Slocombe received the award at the BTS / Pipe Jacking Association joint meeting on June 18.
He started his tunnelling experience as a student apprentice mining engineer in Wales and later studied civil engineering at Loughborough University.
This was followed by five years at Kinnear Moodie and a year in design house Mott MacDonald to gain his chartership. There he worked on the initial plans for Dublin Metro.
Slocombe then took a site agent role with Mowlem Tunnelling and later Blisworth canal tunnel and Carsington Aqueduct, where he made his mark.
At Blisworth, in co-operation with Colin Mackenzie, he introduced timber dowels in the circumferential joint to secure segments together providing a safe and efficient way of assembling the rings.
“Anyone who knows Roy is aware he is immensely proud of this small but exquisitely simple change,” said Dickie Dexter of Herrenknecht, who presented the award.
The contract also required connections to be made into the original drainage headings. To avoid breaking out segments Slocombe designed special segments that incorporated ‘pixie holes’ that also avoided difficult work at height.
For Carsington, Slocombe designed the tunnel lining with hidden fixings between segments to produce a smooth bore, boltless lining, minimising the finishing works in the tunnel.
At CV Buchan, Slocombe helped VP Polymers design an extruded gasket section for 35m-diameter, 7.5-tonne segments – at the time the largest concrete segments produced in the UK.
“The original concept was for the shaft to be sealed by caulking the joints between the segments in what was then the conventional way. This change avoided a lot of manual work at height,” said Dexter.
When Mowlem withdrew from tunnelling, Slocombe formed the tunnelling plant hire and fabrication company Specialist Plant Associates with ex-Mowlem colleagues. The company, which is now part of the Joseph Gallagher Group, developed steel bulkhead systems that could be rapidly installed to pressurise a tunnel.
In 1999 Slocombe became UK managing of Herrenknecht – a position he held until 2017.
Since 1994, Slocombe has been a BTS committee member, serving on the compressed air committee and as chairman on the compressed air working group.
Dexter said it was appropriate for the medal to be awarded at the BTS/ Pipe Jacking Association joint meeting because Slocombe had helped forge the link between the two organisations when he was on the BTS committee and PJA chair.
