Obituary

Arthur Moss, Amos 1945 - 2013

Arthur Moss, known to everyone as Amos, and so well known in the British Tunnelling Society and in the UK Pipe Jacking Association, died on Wednesday, 22 May at his home in Somerset.

As a co-owner and Director of Delta Civil Engineering, Amos was a stalwart of the industry, leading the development of different techniques and better working practices in small bore hand mining and shield tunnelling, and in pipejacking and microtunnelling in the UK, and taking the message abroad via his untiring and dependable commitment as a member on international committees, associations and committees.

Arthur Moss
1945 - 2013

For more than 20 years, Amos worked as a founding member on the steering committee of the PJA (Pipe Jacking Association) and was a constant contributor to its Research & Development Committee. As a long-standing member of the BTS (British Tunnelling Society), he contributed extensively and importantly to the revision of the BS 6164 Code of practice for health and safety in tunnelling in the construction industry. He was also a regular volunteer lecturer on the many BTS sponsored training courses. Internationally, Amos was one of the longest serving members of the UK delegation on the CEN committee on establishing EU (European Union) regulatory standards for all types of machinery used on underground space and tunnelling construction.

His other consuming passion was for managing and working for the Delta construction company. With his colleagues, Mike Cole, Ian Forrest, Mike Lill and Jim Charlesworth, the construction company became a leading contractor in the small to medium diameter tunnelling to project category in the UK, pioneering new practices in the application of compressed air along the full length of the tunnel heading, often with the airlock installed at the top of the access shaft, and in the application of pipejacking and remotely controlled microtunnelling methods and support systems.

A man of big stature with a sharp engineering mind to match, Amos had unlimited energy to work in the industry he loved. His career tracks through some of the most important improvements and advances in the industry, ranging from mechanical innovations in machine and equipment design, to improvements in best practice among the tunnelling crews on sites, and to the encouragement of new industry recruits by contributing to training courses and promoting tunnelling as a career choice at every opportunity.

TunnelTalk has a known Amos and the Delta company for many years. As well as being a guest on the yacht Aguila, (including memorably during Cowes Week), it was to a small diameter tunnelling project by Delta at Oxleas Woods in southeast England in 1982 that Editor, Shani Wallis made her fist tunnelling project visit and her first trip into a tunnel under construction. This followed another first to another Delta project for her first trip into a tunnel heading under a compressed air environment.

It was a tough blow for Amos when Delta ceased trading in early 2013. Despite a healthy order book for the immediate future, cash-flow issues forced closure and one of his main driving forces was taken away.

He will be missed by his many friends, his colleagues, his family and his dedicated and loving wife Jane.

The funeral service is scheduled for 11.30am, Friday 31 May at Taunton Crematorium. The family have requested that donations to be made to St Margaret's Hospice, Taunton.

References

BS 6164 Code of practice for health and safety in tunnelling in the construction industry - TunnelTalk, Books & Reports