Weekly quiz: Germany’s construction ‘turbo’ | Google megaproject | HS2 milestone

1) The UK’s Sellafield nuclear site has awarded £2.9bn in long-term infrastructure contracts to three major firms. What is the primary purpose of the new Infrastructure Delivery Partnership (IDP) established under these contracts?

• To deliver and maintain essential infrastructure and support services such as utilities, transport, and security at Sellafield
• To construct new nuclear reactors and expand Sellafield’s power generation capacity
• To manage nuclear waste disposal and oversee reactor decommissioning directly on behalf of the UK government

2) Balfour Beatty Vinci recently completed the final major tunnel excavation on the HS2 route into Birmingham. What did this milestone signify for the overall HS2 tunnelling programme between London and Birmingham?

• The completion of all deep-bore tunnelling on the route, marking the end of excavation works between Old Oak Common and Curzon Street
• The start of the tunnelling phase beneath the M6 and River Tame
• The first use of tunnel boring machines on the HS2 project

3) Germany has recently approved a law known as the “Bau-Turbo” to accelerate housing development. Which of the following describes a key change introduced by this legislation?

• It automatically grants full building permits to all new residential projects, bypassing municipal consent
• It allows municipalities to permit deviations from existing planning rules for residential construction and sets a target approval period of approximately three months
• It mandates uniform national design standards for all residential buildings

4) Google has announced a $15 billion investment to build a new AI hub in India. What will the site in Visakhapatnam primarily include?

• A manufacturing plant for Google hardware and mobile devices
• A regional headquarters focused on advertising and cloud sales operations
• A large-scale data centre campus with new energy sources and subsea cable connections

5) Germany’s Bernard Vogt was recently crowned Europe’s best construction equipment operator at Volvo CE’s 2025 Operators Club Final in Sweden. What was notable about this year’s competition?

• It featured the first participation of graduates from Volvo’s Iron Women training programme for female operators
• It introduced a new electric vehicle category exclusively for wheel loaders
• It was held outside Europe for the first time in the competition’s history

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