Back bites and other bits: 9 August 2006

Staying schtum

Can you keep a secret? Contractors in Shanghai had to. Construction has just been completed on a 90,000m² underground bunker that can accommodate 200,000 people sheltering from explosions, poison gas or nuclear radiation.

The bunker has 15 passages, nearly 4km in length, that link to office towers and residential blocks. Its water, power and ventilation systems can support those seeking refuge for up to a fortnight.

Could a project that big remain a secret in the UK in this age of spin?

Camping it up

Does the burgeoning summer festival circuit present an opportunity for the construction industry?

Back bites' attention was drawn to Travelodge's new Travelpod, a portable hotel room for festival goers who can't be doing with tents in muddy fields. The 6m x 2m prototype, which features a double-bed, fully-carpeted floor, lavatory, washbasin and electricity generator, was tested at Womad.

The trials were charged at £26 per night. Surely, the more affluent music lover would be prepared to invest in some portable, temporary accommodation?

Will we be seeing them at Glastonbury, then?

Dawn Corus

From now on, getting up with the lark will be all in a day's work for Corus chairman Jim Leng.

Presiding over the launch of the firm's £1m sponsorship of the British Triathlon, Leng was voluble about the benefits of the sport and how it would be something that all Corus staff would be encouraged to take part in. What he hadn't perhaps realised was that the British Triathlon had taken him at his word.

Both he, and sports minister Richard Caborn, were presented with racing bikes and challenged to take part in a triathlon in Hyde Park. With swimming, running and cycling training to fit in with a day's work, bank on the next Corus AGM to be held somewhere with secure bike parking. Still, it'll be no sweat for this ironman!

Going underground

It's not just the dry weather that's boosting work for underpinning specialists, at least in east London. An eccentric known as The Mole Man has been banned from his Hackney home after digging a 60ft network of tunnels beneath it.

William Lyttle, 75, spent 40 years burrowing under his 20-room house, removing 100m³ of earth with a spade and pulleys. It is now feared the street could give way, with a local surveyor quoted in a well-known red-top newspaper as saying: "He's fortunate a London bus is not in his front garden. It's liable to lead to catastrophe."

Work at the house could include flooding the tunnels, which are big enough to stand up in and a drop to a depth of 8m, with cement.

Number of the week

87: Percentage of clients keen to hear environmnetal ideas from their contractors, according to a survey by fit-out firm Overbury.

Quote of the week

"The first batch of houses for us were built like a sports car rather than a Ford Fiesta." John Millington, senior project manager, Taylor Woodrow

[Contract Journal, 9 August 2006, p. 36]