The subcontractor fell from height at the site near Victoria station at around 4pm on Saturday afternoon. A Land Securities spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that there was an incident at our Nova Victoria site on Saturday. “A subcontractor was involved in a fall at the site and sustained multiple injuries. He is currently in a stable, but critical condition in hospital. We are fully co-operating with all the relevant authorities.” Mace referred Construction News’ enquiries to Land Securities. Both parties refused to provide further detail on the extent of the man’s injuries. The man was taken to a major trauma centre following the incident, after being attended to by London’s air ambulance, ambulance and joint response units. Great team work earlier today with @LAS_HART @LDNairamb a patient fell from height. Taken to a Major Trauma Centre. pic.twitter.com/2lvg7oPvco — Joint Response Units (@LAS_JRU) 16 April 2016 The Metropolitan Police and the Health and Safety Executive both confirmed they were investigating the incident. Mace started work on site in June 2013. The £380m project is due to complete in September. Source link

According to Savills research,  international investors have acquired over £2.19 billion of commercial property in Central London in the last three months (July to  end of September 2016), accounting for 78% of the total transaction volume (£2.813 billion). Over £695 million of Asian capital has been deployed in the city since June, with Hong Kong investors being particularly active, while US money accounted for £685 million worth of transactions. European investors have acquired £482 million of commercial property in Central London in Q3 2016.  Rasheed Hassan, head of the cross-border investment team at Savills, says: “From a  medium to long-term investor viewpoint,  London looks attractive, accentuated by the sterling devaluation and some price discounts meaning entry prices appear 15-20% cheaper than three months ago. This has created a perception of opportunity that has placed Central London in the global investor spotlight and, as a result, international investors have been notably active with a weight of money chasing, in particular, core assets with stable income.” Adding to this argument,  Savills suggests that while prime yields across the major European centres appear to have converged either side of 4%, there is a significant difference when comparing one city to the next. On a like-for-like basis, the firm’s research shows prime yields in Paris and some of the major German cities are closer to mid-to-low 3%’s, as opposed to London’s benchmark of nearer 4%. With Central London’s office market in balance between development supply and occupier demand, Savills says this level of international appetite is set to continue.  Stephen Down, head of Central London investment at Savills, comments: “What has changed for London’s commercial investment market apart from the UK’s decision to leave the EU? Whether we take a soft or hard exit, our time zone, currency, landlord friendly leasing structures, English language and market transparency continue to exist. We must be realistic of course but with prime commercial investment yields ranging between 3%-6%, the asset class compares very well against bond yields even in ‘emerging markets’, where the range is 2%-6%, and the recent interest-rate reduction and Bank of England intervention has made the arbitrage even more attractive, with debt rates at some of their lowest-ever levels.” Source link

RIBA Future Trends survey, June 2016 Decline in future workload expectations but remaining in positive territory Full impact of Brexit on architects’ workloads and staffing as yet unknown The RIBA Future Trends Survey for June 2016 revealed a drop in the workload index (balance figure falling to +22, down from +30 in May). This moderate fall seems to have been driven at least partly by uncertainty around the outcome of the UK referendum on EU membership. Despite this, all nations and regions of the UK returned positive balance figures, with the North of England remaining the most optimistic. Large practices remained more confident about future workloads than either small or medium-sized practices. The private housing sector and commercial sector forecasts fell (standing at +19 and +11 respectively). Meanwhile, the public sector forecast (+3) and community sector forecast (-3) changed little. The RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index for June 2016 increased slightly to +14 (up from +11 in May). Medium-sized practices were most optimistic about increasing staff levels, with a balance figure of +50, compared with +36 for large practices and +8 for small practices. RIBA Executive Director Members Adrian Dobson said: “The survey for June was carried out in the period immediately before the EU referendum. Many reported trepidation about the uncertainty surrounding the referendum and the potential impact on future workloads. However, few reported any direct impact on the level of new orders at the time of the survey. “It is only in the coming months that we can get an idea of any referendum effect on workloads and employment levels for architects.” ENDS Notes to editors: 1. For further press information contact Callum Reilly in the RIBA press office: callum.reilly@riba.org 020 7307 3757 2. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a global professional membership body that serves its members and society in order to deliver better buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment. Architecture.com Follow @RIBA on Twitter for regular updates www.twitter.com/RIBA 3. Completed by a mix of small, medium and large firms based on a geographically representative sample, the RIBA Future Trends Survey was launched in January 2009 to monitor business and employment trends affecting the architects’ profession. 4. The Future Trends Survey is carried out by the RIBA in partnership with the Fees Bureau. Results of the survey, including a full graphical analysis, are published each month at: http://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Professionalsupport/FutureTrendsSurvey.aspx 5. To participate in the RIBA Future Trends Survey, please contact the RIBA Practice Department on 020 7307 3749 or email practice@riba.org. The survey takes approximately five minutes to complete each month, and all returns are independently processed in strict confidence 6. The definition for the workload balance figure is the difference between those expecting more work and those expecting less. A negative figure means more respondents expect less work than those expecting more work. This figure is used to represent the RIBA Future Trends Workload Index, which for June was +22 7. The definition for the staffing balance figure is the difference between those expecting to employ more permanent staff in the next three months and those expecting to employ fewer. A negative figure means more respondents expect to employ fewer permanent staff. This figure is used to represent the RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index, which for June was +14 8. The RIBA’s initial reaction and summary of the key implications and actions following the Brexit vote is available here: https://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Aboutus/Whoweare/BrexitBriefing.aspx   Posted on Tuesday 26th July 2016 Source link

©Bloomberg When energy innovations catch public attention, they generally involve alternatives to fossil fuels: a wind turbine blade that is 290 feet long, or a station that can recharge an electric car in 30 minutes. While there are impressive advances being made in renewable energy, reflected in the plunging costs of solar and wind power, there is also impressive progress in some of the processes for the extraction and use of fossil fuels. More On this story On this topic IN Modern Energy The economic impact of refinements in the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which made it possible to produce gas and then oil from shale reserves at commercially viable rates in the US and beyond, were arguably the most significant innovation of the past decade in any industry, not just energy. And even as US shale producers have struggled to stay financially afloat following the slump in oil prices, they have cut their costs by 30-40 per cent just in the past two years, according to Wood Mackenzie, the research company. Some of that cost reduction is likely to prove only temporary, because it comes from production companies driving down the rates they pay their contractors. The precipitous decline in oil and gas drilling activity in the US, with the number of active rigs dropping by 77 per cent since October 2014, has made it possible for operators to cut contractors’ margins to the bone, but that will not be true forever. Some of the cost savings, however, have been the result of genuine improvements in efficiency rather than the short-term financial distress of suppliers, such as cutting the number of days needed to drill a well. The first rigs that have been taken out of service were the older, less efficient ones, and the newer generations that are still running are typically faster and cheaper to run. Schramm, a rig manufacturer based in Pennsylvania, says its latest rigs are “highly mobile”, reducing the time needed to set them up and take them down between jobs and offering new ways to run drilling operations. “It’s a manufacturing approach,” says Mike Dynan, Schramm’s vice-president of strategy. “You want the most efficient tool for the job, and you don’t need to be using the most expensive rig to drill the whole well bore.” Smaller and cheaper rigs can be used to drill the vertical part of a shale well, which is the easiest section, generally about 5,000-15,000 feet straight down. Then a more powerful and expensive rig can be brought in for the curve that takes the well round to the horizontal, and then out to the full lateral extent, which in the longest recent wells is almost 19,000 feet from the vertical section. Another emerging trend in shale production is the use of data analytics to refine production techniques. The oil and gas industry has always exploited the latest applications in information technology; it was pioneering work with computers to analyse geological data at the end of the 1960s that enabled the oil discoveries in Alaska, for example. Now cheap and robust sensors and wireless communications make it possible to collect a vast amount of data on everything from pressures, temperatures and vibration down a well to the condition of equipment. “It’s not just a bunch of guys out in the field any more,” Mr Dynan says. “Now there’s real data, and it allows us to maximise returns, in terms of production and for investors.” Bill Briggs, chief technology officer for Deloitte Consulting, says the oil and gas industry has “led the field for years and years”, in terms of its investment in data visualisation and analytics. But there is still plenty of room for improvement. One example is logistics: operators need to manage the complex movements of rigs, pumps, trucks and other equipment, as well as the sand and water used for hydraulic fracturing, to make sure they are all available to be used on a well at the right time. “The job isn’t fundamentally changing, but the way we do it is being reimagined,” Mr Briggs says. There is a parallel in the development of technologies used to cull energy from fossil fuels. Manufacturers of turbines for power generation, including General Electric and Siemens, fit them with thousands of sensors that enable their performance to be monitored and analysed to improve efficiency. GE recently launched new technologies for coal-fired power plants that include 10,000 sensors in each system. Ganesh Bell, chief digital officer at GE’s power equipment division, argues that making coal-fired plants more efficient is going to be an essential part of controlling greenhouse gas emissions. “Coal is the main source of power in the world, and it will be for some time, so we have to optimise it,” he says. “We believe that by 2030, something like 30 per cent of the world’s power will still come from coal.” Just using GE’s software to analyse a coal plant’s performance and run it better, he says, can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 3 per cent. Other technologies can raise the efficiency of a coal plant’s conversion of heat into electricity, which is typically about 33 per cent in the US today, to 49 per cent, reducing emissions by about 30 per cent. The falls in renewable energy costs have been so steep that, in many parts of the world, wind and solar power are now more cost-effective for countries adding electricity generation capacity than new coal or gas-fired plants. The continuing improvements in fossil fuel technologies, however, are a reminder that for renewables to keep on gaining market share, they will have to continue cutting costs to keep up. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link