Fusion Building Systems has completed its works on three residential housing projects in the south of England for Barratt Developments. St Mary’s Place, Felpham, West Sussex; New Quarter, Bordon, Surrey; and Cane Hill Park, Couldson, Surrey, are the first schemes to be delivered by the offsite manufacturer since it successfully
The contractors chosen to deliver work as part of the new £500 million Medium Schemes Framework (MSF3) have been revealed by The Midlands Highway Alliance (MHA). Balfour Beatty, Eurovia, Galliford Try and Morgan Sindall have all secured a space on the programme, which will cover highways improvements, maintenance and infrastructure
Plans to give local firms a chance to secure work on a £500 million housing programme have been revealed by Liverpool City Council. Foundations, a new ethical housing company established by Mayor Joe Anderson, aims to create 10,000 new homes and refurbish dilapidated housing stock in Liverpool. “Foundations has the
Garbe Industrial Real Estate GmbH, together with the Aachen-based logistics company Hammer GmbH & Co. KG and numerous guests from politics and business celebrated the roofing ceremony for the new logistics centre in Eschweiler, Germany. The new facility, which is being built on a 186,000-square-metre site in the intermunicipal business
Fusion Building Systems has completed its works on three residential housing projects in the south of England for Barratt Developments. St Mary’s Place, Felpham, West Sussex; New Quarter, Bordon, Surrey; and Cane Hill Park, Couldson, Surrey, are the first schemes to be delivered by the offsite manufacturer since it successfully completed a trial project for Barratt in Angmering, Southampton in 2017. Across the three sites, working on almost 200 units, Fusion adapted existing Barratt house types as well as developing bespoke multi-storey designs, to make them suitable for use with its light gauge steel panelised system. The work was completed on each site over the past 12 months, but was the result of almost three years of intense integration and education at all levels across both companies, exploring how offsite systems could be used as a viable alternative to traditional methods of construction. “Our system was proven to work on a small number of houses for Barratt’s trial 18 months ago, so it’s exciting now for us to see how we can scale up to deliver a much larger number of units,” said Robert Clark, Fusion Head of Business Development. The light gauge steel superstructures for each development were designed, engineered and manufactured at Fusion’s factory in Northampton – with its patented, pre-insulated panels being transported to site, ready for immediate installation. The three sites were very different in their requirements however, from two, three and four-bedroom standard house types, to non-standard designs with challenging ground conditions and four-storey apartment buildings. Robert continued: “Each site put our design and engineering teams to the test with the successful delivery of each, from concept through to installation on site, reliant on effective collaboration and communication throughout the supply chain. The early phases on site once again presented a learning curve for each company, but as each development progressed, all parties worked well together and were ultimately convinced offsite was the future for volume housebuilding.” Oliver Novakovic, Technical and Innovation Director, Barratt Developments, added: “Fusion has now successfully delivered full scale pilots on three sites with our Southampton and Southern Counties divisions. We have seen a real improvement in speed as predicted and are now continuing to work closely with the Fusion team to roll this technology out further. We believe the work we have done over the last two years on things like standard details and the construction approach really supports the application of the Fusion system into our private housing market.” The new homes at each development are now being marketed to private and social housing customers. For further information visit www.fusionbuild.com or www.barratthomes.co.uk
The contractors chosen to deliver work as part of the new £500 million Medium Schemes Framework (MSF3) have been revealed by The Midlands Highway Alliance (MHA). Balfour Beatty, Eurovia, Galliford Try and Morgan Sindall have all secured a space on the programme, which will cover highways improvements, maintenance and infrastructure works for the next four years. “We received high quality submissions from all the contractors, which, together with increased levels of investment by local authorities, will drive further successful delivery of infrastructure projects across the region,” commented Mark Kemp, Chair of MSF3 Steering Group. Replacing the Midlands Highways Alliance’s MSF2 framework, which ran for four years to June 2018, and is available to 21 member authorities in and around the Midlands including Leicestershire County Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, The MSF3 framework is expected to exceed the £200 million of works delivered through the previous framework as regional investment in infrastructure is programmed to significantly increase. “With regional investment in infrastructure set to increase over the coming years, it is a great privilege to be appointed to the MSF3 framework,” said Thomas Edgcumbe, Balfour Beatty Managing Director for its North and Midlands regional business. “Following a successful partnership on the Midlands Highway Alliance’s MSF2 framework, we are looking forward to continuing this momentum and delivering further transport infrastructure in the Midlands for our customers and communities alike,” Thomas added.
Plans to give local firms a chance to secure work on a £500 million housing programme have been revealed by Liverpool City Council. Foundations, a new ethical housing company established by Mayor Joe Anderson, aims to create 10,000 new homes and refurbish dilapidated housing stock in Liverpool. “Foundations has the potential to be absolutely transformational in so many ways, such as by creating the right housing mix that the city needs and generating new council tax income which we can reinvest in services,” said Mayor Joe Anderson. “But crucially it is also vital that as part of the construction programme that we give as many local businesses as possible the chance to bid for work from Foundations. We’ve already got a good track record of doing that with our schools investment programme, with 74% of the spending going to Merseyside firms helping create 2,000 jobs and 200 apprenticeships – and we want to replicate that with Foundations,” he continued. The project aims to rebalance the city’s social housing stock, revolutionise the rent to buy sector and drive up council tax receipts for the council. Designed specifically for Liverpool- and Merseyside-based businesses, the framework will enable businesses to pitch for work as part of the derelict refurbishment and new build programmes. “The sheer scale of the work that Foundations will be doing over the next few years offers a tremendous opportunity to local firms, ranging from the supply of materials or fitting out properties,” commented Chair of Foundations, Frank Hont. “The procurement framework aims to recycle as much of the spending as possible locally through the city region economy, into the coffers of local businesses and ultimately the pockets of local workers, benefiting households across the city region. It is an example of how the work that Foundations will be doing will have far reaching benefits that stretches far beyond just building new homes,” Frank Hont added.
Garbe Industrial Real Estate GmbH, together with the Aachen-based logistics company Hammer GmbH & Co. KG and numerous guests from politics and business celebrated the roofing ceremony for the new logistics centre in Eschweiler, Germany. The new facility, which is being built on a 186,000-square-metre site in the intermunicipal business park of Inden/Weisweiler “Am Grachtweg,” is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The facility will be home to a logistics property almost 94,000 square metres in size, which will provide 105,000 square metres of floor space, including an additional mezzanine, offices, and social rooms. A total of around 60 million euros have been invested in the project and it will be occupied by Hammer. “As a multi-user location, the logistics centre Eschweiler is unique in the region and an important building block for further growth for us,” said managing director Wolfgang “Tim” Hammer. Moreover, in order to succeed in integrating new businesses, Hammer is also investing in the technical equipment of the logistics centre, in which an automated small parts storage system will speed up the flow of goods. Among the long-standing customers for whom Hammer performs comprehensive storage and logistics services in Eschweiler is QCG Computer GmbH, a company that assembles and tests complete systems for large data centre operators. “In close coordination with all those involved in the logistics centre, we have integrated a 10,000-square-metre production hall for QCG for server assembly,” explained Christopher Garbe. The 217-metre-wide and 385-metre-long logistics property with 80 gates will be equipped for trouble-free loading and unloading of trucks. The design of the exterior area includes 25 parking spaces for trucks and 200 for cars. An additional advantage is the central location in the Rhineland with excellent connections to transport infrastructure. The location in the intermunicipal business park offers direct access to the A 4; distance to the A 44 motorway is only 12 kilometres, and the economic regions of Aachen and Cologne are also only 24 and 40 kilometres away, respectively. “In addition, the close proximity allows for a close exchange with Aachen University, good cooperation with local partners, and last but not least, the opportunity to meet the latest ecological standards with the new building,” said Hammer’s managing director, emphasizing these further advantages.