Every main contractor running underground works hits the same problem eventually. The programme is set, the ground is open, and the gang you need is not available. Tunnelling labour is not interchangeable with general construction labour, the pool of people who can actually do it is small, and the ones who are good at it are usually already working.
This page sets out what to ask a labour supplier before you commit, and what we supply. If you are mid-programme and need a straight answer today, call 0161 766 2612.
The distinction that decides most of it: contractor or agency
There are two kinds of business offering tunnelling labour, and the difference matters more than any other factor.
An agency places people. It holds a database, matches tickets to a requirement and takes a margin on the placement. A good one is genuinely useful, particularly at volume and at short notice.
A specialist contractor supplies its own employees. The operatives come off the contractor’s own faces, they have worked together as a gang, and the person you speak to has stood in a heading.
Fineturret is the second kind. We have been a specialist civil engineering contractor since 1975, and we still self-deliver tunnelling, shaft sinking, sprayed concrete lining and caulking as contract works. The operatives we supply are the same people who do that work for us.
The practical difference shows up in three places. A gang that has worked together arrives knowing each other’s methods. Someone supplying their own workforce carries a direct interest in how the operatives perform, because those people come back onto their own schemes afterwards. And when the ground does something unexpected, the supplier can talk about it in method terms rather than passing the question back to you.
None of that makes an agency the wrong choice for every job. It makes it a different purchase, and worth being clear which one you are making.
What we supply
Our operatives work across the disciplines we deliver as a contractor:
- Tunnel miners and shaft sinkers, including caisson and segmentally lined shafts
- Sprayed concrete gangs and nozzlemen for sprayed concrete lining and repair works
- Caulking gangs for secondary tunnel linings. This was the company’s original specialism and remains one of the harder skills to resource
- Timber heading and benching crews
- Pipe jacking operatives
- Concrete remedial and resin injection operatives, including to nuclear specification
Caulking is worth calling out. It is a small trade, it is not something a general operative picks up on the job, and it is the discipline this business was built on. If you are resourcing secondary lining works, it is worth asking any supplier directly whether they have caulkers or whether they intend to find some.
The proof: resourcing at scale, on live infrastructure
Capability statements are easy to write. These are schemes where the resourcing was the deliverable.
Farnworth Railway Tunnel, for J Murphy & Sons and United Utilities, 2015 to 2016. Reinforcement and shotcrete lining of an existing tunnel, a 370m open faced drive at 8.00m internal diameter beneath the A666 dual carriageway, including launch and reception portals. We supplied 90 skilled operatives on a 7 and 4 shift pattern, working across ten weekend rail possessions on double shifts. A multi award winning project.
Preston 7 UIDs, for KMI Water, J Murphy & Sons and United Utilities, 2010 to 2014. Two 9.0m caisson shafts at 25m deep, 3.4km of tunnelling at 3.050m internal diameter segmentally lined, and 1.20m pipe jacked connections between shafts. 60 skilled operatives supplied.
We have also worked at Sellafield and on Hinkley Point C, and with main contractors including Costain, Vinci and Balfour Beatty Marine. More on our recent projects page.
Ten weekend possessions is the number worth reading twice. Possession work is where resourcing either holds or fails publicly, because the window does not move and there is no recovering a shift that did not start.
Six questions worth asking any supplier
Most labour supply pages describe capability and stop. These are the questions that actually separate suppliers, and they are worth putting to anyone you are considering.
- Are these your employees, or placements? Covered above. Ask it plainly, because the copy often will not tell you.
- Which tickets attach to which role? A list of certifications and a separate list of roles is not the same as knowing that the nozzleman on your job holds what your spec requires. Ask for it role by role.
- What are the medical requirements, and who holds the records? Confined space, compressed air and safety-critical medicals are a genuine gate on tunnelling work, not paperwork. Ask when they were last renewed.
- What is the realistic mobilisation time for this gang size? Not the best case. Ask what has actually happened on the last three jobs of similar size.
- Labour only, supervised gang, or package? These are different purchases with different risk positions. Be explicit about which one you are buying, and whether supervision is included or charged separately.
- What happens if an operative is not right for the job? Every supplier will tell you it rarely happens. The useful question is what the process is when it does, and how quickly the replacement arrives.
If a supplier cannot answer these quickly and specifically, that is information in itself.
Where we work
We are based in Bury, Greater Manchester, and resource schemes across the North West as a matter of course. We also work nationally, and have done throughout: Sellafield, Hinkley Point C and Preston are not local jobs. If your scheme is outside the North West, ask us about travel and lodging arrangements when you call, because that is a commercial question worth settling early rather than discovering later.
Health and safety
Health and safety is paramount on every scheme we work on, and it is not a section we add at the end for form’s sake. Underground work concentrates risk, and resourcing decisions are safety decisions: an operative who is not competent for the task is a hazard, not just a productivity problem. We hold Constructionline, CHAS, Builders Profile and Achilles accreditation, and we work to nuclear specification where the contract requires it.
Talk to us about your scheme
If you are resourcing tunnelling, shaft or sprayed concrete works and want a straight answer on whether we can cover it, call 0161 766 2612 and ask for the contracts team. If it is a scheme we can resource properly we will tell you, and if it is not we will say so rather than commit to a programme we cannot hold.
We are also happy to get involved early. Where the method is still being developed, Early Contractor Involvement often resolves resourcing constraints before they become programme constraints. For contract works rather than labour, see our sprayed concrete contracting services.
