CH 0+000 · Independent trenchless advisory
Most trenchless money is lost before the machine turns.
Independent review of ground risk, method selection and drive feasibility — for contractors and asset owners delivering microtunnelling, pipe jacking and TBM schemes. Director-level judgement, brought in before the price is committed.
CH 0+120 · Why drives fail
The ground doesn't negotiate.
A stalled drive on a 400m scheme routinely costs between £800k and £2m in recovery, delay and disruption — and in almost every case the conditions that caused it were visible in the ground investigation months earlier. The failure is rarely technical ignorance. It's that nobody with both the engineering judgement and the commercial authority read the data before the price was fixed.
Method chosen before ground understood
Machine selection committed at bid stage against an incomplete picture of face stability, abrasivity and mixed-ground transitions.
Jacking forces underestimated
Drive length, lubrication strategy and interjack provision priced on optimism rather than on the strata actually present.
Risk allocated to the wrong party
Ground condition risk buried in contract terms that leave the contractor carrying an exposure they never priced.
CH 0+240 · How I work
Three ways in.
Every engagement starts small and provable. Nobody signs a retainer with someone they haven't tested on a real drive first.
Entry / Diagnostic
Drive Risk Diagnostic
£1,500 + VAT
A focused opinion on one specific drive, delivered fast.
- 90-minute recorded technical call
- Review of GI data, alignment and outline method
- Four-page written opinion
- Go / no-go with the three risks that will bite
Most requested
Pre-Tender Drive Risk Review
£4,000 – £7,000 + VAT
Full desktop review before you commit a price.
- GI interpretation and ground behaviour assessment
- Machine selection validation
- Jacking force and drive-length modelling
- Interjack strategy, shaft and temporary works interface
- Risk register with priced contingency
- NEC risk-allocation commentary
Retained
Fractional Construction Director
£4,500 + VAT / month
Director-level governance without a director-level hire.
- Monthly project review and risk board
- NEC3/NEC4 commercial control
- Method and machine input at bid stage
- Mentoring for your PMs and engineers
- Six-month minimum term
CH 0+360 · Experience
Technical and commercial, in the same person.
Trenchless engineers who can read ground behaviour rarely hold commercial authority. Commercial managers who can run an NEC final account rarely understand why a drive stalls. Both skills sitting in one adviser is what turns an opinion into a decision you can price against.
Delivery record
- Trenchless methods
- Hard-rock TBM · slurry microtunnelling · EPB · AVN · auger boring · pipe jacking
- Rail
- Network Rail delivery, CRE-C technical assurance, possession planning frameworks
- Water & utilities
- Principal Contractor delivery, AMP framework schemes
- Commercial
- NEC3 & NEC4 — early warnings, compensation events, final account negotiation
- Coverage
- UK-based · remote-first · working worldwide
CH 0+480 · Payments
Pay for an engagement
Secure card payment via SumUp. Choose the engagement you've agreed, or use the deposit option if we've scoped something bespoke. You'll receive a receipt and a scoping questionnaire immediately after payment.
Drive Risk Diagnostic
£1,500 + VAT
One drive, reviewed and answered within five working days.
Pay £1,500 + VATPre-Tender Review — deposit
£2,000 + VAT
50% deposit against an agreed review scope. Balance on delivery.
Pay depositRetainer — monthly
£4,500 + VAT
Fractional director retainer, one month. Six-month minimum term agreed in writing before the first payment.
Pay retainerAll fees are quoted exclusive of VAT. VAT is charged at 20% by James Ferrans Wallace Ltd (VAT No. GB 467 3959 36); the amount shown at checkout is the total payable including VAT. A VAT invoice is issued for every payment.
Payments are processed by SumUp. Card details are never held by Valhalla Trenchless. All engagements are contracted with James Ferrans Wallace Ltd and are subject to written terms of business, including scope, liability cap and professional indemnity provisions, issued before work commences.
CH 0+600 · Contact
Send me the drive.
Alignment, ground investigation and outline method — that's usually enough for me to tell you within a call whether there's a problem worth paying to look at properly. No charge for that first conversation.
- James.valhallatrenchless@outlook.com
- Phone
- 07479 497603
- Book a call
- tidycal.com/jamesvalhallatrenchless
- linkedin.com/in/james-wallace-145131113