Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has begun construction of its latest hotel development in Manchester at Rochdale Road to the north of the city centre. GMI Construction Group, which Whitbread appointed as principal contractor to the project in July 2024, will lead the
Last Energy, a US-based energy start-up, has announced ambitious plans to develop a £300 million micro-modular nuclear power plant scheme in South Wales. The project aims to deliver four innovative 20 MWe micro-modular nuclear units, generating a total of 80 MWe – enough to power approximately 244,000 homes annually. The
…New VDI environment avoids downtime worth £1.79 million, with staff costs totalling £35,000 saved using the ControlUp platform… ControlUp, at the forefront of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management, today announced that SimpsonHaugh Architects, a UK-based, award-winning and respected practice, is utilising the ControlUp DEX platform to monitor and optimise its
Croudace Homes has revealed ambitious growth plans over the next decade, with a target to more than double the turnover from its current £200m to £500m by 2033. The growth plans are spearheaded by Adrian Watts, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2023. Founded in 1946 by Jack
Environment Bank, the leading Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) provider, has announced the strategic expansion of its leadership team with the appointments of Jonathan Lydiard-Wilson as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Henry Burn as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). These key additions to the leadership team underscore the company’s commitment to driving
Caddick has appointed James Eastham as Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) in a role that will boost the business’ investment in safety, environmental performance and employee wellbeing. James joins Caddick from Sir Robert McAlpine where he headed up health, safety and wellbeing in the North for three
CIBSE is proud to announce that our President, Fiona Cousins, has been appointed as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. This prestigious recognition reflects Fiona’s exceptional contributions to the engineering sector and her commitment to the advancement of the built environment. Fiona’s remarkable journey began at Trinity Hall, where
Multi-disciplinary construction company Dowds Group swapped their offices and sites for a kitchen last month to cook up a storm and provide meals for a community in London. Dowds has partnered with Cook for Good, a non-profit organisation that works with companies to offer a combination of team building with
Panattoni, a leading global developer of industrial real estate, has successfully completed the Expo Real Charity Bike Ride 2024, cycling from Prague to the International Expo Real fair in Munich. This year’s ride aimed to support the Association of Parents and Friends of Blind and Visually Impaired Children in the
Geotechnical and geoenvironmental ground investigation services company Structural Soils will carry out site investigation work as part of a feasibility project supporting the Future Circular Collider study at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has a circumference of 27 km. The Future Circular Collider is
BDC 321 : Oct 2024
Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has begun construction of its latest hotel development in Manchester at Rochdale Road to the north of the city centre. GMI Construction Group, which Whitbread appointed as principal contractor to the project in July 2024, will lead the delivery of the 229-bedroom 10-storey Premier Inn. The company marked the start of construction with a ground-breaking event on-site. Whitbread acquired the consented Rochdale Road development site from Premcor in February 2024 as part of its ongoing strategy of investing in strategic locations where its hotel brands are under-represented. The hotel will feature Premier Inn’s very latest bedroom product, including its popular enhanced Premier Plus rooms, with a stylish integrated restaurant, bar, and reception space on the ground floor. Will Steward, Project and Programme Manager for Whitbread, said: “Manchester is a hot spot for Whitbread’s development team as we expand our hotel network in the places we want to grow. The Rochdale Road Premier Inn will bring our very best product to the north of the Northern Quarter – an area of the city where we are not heavily represented and where we know our customers want Premier Inn to be. “As an operating hotel business, our goal is to turn our development sites into popular hotels for our guests quickly. Since acquiring the Rochdale Road site in February, we have done an awful lot to enable the once stalled scheme to proceed including the appointment of GMI Construction as principal contractor in July. “With building work now underway, we are on our way to having a new location for our customers to enjoy in 2026, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to deliver the significant new opening.” Rochdale Road is the latest strategic investment by Whitbread in Manchester this calendar year. On 23rd September [2024] the company announced its intention to create the largest Premier Inn in the north of England at Manchester Airport with MIX MANCHESTER. In May, it announced the disposal of its Manchester City Centre (Deansgate Locks) hotel for redevelopment into alternative uses. When it opens its doors, the Premier Inn hotel at Rochdale Road will be one of Whitbread’s largest hotels in Manchester and adds to a portfolio of more than 20 locations across the city. Anthony Judge, Regional director for GMI Construction, said: “Following on from GMI and Whitbread’s collaboration in delivery of the nationally recognised and impressive Premier Inn development in Keswick, its brilliant to see our partnership go from strength to strength. This latest development in the iconic Northern Quarter of Manchester will be a striking new addition to the skyline with its remarkable brickwork façade. We are delighted to be a part of this major project and greatly look forward to progressing with this scheme.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Last Energy, a US-based energy start-up, has announced ambitious plans to develop a £300 million micro-modular nuclear power plant scheme in South Wales. The project aims to deliver four innovative 20 MWe micro-modular nuclear units, generating a total of 80 MWe – enough to power approximately 244,000 homes annually. The plants will be built in Bridgend County, on the former Llynfi Power Station site, with completion of the first unit expected by 2027, pending regulatory approvals. Last Energy’s cutting-edge technology promises a clean, reliable alternative to fossil fuels, marking a key step in the UK’s push for sustainable energy solutions. Boost for the Local Economy and Clean Energy Goals This project is not only a major development in the UK’s energy landscape but also a significant investment in the local economy. Around 100 full-time jobs will be created for the Bridgend community, with at least 10% of procurement sourced from local suppliers, injecting £30 million into the region. The micro-modular plants, known as PWR-20, are designed with advanced modular technology, allowing components to be pre-fabricated, transported, and assembled on-site in just 24 months – similar to assembling a “LEGO kit.” This approach ensures faster construction and lower costs, with the entire project funded privately, without public investment. A Strategic Step for UK Energy Security and Decarbonisation This initiative aligns with both UK and Welsh Government goals. By providing clean, reliable power to local manufacturers, it supports industrial decarbonisation and contributes to the Welsh Government’s 2030 net-zero targets. It also bolsters the UK government’s long-term strategy to expand nuclear capacity, enhancing energy security. With Last Energy’s investment, South Wales is set to play a pivotal role in the UK’s transition to a sustainable energy future. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
…New VDI environment avoids downtime worth £1.79 million, with staff costs totalling £35,000 saved using the ControlUp platform… ControlUp, at the forefront of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management, today announced that SimpsonHaugh Architects, a UK-based, award-winning and respected practice, is utilising the ControlUp DEX platform to monitor and optimise its new VDI environment in real-time. SimpsonHaugh is making a £1.21 million investment over several years to digitally transform by introducing VDI and AI technology to underpin the future development and operations of the business. Industry leading solutions have been installed including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop, Citrix NetScaler, VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Dell Servers with vSAN storage, NVIDIA vGPU and ControlUp’s DEX platform which is providing VDI performance analytics and remediation. Adopting VDI was driven by a strategic decision to centralise IT on-premise at SimpsonHaugh’s headquarters in Manchester, improve remote-working, support a work-life balance for staff and boost project collaboration by not being constrained by physical workstations. The IT team also wanted to avoid the complexity, time and expense of managing systems over three locations given the practice also has offices in London and Birmingham. Furthermore, many workstations – high end PCs each costing up to £6,500 – were becoming end of life, unreliable, consuming a lot of power and needed to be upgraded. The new VDI platform supports agile working yet is optimised to run GPU-intensive architectural applications like Revit, Rhino, Enscape and SketchUp – crucial to delivering customer projects on time, in what is an ever-demanding industry. “Architecture is a heavy user of graphics-based IT. Building Information Modelling is now adopted pervasively, producing large volumes of data and consuming substantial compute. Clients recognise the technology improvements so the expectations about the visuals and data provided are growing,” says Dave Moyes, partner, information and digital systems. “Ten years ago, we might have created 500 drawings for a project. Today, it’s at least double. Projects are increasingly complex and time scales are tight. The pressure to be quick and agile while creating quality design proposals which optimise a client’s brief is therefore considerable. It is no exaggeration to say that ICT to support this is indispensable.” SimpsonHaugh’s ICT strategy involves keeping technology simple for staff to use. The business is project delivery and ‘time charge’ based. ICT system availability is paramount given downtime has material impact on this. UK managed service provider and digital workspace consultancy, ebb3, was selected to support with the roll out and have been instrumental in the design, implementation and management of the VDI environment. ebb3 also provides SimpsonHaugh technical 2nd and 3rd line support. “The transition to VDI is being phased. SimpsonHaugh is running a hybrid environment – both virtual desktops and physical desktops – so as to capitalise on its existing investment in expensive workstations,” explains Jav Fiaz, ebb3’s Technical Architect & Senior Platform Engineer. “A key project goal was to keep the compute and data as close as possible to minimise latency which we’ve delivered.” Moyes adds, “If virtual desktops aren’t resourced properly – and applications freeze or suffer from latency – staff will blame the “new system”. Guaranteeing the end-user experience is vital. Monitoring in real-time using ControlUp’s DEX platform identifies which applications are hogging resources so that remedies can be considered like adding RAM, GPU or ‘throttling down’ software which is compute intensive.” SimpsonHaugh is experiencing significant benefits through the combination of VDI and ControlUp’s DEX platform: Project next steps SimpsonHaugh is currently working to expand its VDI environment to cover the whole business. This will take 3-5 years to complete. The strategy is to replace workstations as they approach end of life rather than waste perfectly good IT equipment. In addition, SimpsonHaugh is upgrading its corporate network to a 25 Gigabit Ethernet backbone to further support the end-user experience. The practice is also purchasing higher resolution 2k and 4k screens for staff and introducing Nutanix data storage to manage the virtual server environment. SimpsonHaugh is also working on other ICT innovation projects such as introducing privately hosted AI using private data across the practice (where powerful networking and compute is paramount) – a key priority given the impact AI is making on the architecture profession. Private AI is the only option because of client project confidentiality issues – where strict NDAs are signed – with SimpsonHaugh using three types of AI engine: “The project to introduce VDI and our DEX platform has boosted operational performance at SimpsonHaugh and put in place infrastructure to support the practice’s needs in the future,” says Robert Ellis, UK Sales Director at ControlUp. “End-users cannot tell whether they are using a physical workstation or desktop served by VDI – the implementation has been that well managed – and the speed of roll out was fast and disruption minimal because of extensive pre-implementation design and planning work carried out by ebb3.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Croudace Homes has revealed ambitious growth plans over the next decade, with a target to more than double the turnover from its current £200m to £500m by 2033. The growth plans are spearheaded by Adrian Watts, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2023. Founded in 1946 by Jack Brotherton-Ratcliffe, Croudace Homes’ first sites were delivered in Surrey to meet the rising shortage of housing stock during the post-war building boom, before expanding across the entirety of the south-east of England in the 1980s. Today, the housebuilder has three regions in Caterham, Letchworth and the recently opened Theale. As part of the growth plans, a Midlands office is scheduled to open over the next few years, which will see Croudace Homes develop in this area of the country for the first time in its history. With more than 35 years’ experience in the industry, Adrian has held Director positions with housebuilding giants Bellway, Redrow and Persimmon prior to joining Croudace Homes in 2019. Adrian initially joined as Managing Director of Croudace Homes’ North Thames region, before being promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2022. Adrian comments: “I’m excited to share our growth strategy, which will increase our development portfolio from 600 homes per year to around 1,200 across all regions. Historically, the business has always looked five years ahead, but as we are targeting ambitious figures, it felt prudent to deliver a longer-term plan. We are pivoting our operations in a number of ways, such as increasing our long-term strategic land, investing in sustainable construction methods, and expanding our development patch across the entire South of England, and eventually beginning to head north to the Midlands. “A change of government has reinvigorated the housing market, particularly for SMEs such as ourselves. The proposed measures to the industry, in particular a reform of planning regulations, will reduce time-intensive and frankly expensive applications and instead incentivise developers to press on and deliver great quality homes.” Caspar Brotherton, the grandson of Croudace Homes’ founder and non-executive Group Chairman, comments: “We are ready to take the next step and set far-reaching targets to deliver growth over the next decade. We are confident that Adrian and the Board of Directors will successfully lead us through this exciting period of expansion whilst retaining our core company values for prioritising the wellbeing of our staff and building high quality sustainable homes backed up with a first-class customer service.” Croudace Homes currently has more than a dozen live developments, ranging from larger sites such as the 830-home Hermitage Park on the edge of ancient woodland in Maidstone, Kent, and 600-home mixed-use scheme Willowbrook Park in Didcot, Oxfordshire, to more boutique developments such as Wisteria Gate in Romsey, Southampton. To find out more about Croudace Homes, visit www.croudacehomes.co.uk Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Environment Bank, the leading Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) provider, has announced the strategic expansion of its leadership team with the appointments of Jonathan Lydiard-Wilson as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Henry Burn as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). These key additions to the leadership team underscore the company’s commitment to driving its mission of reversing biodiversity loss while scaling to meet growing demand for their high-integrity Biodiversity Units for the regulatory Biodiversity Net Gain and emerging voluntary nature markets. Jonathan (Jo) joins as CSO, where he will develop and execute Environment Bank’s strategic direction to position the business as the leading provider of nature-based solutions, utilising private investment to accelerate nature recovery at pace. Jo brings a wealth of experience in developing new business models that deliver long-term value in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and impact sectors. Formerly Partner at Accenture, Jo was the global lead for energy management and co-ordinator for the Energy Transition where he played a key role in driving the growth of Energy Transition Services across the business and was responsible for the coordination of key business channels. He was also the International CEO for a global energy and sustainability consultancy that was later acquired by Accenture. In addition, Jo has been a Trustee of the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). Henry Burn joins as CRO, bringing over a decade of experience in driving revenue growth and executing successful business strategies within high-growth start-up environments. Henry excels at building teams, infrastructure, and processes from the ground up, and has a proven track record in implementing innovative products and customer acquisition strategies that exceed revenue targets. Prior to joining Environment Bank, Henry was the Vice President of Commercial at Hubble where he oversaw profitability routes and commercial strategy to emphasise sustainable growth. In his new role, Henry will be responsible for unlocking new strategic opportunities for Environment Bank’s off-site Biodiversity Units, offering developers in England an effective solution for meeting its new BNG obligations that came into force this year. Environment Bank has already seen a £160m pipeline of Biodiversity Unit enquiries, demonstrating strong demand for its product. Commenting on the appointments, Catherine Spitzer, CEO of Environment Bank, said:“The appointments come at a crucial moment for Environment Bank, as we continue to expand our nature recovery efforts nationally. By bringing Jo and Henry on board, we strengthen our leadership team and position ourselves as market leaders in delivering nature-based solutions that help businesses meet their biodiversity goals with tangible and long-term benefit for the natural environment. “Jo and Henry’s deep industry expertise, strategic acumen, and proven leadership will be instrumental in shaping the future of Environment Bank. Their addition underscores the strength of our team and the significant progress we’ve made so far, while also highlighting the immense opportunity ahead as we execute deliver a sustainable legacy for future generations.” Environment Bank has already established a network of 28 Habitat Banks over almost 2000 acres across England – with more than 20 additional sites already in development. It has a team of 85 experts working across ecology, land management, planning, and legal services. Its clients comprise SME and major housebuilders alongside significant commercial, utility, energy, and infrastructure developers. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Caddick has appointed James Eastham as Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) in a role that will boost the business’ investment in safety, environmental performance and employee wellbeing. James joins Caddick from Sir Robert McAlpine where he headed up health, safety and wellbeing in the North for three years, becoming Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing in May 2023. James will be based from Caddick’s North West premises in Warrington with a remit across Caddick Construction Group’s North and Midlands regions as well as the health and safety performance of Caddick Civil Engineering and the Group’s facade specialist, CCL Facades. With 17 years in the construction industry, James began his career as an apprentice joiner for Eric Wright Construction, where he spent 10 years, initially as a joiner and moving over to health and safety in 2013. James later moved to Mace in 2018, becoming Health, Safety and Wellbeing Manager in London, working for the major projects division overseeing developments that included Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. As Head of SHEQ for Caddick, James will be responsible for all health and safety functions and taking them forward as the business continues to grow across the North West, North East, Yorkshire and Midlands. The role will see James prioritise the business’ environmental performance as part of its commitment to reduce carbon usage by 5% year-on-year and achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2050. James’ role will also include an emphasis on wellbeing, and will see Caddick work proactively to address the challenges around mental health in construction and increase support for employees and those working in the supply chain. Of his appointment, James commented: “Caddick is really bucking the trend as a strong, stable and growing contractor, sitting on the fence between tier 1 and tier 2. What this means is the business can be agile as it grows, but also operate with the strength and capability of tier 1. “As we grow, our work will become bigger and more exciting, and as we deliver this we need to focus on retaining quality as the business scales. That doesn’t mean over complicating our processes; we’ll keep things simple, but make sure we do high quality work, keeping everyone safe and well while minimising our impact on the planet.” Paul Dodsworth, Group Managing Director of Caddick Construction Group, added: “We’ve had a very exciting two years as we’ve maintained a steady path of growth. Growing sustainably is the only way to preserve our standards in quality and safety, and this is something we’re proud to have protected as we’ve expanded into new regions and taken on some very ambitious and high profile projects. Welcoming James to the team will see an even greater focus on safety but also boost our commitment to quality, our environmental performance and the wellbeing of our people.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
CIBSE is proud to announce that our President, Fiona Cousins, has been appointed as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. This prestigious recognition reflects Fiona’s exceptional contributions to the engineering sector and her commitment to the advancement of the built environment. Fiona’s remarkable journey began at Trinity Hall, where she graduated in 1989 with a degree in Engineering Science. Since then, she has forged a distinguished career in engineering, currently serving as the Arup Americas Region Chair and as a member of the Arup Group Board. Her impressive portfolio includes high-profile projects such as the US Embassy in London, Fulton Street Station in New York and the Frick Chemistry Building at Princeton University, showcasing her expertise and leadership in the field. Fiona expressed her delight at receiving this honour, stating, “I am delighted to have been made an Honorary Fellow. I loved my time at College – studying, growing, and becoming myself – and have enjoyed alumni events too. It’s a great pleasure to be renewing the connection and I look forward to engaging more.” As CIBSE’s President for 2024-2025, Fiona continues to inspire the next generation of engineers and exemplifies the dedication and passion of our members globally. Her recognition as an Honorary Fellow not only highlights her personal accomplishments but also underscores the collective efforts of CIBSE members in advancing the engineering community. CIBSE celebrates Fiona’s achievements and looks forward to her continued contributions to the profession and the next generation of engineers. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Multi-disciplinary construction company Dowds Group swapped their offices and sites for a kitchen last month to cook up a storm and provide meals for a community in London. Dowds has partnered with Cook for Good, a non-profit organisation that works with companies to offer a combination of team building with a strong social responsibility dimension. The charity’s initiatives aim to tackle food insecurity, social isolation and health inequality in a social housing estate in King’s Cross. Dowds Group’s London team rolled up their sleeves and worked as a team to cook up 100 delicious and nutritious meals that were available to the local community the next day. “This is a great way for the team to bond outside of the office environment, but most importantly it was an opportunity to give back to the community,” said James Culloty, Director of Dowds Group, London. “Almost half of those living in the King Cross housing state are below the London living wage and 1 in 4 say they are facing real financial challenges, so we hope this session has a meaningful impact.” “We loved having the Dowds Group team in the Cook for Good kitchen. They were great sports, working hard to cook up a huge amount of food for our community whilst having a load of fun along the way,” commented Miriam Emanuel, Partnerships Manager at Cook for Good. “The meals they created have been shared with two local outreach organisations, and we are investing the profits into our wider community programme, so they have created long-lasting impact, too. We would like to thank the team for choosing a charity with social impact for their teambuilding event and look forward to welcoming more teams from Dowds Group into our kitchen soon.” Cook for Good aims to provide 8,500 meals to the community between this year and the next. The organisation’s projects also include a surplus food pantry, where members spend £3.50 a week for a basket of items worth between up to £35, a community kitchen with cooking classes for Kings Cross residents and bespoke health and wellbeing programmes for key groups that need extra support. Dowds Group’s corporate responsibility activities are organised through their ‘Health Matters’ programme, which was established and chaired MD, James Dowds in 2018. The programmes initial remit was to look at ways of improving the physical and mental wellbeing of Dowds staff, however they quickly expanded the programme to widen the benefits derived for the business and the local communities where they operate. Today, Health Matters continues to cover a wide range of initiatives promoting good physical and mental wellbeing for the Dowds team, but also charity fundraising, sponsorship and awareness campaigns, community engagement and volunteering. Managing Director, James Dowd said: “We’ve been in our Kings Cross Office for just over 18 months now and we feel very well established in the area. Initiatives such as Cook for Good reflect our concern for the wellbeing of the Kings Cross community and provide us with the opportunity to mark our commitment to building relationships with local residents. We hope this will be the first of many such initiatives, it is a great way to support the community whilst allowing our team to builder stronger connections. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Panattoni, a leading global developer of industrial real estate, has successfully completed the Expo Real Charity Bike Ride 2024, cycling from Prague to the International Expo Real fair in Munich. This year’s ride aimed to support the Association of Parents and Friends of Blind and Visually Impaired Children in the Czech Republic, a long-standing organisation dedicated to assisting children with severe visual impairments. Thanks to the generous contributions of participants and other donors, the bike ride raised a total of CZK 281,287 (c. €11,000), exceeding the initial target by over 100%. A total of 33 participants, including 15 cyclists from Panattoni Czech Republic, Germany, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, and Poland, took part in the event. The 3-day ride of 450 km led from Prague via Pilsen and Regensburg to Munich, where it was completed on October 6, 2024. The route was demanding, with over 3,000 meters of elevation gain, posing a significant physical and mental challenge for all participants. The main goal of the bike ride was to support the Association of Parents and Friends of Blind and Visually Impaired Children in the Czech Republic, which is dedicated to providing essential services for children with visual impairments. Donations enable the Association to organise swimming and physiotherapy programs, as well as integration meetings for children and their families. Additionally, the Association is creating a unique library of tactile books, allowing children to access literature through touch. Financial contributions made through the Emil Foundation will help these children develop their abilities and better integrate into society. As a leading global company, Panattoni is fully committed to its social responsibility. I’m delighted to see so many participants from around the world actively involved in projects like this. This event demonstrates that we can both individually and collectively help those in need,” says Artur Mokrzycki, Head of Capital Markets Europe, Panattoni. In total, 64 contributions from various donors will be used to support the activities of the Association and to directly help two specific children in need. One beneficiary is little Tobík, who will receive rehabilitation and physiotherapy to support his motor development. Another part of the funds will go to Valinka, who suffers from a rare genetic disease. These funds will be used for hippotherapy and other rehabilitation care to help slow the progression of her disease. Pavel Sovička, Managing Director of Panattoni for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, also expressed his joy at the success of this charity event: “I’m extremely proud of all my colleagues who made the challenging journey despite the autumn weather to support a good cause. Thanks to their determination, we were able to support children who truly need help. The amount raised will help the Association of Parents and Friends of Blind and Visually Impaired Children in the Czech Republic continue to provide crucial services for blind children. We were also able to support the specific cases of Tobík and Valinka, who will receive much-needed help in their fight against their serious illnesses.” Panattoni confirms it’s long-standing commitment to the “Good Neighbour” initiative and actively contributes to community development beyond its business focus through charitable and socially responsible projects. Thanks to this bike ride and generous donations, it has been able to support underprivileged children, providing resources to improve their quality of life and giving them better opportunities for further development and full integration into society. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Geotechnical and geoenvironmental ground investigation services company Structural Soils will carry out site investigation work as part of a feasibility project supporting the Future Circular Collider study at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has a circumference of 27 km. The Future Circular Collider is expected to be 91km – more than three times the size of the current Large Hadron Collider. The work at CERN, which was established in 1954, aims to “uncover what the universe is made of and how it works”. CERN, the world’s biggest particle physics laboratory, does this by providing a unique range of particle accelerator facilities to researchers to advance the boundaries of human knowledge. Remaining at the forefront of scientific excellence and reinforcing European leadership in particle physics, an international collaboration is conducting a feasibility study for the Future Circular Collider (FCC), a proposed next-generation collider for the post-LHC era. This study, mandated by the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, explores the potential of the FCC to push the boundaries of high-energy physics. Structural Soils, an RSK Group company, has been tasked with carrying out site investigations for CERN in France in the Haute-Savoie area, south of Geneva, Switzerland. The work will examine the geology of the area with the enhanced level detail required to support the goals of the feasibility study. Structural Soils Director Mike Williams said: “The site investigation will examine critical areas to reduce any uncertainty surrounding the geological conditions. The emphasis for our team is to review and quantify potential construction risks. This includes a focus on identifying suitable, consistent tunnelling strata, investigating potential high water pressures in the strata and ascertaining the levels of natural gas in the ground. “The Structural Soils team is incredibly excited about the opportunity to contribute its ground investigation skills to such a globally important and prestigious project. We are collaborating with two companies as part of a joint venture to deliver this work for CERN: Smart Seismic Solutions (S3), a French geophysics company, and Geotec SPA, an Italian firm specialising in deep drilling. Together, we form the consortium known as SGS3.” The project began in late September and will run for six months on-site, with associated lab testing, monitoring and reporting being carried out over a further six-month period. Mike said: “Our work involves a wide range of ground investigation techniques, including project management of a large-scale site investigation, in-situ testing, geological logging and sampling, geophysical surveys, and laboratory testing – all conducted by our expert team at Structural Soils. As the lead contractor within the consortium, we are also coordinating the efforts of our partners to ensure the project runs smoothly. “Our work will be crucial in terms of reducing the construction risk for underground works, but also the environmental aspects. It will be important for Structural Soils to work with the larger team to confirm the ground conditions to aid with the design of the best tunnel footprint alignment to advance further studies at CERN. We are committed to performing this work with minimal disruption to the local population and in strict compliance with environmental standards. Drawing on our previous experience with similar projects and working closely with local and regional stakeholders, we ensure that all activities are conducted responsibly and sustainably, with safety and environmental care as top priorities. “As part of this process, we will be producing a realistic geological underground model along with a geological profile for every location. This will hopefully provide a template for future main site investigations and our work will support plans for future civil engineering underground works. This will all contribute to the input required for the next European Strategy Update for Particle Physics in 2026/2027.” Mike said that additional RSK companies will support the project, with CAN assisting with the supply of equipment, RSK Acoustics carrying out noise/vibration monitoring, Central Alliance tasked with mobilisation planning, Drilling Supplies providing consumables and RSK France giving health and safety support. CERN France ground investigation facts: Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
