Mott, Hay and Anderson (MHA) was a successful 20th century firm of consulting civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with Sir M MacDonald & Partners to form Mott MacDonald.
History
Early years
The company was founded as a private partnership between Basil Mott and David Hay on 30 July 1902. Prior to forming the partnership both had spent time building London tube railways and Hay had worked on the Blackwall Tunnel, so it was no surprise that they concentrated on heavy civil engineering projects such as bridges, tunnels, railways and docks. Early projects included the reconstruction and extension of the City & South London Railway, the building and extension of the Central London Railway, the construction of lifts beneath St Mary Woolnoth church at Bank Underground station, the underpinning of Clifford's Tower, the reconstruction of Southwark Bridge and the widening of Blackfriars Bridge. Mott and Hay employed a young engineer called David Anderson as resident engineer for the latter project.
The firm also advised on proposals for underground railways in Sydney, Africa and Russia. David Anderson was made a partner in 1920 after returning from army service. The firm was thereafter known as Mott, Hay and Anderson (MHA).
During the 1920s, MHA designed the rolling bridge over the river Dee at Queensferry, the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland and the Trent Bridge in Nottingham. They also designed the enlargement of the City & South London Railway tunnels and their extension past Camden Town and Clapham South to form the Northern line of London Underground.
In 1920, Basil Mott joined forces with Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice and John Brodie to advise on the best way to build a new crossing of the river Mersey in Liverpool. In 1922 a tunnel was recommended. Mott, Hay and Anderson subsequently designed the works and supervised the construction of the tunnel. The tunnel, named Queensway was opened in July 1934.
In the 1930s, the firm designed the first bolted concrete tunnel linings, for the London Passenger Transport Board. The new tunnel linings were used on the Ilford extension of the Central line between Redbridge and Newbury Park. MHA designed a road tunnel at Dartford and supervised the construction of its pilot tunnel beneath the Thames, but preparations for construction of the full-size tunnel were stopped in 1931 due to economic difficulties. G L Groves became a partner in 1933, but it was decided to leave the name of the company unchanged.
In 1935, David Anderson attended the opening ceremony of the Moscow Metro, which the firm had provided advice to as far back as 1912. Other works in this period included Lots Road power station and construction of escalator tunnels in London Underground stations.
Both founding partners died in 1938.
Normal construction work mostly stopped in September 1939, and during the wartime years MHA acted as engineer for the construction of five of the ten London deep-level shelters, for the construction of armaments factories and for the repair of bomb damage on various British bridges, tunnels and docks. MHA also oversaw the conversion of the unfinished Central line tunnels to aircraft components factories.
After World War II
In the late 1940s, MHA designed road, pedestrian and cycle tunnels under the River Tyne (Tyne Tunnel) though the road tunnel was not built until the 1960s. Further commissions for road tunnels were received for the revitalised Dartford tunnel in 1956, Mersey Kingsway tunnel in 1966, Blackwall southbound tunnel in 1967, second Dartford tunnel in 1972, and the Hatfield, Bell Common, Holmesdale and Penmaenbach tunnels in the 1980s. In all, MHA were involved in the construction of all but five of the UK's longest road tunnels (the exceptions being the Heathrow Cargo Tunnel, Heathrow Main Tunnel, Clyde Tunnel, Limehouse Link tunnel and Rotherhithe Tunnel).
In the same period, MHA worked with Freeman Fox & Partners to design the Forth Road Bridge and the Severn Bridge. Other bridge commissions in this period include the Tamar Bridge located next to Brunel's 1859 Royal Albert Bridge, the Kuala Lepar bridge across the Pahang River in Malaysia and the new London Bridge (including the removal of Rennie's 1831 bridge and its reconstruction in Arizona).