The consortium saw off challenges from WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff and Ramboll and a JV between Bechtel, Jacobs and Idom Merebrook for the 10-year £300m contract. Staff from the three firms will be integrated into the HS2 team to manage the design and construction of the line from London to Birmingham. They will also assist HS2 with the procurement of the £11.8bn of civils packages. The JV will oversee the procurement for station work and provide technical and design assistance for the various schemes of work. The decision comes as tendering for the civils packages heats up, with nine JVs expected to bid for the seven work packages. The deadline for PQQs passed last November with shortlisted firms set to be announced later this year. Seven of the nine firms are also bidding for three enabling works packages worth a total of £900m. Last month Construction News revealed the design partners for six of the seven JVs.  Construction is expected to begin in 2017 after the HS2 hybrid bill is granted royal assent later this year. Full list of HS2 contractors bidding for civils Acciona / Sisk / Lagan Construction Group Balfour Beatty / Vinci Bouygues / Volker / Sir Robert McAlpine Carillion / Kier / Eiffage Costain / Skanska / Strabag Dragados / Hochtief / Galiford Try FCC Construcción / Murphy / Laing O’Rourke Ferrovial / Bam Nuttall / Morgan Sindall Fluor / Sacyr HS2 managing director for construction Jim Crawford said: “Today’s contract award marks an important milestone as we continue to move towards the start of construction in 2017. “It is vital that we constantly challenge our suppliers to ensure we deliver long-term value for money for the taxpayer as well as a world-class railway for all our passengers, stakeholders and communities along the line.” “That’s why I’m pleased to welcome Atkins/CH2M/Sener to the team, and look forward to seeing HS2 benefiting from their considerable skills and experience of delivering world-class infrastructure on time and on budget.” Transport Minister Robert Goodwill said: “The Engineering Delivery Partner will play a key role in bringing HS2 to fruition and Atkins/CH2M/Sener bring clear expertise. “Today’s announcement means we are one step closer to getting spades in the ground next year for this transformational project.” Source link

BES 6001 marks Kawneer as the world’s first manufacturer of aluminium architectural products. Leading UK manufacturer Kawneer has become the first supplier of architectural aluminium products in the world to achieve BES 6001, the framework standard for the responsible sourcing of construction products. So ground breaking was this accreditation that the governing body, BRE Global, had to create a category especially for the product group. Kawneer’s overall assessment of “Good” (certificate number BES 650797) for the sales, design, manufacture and supply of aluminium architectural products was carried out by the BSI and now sets the benchmark for others. The scheme provides manufacturers with a means by which their products can be independently assessed and certified as being responsibly sourced.  The scheme is recognised by the BREEAM family of certification schemes where credits can be awarded for construction products independently certified through BES 6001. Specifiers benefit from using accredited manufacturers by securing additional BREEAM credits for their buildings, reducing risk down the supply chain and demonstrating corporate reputation and leadership. Kawneer’s assessment covered three areas – organisational management, supply chain management and environmental and social issues. Organisational management covered the company’s responsible sourcing policy, legal compliance, and quality management and supplier management systems. Supply chain management covered material traceability, environmental management systems (its top mark) and Health and Safety management systems. It also scored particularly highly under environmental and social issues, specifically on greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and life cycle assessment but as well as energy management, waste prevention and management, water abstraction, eco-toxicity, transport impacts, employment and skills, local community engagement and business ethics. Examples of how Kawneer achieved accreditation include a focused site-wide team which has reduced average power consumption by 26.38%, gas consumption by 33% and water intensity usage by 83.77% since 2008. In addition, in production the Runcorn-based company uses recycled aluminium billets 100% of the time and all of the production waste is recycled back to a smelter to be re-used. Then by having extrusion, paint and thermal break rolling all under one roof, the number of miles products travel in the supply chain is minimised. Dr Shamir Ghumra, director, Centre for Sustainable Products, BRE, said: “Kawneer is the first aluminium company in the world to achieve certification to the BRE BES 6001 Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing. “The successful audit by BSI and listing on GreenBookLive means that customers of Kawneer can now have even more confidence with the aluminium products sourced from the company. BES 6001 is recognised in the leading sustainability rating schemes for buildings (BREEAM) and infrastructure (CEEQUAL) which will give designers more reasons to specify Kawneer products.” Alaister Downie, Kawneer’s environmental health and safety manager at Runcorn, said: “We were being asked by our customers if we were approved so we decided to go for accreditation and were delighted to find we were the first aluminium products company to achieve this standard. “At Kawneer UK we are conscious of the impacts that our products and their manufacture have on not just our local environment but also globally. I think the accreditation to BES 6001 shows that we as a business are working in an ethical manner and committed to reducing these impacts through responsible sourcing and efficient resource use.” ENDS Source link

According to Savills latest Regional Office Market Spotlight, office take-up across the UK hit 4.4 million sq ft (408,773 sq m) in the first half of 2016, 11% above the long term first half average of 4 million sq ft (371,612 sq m), despite ongoing market uncertainty. Savills predicts that regional take-up will reach 10.5 million sq ft (975,481 sq m) by the end of the year which, whilst 3% down on 2015, is still 15% above the long term average of 9.1 million sq ft (845,642 sq m). Bristol and Glasgow, in particular, are both expected to considerably outperform 2015 take-up levels by 63% and 31% respectively. UK-wide take-up of Grade A space has also increased by 3.4% to 1.2 million sq ft (111,483 sq m) in the first half of the 2016, in comparison to the same period last year. Jon Gardiner, national head of office agency at Savills, comments: “Whilst we do expect to see lower levels of leasing activity heading into 2017 as businesses take stock following Britain’s vote to leave the EU, we believe that this is likely to be less impactful in comparison to the levels seen in 2008/9 during the global financial crisis.” Rental growth is also set to continue on an upward trajectory in the majority of key regional cities this year. Savills research shows that Cardiff and Birmingham are set to see the biggest year-on-year increase in 2016 at 9% and 8% respectively. This is due to good quality office product and new developments commanding higher rents. Clare Bailey, associate director of research at Savills, adds: “As London is unlikely to see a significant rental decline, the price differential story will remain the same. Cost issues have been a major contributor to businesses moving away from the central London office market  over the past few years and for this reason we will continue to see companies moving their middle and back office functions to both the Greater London and outer M25 office markets as well as to other regional cities. North-shoring, in particular, will remain a theme over the medium term, as businesses seek to control costs in this more uncertain world.” Furthermore, availability in the UK regions is at its lowest level on record, standing at 11.1 million sq ft (1.031 million sq m). Savills notes that whilst currently 3.3 million sq ft (306,580 sq m) of space is due to complete in the next three years, this is not a significant amount. Average Grade A take-up in the key regional cities is 1.5 million sq ft (139,354 sq m), resulting in just over two years of supply. On top of this, 35% of this is already pre-let, and in Manchester (up to 2018) this is as high as 51% and in Leeds 40%, which demonstrates continued strong occupier demand. Jon Gardiner adds: “Regional office markets will be more ‘cushioned’ than London, as they are less reliant on inward investment and instead are more dependent on local economic dynamics. This notwithstanding, they will be huge beneficiaries of the Government’s hub programme, which is set to produce the largest and most high profile leasing deals across the core regional cities in 2016-2017” Despite pre-referendum concerns, Savills states that the M25 and regional office investment volumes remained strong to the end of July 2016, reaching £3.7 billion, 37% above the long term average for this period. Bristol, Edinburgh and Manchester have all seen higher investment levels this year in comparison to  2015. Even post the EU referendum, there is evidence of significant deals still being transacted, for instance Deka Immobilien’s acquisition of One St Peter’s Square in Manchester from the joint venture between Argent and the Greater Manchester Property Venture for £164 million. Overseas investors have been key contributors to this increase, accounting for £2.2 billion of regional office investment to the end of July, compared to the long term average of £1.1 billion. Mark Porter, investment director at Savills, adds: “This is the highest proportion of overseas investment ever recorded in the UK regions and we believe that this trend could well continue as overseas investors look to take advantage of the weaker pound. Overall, appetite remained strong in the lead up to the referendum, which is reflected in the impressive transaction volumes we have seen in the first half of the year.” Source link