HS2 Tunnelling – a Client’s Perspective

Speakers

• Martyn Noak

  Head of Ground Engineering and Tunnelling, HS2

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  Martyn Noak

  Head of Ground Engineering and Tunnelling, HS2

  Martyn started his tunnelling career in 1996 on the Jubilee Line Extension at Green Park station as a shift engineer with Tarmac Construction where he learned the traditional art of square works and low-mechanised shield driven tunnelling in London Clay.  Following a stint at WS Atkins Rail where he designed the pedestrian subway access to Gunwharf Quays through the railway arches at Portsmouth Harbour, Martyn joined Halcrow as part of the Rail Link Engineering consortium on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at Stratford.  At RLE he was the designer of the Barrington Road Ventilation Shaft, numerous tunnel opening sets and vent adits along the London Tunnels route, and was part of the team working on ground movement assessments including the mitigation works for the undercrossing of the Central Line.

  Returning to the Halcrow HQ in 2004, the company was consumed by CH2M and then Jacobs where Martyn became the Head of Discipline for Tunnels in 2017.  He then worked on the DLR extension to Woolwich, the TWAO design for the Northern Line Extension to Battersea, the tender design for Stonehenge (twice in 2005 and 2020) and was the Designer’s Project Manager for the upgrade of the LUL station at Tottenham Court Road Station Upgrade from 2012 to 2020.

  Martyn joined HS2 as Head of Tunnel Engineering in 2021 and became Head of Ground Engineering in 2024.

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• Mark Lemmon

  Lead Tunnel Engineer, HS2

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  Mark Lemmon

  Lead Tunnel Engineer, HS2

  Mark is a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who started out as a Geologist working in the offshore sector, at SAGE Engineering.  Working alongside Geotechnical Engineers inspired him to change career path and enrol on a Soil Mechanics Masters course at Imperial College in 1999.  Following a year at Stent Foundations as a Design Engineer, Mark joined Halcrow and worked on numerous projects as a Geotechnical Engineer.

  Since 2006, Mark has been involved on a number of UK major projects within the geotechnical and tunnelling sectors, notably at Crossrail; Thames Tideway and HS2.  Mark’s involvement on HS2 was initially as a Project Manager during the Hybrid Bill,  Ground Investigation and early Contractor Involvement phases.  In 2022, Mark returned to a technical role, in his current position as Lead Tunnel Engineer for HS2, where he specialises in the fields of instrumentation and monitoring; asset protection; ground movement; geology and GBR contractual management.  Mark hopes to leave a legacy from the vast HS2 ground movement dataset with his initiative for a National Tunnelling Data Hub, which his team are presently working on with City-St George’s University.

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