-Executive Chairman for the company’s operations in Hong Kong.

In 2012, and back in the UK, Oakervee joined HS2 Ltd as Chair of the railway delivery partner to lead development HS2 is planned to link the length and breadth of the UK with Phase 1 between London and Birmingham well into construction, including more than 56km of its 225km route in tunnels (insert)

of its business case and passage of its Hybrid Bill for Phase 1 between London and Birmingham through Parliament.

When deposited with Parliament in 2013, the Hybrid Bill was reported as the largest ever in the UK and the first to be presented in electronic format.

Oakervee left HS2 in December 2013, passing the post as Chair to Sir David Higgins, who past the post in early 2018 to Sir Terry Morgan, who was also Crossrail Chair at the time and remained for less than six months before appointment of Allen Cook as Chair in December 2018. Cook resigned as Chair in July 2020 and full responsibility for the project since then rests with HS2 Chief Executive since March 2017, Mark Thurston. Phase 1 of the HS2 project received Royal Assent in February 2017 and construction work is advancing on all the major sections of the 225km route.

With delivery management of HS2 being questioned and with budget estimates for the publicly funded project increasing dramatically, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called upon Oakervee in 2019 to conduct an in-depth review of the project for the Government with his report required before granting of notices to proceed with construction. As Chair, Oakervee convened a panel of nine members including Lord Berkeley as Deputy Chair.

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On presenting the review in February 2020, the Government agreed to progress with HS2 despite cost estimates of £106 billion for the full scheme and as much as £35-£45 billion for Phase 1. While the Oakervee Review panel recommend in the majority to progress with the project, it held several criticisms and warnings.

Increasing costs, it stated, were results of underestimation of civil construction costs including for elements such as security, design and logistics for contractors, and that 2017 estimates for contractor overheads and design costs for the railway stations were based on previous projects and again underestimated for HS2. Other reasons for cost increases included the cost of railway systems including power, signalling and communications, which are fitted to existing infrastructure, and site complexity as a result of the discovery of asbestos and archaeological finds.

Most pointedly, the Oakervee Report found that “there has been considerable over-specification and ‘gold-plating’ in HS2 contracts with much of the design seemingly done on a worst-case, risk-averse scenario”. It considered this to be a “key driver behind the inflated prices on Phase 1”.

The Review concluded that these design standards and specifications could be reduced to be less severe without major risk, but said there would be a trade-off between cost and schedule to achieve that on Phase 1 which had been approved for construction. More opportunity to review the design criteria and specifications to achieve cost savings, it said, would be better found on Phase 2 of the project which was yet to begin detailed construction design.

Given the fate of the Crossrail project, which is still yet to open the central underground section beneath central London, despite construction starting in 2012 and all excavation of the tunnels and underground stations being completed in 2015 - and the delays and cost increases facing the HS2 project, perhaps more should have been done to convince Oakervee to extend his Chairmanships of the project delivery partner organisations of either or both. n

Portrait of Oakervee as ICE President

References • Crossrail management mobilized - TunnelTalk, May 2009 • UK awards high speed rail design contracts - TunnelTalk, April 2012 • UK Government announces HS2 review - TunnelTalk, August 2019 • UK Government agrees to progress HS2 - TunnelTalk, February 2020 • HS2 prepares to excavate 21km route under London - TunnelTalk, February 2021 • ‘Speed up delivery to cut costs’ says HS2 boss Sir David Higgins TunnelTalk, Mar 2014 • Yet more money agreed to complete Crossrail - TunnelTalk, December 2020 • Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground - TunnelTalk Special UK Edition, p51

Table 1. HS2 cost increases as noted in the Oakervee Review Element of cost estimate

Cost change since April 2017

Cost estimate in October 2019

(£m)

(%)

(£m)

Main civil construction

4,916

85

10,667

Station design and build

1,020

34

3,984

Railway systems

961

52

2,792

Preparatory works

860

124

1,552

HS2 Ltd costs: HS2 Ltd Staff and administration

814

35

3,138

On network works (ONW) and wider network works (WNW)

721

85

1,573

Utility diversions

389

81

869

Land and property acquisition

154

5

3,562

Other

609

180

948

Trains (rolling stock) and operations and maintenance

-390

-20

1,584

10,054

49

30,669

Total

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