Hello and welcome back to a new series of the bottom line. Now this programme is always about trying to get an

understanding of how business works. So we thought we'd start this series by peeking into what always

seems to me the most incomprehensible of industries and the most wonderful civil engineering.

We take tunnels and bridges for granted and drainage and power cables and roads, but when you look at some of the extraordinary constructions in Britain and elsewhere, don't you sometimes ask how on earth did they get that much concrete, that high? It is indeed all so miraculous that we can apparently even contemplate building bridges all the way over the channel to France.

But the industry is also not without problems, as the collapse of Carillion shows,

partly brought down by problems on some construction projects.

Well, it is the 200th anniversary this year of the institution of civil engineers.

So what better time to focus on the industry

with three guests to all civil engineers themselves and have been involved in some

major construction projects in the UK and abroad. And first is Mike Glover, who is with

Arup. He's called the Arap Fellow. That's a company specialising in the built environment.

Mike, amazingly, you've been with the company since 1969. I'm going to ask you over those decades,

what's your proudest achievement? What's the project you look back on to say, well, that was a big one?

Well, on 90 years, there's been many, many projects, but the two stand out of HS1 and particularly St. Pancras and more recently the new fourth bridge called Queensfrey Crossing.

Let's focus on HS1 there, high speed one. This runs from St. Pancras down to the Eurotunnel. Tell us a little about that project and how difficult it was and what

the civil engineer brings to that project. I was involved in it as the technical director and the

deputy project director for 12 years from its inception to its closeout. So during that time,

you see the whole evolution of creating something which is a high-speed railway,

all the way from the critical issues of the client brief, the consultations, the winning

the hearts and mind at the outset of a project, and then going through the engineering

and the final delivery. What was the hardest thing on that line? In terms of the sheer logistical success,

it must be the tunnels under London and the Stratford box,

...