Published Monday 17 August 2026 · By the JustEng team
Two rail investigations opened in as many days, a bridge section came down mid-construction in Maine, and the Technology and Construction Court set out how Building Safety Act claims should be case-managed alongside tribunal proceedings. Here is the forensic and disputes round-up — and what each story signals for forensic engineer recruitment and expert hiring.
Bridge section collapses mid-construction in Maine
A section of the Llewellen Estes Bridge in Old Town, Maine collapsed on Thursday morning when one of three new sections under construction fell, with the middle span landing in the Stillwater River and several construction workers suffering minor injuries. The Maine Department of Transportation has said it will conduct a thorough fact-finding review, and has released few details while that work begins. Maine Public reports.
Hiring angle: Failures during erection put temporary works, lifting sequence and connection design squarely in the frame, and investigations of this type generate demand for forensic structural engineers who can read a construction sequence as fluently as a finished design. Employers building that capability should expect a competitive search — the pool of engineers with genuine collapse investigation experience is small.
Two UK derailments in two days trigger RAIB investigations
A Greater Anglia service derailed south of Wickford in Essex on the afternoon of 14 August, with the rear carriages coming off the track upright and no injuries reported among the roughly 40 to 45 passengers on board. It came a day after a derailment near Lewes in East Sussex in which two people were injured. Rail Accident Investigation Branch inspectors were deployed to both sites. Read the report.
Hiring angle: Track geometry, earthworks condition and rolling stock interaction all sit inside the same investigative brief, so rail-facing forensic and permanent way engineers are increasingly sought after by both infrastructure owners and the consultancies that support them. This is a niche where headhunting outperforms advertising, because the credible candidates are rarely job-hunting.
TCC sets out joint case management for Building Safety Act claims
In Wallace Estates Limited v Durkan Estates Limited [2026] EWHC (TCC), Mr Justice Constable has given initial guidance on the joint case management and hearing of concurrent TCC and First-tier Tribunal proceedings arising from related Building Safety Act 2022 claims. The dispute concerns a remediation agreement covering relevant defects at Centrillion Point in Croydon, where the FTT had already imposed a remediation order. Analysis here.
Hiring angle: Running court and tribunal proceedings in parallel compresses expert timetables and raises the premium on expert witnesses who can hold a position across two forums. Building surveyors and fire engineers with CPR Part 35 experience remain among the hardest briefs in our forensic engineering recruitment practice.
Ardmore seeks CVA lifeline while appealing building liability ruling
Directors connected to the collapsed Ardmore group are seeking a company voluntary arrangement across seven property firms while the wider Ardmore business fights a building liability order ruling in the Court of Appeal. The case is being watched closely because building liability orders reach through corporate structures to associated companies, and the outcome will shape how remediation liability is pursued. Construction Enquirer has the background.
Hiring angle: Every contested building liability order needs quantum, defect causation and cost-of-remediation evidence, which is why disputes teams keep hiring surveyors and engineers who can produce defensible reports under cross-examination. Salary expectations in this space have moved — our forensic engineering salary guide sets out current benchmarks.
Regulator extends notices after Hinkley Point falling panel incident
Improvement notices issued by the nuclear regulator have been extended at Hinkley Point C after a formwork panel fell 29 metres and struck a worker. Temporary works and lifting operations remain the most persistent source of serious incidents on major civil projects. Read more.
Hiring angle: Regulatory notices on nuclear-grade programmes drive immediate hiring for temporary works coordinators, construction safety engineers and investigation specialists, and candidate demand in this area rarely softens. Engineers with incident investigation and root cause analysis backgrounds should get in touch.
JustEng is a specialist engineering recruitment agency headhunting forensic engineers, expert witnesses and disputes professionals across the UK and internationally. Building a disputes team? Register your vacancy and we will map the market for you. Looking for your next role? See our forensic engineering recruitment page or submit your CV.