Mott, Hay and Anderson (MHA) was a successful 20th century firm of consulting
civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with
Sir M MacDonald & Partners to form ''
Mott MacDonald''.
History
Early years
The company was founded as a private partnership between
Basil Mott and
David Hay on 30 July 1902. Prior to forming the partnership both had spent time building
London tube railways and Hay had worked on the
Blackwall Tunnel
The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south ...
, so it was no surprise that they concentrated on heavy civil engineering projects such as bridges, tunnels, railways and docks. Early projects included the reconstruction and extension of the
City & South London Railway, the building and extension of the
Central London Railway, the construction of lifts beneath
St Mary Woolnoth
St Mary Woolnoth is an Anglican church in the City of London, located on the corner of Lombard Street, London, Lombard Street and King William Street, London, King William Street near Bank junction. The present building is one of the Commission f ...
church at
Bank Underground station, the underpinning of
Clifford's Tower, the reconstruction of
Southwark Bridge
Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City of London, City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the List of ...
and the widening of
Blackfriars Bridge
Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple C ...
. Mott and Hay employed a young engineer called
David Anderson as resident engineer for the latter project.
The firm also advised on proposals for underground railways in Sydney, Africa and Russia. David Anderson was made a partner in 1920 after returning from army service. The firm was thereafter known as Mott, Hay and Anderson (MHA).
During the 1920s, MHA designed the
rolling bridge over the river
Dee at
Queensferry, the
Wearmouth Bridge in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
and the
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...
in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
. They also designed the enlargement of the
City & South London Railway tunnels and their extension past
Camden Town
Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London.
Laid out as a residential distri ...
and
Clapham South to form the
Northern line
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...
of
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The Undergro ...
.
In 1920, Basil Mott joined forces with Sir
Maurice Fitzmaurice and John Brodie to advise on the best way to build a new crossing of the river
Mersey
The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it ...
in Liverpool. In 1922 a tunnel was recommended. Mott, Hay and Anderson subsequently designed the works and supervised the construction of the tunnel. The tunnel, named
Queensway was opened in July 1934.
In the 1930s, the firm designed the first bolted concrete tunnel linings, for the
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Londo ...
. The new tunnel linings were used on the Ilford extension of the
Central line between
Redbridge and
Newbury Park. MHA designed a road tunnel at
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and
is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...
and supervised the construction of its pilot tunnel beneath the Thames, but preparations for construction of the full-size tunnel were stopped in 1931 due to economic difficulties. G L Groves became a partner in 1933, but it was decided to leave the name of the company unchanged.
In 1935, David Anderson attended the opening ceremony of the
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...
, which the firm had provided advice to as far back as 1912. Other works in this period included Lots Road power station and construction of escalator tunnels in
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The Undergro ...
stations.
Both founding partners died in 1938.
Normal construction work mostly stopped in September 1939, and during the wartime years MHA acted as engineer for the construction of five of the ten
London deep-level shelters
The London deep-level shelters are eight Deep level underground, deep-level air-raid shelters that were built under London Underground stations during World War II.
Background
Each shelter consists of a pair of parallel tunnels in diameter and ...
, for the construction of armaments factories and for the repair of bomb damage on various British bridges, tunnels and docks. MHA also oversaw the conversion of the unfinished Central line tunnels to aircraft components factories.
After World War II
In the late 1940s, MHA designed road, pedestrian and cycle tunnels under the
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
(
Tyne Tunnel
The Tyne Tunnel is the name given to a pair of two-lane vehicular toll tunnels under the River Tyne in North East England. Originally opened in 1967 and expanded in 2011, the tunnels connect the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with ...
) though the road tunnel was not built until the 1960s. Further commissions for road tunnels were received for the revitalised
Dartford tunnel in 1956,
Mersey Kingsway tunnel in 1966,
Blackwall southbound tunnel in 1967,
second Dartford tunnel in 1972, and the Hatfield, Bell Common, Holmesdale and Penmaenbach tunnels in the 1980s. In all, MHA were involved in the construction of all but five of the UK's longest road tunnels (the exceptions being the
Heathrow Cargo Tunnel,
Heathrow Main Tunnel,
Clyde Tunnel,
Limehouse Link tunnel and
Rotherhithe Tunnel).
In the same period, MHA worked with
Freeman Fox & Partners
Hyder Consulting was a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employed approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Midd ...
to design the
Forth Road Bridge
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in Central Belt, east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the List of longest suspension bridge spans, longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. ...
and the
Severn Bridge
The Severn Bridge () is a Controlled-access highway, motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn crossing, Severn road crossi ...
. Other bridge commissions in this period include the
Tamar Bridge located next to
Brunel's 1859
Royal Albert Bridge, the Kuala Lepar bridge across the
Pahang River in Malaysia and the new
London Bridge
The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...
(including the removal of
Rennie's 1831 bridge and its reconstruction in
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
).
When work began on
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The Undergro ...
's
Victoria line
The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in South London, and in the east, via the West End of London, West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run comp ...
in the early 1960s, responsibility for the tunnelling works was split between Mott, Hay and Anderson and
Sir William Halcrow and Partners, each acting as Engineer for approximately half the length of the line. MHA partner John Bartlett patented the bentonite-slurry shield
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
(UK patent 1083322) and a trial length of tunnel was drilled successfully through poor ground conditions at
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south-east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the London_postal_district#List_of_London_postal_districts, SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, London, St Jo ...
in London. The slurry shield design paved the way for the earth pressure balance TBM commonly used today.
Modern times
In the early 1970s, an alliance was formed with Australian consultants
John Connell Group for the design and construction of the
Melbourne Underground Rail Loop, opened in 1981. The alliance continued with bridge and tunnel works across Australia and Southeast Asia, culminating in the formation of a joint venture company (Mott Connell) in Hong Kong for the design of infrastructure in and around
Chek Lap Kok airport, including the
Lantau Link.
As time went on, many of the assets built by the founders of the company began to show their age. The increase in traffic flow through the Queensway Tunnel meant that the ventilation system could no longer cope and additional ventilation tunnels were built under MHA's supervision in the early 1960s. In the 1980s the Blackwall northbound tunnel, which David Hay had worked on 90 years before, was refurbished by Murphy construction under the supervision of MHA.
In 1979 they began economical and technical research on possibilities for the
Medellín Metro
The Medellín Metro (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Metro de Medellín'') is a rapid transit system that crosses the Metropolitan Area of Medellín from North to South and from Centre to West. It first opened for service on 30 November 1995. As one ...
.
The firm stopped trading as Mott, Hay and Anderson in 1989 when it merged with
Sir M MacDonald & Partners to form
Mott MacDonald. The firm of Mott MacDonald has since expanded its field of operations far beyond traditional consulting engineering (for example, it currently runs the education department of the
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough, borough in North London, England. Forming part of Inner London, Islington has an estimated population of 215,667. It was formed in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, by the amalg ...
).
Channel Tunnel
Mott, Hay and Anderson were heavily involved in the design and construction of the
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...
between France and Great Britain.
The firm were first involved in a proposal to build a tunnel between Britain and France in 1930, but this was unsuccessful. The design proposed in this feasibility study – twin running tunnels with a central service tunnel – was similar to the design eventually built.
In 1957, the firm acted as adviser to the
Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas for another unsuccessful scheme.
In the early 1970s, the firm capitalised on work funded by
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
to develop means of calculating the
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...
behaviour of high-speed trains in long, complex tunnel systems (the resulting methods are still used today to design tunnels for rail traffic). MHA and French firm
SETEC were appointed as joint advisers to the British and French Channel Tunnel Companies, who proposed a workable scheme. Exploratory construction contracts were let, but the British Government abandoned the scheme in 1975, with the first
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
(built to dig the service tunnel) literally sitting on its launch frame. Despite the lack of funding, a short section of service tunnel was dug beneath the English coast through ground that had been filled with instruments to assess the performance of the TBM. This section of service tunnel was incorporated into the successful scheme a decade later.
In the late 1970s,
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
and
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...
appointed MHA and Setec as advisors to a smaller-scale project which also came to nothing.
In the early 1980s, Mott, Hay and Anderson provided design services to two of the consortia bidding for the Channel Tunnel (Euroroute, who proposed a road tunnel, and the Channel Tunnel Group). The bid by the Channel Tunnel Group and France Manche was successful: the two bidders joined forces and reformed as an operating company
Eurotunnel and construction contractor
TransManche Link. MHA were appointed as the contractor's designer for the works on the British site (designing temporary works, bored tunnel linings, cut-and-cover tunnels, earthworks, trackwork, terminals & sea defences) and as designer for the ventilation, aerodynamics, smoke control and refrigeration systems in the entire tunnel.
Between 1986 and 1994, the company expended approximately 650-man-years of work on the design of the Channel Tunnel.
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External links
Mott MacDonald websiteMott MacDonald website page on Channel Tunnel
{{Authority control
Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom
Consulting firms established in 1902
Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1902
1902 establishments in England
British companies disestablished in 1989
British companies established in 1902
Construction and civil engineering companies disestablished in the 20th century