Handwork Tunnelling using Timber as Support

This presentation covers handwork tunnelling over the past 150 years. The use of timber for underground roof support has its origins somewhere in distant history, but recent ‘Traditional Timbering’ measures were developed mainly in the construction of the London Underground railway network built between 50 and 150 years ago. When a concern arose that handheld pneumatic clay spades exposed the workforce to unacceptable levels of Hand Arm Vibration together with developments in the use of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) and Sprayed concrete, has resulted that today such methods are now mostly used to construct highly complex structures by ‘threading the excavation through the eye of a needle’.

Rod Young graduated in 1982 going on to work for Anglo American in South Africa on Western Holding Gold Mine in Welkom. Initially on the Graduate training program, he obtained his Metalliferous Blasting, Mine Overseers and Mine Managers Certificates. He progressed from Stope Miner, to Shift Overseer and then Mine Overseer.

Returning to the United Kingdom in 1987, he first worked for Edmund Nuttalls on the Lee Valley project, then with Laserbore as Site Agent on their first ?1m project at Herne Bay, Barhale Ltd., and finally Delta Civil Engineering working at Ramsgate on an 11 foot chalk tunnel and also a crossing project for the A1 widening at Peterborough. In 1994, he returned to Barhale and for the past 32 years has worked on numerous tunnelling projects, with roles from Site Agent to Regional Manager.

Before becoming Chair of British Tunnelling Society (BTS) in May 2022, he served as Vice Chair from May 2020 and was actively involved in the yearly organisation and delivering of the ‘BTS Underground Design and Construction’ and ‘BTS Underground Health and Safety’ courses each year. In 2024 joined the Council of the NEIMME and has served as Honorary Treasurer since 2025. He is also involved with The Midlands PIG, and is a Committee Member of TunnelSkills.

17:30-18:00 - Tea and Coffee

18:00-18:50 - Lecture Starts

18:50 to 19:00 - Q & A

Welcome to our NEIMME Lecture. NEIMME is the Royal Chartered membership organisation for Engineering, Science and Technology in the North.
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Host or Publisher North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers