Godwin Group, the UK property development investment firm, has expanded its network with a new office in London. The company, which has recently announced a number of new high profile appointments, already has existing bases in Nottingham and Birmingham. “As a leading international financial centre, London is a key location
The 13 contractors who will be carrying out up to £8.7 billion worth of work on the national road network have been announced by Highways England. Known as Delivery Integration Partners, the contractors will be part of Highways England’s Regional Delivery Partnership, which encourages companies to improve safety and journeys
NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE:6701) today announced that it will conduct a trial of remote construction technologies with KDDI Corporation and Obayashi Corporation, with the aim of achieving smart civil engineering utilizing 5G, the next-generation wireless communication standard. The trial aims to verify the improved workability and quality of remote construction
Godwin Group, the UK property development investment firm, has expanded its network with a new office in London. The company, which has recently announced a number of new high profile appointments, already has existing bases in Nottingham and Birmingham. “As a leading international financial centre, London is a key location for Godwin Capital to enhance its corporate profile, provide expansion opportunities and access to one of the world’s deepest pools of capital,” said Andrew Mitchell, group investment director of Godwin Group. “The build-to-rent (BTR) sector continues to grow apace; operators are looking to take advantage of improved yields and a wider selection of sites across the UK as infrastructures improve and lower land prices make development lucrative. Many of the key players in this market are based out of head offices in London. Godwin Group’s new London office is strategically located to provide this vital link, local contact and expertise for its regional businesses,” Andrew added. The new London office provides a new base of operations for both arms of the business, Godwin Developments and Godwin Capital. “Godwin Group has seen huge growth over the past months. Our new London office will allow us to accommodate further expansion plans and look to reach new markets in our key sectors. These are exciting times for Godwin Group and we are looking forward to expanding our network even further with the opening of our London office,” commented Stephen Pratt, group land director of Godwin Group. Godwin’s recent successes include a proposed new BTR scheme of 201 apartments at The Landmark development in Derby, Godwin Capital’s launch of innovative new investment products and the launch of the group’s BTR brand called Core Living – which plans to build up to 2,500 new homes over the next four years.
The 13 contractors who will be carrying out up to £8.7 billion worth of work on the national road network have been announced by Highways England. Known as Delivery Integration Partners, the contractors will be part of Highways England’s Regional Delivery Partnership, which encourages companies to improve safety and journeys on roads. “Routes to Market represents a fundamental change in the way we deliver road projects. It will be performance rather than price based, focusing on building the right projects with the best outcomes for road users and the communities we serve. It demands a major step up in our supply chain to embrace innovation and team work, and in their ability to deliver value,” commented Jim O’Sullivan, Highways England Chief Executive. These are the selected contractors and the lots: Lot 1 – South West and Midlands – £200 million – two partners: Geoffrey Osborne; and Griffiths/Farrans Joint Venture (Alun Griffiths (Construction) and Northstone (NI) Limited trading as Farrans Construction); Lot 2 – South East and East – £350 million – two partners: John Graham Construction Ltd; and Volker Fitzpatrick; Lot 3 – North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humber – £200 million – two partners: Amey Sir Robert McAlpine Joint Venture (Amey OW and Sir Robert McAlpine); and North Midland Construction; Lot 4 – South West – £800 million – two partners: Galliford Try Infrastructure; and Taylor Woodrow; Lot 5 – Midlands – £1,250 million – two partners: BAM Nuttall; and Skanska Construction UK; Lot 6 – South East – £1,100 million – two partners: BAM Nuttall; and Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering; Lot 7 – East – £2,800 million – three partners: Costain; Galliford Try Infrastructure; and Skanska Construction UK; Lot 8 – North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humber – £2,000 million – three partners: Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering; Costain; and Kier Highways. The partnership will help develop, design and construct highway projects across England from 2019 through to 2024.
NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE:6701) today announced that it will conduct a trial of remote construction technologies with KDDI Corporation and Obayashi Corporation, with the aim of achieving smart civil engineering utilizing 5G, the next-generation wireless communication standard. The trial aims to verify the improved workability and quality of remote construction by applying the large-capacity, low-latency communication featured in 5G to construction machinery, thereby enabling the transmission of high-definition video that is difficult to achieve with existing mobile communications. The companies will undertake verification by combining 5G wireless infrastructure with an existing remote control system for construction machinery. In the experiment, video taken by multiple units of high-definition 4K cameras mounted in construction machinery will be transmitted to the remote controller via 5G wireless infrastructure utilizing beamforming through a multi-element antenna supporting the 28GHz band. Unlike existing LTE and Wi-Fi networks, 5G wireless infrastructure is capable of high-speed transmission of large-capacity, high-definition video with low-latency. This allows workers to conveniently gain an accurate impression of a situation using high-definition video sent from remotely located construction machinery. Moreover, the three companies will also verify advances in construction quality and efficiency through improved remote control workability, such as real-time changes in the position and direction of construction machinery. “We expect that 5G will play an essential role in developing a better society through collaboration with a variety of industries and that 5G will contribute to improvement of the quality of construction and civil engineering,” said Akira Matsunaga, Senior Director, Mobile Network Technical Development, KDDI Corporation. “We sincerely wish that the trial this time will verify the advantages of 5G in the application of construction engineering and that we can move forward towards the realization of a better society.” “The introduction of robotics to the construction field, including remote-control capabilities, is making substantial progress,” said Hideo Katsumata, Executive Officer / General Manager, Technical Research Institute, Obayashi Corporation. “We believe that the 5G communication technology opens the possibility of greatly advancing the operation of construction robots. Going forward, we will continue to promote research and development in 5G-enabled, remotely controlled robots that can be utilized for a wide range of construction purposes.” “NEC is very pleased to participate in this trial with KDDI and Obayashi in order to achieve smart civil engineering utilizing 5G,” said Tomonori Kumagai, General Manager, Business Development Division, NEC Corporation. “The multi-element antenna system and its control technology, which are currently undergoing research and development at NEC, are essential for implementing large-capacity, low-latency 5G. Going forward, we will continue to promote research and development in support of future commercial services.”
