Willmott Dixon has been appointed to refurbish a building that will house a multi-million pound Intelligent Energy System Demonstrator (IESD) project at University of Chester’s Thornton Science Park. Above: CGI of the refurbed Intelligent Energy System Demonstrator building The IESD, will be part of the Cheshire Science Corridor – an
Conferinvest, represented by Savills, has brought to market Dolce Chantilly in Chantilly, France. The hotel is held on a long leasehold with 64 years remaining. Best known for its 18-hole golf course and 21,530 sq ft (2,000 sq m) of conference facilities, the 4-star property offers 200 bedrooms and event space
HS2 is seeking a development partner to lead phase two of the project through the hybrid bill process, as well as consultants to design three of the main civils packages for the route north of Birmingham. The seven-and-a-half-year £170m development partner’s role mirrors that of the £70m phase one development
The chief executive of Denmark’s Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) has said that he is “crossing his fingers” for the UK to stay in the European Union after the referendum on 23rd June. Above: Anders Heine Jensen on Danish TV programme 21 Søndag In an interview with the Danish
A Bristol based manufacturer of concrete products has been fined after a worker’s arm was torn off when it was pulled into the rotating tail pulley of a conveyor belt. Bristol Crown Court heard the injured man was making adjustments to a misaligned conveyor belt at Concrete Fabrications Ltd plant
A pan-industry initiative is helping construction product manufacturers be ready for the government’s April 2016 BIM mandate. The Construction Products Association (CPA), the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), National Building Specification (NBS) and BIM4M2* have joined forces to provide product data parameters and templates to enable manufacturers to
Gas Safety Trust supports research into medical awareness of CO poisoning Published: 28 March, 2016 The Gas Safety Trust (GST) will continue to fund a survey being undertaken by the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS), which will help to gauge healthcare professionals’ awareness of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, following an
The UK economy is missing out on £10 billion each year because home owners are so fearful of hiring a cowboy builder, they simply don’t commission building work, according to new research by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). Key results from the FMB’s research into consumer confidence in the
Explore Offsite Outlooks, in partnership with BRE, will look into the latest innovations and understand which way is the best to implement the technological advancements into an offsite strategy. The one day conference and exhibition invites clients and their professional advisers, contractors and project managers and offsite technology suppliers to
Councils find sites for more than five times the number of homes predicted by Government An analysis of Brownfield Land Registers, published today (Monday, 12 February), confirms that there is enough space on brownfield land to build at least one million new homes, with more than two-thirds of these homes
Willmott Dixon has been appointed to refurbish a building that will house a multi-million pound Intelligent Energy System Demonstrator (IESD) project at University of Chester’s Thornton Science Park. Above: CGI of the refurbed Intelligent Energy System Demonstrator building The IESD, will be part of the Cheshire Science Corridor – an enterprise zone announced by the government last autumn and developed by Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership. Refurbishment and construction of the facility is being project managed by Aecom and includes input from architect Ryder, engineer Arup and WYG as quantity surveyor. The project is expected to be completed by March 2017, allowing tenants to take occupancy in June 2017. The refurbished building will provide offices and laboratory space for research and development into cost effective and benign sources of energy. Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership is contributing £6.8m to the project. This article was published on 22 Jul 2016 (last updated on 22 Jul 2016). Source link
Conferinvest, represented by Savills, has brought to market Dolce Chantilly in Chantilly, France. The hotel is held on a long leasehold with 64 years remaining. Best known for its 18-hole golf course and 21,530 sq ft (2,000 sq m) of conference facilities, the 4-star property offers 200 bedrooms and event space for up to 300 delegates. The hotel also features several restaurants and bars, a health club, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, two tennis courts and a beach volleyball court. Dolce Chantilly is located just 35 miles (57 kilometres) from Central Paris at the heart of Chantilly Forrest. Both Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Beauvais-Tillé Airport are within close proximity. The town of Chantilly, known globally for the handmade bobbin lace produced there, is also a thriving leisure destination with more than 500,000 visitors drawn to its castle, racecourse and the Living Museum of the Horse each year. Rob Mangan, hotels director at Savills, comments: “Dolce Chantilly has traded very well over the last 24 months and generated a total revenue of €13.5 million in 2015. The hotel offers several income streams plus the opportunity to increase long term income by driving occupancy levels even higher and enhancing the conference side of the business.” Source link
HS2 is seeking a development partner to lead phase two of the project through the hybrid bill process, as well as consultants to design three of the main civils packages for the route north of Birmingham. The seven-and-a-half-year £170m development partner’s role mirrors that of the £70m phase one development partner contract won by CH2M Hill in 2012. The successful bidder will join HS2’s in-house team to manage the progress of phase two’s hybrid bill application through parliament, with royal assent slated for 2022. Consultancy firms will also battle it out to design the three main phase two civils packages, covering the route from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester. The packages will be worth a total of £350m and last more than seven years. Bills will be asked to produce models, plans, drawings, sections, schedules, technical reports and construction cost estimates for each programme of works. The news comes a week after HS2 revealed the nine shortlisted firms for the £11.8bn civils work packages for phase one of the line. Shortlisted consortia include Laing O’Rourke/Murphy /FCC Construcción, Carillion/Kier /Eiffage, Bouygues/Volker/Sir Robert McAlpine, Dragados/Hochtief/Galliford Try and Costain/ Skanska/ Strabag. Ferrovial/Bam Nuttall/Morgan Sindall, Acciona/Sisk/Lagan Construction Group and a sole bid from Bechtel complete the shortlist for the packages worth a total of £11.8bn. Source link
The chief executive of Denmark’s Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) has said that he is “crossing his fingers” for the UK to stay in the European Union after the referendum on 23rd June. Above: Anders Heine Jensen on Danish TV programme 21 Søndag In an interview with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, BWSC chief executive Anders Heine Jensen said that if the UK leaves the European Union it could mean a reduction in business for his company. BWSC develops, builds, operates and owns high-performance biomass, biogas and diesel power plants. It currently has eight projects in the UK, including the recently completed straw-fuelled Brigg Renewable Energy Plant in Lincolnshire. Many of Britain’s biggest construction companies are in fact subsidiaries of mainland European companies, including Skanska, Amey (Ferrovial), Bouygues, BAM and Vinci. Between January 2015 and April 2016, the UK’s 10 biggest construction companies with EU headquarters outside of Britain, won a combined £7.3bn worth of construction contracts in the UK. Economist Michael Dall from construction intelligence firm Barbour ABI, said: “These 10 companies already have well established UK arms, however an EU referendum could bring about a change in the business environment, which may make these multi-national businesses potentially think about their future construction pipelines in the UK market. “If the referendum is in favour of Brexit, there could be possible ramifications for these 10 companies, alongside other EU based construction firms who work in the UK. It could also cause potential issues for big ticket projects such as HS2, who have EU based companies launching million pound bids to work on the development.” However, Graham Cash, chief executive of BAM in the UK, told the Financial Times back in March that he did not expect his company to be negatively impacted by a vote for Britain to leave the UK. “In our day to day life we’re a British company operating in a British market – so we’d just get on with it,” Mr Cash said. You can see the Danish television interview with BWSC chief executive Anders Heine Jensen here but unless you speak Danish you won’t necessarily understand it. This article was published on 14 Jun 2016 (last updated on 14 Jun 2016). Source link
A Bristol based manufacturer of concrete products has been fined after a worker’s arm was torn off when it was pulled into the rotating tail pulley of a conveyor belt. Bristol Crown Court heard the injured man was making adjustments to a misaligned conveyor belt at Concrete Fabrications Ltd plant in Henbury, Bristol on 18 May 2015. The court heard that to do this, the man who does not wish to be named, had to adjust tensioning rods which were located inside the machine’s guards, in close proximity to the conveyor belt and rotating tail pulley. The worker noticed that aggregate had built up on the tensioning rod and he tried to knock off the material with a hammer so he could use a spanner to adjust the rod. However, the hammer was dragged into the rotating machinery along with the employee’s arm which was severed between the shoulder and the elbow. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting told the court that Concrete Fabrications Ltd should have had adequate guards on dangerous parts of machinery. It said clear procedures should exist regarding maintenance and adjustments of machinery and arrangements should be in place to ensure that machinery is not run without the necessary guarding in place, and that clear isolation and lock off procedures exist. An unsafe system of work existed for the maintenance of machinery, in so much that the dangerous moving parts of the machine were exposed during maintenance operations. A sufficient risk assessment would have identified the risks associated with tracking conveyor belts, and identified appropriate control measures. Concrete Fabrications Ltd of Cole Road, St Phillips, Bristol, United Kingdom, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 with £7758 costs awarded to HSE. Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Matthew Tyler said: “Company’s need to ensure the risks associated with maintenance tasks are adequately assessed, and effectively controlled, through adequate guarding of dangerous parts of machinery, and the existence of clear robust procedures in respect of maintenance and adjustments of machinery, including isolation and lock off requirements. The consequences of not doing this are clear to see here today.” Notes to Editors The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk Journalists should approach HSE press office with any queries on regional press releases. Source link
A pan-industry initiative is helping construction product manufacturers be ready for the government’s April 2016 BIM mandate. The Construction Products Association (CPA), the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), National Building Specification (NBS) and BIM4M2* have joined forces to provide product data parameters and templates to enable manufacturers to get their product information ready for Level 2 building information modelling (BIM). The organisations have agreed to align their processes, approach and terminology to enable ‘consistent and transparent’ development of product data templates. The aim is to give manufacturers a common industry-wide standard for product data parameters and templates. By using these templates manufacturers will be able to supply product information in a form that aligns with the UK’s Level 2 BIM requirements. Each template defines the minimum information about a product that is required for UK government BIM projects. BIM Task Group chairman Mark Bew said: “When the BIM Task Group identified the client data requirements which are now provided in the BIM Toolkit, we were looking for other communities to work together to provide their own common data requirements. This initiative from the products and manufacturing sector signals an important collaboration from industry which will add significant value and clarity.” The initiative is expected to lead to the provision of higher quality project data that can be checked and validated by clients, designers and contractors. CPA deputy chief executive Peter Caplehorn said: “We are at a point where clarity and ease of use of product data is vital for everyone to make progress. We are very pleased to be part of the initiative and will be encouraging all manufacturers to take part.” The templates and common product data parameters will be made available on both the CPA and NBS BIM Toolkit websites as well as the CIBSE website. The current product data templates defining the minimum information for Level 2 BIM can be found at toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/pdts * BIM4M2 – BIM for Manufacturers and Manufacturing – is the manufacturers’ BIM working group. This article was published on 11 Dec 2015 (last updated on 11 Dec 2015). Source link
Gas Safety Trust supports research into medical awareness of CO poisoning Published: 28 March, 2016 The Gas Safety Trust (GST) will continue to fund a survey being undertaken by the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS), which will help to gauge healthcare professionals’ awareness of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, following an initial pilot project. A 2011 All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group (APPCOG) report highlighted the challenges faced by healthcare professionals in diagnosis and treatment. According to the Department of Health, over 200 people go to hospital with suspected CO poisoning every year in the UK. Around 40 people die from CO exposure every year, but the report said relatively little is known about its epidemiology. The NPIS Annual Report 2014/15 reported data from 479 telephone enquiries that related to CO exposure involving a total of 682 patients. This study uses the NPIS’s TOXBASE online resource and its 24-hour telephone advice service to gather information from users, which will be used to understand how diagnosis was made and if cases were confirmed. Data provided to the NPIS by a telephone caller will be collected and then a follow-up questionnaire sent to gain further data. At the same time, enquirers accessing the TOXBASE CO entry will be presented with a simple pop-up box asking whether they were seeing a patient with suspected CO poisoning and for a contact address. A questionnaire will then be sent to these healthcare professionals for additional information. The results of this exercise will be analysed, with the aim of improving how CO poisoning is diagnosed. GST chair Chris Bielby said: “The Gas Safety Trust remains concerned about the challenges for healthcare professionals in diagnosing CO poisoning, given that its symptoms mimic those of other common illnesses. We are hopeful that this study will improve our understanding and help identify better ways to help doctors recognise it when patients present themselves.” Aravindan Veiraiah, consultant clinical toxicologist with the NPIS, added: “The NPIS are excited to be working with the Gas Safety Trust to study the scale of CO poisoning in the UK. As a result of this project we are able to design the best online surveys to capture data from TOXBASE users about CO exposures, including in cases where the only reason for healthcare contact was that a CO alarm had been triggered at the patient’s home. This project has also made it possible for us to follow many more suspected CO exposures. It is expected that our learning about the circumstances of CO exposure, the severity of poisoning, and outcomes of any treatment will inform future measures to reduce harm from CO poisoning in the UK.” Source link
The UK economy is missing out on £10 billion each year because home owners are so fearful of hiring a cowboy builder, they simply don’t commission building work, according to new research by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). Key results from the FMB’s research into consumer confidence in the UK’s builders include: The UK economy is missing out on £10 billion of activity per year because of anxiety over cowboy builders; One third (32%) of home owners are put off doing major home improvement works requiring a builder because they fear hiring a dodgy builder; If all home owners had full confidence in the building industry, they would typically spend an average of £40,000 on major home improvement projects over the next five years. Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “A third of home owners are so anxious about the possibility of choosing a bad builder, they don’t commission any building work whatsoever. This means that the UK economy could be missing out on £10 billion of activity every year. Indeed, the FMB’s latest research shows that on average, your typical home owner would spend £40,000 on major home improvement projects over the next five years if they could be guaranteed a positive experience. If we were able to unlock this pent-up demand from fearful consumers, the benefit to jobs and growth would be enormous. Last year the UK experienced its slowest growth since 2012 with a rise in GDP of just 1.8 per cent. With Brexit just around the corner, it’s therefore vital that the Government pulls as many leavers as possible to turbo-charge the economy and protect it from any potential economic wobbles.” Berry concluded: “In the longer term, we need to end the cowboy builders’ reign of terror so we can give all home owners the confidence they need to invest their cash in building work. The Government should consider introducing some form of mandatory licensing system for domestic builders so that consumers know that all building firms have a base level of skill, competence and professionalism. Unlike in Australia and Canada, in this country anyone can be a builder and that’s why there is a significant minority of rogue traders out there giving the whole construction industry a bad name. We’re exploring mandatory licensing with industry and Government but in the meantime, our advice to home owners who are looking for a builder is to ask for a recommendation from family or friends. If they can’t help, consumers should approach a professional trade association like the Federation of Master Builders who can put them in touch with a vetted and inspected building firm.”
Explore Offsite Outlooks, in partnership with BRE, will look into the latest innovations and understand which way is the best to implement the technological advancements into an offsite strategy. The one day conference and exhibition invites clients and their professional advisers, contractors and project managers and offsite technology suppliers to network with industry experts and discuss the latest developments in digital construction for the offsite sector. BIM has been a debatable subject in recent years and whether driving greater collaboration across the disciplines of architecture, engineering, manufacturing and construction is the right approach, is still unknown. The construction industry has been slower than other industry when it comes to digital transformation and it needs to catch up. Last year, McAvoy was presented with the award for Best Virtual Reality BIM at the third annual RICS BIM4SME Awards, for the design and delivery of a two-storey primary school building for children with special educational needs at West Hill School for Surrey County Council. The new school will incorporate classrooms, teaching training areas, a food technology room, a library, and staffroom, and will connect two separate buildings on the site, with a height difference of 870mm. To offset the height difference in the existing buildings, McAvoy was able to incorporate a ramped gradient within the design, nullifying it. “We are absolutely thrilled that our industry-leading commitment and investment in BIM has been recognised in this way. McAvoy was the first offsite construction specialist to be accredited to BIM Level 2 – which was a major achievement. We are now working towards BIM Level 3 as we really value the efficiency benefits that the process and the latest virtual reality technology can bring to our customers and our offsite projects,” said Eugene Lynch, Managing Director at The McAvoy Group. This achievement and how they implemented the BIM will be discussed at the conference, hoping to inspire and help others to do the same.
Councils find sites for more than five times the number of homes predicted by Government An analysis of Brownfield Land Registers, published today (Monday, 12 February), confirms that there is enough space on brownfield land to build at least one million new homes, with more than two-thirds of these homes deliverable within the next five years. [1] Many of these sites are in areas with a high need for housing. This means that three of the next five years’ worth of Government housing targets could be met through building homes on brownfield land that has already been identified, easing pressures on councils to continue releasing greenfield land unnecessarily and preventing the unnecessary loss of countryside. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which carried out the analysis, found that the 17,656 sites identified by local planning authorities, covering over 31,133 hectares of land, would provide enough land for a minimum of 1,052,124 homes – this could rise to over 1.1 million once all registers are published, confirming CPRE’s previous estimates. Most brownfield land is within urban areas that already have infrastructure, and where there is a higher demand for housing. The areas of England identified as having the highest number of potential “deliverable” homes include London, the North West and the South East with the new registers giving minimum housing estimates of 267,859, 160,785 and 132,263 respectively. Rebecca Pullinger, Planning Campaigner at the Campaign to Protect Rural England said: “It’s fantastic news that local authorities have identified so many sites on brownfield land that are ready and waiting to be developed – and shown how wide of the mark the Government’s estimates of brownfield capacity have been. Contrary to what the Government, and other commentators have said, brownfield sites are also available in areas with high housing pressure. Indeed, our analysis is conservative with its estimates of potential number of homes that could be built – the figure could much higher if density is increased and if more registers looked at small sites. “The Government needs to get on with amending its guidance to make sure that councils identified all the available brownfield sites in their areas. They then need to improve incentives to build on these sites and ensure that they follow through on their commitment that all that new-builds should be on brownfield first.” The registers have found sites for well over 400,000 homes that have not yet come forward for planning permission despite the urgent need to move sites towards development. More than one third of these sites are on publicly owned land. As public authority developments should give a significant opportunity to provide affordable homes, this presents an opportunity for homes built on brownfield land to help towards local need. Further results from the analysis show that there is brownfield capacity wherever there is threat to the Green Belt. In a number of areas that have an extremely high number of sites in the Green Belt proposed for development, particularly in the North West, local authorities have identified enough suitable brownfield land to satisfy up to 12 years’ worth of housing need. In order to make best use of suitable brownfield land, CPRE calls on the Government to take the opportunity presented by the upcoming review of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to introduce a brownfield first approach to land release and granting planning permissions for development. Local authorities must be empowered to refuse planning permission for greenfield sites where there are suitable alternatives on brownfield land.
