Announcement: Award-winning papers in 2008

In the early 1990s Cambridgeshire County Council considered the implementation of a road user charging scheme for the city of Cambridge, UK. This involved the trial of a congestion metering scheme, a form of road user charging. Cambridge presented an ideal opportunity for the implementation of a road user charging scheme not least in terms of its congestion problem, the free-standing nature of the city and the fact that at the time, the local authority in the form of the council was sympathetic to the objectives of road user charging. The scheme did not, however, proceed and many reasons have been put forward as to why this was the case—issues such as not all the alternatives having been exhausted, the level of sophistication of the proposed scheme and the lack of a similar scheme to consider elsewhere. Fifteen years later, Cambridgeshire is once again considering the whole issue of road user charging. As such, the aim of this paper is to assess how the authority is proceeding this time round: what type of technology is being considered; how the politicians are presenting the concept to the local population and what are they doing differently from the first time round, in terms of consultation; and most importantly, what provision for alternative means of transport will be made and how this relates to the potential success of any road user charging scheme? The paper aims to conclude on what lessons can be learnt in terms of other cities considering the implementation of a road user charging scheme.

The Webb Prize, presented for the best paper on railway or transport engineering, was awarded to: Biggam G and Jayawardena H (2008) Brixton station congestion relief project, London. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Transport, 161(1): 3–13. Fig. 2.

The Victoria line, extended to Brixton by July 1971, was London's first completely new underground line since the ‘tube boom' of the early twentieth century. The new line created connections between the underground and national rail networks, and relieved congestion on London's transport network. Three decades later, Brixton station was at the forefront of a new challenge, this time to improve accessibility of the London Underground network to disabled and encumbered passengers. In 2001 work began to provide step-free access from street to platform levels at Brixton station, to alleviate congestion within the station, and to harness additional benefits by constructing new office and retail facilities. This paper describes the construction, emergency preparedness, site safety, contract administration and assurance aspects of delivering the project. The project successfully executed demolition, building construction, structural, tunnelling and services works while maintaining the safe and effective operation of the station. A number of recommendations are made to assist in the execution of similar projects.