When the 2026 King’s Award for Enterprise recipients were announced, the inclusion of Active Tunnelling
(ATL) felt less like a surprise and more like a definitive confirmation. For over thirty years, this independent
powerhouse has quietly but profoundly reshaped the UK’s underground landscapes. Securing the UK’s
most prestigious business accolade for Innovation is not just a trophy for the cabinet; it’s a validation of an
operational philosophy that fuses gritty, real-world engineering with cutting-edge technology.
At the heart of their King’s Award victory is the Hydraulic Underpinning Segment Erector (HUSE). Developed entirely by ATL’s in-house R&D division and deployed with remarkable success on the Stroud Sewerage Strategy project, the HUSE represents a paradigm shift in deep shaft construction.
Historically, installing heavy concrete shaft segments relied on suspended loads and strenuous manual handling – a process fraught with safety risks. The HUSE completely neutralises these hazards by enabling automated, excavatormounted placement.
The real-world metrics of this award-winning innovation speak for themselves:
• 40% Programme Efficiency Improvement: Segment build times plummeted from 21 minutes down to just 13 minutes.
• Zero Defects: Consistently high-quality construction completely eliminated NonConformance Reports (NCRs).
• 40%+ Carbon Reduction: Streamlined operations fundamentally lowered the equipment’s environmental footprint and site emissions. Three Decades of Autonomy Remaining fiercely independent since 1994 is a massive achievement in a civil engineering sector dominated by massive corporate consolidations and buyouts.
Yet, for Active Tunnelling, autonomy is their ultimate competitive edge. It provides them with an organisational agility that corporate giants simply cannot replicate. Decisions are made directly on the ground, bureaucracy is stripped away, and client relationships are built on direct accountability, collaboration, and trust. This identity is anchored by their core ACTIVE values:
Agility, Collaborative, Trust, Innovate, Value, and Excellence.
Rather than just words on a corporate website, these principles dictate how ATL manages its physical assets. Unlike contractors who rely heavily on external equipment hire, ATL boasts one of the UK’s largest independent specialist plant fleets. This is supported by an expert in-house engineering division and a dedicated plant yard employing 16 permanent maintenance staff. When a site team encounters a geological surprise, the response time is instantaneous, ensuring that the quality and service offered are never compromised.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind:
The Trenchless Revolution To those outside the immediate civil engineering space, infrastructure work often translates to traffic cones, closed roads, and endless community delays. Active Tunnelling’s mastery of “trenchless” technology – including precision micro tunnelling, auger boring, shaft sinking, and pipe jacking – turns that old narrative on its head.
By burrowing precisely beneath the surface, ATL drastically reduces surface disruption and environmental impact compared to traditional open-cut methods. Surface life carries on uninterrupted above, while carbon-heavy earth-moving machinery stays confined. This operational agility is put to the test across a highly diverse array of sectors.
Managing a massive wastewater asset requires a totally different approach than operating within a highly sensitive military zone. For example, on the £242m Birmingham Resilience Project for Severn Trent Water, ATL delivered a 2.44m diameter tunnel a mere 10 meters from a historic reservoir embankment. The line of the tunnel came with intense engineering constraints, limiting vibrations to 5mm/s to protect a supporting structure built in 1896.
ATL’s proactive engineering ensured the entire 197-meter drive was accurate to within an exceptional 10mm tolerance. Contrast that delicate operation with their work at RAF Lakenheath. There, the team constructed four tunnels – including a 110-meter-long tunnel directly under the main runway and three others under active taxiways with minimal ground cover. They completed the runway tunnel in just four days, operating flawlessly inside a highsecurity, live fighter base without disrupting critical military operations.
Precision Under Pressure:
Masterclass in Rail Burrowing beneath live rail infrastructure is perhaps the ultimate test of a contractor’s mettle. The rail sector is a notoriously challenging environment with zero margin for error and incredibly tight possession windows. ATL manages these high-pressure logistics through comprehensive in-house design capabilities, handling everything from initial consultancy and temporary works design to critical Form A, B, and C rail approvals internally. This capability was perfectly illustrated during the complex ‘Triple Tunnel’ rail project at Ulleskelf Mires for the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
Tasked with replacing aging, 179-year-old brick arches under a busy four-track main line, ATL executed a UK-first operation. Three tunnel boring machines worked simultaneously side-by-side beneath the live tracks to keep the operational railway open to trains for the maximum amount of time. The team excavated 615 tonnes of earth and successfully installed three 17.8-meterlong drainage tunnels in a blistering 54-hour window, handing the line back to Network Rail exactly on time.
With Control Period 7 (CP7) now underway, billions are being invested in the UK’s rail network over the next five years. Tier1 contractors are actively hunting for partners who can mitigate risk, and with its RISQS-verified credentials, ATL is perfectly positioned to support this next generation of rail upgrades.
A Sustainable Blueprint for the Future The civil engineering sector is under immense pressure to decarbonise, and ATL is leading by example. Their commitment to greener practices is backed by tangible achievements, including a prestigious EcoVadis Silver Medal rating, which places them in the top 15% of companies worldwide for sustainability and carbon management. From managing their own haulage via a FORS Gold accredited transport fleet to actively monitoring their carbon footprint by optimising journey loads, sustainability is woven directly into their daily operations. By utilising their own fleet – from vans to low loaders- they ensure highly efficient mobilisation while making the most out of every journey safely and sustainably.
With the King’s Award now under their belt, Active Tunnelling’s gaze is firmly fixed on the massive infrastructure pipelines ahead, including AMP8 in the water sector. Their strategic priorities for the next 3 to 5 years remain clear: to continue challenging convention, protecting the environment, and setting the gold standard for how the UK’s critical infrastructure is built from the underground up.
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