Completed in 2011, the Inner West Busway project reduced travel times for thousands of bus commuters along Victoria Road in Sydney, Australia, by up to 17 min. The A$175 million (£117 million) project involved installing a new 3·5 km city-bound bus lane, which required a new 400 m long, incrementally launched box girder bridge across Iron Cove. This paper examines the design, construction issues and innovation associated with the project, including the country's first bridge launch from in front of an abutment, its first use of the Quickchange movable barrier system and a world first in-pavement light system. Other works included over 12 km of new bicycle shoulder lanes and on-road bicycle routes, a new children's playground and rehabilitation of a park.

The A$1·7 billion (£1·13 billion) Hunter Expressway project near Newcastle, Australia, is an impressive 40 km motorway traversing a floodplain and rugged terrain by means of a series of bridges, viaducts and massive earthworks. Former underground coal mining activities and poor ground conditions presented exceptional engineering and construction challenges. Subsidence movements associated with the sudden collapse of standing pillars could leave some of project's structures unserviceable, while earthworks feature a proportionally large amount of poor quality materials derived from cutting construction. The designers incorporated expansive and carbonaceous materials, which would otherwise be spoiled because of their poor engineering properties. This paper chronicles the unique design and construction challenges associated with earthworks and mine subsidence for the eastern section of the project.

Barangaroo South is a A$6 billion (£4 billion) transformation of a former container port in Sydney, Australia, into a business, residential and leisure precinct. Due for completion in 2020, it features three commercial towers up to 49 storeys providing more than 490 000 m² of gross floor area. It is set to become one of Australia's first large carbon dioxide-neutral developments. This paper provides an overview of the civil engineering challenges facing the project and the innovative solutions adopted, including remediation of past contamination, basement retention and foundation construction in reclaimed land, groundwater control, design of foundations and transfer structures over the proposed rail tunnels, and superstructure design.

This papers describes the design and construction of two new suburban rail stations in Melbourne, Australia, in a live rail environment. They were collaboratively designed to integrate with their surroundings and enhance the experience of rail travel. Located on existing electrified rail lines, design and construction methods also had to minimise disruption to rail services and the surrounding community. At Cardinia Road, a new 6 m span pedestrian underpass was installed in a single 55 h possession, using an open-cut box-jacking technique not previously used in Victoria. Both stations opened in April 2012.

Accelerated bridge construction and precast bridge elements and systems were used to replace five bridges as part of the Auckland rail electrification project in New Zealand. This paper describes the replacement of five road-over-rail bridges, covering the fast-tracked design process, the collaborative approach required by all parties and the construction of bridges in periods of 5 weeks. The paper also describes the innovative solutions used to connect the precast elements, the relative success of each solution and the impact on the construction programme. A comparison of the cost of construction of these bridges against the more conventional construction techniques is also provided, with discussion on the economic benefit of accelerated construction.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games reminded the world of the importance of social inclusion, including the design of public facilities and infrastructure. Ian Jenkinson of the Institution of Civil Engineers' Municipal Engineer journal highlights some of the challenges of designing for diversity.

Cloud computing is poised to bring complex design simulation and analysis within reach of all civil engineering designers, says Jonah Normand of Autodesk. It offers affordable access to state-of-the-art simulation on demand – all that is needed is an internet connection.

A destructive earthquake of 7·1 magnitude struck Christchurch, New Zealand in September 2010. A second, more violent and much more damaging earthquake with multiple fatalities occurred in February 2011, followed by a sequence of strong aftershocks centred around the city throughout 2011, 2012 and into 2013. This paper offers an insight into how the national, international and local agencies and, most importantly, communities came together to deal with this destructive sequence of events. It explores the impact of the events on the community and then the recovery planning for a wide range of essential infrastructure services and their effects on daily lives in a modern city with a population of some 350 000 people.

In addition to Civil Engineering , ICE Proceedings includes 17 specialist journals. Papers and articles published in the most recent issues are listed here. Summaries of all these and other papers and articles published can be read free in the ICE Virtual Library at www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/journals .

The Shard in central London is 310 m high, making it the tallest building in western Europe. Designed for client Sellar Property Group, it is a ‘vertical city’, containing shops, offices, restaurants, hotel, apartments and a public viewing gallery. This paper describes the design and construction of the building, which has a concrete core, steel-framed floors to level 40, concrete floors to level 69 and a steel ‘spire’ at the top. Various innovative construction techniques were used to save time and improve safety, including building the three-storey basement and core top-down, installing plunge columns to high levels of accuracy, and using modular construction for the spire.