Construction Manager magazine January 2020

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JANUARY 2020 | WWW.CONSTRUCTIONMANAGERMAGAZINE.COM

JANUARY 2020 For members of the CIOB

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GLEEDS CEO PROFILE

READY FOR THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS

GLEEDS CEO GRAHAM HARLE ON ADAPTING TO A FAST-CHANGING INDUSTRY

CONSTRUCTION’S FAIREST PAYERS | WILLMOTT DIXON’S PILGRIMAGE | HS2 ENABLING WORKS 01.CMJan20.Cover.indd 1

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making the transition to a

ZERO CARBON WORLD Join 27,000 industry influencers and shapers with the power to change the future of the built environment.

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www.futurebuild.co.uk

CONTENTS

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01/20

Contents News 04 News in pictures 06 Data: Resi transactions jump 08 Insurer calls for fire testing 09 Clarion tests misting systems 10 Faster payment times 14 Graham Harle interview

Gleeds’ global CEO profiled Opinion 18 Mark Beard on institutions 19 Jacqui Glass on N+ 20 Caroline Gumble on public interest 22 Feedback: Readers’ views

Technical

24 Willmott Dixon in Plymouth

The Box cultural centre

28 30 34 36

Infrastructure HS2 archaeology at Euston HS2’s digital earthworks Tideway uses Thames transport ACO QuAD software roadshow

BIM & Digital 38 Taking tech to site round table

Boosting digital engagement

CPD 42 Steel and offsite construction

Delivering structural steelwork

Legal

46 Regulatory issues for 2020

Six changes to look for this year

Community 48 GSC opens for entries 49 Novus Nottingham scheme 50 Guernsey award-winners 51 Morgan Sindall partners up 54 Diary dates 55 Meet a member 56 West Suffolk community initiative 57 New tech in the industry

Training & Recruitment 58 National Trust building surveyor

Mixing traditional and modern

24

10

38

30

Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7490 5595 Editor: Will Mann, 020 3865 21032 will.m@atompublishing.co.uk Associate editor: Neil Gerrard, 020 3865 21031 neil@atompublishing.co.uk Production editor: Sarah Cutforth Art editor: Heather Rugeley Community editor: Nicky Roger Advertising manager: Dave Smith 020 3865 21029 Key account manager: Tom Peardon 020 3865 21030 Credit control: Eva Rugeley Managing director: Stephen Quirke Circulation: Net average 30,999 Audit period: July 2018 to June 2019 Subscriptions: To subscribe or for enquiries, please contact: Subscription team: Tel: 01293 312160 Or go online at: http://construction manager. imbmsubscriptions.com

Or write to us at the address below: Construction Manager Published for the Chartered Institute of Building by Atom Media Partners, 3 Waterhouse Square, 138 Holborn, London EC1N 2SW Tel: +44 (0)20 7490 5595

Construction Manager is published monthly by Atom Media Partners.

The contents of this magazine are copyright. Reproduction in part or in full is forbidden without permission of the editor. The opinions expressed by writers of signed articles (even with pseudonyms) and letters appearing in the magazine are those of their respective authors, and neither the CIOB, Atom Media Partners nor Construction Manager is responsible for these opinions or statements.

The editor will give careful consideration to material submitted – articles, photographs, drawings and so on – but does not undertake responsibility for damage or their safe return. Printed by Walstead Group.

All rights in the magazine, including copyright, content and design, are owned by CIOB and/or Atom Media Partners. ISSN 1360 3566

firstname@atompublishing.co.uk Editorial advisory board Mark Beard FCIOB, Ann Bentley, Peter Caplehorn, Ian Eggers, Harvey Francis, Professor Jacqui Glass FCIOB, Shelagh Grant, Paul Morrell, James Pellatt, Richard Saxon, Phil Wade

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News 1

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DBOX FOR ERIC PARRY ARCHITECTS

3

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Undershaft joins host of towers planned for London 1. The 305m-high 1 Undershaft Tower will become the City of London’s tallest building after it was given formal planning consent, three years after it was approved by the City of London’s planning and transportation committee. The Eric Parry-designed tower is the latest in a series of skyscrapers planned for the capital. Among other high-profile projects are: 2. The 249m-high 100 Leadenhall Street designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, due to be completed in 2026; 3. The 203m-tall 6-8 Bishopsgate, where contractor Lendlease has already started work; 4. A 163m-tall tower designed by PLP Architecture which will form part of Native Land’s £1bn Bankside Yards development near Blackfriars Bridge; 5. Close by will be 18 Blackfriars, designed by WilkinsonEyre, which is to be 136m tall.

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News story for CM? Email neil@atompublishing.co.uk

Scientists from De Montfort University have developed a 3D-printed brick made from plastic waste that they claim offers 10 times better insulation than traditional clay bricks. More at www.constructionmanagermagazine.com.

News in quotes “A game changer” BAM Nuttall head of innovation Colin Evison describes the world’s first artificial intelligence prediction engine, which it has been trialling on its £480m project to expand London City Airport.

Volker-Kier JV installs 1,000 tonne Luton DART bridge

Skanska considers M25 trial of graphene asphalt

ANDREW PARISH

Skanska is in talks to trial a new form of asphalt enhanced with wonder material graphene on the M25.

The news came after the company laid the fully recyclable asphalt, which it claims is more durable and will therefore reduce potholes as well carbon emissions, in the UK for the first time, on a main road in Curbridge for Oxfordshire County Council.

Volkerfitzpatrick-Kier has installed the 80m-long, 1,000 tonne Luton DART bridge ahead of schedule.

The Luton DART is a double-shuttle, fully automated people-mover linking London Luton Airport and London Airport Parkway station. Built offsite at a location nearby over eight months, it was transported half a mile to site using self-propelled modular transporters. Volker-Kier had a 10-hour installation window and completed it 10 hours ahead of schedule.

Mace claims evolved ‘Jump Factory’ will boost productivity sixfold Mace has unveiled a new system for constructing high-rise buildings using digital technology and an offsite manufacturing approach, which it has claimed makes construction six times more productive than current industry performance.

The new High Rise Solutions (HRS) system, an evolution of Mace’s ‘Jump Factory’, will be used to construct the N06 build-to-rent development in Stratford, east London.

Mace worked with Australian firm Hickory to adapt its building system for construction in the UK. It claimed the system would shorten the construction programme on N06 by 18 weeks, with 20% fewer workers required compared to a traditional approach.

Lendlease’s CLT pavilion tops out The pavilion at the centre of the International Quarter London (IQL) development in London’s Stratford, being built by Lendlease almost entirely from crossand glue laminated timber, has topped out after 14 weeks of superstructure works. The IQL is a business development project jointly developed by Lendlease and London Continental Railways, which involves the construction of 4 million sq ft of work space, new homes, community facilities, retail and a hotel, and is estimated to cost a total of £2.1bn.

“Climate change is our most urgent priority” Kingspan CEO Gene Murtagh, as the company revealed plans to slash its carbon emissions and switch the majority of its operations to renewable energy by 2030.

“Our constructors need a financial commitment from us” Wimbledon AFC warns supporters that it is facing an £11m shortfall to pay Buckingham Group to complete its new Plough Lane stadium.

“This inquiry… will help us learn lessons from recent issues” Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman announces the appointment of Lord Brodie, a Court of Session judge, to head an inquiry into issues on the Multiplex-built Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

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£0.5m

The pre-tax loss made by Clugston in its latest set of financial accounts for the year to 31 January 2018. The company called in administrator KPMG in December after struggling with complex energy-from-waste contracts.

Slow growth for construction output

Data

There was minimal growth in construction output during August, according to the latest official figures. The Office for National Statistics recorded a 0.1% rise in output in the three months to August compared to the three months before, driven by a 0.5% rise in new work, offset by a decline in repair and maintenance work of 0.8%. Private housing, private commercial and public new housing helped to drive the increase in new work, with rises of 1%, 0.9% and 3.6% respectively.

Residential property transactions jump Residential property transactions jumped in October 2019, suggesting that the housing market is bouncing back from stagnation earlier in the summer. There were 103,680 residential transactions in October 2019, up 4.3% on both October 2018 and September 2019, according to figures from HMRC.

Quarterly and monthly all work index, chained volume measure, seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, June 2014 to August 2019 Monthly index

Quarterly index

Index 2016 = 100

115

Total UK residential property transactions by month 140,000

110

120,000 100,000

105

80,000 60,000

100 40,000 20,000

95

Oct 2019

Sep 2019

Jul 2019

Aug 2019

Jun 2019

Apr 2019

May 2019

Mar 2019

Jan 2019

Feb 2019

Dec 2018

Oct 2018

Nov 2018

0

90

Non seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted

2014 DEC

2015 AUG

2016 APR

2016 DEC

2017 AUG

2018 APR

2018 DEC

2019 AUG

SOURCE: OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS – CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT AND EMPLOYMENT

News in numbers

360 tonnes 2,400 The mass of an offsite-manufactured steel bridge installed by Graham Group as part of its £106m project to expand the port of Tilbury in Essex. The bridge was manufactured in Rotterdam before being towed 135 nautical miles and lifted into place using a seagoing crane.

The number of UK staff US-based consultant Jacobs plans to hire in professional and technical roles over the next two years as it opens its new European flagship office at the Cottons Centre in London.

£11m

The amount of money Wimbledon AFC needs to find to pay contractor Buckingham Group to complete its Plough Lane stadium, after unforeseen delays in planning and increased building costs pushed the final bill higher.

6m tonnes

The amount of asbestos estimated to be contained within public buildings in the UK, according to a study by think tank Res Publica, which recommended creating a central asbestos register as part of measures to reduce the harm the material still causes.

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NEWS

GREATER MANCHESTER FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE

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Insurer wants tougher testing of materials after Bolton blaze FM GLOBAL ARGUES FIRE REINFORCES THE NEED FOR PROPER BUILDING MATERIALS TESTING. NEIL GERRARD REPORTS A leading insurer has called for more thorough testing of building materials, after a blaze at a six-storey student accommodation block in November that left two people injured.

The fire at The Cube in Bolton saw flames spread rapidly up the building’s cladding. Although fire safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster

conducted by Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service (GMFRS) determined that the cladding was not of the aluminium composite (ACM) type, GMFRS is now investigating what role the cladding played in the fire.

The cladding has been widely reported to be high-pressure laminate (HPL), although GMFRS has not confirmed this.

The fire at the sixstorey Cube student accommodation in Bolton in November

Now Tom Roche, a senior consultant for international codes and standards at commercial property insurer FM Global, has warned that the testing of products used in the construction of buildings needs to be more rigorous.

Roche said: “The fire at The Cube student accommodation in Bolton was a reminder of the depth of issues within England’s building regulations and firesafety regime. The quick spread of the fire, injuries, the need to help evacuate people and the damage caused should rightly prompt renewed concern about the performance of numerous buildings in the face of fire.

“The cladding used on The Cube was clearly combustible. The discussions around the height of the building and whether it was within certain parameters of the Building Regulations guidance may be important from a technocratic perspective but to all those watching the end result was the same; the fire clearly spread up the building. It did not matter whether it was 17m or 18m, it failed to stop the fire from spreading across its external surface, making both the property and its inhabitants extremely vulnerable to a fire.

“This failure highlights the importance of properly testing building materials for their intended use, irrespective of height. Most importantly, there is a need to ensure that those involved in designing and refurbishing buildings have a sound understanding of building and fire science. This should drive the proper selection of materials.” ●

Camden Council sues Rydon over cladding on Chalcots Estate Camden Council has made a £130m claim against the contractors involved in the refurbishment of the Chalcots Estate in London, to recover the cost of replacing Grenfell Tower-style cladding.

The council has submitted a claim to the Technology and Construction Court to recover costs from Partners for Improvement in Camden (PFIC) and

its principal subcontractors – Rydon Construction, Rydon Maintenance, Faithful + Gould and United Living South. PFIC is in liquidation.

The costs relate to the evacuation of residents in June 2017, the employment of fire marshals and security staff, repairs to make good “inadequate internal fire stopping, inadequate fire

doors and other serious defects” and the removal of cladding. Wates is now working on remediation of the estate.

A council spokesman said: “Today’s claims are submitted following two years’ examination of historical agreements, contractual responsibilities and works completed during the period in which we had a

contractual relationship with PFIC. Following this review, we are clear about where responsibility lies for the range of fire safety defects at the Chalcots which led to the evacuation and its associated costs.”

Rydon declined to comment. Faithful + Gould and United Living South have been contacted for comment.

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UK’s biggest housing association trials misting for fire suppression Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association, is trialling a water mist fire suppression system as an alternative to sprinklers at one of its residential developments.

The organisation is fitting the low-pressure misting system at Fulton Court in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, an eight-storey retirement block, after running a study in June this year.

Misting systems operate in similar fashion to sprinklers, activating when temperatures reach a certain level, usually 57 degrees centigrade. The fine spray of water mist means a larger surface area of water is exposed to the flames, compared to sprinklers, which can be more effective at suppressing fires.

Clarion’s study involved construction of three typical living rooms, one with a misting suppression system, one with sprinklers and one with no suppression, and then setting fire to each of them in turn. The misting system performed well in the study, the housing association’s fire safety projects director Dan Hollas told CM. “The misting system results in considerably less water damage and uses less than half the amount of water,” he said. “Misting technology has been used in the oil and gas sector but not as widely in domestic housing. There is some opposition from the insurance sector and the fire authorities who see sprinklers as tried and tested.”

The design and installation of water misting systems are covered by BSI

standards, while UKAS accreditation is offered by Fire Installers Registration and Accreditation Scheme, BRE and International Fire Code Certification.

Hollas said that Clarion is now evaluating the misting system at Fulton Court, which was installed by fire protection specialist Harmony.

“We are looking at how easy the system is to install,” he said. “Compared to sprinklers, the pipework is slightly smaller, so the installation is easier. But they are very similar systems.”

Clarion, which owns and manages 125,000 homes nationwide, had 33 fire insurance claims last year and its fire projects team has been investigating the potential of suppression systems since the Grenfell tragedy. ●

Perceived advantages of misting compared to sprinklers l Environmentally sound – they use less water. l Minimised water damage – not only do the systems use less water, the suppression/ cooling action is through evaporation, meaning a lot of the water is turned to steam and therefore not dousing the property.

l Smoke scrubbing – the process of smoke particles adhering to the fine water droplets, effectively cleaning the air. l Smaller-bore pipework offers potentially easier retrofit installation. l Smaller tanks offer installation advantages.

CHRISTOPHER WOODS

CLARION TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER WATER MISTING SYSTEMS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE AT SUPPRESSING FIRES. WILL MANN REPORTS

Digital Construction Summit to examine Hackitt’s ‘golden thread’ Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘golden thread’ and its implications for digital asset records will be one of the headline topics at this year’s Digital Construction Summit.

This key annual event for digital decision-makers in the built environment sector takes place on 3 June 2020 at the America Square Conference Centre in the City of London.

The event will bring together government, clients, contractors, architects, consultants and suppliers, who will assess construction’s digital progress, and examine the policies, trends and innovations that will shape the industry over the coming years.

The use of 3D modelling and structured asset

data to improve building safety will be discussed by speakers including Dan Hollas, fire safety projects director at Clarion, the UK’s housing largest housing association.

Aecom’s global BIM director David Philp will chair a panel discussion with the CIOB’s digital special interest group, which will also feature the Government Property Agency’s client solutions lead Roy Evans.

Other speakers will be announced over the coming months.

The event, which around 200 industry professionals are expected to attend, will also feature breakout sessions, audience interaction and an exhibitor area showcasing cuttingedge technology.

For further information, contact: eva@atompublishing.co.uk.

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WHY IT PAYS TO PAY ON TIME SINCE CARILLION’S COLLAPSE, PAYMENT TERMS HAVE COME SHARPLY INTO FOCUS. NEIL GERRARD EXAMINES THE EFFORTS BEING MADE TO SPEED UP PAYMENT IN THE INDUSTRY AND HOW THE BEST-PAYING TIER 1 CONTRACTORS BENEFIT FROM THEIR POLICIES

“No man’s credit is as good as his money.” That was the saying attributed to American 20th century philosopher John Dewey, although it’s just as likely to elicit a weary nod of agreement from most 21st century construction firm bosses as they await yet another tardy payment.

Late payment has been a feature of construction for as long as many in the industry care to remember. But the issue in a sector where margins are notoriously tight and cashflow consistently difficult to manage amounts to far more than a simple inconvenience.

Often, unexpectedly late remittances can push a business to the brink.

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The Prompt Payment Code suspended 17 construction companies during Q1 2019.

“The sector must recognise that the projects we deliver depend on the financial viability of the suppliers we work with”

Dennis Hone, Mace

the Prompt Payment Code (PPC), introduced by the government in 2008 to limited effect.

But could the collapse of Carillion, which once again exposed the extent to which payments through the supply chain were being delayed, have finally helped shift the dial?

Despite holding billions of pounds worth of public contracts, Carillion was a notoriously slow payer, often taking up to 120 days to part with its cash.

Suppliers were estimated to have been left out of pocket to the tune of £2bn.

Since then, in July 2018, Build UK announced that it would publish information on the payment performance of its contractor members every six months. Meanwhile, the PPC appears to have sharpened its teeth, removing or suspending a total of 17 companies during the first quarter of 2019. Big names including Balfour Beatty, Costain, Galliford Try, Interserve and Laing O’Rourke were suspended (although Costain, Interserve and Laing O’Rourke have since been reinstated).

Prompt payment benefits Naming and shaming contractors into improving the speed at which they pay seems to have had some effect, with several now making efforts to sharpen up. The latest figures from Build UK showed that the average time to pay has improved by five days among its 40 member companies.

But if they fear the stick, then contractors should also not forget the

carrot when it comes to improving payment culture. Rather than simply feeling pressure to change, some of the industry’s best payers see clear benefits in doing so.

Among them is Beard, which regards good payment as key to timely and fault-free delivery of its projects, as Mike Hedges, a director at the firm, explains: “We are a business who values our suppliers and puts a priority on developing long-term relationships, which are based on mutual trust.”

Currently, the firm’s average payment time is just 27 days.

At an average of 31 days, Willmott Dixon is one of Build UK’s quickest members when it comes to paying invoices. Although as chief financial officer Graham Dundas explains, prompt payment has always been important at the firm. “It is always something that has been a core part of our values and culture – that we work closely with our supply chain, we treat them fairly, we have fair payment terms and we stick to them,” he says.

Dennis Hone, chief financial officer at Mace, which takes an average of 30 days to pay, agrees. “Paying our supply chain partners promptly is vital for their cash flow, particularly as many of them are small or mediumsized businesses. The whole sector – from contractors and consultants to clients – must recognise that the projects we deliver depend on the financial viability of the suppliers we work with,” he says.

Carillion’s collapse turned the spotlight on slow payment

The Prompt Payment Code The Prompt Payment Code, run by the Chartered Institute of Credit Management on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), requires signatories to uphold best practice for payment standards, including a commitment to pay 95% of all suppliers within 60 days. Since 2019, it has been naming the companies it has suspended, or in some cases removed completely from the Code. There are hundreds of signatories to the Code within construction.

Major firms currently signed up include: BAM Construction Bouygues Costain Dragados Galliford Try Interserve Construction ISG Kier Facility Services Kier Services Laing O’Rourke Mace Morgan Sindall Sir Robert McAlpine Skanska Vinci Wates Willmott Dixon

Companies currently suspended from the Code include: Balfour Beatty Ferrovial Agroman Kier Integrated Services Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Kier Construction Kier Highways McNicholas Construction Services Persimmon Removed completely: John Sisk & Son (At 6 December 2019)

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“It is fundamental for any business that they have a predictable cashflow and that they can rely on being paid in accordance with the terms they have agreed.”

That’s not to say that there aren’t challenges though. Paul Hamer, chief executive of Sir Robert McAlpine, which takes an average of 34 days to pay, warns that Build UK’s league table, while somewhat helpful, is nonetheless a “fairly blunt metric”.

He explains: “One of the things we have been saying to Build UK – and to be fair they are working quite hard on this – is that people have to remember that our ability to pay is linked to our clients’ ability to pay. If we are going to solve this issue then we need to go right back to where the money starts to flow.

“So I don’t mind McAlpine or anyone in the construction industry being held to account on our ability to pay our supply chain, as long as our clients are being held to account in exactly the same way.”

Hedges also admits that paying suppliers within 30 days involves inherent challenges, including delays in the postal service, too many invoices

“We are a business who values our suppliers and puts a priority on developing long-term relationships”

Mike Hedges, Beard Construction

Should the government do more?

“It is always something that has been a core part of our values and culture – that we work closely with our supply chain, we treat them fairly, we have fair payment terms and we stick to them”

Despite the fact that the government has already set out its aspiration for companies within its supply chain to pay within 30 days, the reality can be somewhat different, as Graham Dundas points out.

“Those kinds of targets are already in place in terms of centrally procured government contracts but it is ironic that some of our worst payers are central government departments. I don’t think there is a problem out there in terms of targets and expectations but that doesn’t mean they are always met,” he says.

Mike Hedges believes the government should mandate for 30-day payments across the board.

“To do so is a positive aspiration which will help drive efficiency across the construction industry and provide greater protection to the supply chain.

I believe that if it became standard to pay suppliers within 30 days then it may even attract more people into the construction industry in the medium term and help overcome the skills shortages in the UK,” he says.

Graham Dundas, Willmott Dixon

being received in one go, and absence and holidays among staff.

But for each challenge, the firm has a solution. It asks suppliers to send invoices by email to avoid delays with hard copies, carries out two payment runs per month to stagger payments and make sure each invoice is dealt with in a timely manner, and has contingency plans in place to cover those responsible for authorising payments during times of absence.

Hamer says that McAlpine is looking at making the payment process more efficient and more automated to speed up payments, including issuing e-cards to project teams to let them make payments quickly. “We tend to find that there are thousands of invoices below £500. What we have done is got that wheel spinning very quickly so we just automatically pay because it tends to be with people that we do business with every month. If we subsequently find it is out by £100, we can simply adjust it then next month,” he says.

While Dundas recognises that good systems, processes and monitoring are important, he sees fostering the right culture as critical. “The biggest part

of success is making sure people see that it is just what is expected,” he says.

And far as Hone is concerned, there is still some way to go, with further collaboration between suppliers and clients key. “Collectively we need to work together as a sector to continue to see real improvement across the industry,” he says. ●

Do clients recognise contractors’ efforts to pay quickly?

Paying quickly is all very well but is there a tangible business benefit for those construction companies that are already doing so?

Mike Hedges of Beard Construction thinks so: “It is helpful for clients to see the

ethos of our business through how we treat our supply chain.

“This demonstrates very clearly how we do the right thing by our supply chain and our staff, how the supply chain therefore brings more value, and demonstrates how we will clearly bring

those same values and level of commitment to working with the client,” he says.

It’s a trend that Willmott Dixon’s Graham Dundas also recognises.“Because of the legislative changes, we are seeing prompt payment becoming

a more significant part of the prequalification and tender process than ever,” he says.

“I think there are customers who recognise the significance of it beyond the tick-box exercise. It is something we are getting asked about much more by customers.”

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Interview

‘WE MUST BE READY FOR THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS’

“One of my biggest worries,” says Graham Harle, “is an Amazon or Microsoft going to see one of our clients, setting up a laptop, and doing for them in 24 hours what it may take us six months to do.

“With the tech investment in the built environment, the growth of artificial intelligence, it’s going to be possible to automate the optimised design and construction for any given project. They will be able to feed in planning policy, client requirements and automate the whole thing. That’s what we have to be ready for.”

The global CEO of Gleeds is forthright in spelling out the challenges facing his business and the built environment sector more broadly, but also optimistic about the transformative changes that

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHER WOODS

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IS SWEEPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND GRAHAM HARLE, GLOBAL CEO OF GLEEDS, IS NOT GOING TO BE LEFT IN THE ANALOGUE ERA. WILL MANN SPOKE TO HIM

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800 digital technology can bring. Harle has been with the consultancy giant for 24 years, taking the CEO role last year. But he warns that the construction industry must be ready for major changes over the next three to five years.

“Currently there are 800 built environment software apps in development in the UK, which aim, in some way, to automate the development, design, and build process. Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasing role. Not all those apps will be successful, but we can see the direction things are moving.

“And the big tech giants are moving into our sector. We’ve seen Oracle buy Aconex. Amazon, which is now the largest real estate developer in the world through its data centres and distribution hubs, is hoarding built environment data.”

Partnering with tech giants Gleeds has first-hand experience of the technical giants, delivering the new global HQ for ARM in Cambridge, Microsoft’s new HQ in Prague, and working with Amazon across Europe.

The strategy now for Harle is to “insulate our business”, as he puts it, from these unprecedented challenges from the technical sector. And part of that strategy is data.

“Data is the new oil,” he says. “The challenge is to find it, mine it and refine it. We are involved with $300bn of construction work every year. So we have the data. Now we have to refine it, which means commercialisation of the data. This is where AI comes in. Can we take the data from, say, an office project, analyse everything that went right and wrong, so that next time we have the optimum design, programme and cost?”

But Harle acknowledges that Gleeds isn’t big enough do everything by itself.

“We’re not an IT company so we are looking to partner with a tech giant to harness built environment data,” he

explains. “Amazon spends more on R&D than the entire turnover of the world’s biggest real estate firm – CBRE [£16bn].

We can’t compete with that so we have to partner with them.”

Focus on digital In the meantime, Harle is making sure Gleeds’ staff and new recruits are digitally up to speed. The consultant has recruited an AI specialist from Nottingham University, while another four are doing master’s degrees in data.

“We’ve taken on an extra 40 graduates this year – on top of our regular intake – with a focus on digital,” Harle says.

“Around a quarter are from non built environment courses, such as business studies or geography, who we put through a master’s degree at Reading, and they have been brilliant for us.

“Youngsters are frustrated if anything by pace of change in our industry. When you compare our industry to the likes of KPMG and PWC, where they have an average age of 27, they are focused on the bright young things. They are used to working on screen. ‘Why print off drawings?’, they say.”

Harle is a huge advocate of BIM. “We are using its potential across all the BIM dimensions – 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D,” he says.

“We use it for logistics and clash analysis – it can make construction far simpler.

Our QSs use CostX software, linked to Revit, to take quantities off the models.”

Last year, Gleeds launched a BIM project management app, Frame, which Harle describes as a BIM Level 2 toolkit.

“We gifted that to the industry because we wanted to make a statement about how the different members of a project team can collaborate through BIM,” he says.

Harle reckons a “high proportion” of Gleeds’ projects are now working to BIM Level 2, including all its Department for Education and Scape projects.

“We’re also starting to see the private sector come on board,” he says.

Currently there are 800 built environment software apps in development in the UK

Harle on… …Fair payment We’ve made a commitment to pay our subcontractors in 28 days, which has been tough, to be honest, but we’ve seen a better performance from those suppliers. We’re collating that data at present, but anecdotally we’re seeing improvements in quality and speed. …Quality We’ve added more rigour to our quality management process, since Grenfell. We have brought in an extra layer of governance which applies on all our projects. We sent out 850 clients’ satisfaction questionnaire last year and had only six red flags, which is bloody good. …Brexit Brexit has been factored into the markets. We want political stability and clarity, and if we get that, the amount of equity and debt available for the UK is unbelievable, particularly for PRS: it’s just 2% of the UK resi market but 20% in US and Germany. If we Brexit on 31 January, I think the UK is in for a boom.

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…Professional bodies We’ve got 200 project managers in the UK business, most of them CIOB members, out of 900 staff in total, many of them RICS-qualified. We have great relationships with the professional bodies – I would like them to work together more closely on their course programmes, so new graduates understand how the different professions fit together in our industry.

around 20% last year, while retail is moving towards a ‘bricks and clicks’ service, Harle notes. “It is about making the high street work in a different way to suit a shift in the market,” he explains.

As the industry changes, the CEO mulls over what is the best “shape for our business”.

“An issue for us is that many of the public sector frameworks are now multidisciplinary packages,” he says. “Do we add on other professional services to our offering? If we do, we would grow organically. But we have to look at the balance of risk and opportunity.

“Grenfell has tightened up the market in terms of what designers can and can’t do, from a professional indemnity perspective. Gleeds does not take design risk and Grenfell has reaffirmed our position on that.

“I am very competitive and want us to be the best at what we do, but that doesn’t mean being the biggest – we will not be an Aecom or Arcadis. We’ve had people with us who moved on to the big multi-disciplinary firms, and have since gone off to set up on their own – which tells me the one-stop-shop approach doesn’t always work.”

Gleeds has 134 years of history, with over 2,000 staff working in 71 offices across 20 countries, and Harle wants to keep its core values intact.

“I will be a very open CEO, and I have an email address – ‘Ask Graham’ – which means staff can contact me directly,” he says. “We’re strong on ethics and we’ve adopted the Wates Principles of corporate governance and committed to fair payment of suppliers.

“Our staff training, I believe, is the best in the industry – clients who started out with us tell me that. Although a global firm, we’re at a scale where you can move on and around the business quickly.

“But the industry is changing, and we need to be at the heart of this digital transformation.” ●

“Educated clients like Hammerson and Landsecs are seeing the asset management and lifecycle benefits of BIM, and lot of funders and REITs are also taking an interest.

“They’re also warming to the benefits of modularisation – chiefly speed and reduced risk,” he adds.

“The perception used to be that modular was too expensive. But because of labour shortages, the costs of traditional versus offsite have come much closer. Three years ago, clients wouldn’t even ask us to compare modular costs against traditional, now we are being asked to run this exercise more commonly.

“Many of these are PRS [private rental sector] clients who are driven

by IRR [internal rate of return], so the faster construction delivery of modular is very appealing to them.”

Gleeds is working on 18 modular schemes across the UK. This includes the world’s tallest modular tower in Croydon, for developer-constructor Tide, plus schemes with L&G and Swan Housing. “Compared to traditional, we’re seeing better quality and safer construction,” Harle says.

Graham Harle CV l Since January 2019: Chief executive officer l 2007-2019: Main board partner l 2000-2007: Equity partner l 1995-1999: Cost manager

Education 1990-1994: Anglia University Quantity Surveying

He subscribes to the view that the traditional tier 1 contracting model is under threat and describes Ray O’Rourke as a “pioneer” for his investment in Laing O’Rourke’s manufacturing capability.

“The digital agenda will only push us further towards offsite,” Harle adds.

“I’ve been to Laing O’Rourke’s factory three times, and watched their digital engineers controlling the production of precast units, precision placing of all the rebar, in a controlled environment.

We work with Laing O’Rourke, mainly in health, and we’ve seen the benefits.”

Digital technology is also changing Gleeds’ workloads across different sectors. Industrial, driven by logistics and warehousing projects, was up

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16/03/2018 10:35

OPINION

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Opinion It is very easy to think that tomorrow will be a materialisation of today: a minor change here and a tweak there and everything will be fine. This has been the case for many professional institutions and clubs for the last few decades.

However, over the next decade, we are likely to see the environment in which professional institutions operate change dramatically for a number of reasons: l Government is becoming increasingly frustrated at the variety of different institutions and trade bodies that represent our industry; l Members are becoming more discerning about the service their professional institution provides them, beyond their core professional qualification; and l The baby boom generation are starting to retire, so to grow revenue professional institutions will need to be more innovative, fleet of foot and commercial.

All organisations are guided by their mission statement, vision and values – and, whatever pressures one faces, it is important to stay true to these. Additionally, we at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) are lucky enough to have a Royal Charter which guides us.

Granted in 1980, its objectives are the promotion for the public benefit of the science and practice of building and construction, and the advancement of public education in the said science and practice including all necessary research and the publication of the results of all such results.

We are also very lucky to have a loyal diverse membership, enviable reputation and strong balance sheet. However, all this could be lost very quickly in today’s fast-moving world, unless we change with the times and ensure the way we operate is relevant to the third decade of the 21st century, in particular: l We differentiate ourselves from other similar organisations, and our research, lobbying and public relations are all well thought through and targeted. We are listened to, because we have a track record of being objective. l We are welcoming to all generations and nationalities. Our body language, oral language and written word is modern and

Mark Beard Vice-president CIOB

What is the future of professional institutions?

THE NEXT DECADE WILL BE CHALLENGING AND EXCITING FOR CONSTRUCTION. THE CIOB SHOULD GRASP THE OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD TO STAY RELEVANT, SAYS MARK BEARD

“An agile, well-respected, member-focused CIOB can be independent and relevant or, if we so wish, the catalyst for bringing various construction professional institutions together”

uses today’s communication platforms as well as yesterday’s. l We are lean and efficient, ensuring members’ subscriptions are spent in an appropriate way – on services, events and opportunities they will use and treasure. l We have a governance and management structure that gives members confidence their interests are fully considered, is transparent and above all effective. Should the key decision-making body be: the elected trustees (as we have at the CIOB at the current time) or a board of executive and non-executive directors, led by an independent chairman, overseen by trustees who focus solely on the bigger picture and governance?

Some of this is difficult. We are in part a members’ organisation, but we also have a public role to fulfil. We are the guardians of hard earned and well-respected qualifications.

Sometimes these roles are complementary, sometimes not.

But the journey of modernisation can be extremely fulfilling; there is always low-hanging fruit to pick and successful change leads to wider organisation buy-in and growing appetite for further change.

Fully grasping the opportunities ahead will allow us to determine our own future. An agile, well-respected, member-focused CIOB can be independent and relevant or, if we so wish, be the catalyst for bringing various construction professional institutions together to form a powerful cross-disciplinary property and construction professionals’ institution.

Resting on our laurels is likely to result in the opposite occurring, with both our membership numbers and influence diminishing. In the language of the jungle, “eat or be eaten”.

The next 10 years are likely to be a challenging and exciting time, for professional institutions and all who earn their living from construction. I look forward to playing my part in grasping the opportunities ahead of us, raising the CIOB profile within our industry and above all continuing to proudly call myself a builder in all facets of my life. ● Mark Beard is chairman of Beard Group and vice-president of the CIOB.

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OPINION

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Using procurement to drive up value Jacqui Glass The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management

A new movement for innovation THE TRANSFORMING CONSTRUCTION NETWORK PLUS IS FINDING NEW WAYS OF THINKING, RESEARCHING AND COLLABORATING, WRITES JACQUI GLASS Just over a year ago, on a chilly wet night in November, 150 industry and academic leaders from all over the UK packed into a lecture theatre to hear about a new programme, the Transforming Construction Network Plus (N+).

Funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Challenge Fund, as part of the Transforming Construction Challenge, the N+ has just 24 months to bring together academic researchers with industry and policy representatives and kick off new ways of thinking, researching and collaborating.

Yes, it’s a tough ask, but well worth the effort.

There’s clear opportunity for construction to innovate and prosper, but unless we see real effort towards transformative change, we face a bleak future of skills shortages, material failures and poor exploitation of new technologies.

And no one wants to see that happen.

The good news is that the N+ has already made strong progress on the ground. More than 1,850 people have engaged directly with us, which is critical, because we can re-orient their energies towards a more collaborative, cross-disciplinary and engaged style of invention and exploration.

But we need to provoke significant change, and we all know that’s no easy task. That’s why the N+ is hosting ‘Discovery Days’ – multidisciplinary skills-building events to encourage ‘discipline-hopping’, a proven mechanism to provoke innovation – bringing expertise and insights from across the world via international free-to-view webinars on business models and industrial transformation, and convening major conferences to showcase new thinking and practices.

Right now, we are focused on allocating the final phase of our £1m investment in new

“There’s clear opportunity for construction to innovate and prosper, but unless we see real effort towards transformative change, we face a bleak future” research projects which cover issues identified by the Transforming Construction Challenge.

The first phase supported projects on interoperability, user experience, space tech for hospitals and performance improvement, and included six UK industry partners.

Changing business models Reflecting on how far we have come, one of the most pleasing moments occurred very recently. Once underway, it became obvious that, while everyone knows that construction needs a new ‘business model’, no one could agree on what that term means. The N+ team decided to create an easy-to-read digest, for businesses, to understand the subject, and provide a structure for exploring how business models can be changed for the better.

The digest, which can be downloaded from the N+ page on The Bartlett’s website, launched in October 2019, receiving immediate plaudits from senior industry figures. We’re planning more during 2020, so watch this space. ● Jacqui Glass is professor in construction management, The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management; vice dean research, UCL Faculty of the Built Environment; principal investigator, Transforming Construction Network Plus.

A new procurement model which will help clients make value-based decisions is being tested on projects in 2020.

Ann Bentley explains The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) helped shape the Construction Sector Deal, which includes £170m of government funding and recognition of construction as an essential enabler of prosperity.

This level of resource, over a four-year period, means that programmes of research and development can be planned and executed in a much less ad-hoc way than in the past.

The focus of my CLC workstream has been to consider how procurement can be used as a lever to drive up value, rather than, what is often the case, a means of finding the cheapest way of meeting a minimum set of compliance standards. Following wide consultation, we determined that the causes of poor procurement practices include fear of challenge, lack of knowledge, lack of time and a desire to minimise client risk. But the biggest single factor was a confusion between price and value – and where these are understood, the lack of a robust way of assessing value.

Our objective is to develop a procurement model which gives a systematic framework in which different elements – such as capital cost and end user satisfaction – can be brought together, compared and refined, thus enabling an optimum solution to be developed which delivers maximum value to the client.

This work is being taken forward by the Construction Innovation Hub – which was established as part of the Construction Sector Deal, working with the CLC, professional institutions, trade bodies and companies across the sector. The model will assist clients at every stage of the project, enabling them to make value-based decisions on what and how they procure, which should lead to improved decision-making and behavioural change.

The system uses the established model of the Five Capitals – Financial, Manufactured, Social, Human and Natural – as its framework, backed up by metrics taken from existing credible sources with supporting benchmark data. Our development programme will see this being tested on projects during 2020 and available to the whole industry in 2021.

Ann Bentley is a global director of Rider Levett Bucknall and a member of the Construction Leadership Council.

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OPINION

constructionmanagermagazine.com

How armed forces benefit the built environment

Caroline Gumble CIOB

Remember our public interest purpose LACK OF SUPPORT FOR CONSTRUCTION HAS A WIDE IMPACT ON SOCIETY. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK WITH INDUSTRY GROUPS TO HELP US DELIVER BETTER BUILDINGS, SAYS CAROLINE GUMBLE

Many members will know that we published a ‘blogifesto’ – a manifesto in the form of a blog – before the general election. One thing we called for was that quality must not be compromised in the name of cost or time. Poor buildings and infrastructure have consequences for our health and wellbeing and burden the economy. We want government to support industry efforts to build better, by maintaining and improving existing standards.

In terms of practising what we preach, we have worked with the industry working groups established as part of the Hackitt Review following the tragic Grenfell fire in 2017. The shocking deaths of 72 people and the impact on those who survived the fire and on the local community still resonate with many and will drive safety improvements in high-rise buildings.

However, there are other, less high-profile, parts of the industry where we need to help raise awareness of the risks to life. I don’t want to make a clumsy comparison between the loss of life as the result of the Grenfell fire and the loss of life in other areas but some of the figures are striking.

Did you know, for example, that cases of Legionnaires’ disease are on the rise. I was

shocked to hear that in the period between 2014-2016 there were 77 deaths as a result of Legionnaires’ disease in England and Wales.

I was told this by Kevin Wellman, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, at the Local Authority Building Control (LABC) president’s reception last autumn. He went on to tell me about another worrying rise in the number of avoidable scalding and burn injuries.

His comment was that there’s an urgent “need to address the dangers that poorly designed or maintained systems can bring”, going on to make the case that the industry needs to be better equipped with knowledge and expertise.

My call to action to address these serious issues is to reiterate and widen one of the other key calls in our manifesto – the new government must offer real leadership for our sector. The housing and construction ministers must work with us to understand the pressures our industry faces, the impact the lack of support for our industry has on society and work with us and other industry bodies to make meaningful progress. We require our new government to be more engaged and help us tackle the real issues in this sector. ● Caroline Gumble is CEO of the CIOB.

Keeping learning flexible and accessible encourages ex services personnel to bring their valuable skills to construction, writes Andy Dodson Armed forces personnel are extremely valuable to the built environment. Well known for their commitment, skill and discipline, as well as their ability to focus under stressful situations, they hold many transferable skills such as project management, leadership, problem solving and teamworking.

At University College of Estate Management (UCEM), we have a long history of armed forces personnel and veterans studying for our qualifications. When war broke out in 1939, the College of Estate Management (as it was known) delivered correspondence courses to over 13,000 servicemen at home and abroad.

The college also worked with the British Red Cross to deliver courses to British servicemen being kept as prisoners of war across Europe.

In the last three years, more than 60 service personnel or veterans have enrolled on one of our programmes.

Now an apprenticeship programme delivery manager with UCEM, I studied a BSc (Hons) in construction management while serving with the Royal Engineers in places such as Afghanistan and Kenya. I was well supported by my tutors and the wider UCEM team. The online resources were invaluable; distance was not a problem.

We want to make sure that we continue to make built environment qualifications accessible to all. UCEM recently signed the Armed Forces Covenant, a pledge that acknowledges that those who serve or have served in the armed forces should be treated with fairness and respect. We have just received the bronze award from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme to prove our ongoing dedication to this pledge.

Our partnership with the armed forces continues to strengthen. We are working with Lendlease to deliver five online training modules about the industry for veterans, part of the CITB’s Pathways into Construction programme with BuildForce. These will provide a way for ex-personnel to gain an oversight of different areas of the industry before making an informed decision about which to focus on.

Andy Dodson is an apprenticeship delivery programme manager at the University College of Estate Management. To find out more please visit www.ucem.ac.uk/armedforces.

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by managing your hotel bookings

OPINION

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Six construction regulatory issues looming in 2020, p46

THEFeedback FACE OF INTELLIGENT BUILDING

Rose Builders was fined £225,000 after groundworker David Scott Green was killed by an overturned dumper in 2016

A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from www.constructionmanagermagazine.com DERWENT LONDON’S WHITE COLLAR FACTORY holding the grandfather CM 19/11 CM 20/11 NEAR EAST LONDON IS rights card, we then had Risk-based ‘Competence interviews’ AN OFFICE FOR THE to sit21ST an industry-set test combustibles ban call for CPCSCENTURY. cards AS JAMES KENNY proving our ability in the workplace.

REPORTS, THE THREEChris Pateman Simon Nicholls because some people CURTAIN Just WALLING Be careful what you’re Surely thisELEMENT move by NOCN do not THE hold the vocational KEY TOthat DELIVERING wishing for. Before you start – a privateIS company qualification does not mean ENVIRONMENTAL endorsing blanket bans on now ownsLATEST and runs the they are not competent. modern materials, remember CPCS scheme – flies in the PRINCIPLES. I have been operating plant why we have them in the first place – they were developed as a response to clients’ discontentment with the shortcomings of traditional materials.

Let’s not call for emotive bans. Let’s call, rather, for high-quality, science-based evidence upon which professional specifiers can base procurement approaches which satisfy customer requirements.

Construction professionals – not pressure groups like the Fire Protection Association (FPA), and certainly not politicians – are the best people to design the best properties.

To do so, they need more, not less, choice of materials.

face of what the scheme is supposed to promote: a fully qualified workforce.

CPCS operators have had over 13 years to become qualified and have until 2024 to do so. If trades, occupational work supervisors, managers etc are required to prove their competency, consistency and knowledge through the undertaking of nationally recognised NVQ assessments, not through grandfather rights, why would plant operators be treated differently?

Not sure, but it seems wholly unfair and simply not right if we want a trained, qualified, verifiable and safe workforce.

Robert Russell It is good to see some sense.

What has been forgotten is that after five years of

for over 40 years. Does this mean that I am somehow sub-standard to someone who has only operated for two years and holds a piece of paper that says ‘Level 2’?

We are struggling to recruit good operators. At least this concession will keep the operators we have within the industry.

Richard Moore How on earth is a death worth £225,000 when a redundancy payout in the NHS can be as much as £400,000? Something in our judicial system and morality is not quite right here.

CM 25/11 Central asbestos register Darren

£225,000 dumper death fine

If the think-tank research identified six million tonnes of asbestos over 1.5 million buildings why are they not producing the register? They obviously have access to the expertise and presumably have had access to the buildings. Is this just an extrapolation, or worse still “scaremongering”?

Denis Lawler

Alan

Again we are reading the loss of another construction worker. Where is the prison sentence?

Good site management will not allow dumpers to travel up spoil heaps. Tip all muck at the base then the 360 machine pulls the muck into a proper tidy heap.

If building owners, for both public and private buildings, were compliant with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 then compiling a central register would be a very simple process. However, sadly many are failing to fulfil their legal duty (most notably

CM 22/11

under Regulation 4) and that does not seem to be recognised within the think tank’s recommendations, and that is a fundamental omission.

Also, in my opinion, the research seems to have unrealistic targets by saying that all asbestos should be removed. Many buildings have asbestos containing materials (ACMs) within the structure so total building renewal would be the only option.

This would be unaffordable and in many cases totally unnecessary.

In addition I doubt that the HSE would support “removing all asbestos”, as removal creates a degree of risk. The correct thing to do is to prioritise risk and only remove or encapsulate ACMs which present risk rather than creating an overreaction to a manageable problem.

Provide your own feedback on latest industry issues by posting comments online at www.constructionmanagermagazine.com or by emailing the editor at construction-manager@atompublishing.co.uk

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TECHNICAL

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Technical

WILLMOTT DIXON’S PLYMOUTH PILGRIMAGE A NEW CULTURAL CENTRE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN PLYMOUTH WILL MARK THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAYFLOWER CARRYING THE PILGRIM FATHERS TO AMERICA. WILL MANN REPORTS

All eyes will be on Plymouth in 2020, as the Devon city marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower departure, when the pilgrim fathers sailed for America.

The ‘flagship’ of the celebrations will be The Box: a new 3,500 sq m cultural centre which is being created by revamping the existing City Museum and Art Gallery on Tavistock Place, along with St Luke’s Church opposite, and creation of a public piazza in between.

Willmott Dixon is main contractor for the £23m scheme. Challenges includes extensive heritage works on the Edwardian-era museum and 19th century church, plus upskilling of the local supply chain on a project where 79% of the spend comes from within the PL postcode.

The most striking visual feature is the new-build extension to the museum, particularly the 8.5m cantilever on the upper two storeys – a ‘floating box’ 10m above ground level, clad in stainless steel and aluminium panels. This 1,000 sq m building, standing 18m tall, is arranged over five split levels plus a basement and, unusually for a museum, its archive will be on the top floor.

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TECHNICAL

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Technical story for CM? Email will.m@atompublishing.co.uk

“The location of the archive is key to the project and how it has been built,” explains Kristian Cartwright, Willmott Dixon project manager. “Museum archives are normally in basements or off site completely, but Plymouth City Council have an incredible historical archive, and wanted it to be visible at the heart of the new cultural centre.

“To achieve the right climatic conditions, we’ve had to build the archive as a 300mm-thick concrete box, and so the whole new-build extension is a reinforced concrete frame structure.

Building this box has shaped our construction methodology.”

Cartwright began working on the project three years ago, at the start of a lengthy enabling works phase. Willmott Dixon was appointed through the SCF framework to the first stage tender in August 2016, signing a preconstruction agreement, and was then awarded the contract in June 2017.

The enabling works included considerable groundworks and demolition challenges [see box], and this phase eventually rolled over into the main contract.

The contract agreement includes four sectional handovers. The first two of these – one for the existing museum building, the other for the church – have centred on repairs to the ageing structures and heritage works (see box, p27).

Section three is the extension. The reinforced concrete frame structure sits on a roughly 10m grid, with beefy 600mm square concrete columns, to support the archive level. There are two cores, containing stairs and lift shafts, with shear walls which run all the way up to the roof.

“There are strict performance requirements for the archive,” says Cartwright. “The 300mm thick concrete walls, soffit and floor give a four-hour fire rating and an airtightness rating of less than 0.05 [cu m/hour/sq m].”

He notes that steel would not have been an option for the structural material: “It wouldn’t have given the fire integrity or airtightness.”

The cantilever extends to 8.5m at its maximum depth, tapering back into the building over 20m of the eastern elevation, facing the pedestrianised

“To achieve the right climatic conditions, we’ve had to build the archive as a 300mm-thick concrete box” Kristian Cartwright, Willmott Dixon

Project factfile Client: Plymouth City Council Main contractor: Willmott Dixon Value: £23m Contract form: JCT traditional with bill of quantities Programme: August 2016: preconstruction starts June 2017: main construction contract starts December 2019: main contract completed Spring 2020: completion of fit out Heritage contractors: Masonry: Westcountry Stonemasons Drywall and acoustics: DDF Stained glass windows: Glasswood Lime plaster: MPC Plaster mouldings: FH Crocker

Opposite: The cantilevered ‘floating box’ Left: A new public piazza will be created

Building on a bomb site The legacy of Plymouth’s wartime bombing and post-war redevelopment complicated The Box’s enabling works phase.

“The post-war museum extension, rebuilt after the bombing, was constructed straight on top of bombed material, which at the time was classed as granular fill,” explains Cartwright. “So we had to put in temporary piling to create a backwall, which effectively acts as permanent formwork.

“The same work was required in the church, where all columns sat on the ground, so we installed pad foundations.”

The Box sits on shillet, a hard local stone, so the Odex piling system was used.

“This piling design is popular in Devon due to the ground conditions,” says Cartwright. “It comprises a steel sheath, hammered into the ground, with every fourth pile an anchor pile.

“Caps and beams were added on top of the beams around the perimeter of the new build extension.

“We also changed the base of the tower crane design to suit the ground conditions, using Odex piles in two clusters of eight on one side, with a ground bearing slab on the other side.”

Demolition of the post-war extension also involved considerable asbestos removal, while an 18th-century culvert, which was discovered under the site, required remedial works.

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TECHNICAL

6,273

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Some 2,614 cu m of concrete – 6,273 tonnes – were used for the concrete structure.

“We could have gone around the country finding specialists with heritage skills, but we wanted to enrich the local supply chain, upskilling where necessary” Kristian Cartwright, Willmott Dixon

Tavistock Place. The cantilever also wraps around the building’s southern elevation, where it extends to 2.5m.

“The concrete in the cantilevered sections required higher than usual rebar,” explains Cartwright.

Although the concrete sections have been painted white, the designers were anxious to achieve a consistent finish.

“We used a special, self-compacting mix, with a 10mm aggregate to avoid day joints,” Cartwright says. “Peri’s plywood formwork was used, in sections up to 7.5m long, to ensure a fair-faced finish. Our concrete contractors Stephensons carried out the pour in a single day.”

Some 2,614 cu m of concrete – 6,273 tonnes – were used for the concrete structure.

To the eye, the new build joins on to the existing 1905 museum seamlessly – both internally and externally – but it is structurally independent.

“At the north end of the new build, there is a 5m cantilever which takes each floor up to the wall of the existing library, and soft finishes then tie the two together,” explains Cartwright. Original windows from the old southern elevation of the museum have been retained, now providing a view through to the new extension.

For the cladding on the upper floors of the extension, Kingspan’s QuadCore insulated panel system has been used.

Three-quarters of these are aluminium panels, the remainder mirrored Rimex stainless-steel panels, each measuring

Above right: The archive is visible through rooflights on level four Below: Whitewashed columns and walls give an airy feel to the interior

approximately 600mm by 600mm. The 2,500 panels, with four different finishes, have been arranged to represent the many pages of the archive inside.

“The panels fix on to mullions on the QuadCore system, installed manually using cherry pickers,” says Cartwright.

The lower levels of the facade feature 340 sq m (82 tonnes) of locally quarried Plymouth limestone, giving a marble effect, plus glazing where the threestorey atrium faces the new piazza.

Here, the glazing panels are supported by horizontal steel beams which span between the vertical concrete columns.

The flat roof uses a polyroof system and is also where most of the M&E plant is located. Inside, all the structural columns and walls have been painted

white, giving a clean, airy feel to the interior. Looking up, the archive floor is clearly visible through rooflights on level four, as intended by the client. The basement has a chiller and freezer for storage of film.

Some internal fixings have been required for the exhibits, including steel hanging points in the atrium ceiling for ship figureheads.

“These are attached to the concrete slab above through the 600mm services void in the ceiling,” says Cartwright.

“The largest, King Billy, is 5m tall – it was the figurehead for 19th century warship HMS Royal William.”

The interior fixtures and finishings include frameless glass balustrades and polished concrete floors and Cartwright says quality in the detailing has been a top priority.

“At the start of the project, we had to run thorough quality training to upskill all our suppliers on our standards and protocols, devoting the same amount of time we’d spend on health and safety,” he explains. “Where necessary we have put suppliers on our own internal management courses.

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TECHNICAL

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Conserving heritage The Box project has involved extensive heritage works to the Edwardian museum building and St Luke’s Church “The client’s mantra for the project is ‘by Plymouth for Plymouth’, but there is a limited trade and labour pool down here, so it was harder finding suppliers who could work to our usual standards.

“We could have gone around the country finding specialists with heritage skills, but we wanted to enrich the local supply chain, upskilling where necessary.”

Cartwright adds that Willmott Dixon has provided 843 weeks of onsite training for 35 work experience placements and 28 apprentices.

Willmott Dixon’s contract completed in December. Final works included the new piazza, with a further 19 tonnes of local limestone used for planters.

Installation of exhibits in the new extension by the client’s fit-out contractor will follow, a process already underway in the Edwardian-era museum and the church. These include a scale model of the Mayflower itself.

The archive, which houses documents such as Sir Francis Drake’s privateer commission from Queen Elizabeth I, will be open for public tours monthly.

The Box is scheduled to open in spring 2020. ●

The restored Edwardian interior

Aluminium and mirrored stainless steel panels make up the cladding

Heritage works to the existing museum and St Luke’s Church have been a key part of The Box project.

The post-war extension was demolished, but the Edwardian facade of the museum has been retained, which meant erection of a temporary works structure over a section of about 10m.

“Because of the tight site constraints, this had to be integrated into the scaffolding system – a structure of I-beams and scaffold poles – and allow space for the demolition behind it,” explains Cartwright.

“A problem was where to thread the I-beams, as there were only ‘tax windows’ on this elevation, and we had to avoid aesthetically important masonry such as the key stones. We had to select stones that were not such an important heritage consideration and drilled through these for the I-beams.”

The glass roof of the original library had to be removed and reconstructed with structural steel, and a temporary roof was constructed to protect features such as the wood panelling in the interior.

“We had to build up a birdcage scaffold from ground level, up 18m to where the steelwork starts for the new roof, back propped through every floor,” explains Cartwright.

Conservation work on the roof included new lead parapet capping, relining of gutters, fitting bird nesting deterrents

and repointing of the stonework with lime mortar. “Cementitious material had been used in previous repairs,” says Cartwright.

Inside, the M&E systems had been externally mounted, causing damage to the decorative plaster and flooring.

“The plaster mouldings were assessed by a conservation surveyor, and where possible, kept in situ,” says Cartwright. “Some mouldings had rotted completely and these were replaced, moulded by a local company.”

New services installations have been fitted, partially concealed through use of voids. The parquet and terrazzo floors were sanded back and resealed.

The interior walls were covered in a stretched hessian canvas. This was removed along with the damaged tongue-and-groove batons and timber plugs which held it in place. The walls were skimmed, with new batons and 4,000 proprietary anchor fixings used to fix the hessian back to the masonry.

The church, which dates from 1829 but was deconsecrated in the 1960s, also required a temporary works structure during the roof repairs.“This was another large scaffold bird cage, which allowed us to remove the timber and plasterboard ceiling – added during past repairs – and install a new steel frame to support the existing trusses,” explains Cartwright. “Extra steel trusses were fitted for new art installations.”

A mezzanine floor was added, on top of the existing cast iron columns.

“To support the extra loading, we constructed new pad foundations under each column (there were none before), fitted a narrow steel reinforcement cage inside the hollow columns, then filled up each column with grout,” says Cartwright.

“This allowed the mezzanine load to go directly down into foundations.”

During the structural work, ceiling and timber mouldings were removed, logged, and stored on site, to be re-installed on completion of the refurbishment works.

The stained glass windows were also taken out to be repaired and re-leaded.

“Externally, we hacked off and re-rendered the principal facade – the decorating mouldings had to be replaced,” adds Cartwright. “Again, cementitious material had been used in past repairs, causing condensation problems. This was replaced with a lime mortar which will allow the facade to breathe.”

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INFRASTRUCTURE

constructionmanagermagazine.com

Infrastructure

A birdcage scaffold marquee, built by access specialist Palmers, protects the archaeology

HISTORY MEETS INNOVATION ON EUSTON HS2 ENABLING WORKS THE BIGGEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG IN BRITISH HISTORY IS BENEFITING FROM CLEVER ENGINEERING AND ECO-FRIENDLY CONSTRUCTION PLANT. CM REPORTS FROM EUSTON Before the bridges are built, tunnels dug and tracks laid, the largest archaeological programme in Europe will take place along the route of HS2. Over a two-year period, more than 1,000 archaeologists are exploring over 60 sites as part of HS2’s enabling works, revealing over 10,000 years of British history.

The biggest of these is at the site of Euston’s proposed HS2 terminus. St James’s Gardens, off the Hampstead Road, was London’s largest burial ground, where an estimated 61,000 bodies were buried in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it sits almost entirely within the footprint of the station.

Starting in summer 2017, the Costain Skanska joint venture (CSJV), which is managing the £480m HS2 south enabling works contract, has been carrying out a programme of archaeology within the burial ground. As well as uncovering history, the work has been a catalyst for construction innovation, with up to 200 archaeologists and site workers side by

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INFRASTRUCTURE

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“This was assembled without a crane. Everything was erected on a working platform and rolled out on the spine beams using a bespoke series of rollers and a winch” Caroline Raynor, CSJV

side on the 15,000 sq m site. Some 15,128 human remains have been recovered, with 34,622 cu m of material removed as part of the earthworks operation.

CSJV principal archaeologist Caroline Raynor describes the work as “archaeology on an unprecedented scale”. She is based in the site office, where the former National Temperance Hospital was located prior to its demolition, and says her job is “a bridge between engineering and archaeology”.

An example of this is the giant birdcage scaffold marquee that was erected to encapsulate the work – a “cathedral to archaeology”, as Raynor puts it.

The 110m x 90m weatherproof structure, almost as big as Euston station, was designed by temporary works engineer RDG and constructed from system scaffold by access specialist Palmers.

The birdcage roof was supported by 15 modular scaffold towers, fitted into foundation bases 6.4m deep, and 300m of spine beams, with spans up to 37m.

“This was assembled without a crane,” says Raynor. “Everything was erected on a working platform and rolled out on the spine beams using a bespoke series of rollers and a winch which pulled the entire tent structure into position. The spine beams run from one end of the marquee to the other.”

This methodology avoided 4,000 hours of manual handling and 9,000 hours of working at height, adds Raynor.

There are sustainable considerations too. The system scaffold is being

returned to the market after dismantling of the marquee. The inside of the structure was fitted with LED lighting and charging points were fitted to the scaffold towers for electric plant. “It saved them going off site to recharge their batteries,” says Raynor.

The dig has been constrained by neighbours including Network Rail, houses and hotels, and the Northern Line 23m down. “Excavations have been made to a depth of 6.2m, following drilling of trial holes, which is unusually deep for a burial ground,” Raynor says.

“There is also a weight limit on plant due to the likely presence of voids.

White noise showed up during surveys which is probably from crypts in the burial grounds.”

To minimise emissions, CSJV is using seven one-tonne electric ‘ride-on’ mini dumpers, supplied by hirer L Lynch, part of a fleet of eco-friendly machines on the project (see box).

Though the electric plant makes for a healthier working environment, CSJV has had to monitor workers’ blood for lead levels, after finding 286 lead coffins on the site. “About 50% of the 110 archaeologists

Eco machines at Euston

2

.5 tonne electric 3 dumpers

5

1.5 tonne electric excavators

5

lectric track e barrows

1

2 1 tonne hybrid excavator

7

electric power barrows

7 1 1

electric vans

electric minibus

lectric e roadsweeper

The 110m x 90m temporary building is almost as big as Euston station

on the site are female and lead poisoning kicks in earlier for women,” says Raynor.

The archaeological finds provide a glimpse of how local people lived, worked and died in Victorian Britain, with cultural artefacts including fabrics and remains of floral tributes, some still green, inside the mix of lead, tin, iron and copper coffins. Skeletons reflect the medicine of the time, showing signs of rudimentary amputation and dentistry.

The highest-profile discovery was the remains of Captain Matthew Flinders, the Royal Navy explorer who led the first circumnavigation of Australia, who will be reburied in his home village of Donington, Lincolnshire.

“The other human remains will be reburied respectfully at a location to be announced by HS2,” says Raynor.

This main phase of the archaeological works is drawing to a close at Euston, with the marquee dismantled and the earthworks almost complete. However, as the station was partially built over the burial ground, Raynor says more bodies “may be found under platforms 17 and 18 when we start digging in that area”.

“It is unclear what happened to the skeletons in the eastern part of the burial ground during the first expansion of Euston station,” she says. “We’ll be carrying out further archaeological investigations.”

Meanwhile, archaeological digs will continue on the HS2 route through to the end of 2020. At the Curzon Street station site in Birmingham, 70 archaeologists completed the excavation of another 19th century burial ground last year, unearthing 6,500 skeletons.

Other planned digs include a Romano-British town in Fleet Marston, Aylesbury, the remains of a medieval manor in Warwickshire, a 1,000-year-old demolished Anglo-Saxon church and burial ground in Buckinghamshire, and a Second World War bombing decoy in Lichfield, Staffordshire. ● CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 29

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HS2 SPEEDS UP WITH DIGITAL EARTHWORKS THE EIFFAGE KIER JV IS PIONEERING THE LATEST DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY FOR EARTHMOVING ON AN 80KM STRETCH OF HS2.

PETER HADDOCK VISITED THE SITE

A Blackwell Caterpillar 352F LME mass excavation excavator fitted with Trimble Earthworks

On a site near Southam in Warwickshire, the latest digital technology is being used to plan and execute a va s t m u c k s h i f t , p o te n t i a l l y a transformative approach to major infrastructure projects.

This is the 23ha ‘heave monitoring site’, part of the Eiffage Kier JV’s civil engineering contract for HS2,

which extends along 80km of the route, between the Chiltern Tunnel in Buckinghamshire and Long Itchington Wood close to Southam.

Contractor Blackwell is currently on site, with a fleet of 17 earthworks machines performing different roles, each equipped with GPS technical receivers and other digital technology,

while overhead, a drone is used to survey the site (see boxes p31).

The site aims to gain a better understanding of ground movements and map the behaviour of heave in clays when excavation occurs. Eiffage Kier has drilled 34 boreholes across the site, each housing specialist sensors that will constantly monitor and measure

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Machines are fitted with GPS sensors

“Because we used Microsoft cloud technology, we were able to make it simple to use and easy to access from lots of connected devices” Ian Stewart, Finning

sub-millimetre movements in the ground. This information is mapped against the daily excavation, using GPS location data, to provide the Eiffage Kier engineers with critical insight as to how the ground is behaving as it is unloaded.

Engineers use this data to validate assumptions and model various heave scenarios. Once the excavation phase is completed, the data will be used to design heave mitigation measures, using engineered materials and different compaction level tests.

Eiffage Kier’s DIGGER concept The site is also a real-world test for Eiffage Kier’s ‘DIGGER’ concept, which stands for digital graphical earthworks reporting. It uses 3D machine control for the digging and payload technology to measure material excavated, which is then tagged using in-cab controls.

The aim is to optimise performance of the load-and-haul fleet and the progress of grading and compaction operations.

This is monitored through regular productivity alerts, such as for under or over loading of trucks, while other data is generated on machine performance and health, fuel use and carbon emissions.

Digital tech on site

David Lowery, executive director of Eiffage Kier, explains: “DIGGER is all about taking a step back and looking at every little bit of data that is created and captured for the project. It takes into account the ability to capture and process data now and the flexibility to adapt to new data inputs as future innovations are created, turning data into useful real-time information.”

DIGGER has been developed by Eiffage Kier with Caterpillar dealer Finning UK & Ireland, a project which began when the JV bid for the HS2 contract in 2015.

Ian Stewart, general manager of performance solutions at Finning, says: “We knew the challenges Eiffage Kier would be facing with delivering their section of the HS2 project, with earthworks volumes of up to 32 million cu m of cut and fill for its 80km section.”

Finning’s solution, a digital platform called my.finning.com, aims for a new level of operational performance, says Stewart.

“Sitting in the cloud and built around Microsoft Azure software, the platform was purposely built in a modular format, so it could be added to over time,” he explains. “Because we used Microsoft cloud technology, we were able to make it simple to use and easy to access from lots of connected devices.

“The system pulls in data from lots of different sources, to create insight and operational context for the end user, to help them make adjustments and improvements to operations.”

There are currently 17 Blackwell machines on site at Southam: l Six Caterpillar and two Volvo ADTs (articulated dump trucks), fitted with GPS and payload monitoring technology.

l Two Caterpillar ‘mass excavation’ excavators, buckets fitted with GPS-enabled 3D Trimble Earthworks grade control platform, with in-cab colour touchscreen control (pictured) and the Trimble Loadrite software.

Using drones for site surveys Three separate flights are required for the weekly survey of the 23ha Southam site The Southam site is surveyed every week by drone to check the earthworks progress.

This can be appreciated by taking a drive round the site in an adapted 4x4, with sophisticated drone equipment. The vehicle also has its own Trimble GPS receiver on the roof and a Trimble Siteworks tablet in the passenger seat.

With this technology, it is possible to view the live earthworks model from any location on the site, using a colour touchscreen display to change perspectives.

Drone flights require two operatives: a spotter and a controller. As birds of prey, which are known to attack drones, are present at the Southam site, the spotter on

the Eiffage Kier site needs to keep a close eye on their movements.

When conditions are safe, the drone is programmed to fly over the whole site, mapping the dig area and two stockpiles, for topsoil and subsoil respectively.

At 23ha, this site is so big that the drone has to make three separate flights to complete the survey.

Once the weekly survey flight is complete, the drone data is uploaded into the Trimble Stratus Drone surveying platform, which helps surveyors and project managers visualise the project on a week by week basis.

The team are currently achieving 18mm accuracy with the drone data.

l Two Caterpillar dozers, which have also been fitted with the 3D Trimble Earthworks system. l Caterpillar motor grader for haul road maintenance. l Caterpillar compactor with Trimble compaction control system.

l Two medium Caterpillar excavators, with Trimble Earthworks, for final trimming works and digging drainage ditches. l One Trimble Siteworks enabled 4x4 site vehicle, enabling 3D site monitoring from the vehicle.

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Blackwell’s six Caterpillar 745 ADTs have been fitted with GPS and payload monitoring technology

How the system works The process starts with the creation of a digital 3D model, using Trimble Business Center software, supported by the Trimble Tilos project planning software.

The systems manipulate data received from the earthmoving machines, drone flights and other surveying equipment, to help surveyors and engineers understand what has been dug, when it was dug, where the material went and how it impacted the overall schedule.

The data is then used to create digital layers of each week’s progress that can be overlaid to show an ‘as dug’ map of the site in less than 12 hours. This can then be compared against machine control data received from the machines, providing a check and balance for the site’s progress.

The my.finning.com platform takes all the information from these platforms and puts it into one place to provide a realtime view of the earthworks operation.

This feeds into the machine-controlled data required by the excavators and dozers on site for the next day. Utilising two-way communication, the machines receive and update the model through the GPS cloud-based Trimble Connected Community solution. With all of the systems connected, there is no possibility that excavator and dozer operators will be working on an old version of the plan.

Technology for operators For the excavator drivers, additional in-cab technology is also provided, to understand what excavated material is going where on the site. This means each bucket loaded into an ADT needs to be tagged. This is particularly important for the wider project when it comes to the traceability of any contaminated soils that need to be remediated.

Finning integrated Trimble Loadrite software into my.finning.com. This uses an in-cab touch button control to identify the type of material the operator is loading. This data is matched with the

In numbers: Eiffage Kier’s HS2 civil engineering contract

80km

Chiltern Tunnel to Long Itchington Wood

17

viaducts

7km

of green tunnels

22km

of road diversions

75

overbridges

32m

cubic metres of excavation for earthworks contractor Blackwell

47m

cubic metres of material to move

70m

tonnes of material will have been excavated by the end of the project

GPS location of the truck being loaded.

The load is then tracked along the haul road until the material is dumped, with a location reference for each load. Each truck and excavator also has onboard payload monitoring, so the volume of earth moved is calculated automatically.

Patrick McClure, Finning’s performance solution consultant, says: “My relationship has changed with the operators. Having met them all and shown them the data I get from the machine, we are now working together as a team to keep the machines healthy and performing to their maximum capability.

“This teamwork has continued as we have been introducing the new Cat Inspect app, which is a smartphone application that can help them carry out daily checks on the machine. They can log any issues they have with their machine and even take pictures of any damage or component wear. By being able to make general notes, they can also give me their thoughts on any slight changes in machine performance or responsiveness.”

“A great example of this was spotting a simple hydraulic leak, which was caused by a worn hose. By having the operator feedback to us that the

“We have been introducing the new Cat Inspect app, which is a smartphone application that can help operators carry out daily checks on the machine” Patrick McClure, Finning

machine had changed in performance, we checked the machine and found the problem, avoiding a big oil clean-up, longer repair and machine downtime.”

Data from machines, models and drones is also combined with localised weather reports to create a ‘delay register’. Everyone with access to the system can look at daily and historic data linked to weather conditions and what happened on site, so the team can spot trends and plan for delays.

So when it comes to work in awful weather, site managers in the future will be able to weigh up the costs involved with productivity losses, potential excessive wear on machines and increased fuel burn, and safety, to see if it pays to work on those days. ●

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10/12/2019 15:02

Hundreds of the best jobs in construction.

Recruitment news and insight.

Employers seeking CIOB members. www.constructionmanagerjobs.co.uk

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TURNING THE TIDE ON CONSTRUCTION TRANSPORT THE £4.9BN TIDEWAY TUNNEL IS USING RIVER TRANSPORT TO CUT ROAD CONGESTION AND REDUCE THE PROJECT’S IMPACT ON LONDON’S AIR QUALITY. CM REPORTS

Tideway is London’s latest giant infrastructure project and the spoil excavated will total a staggering 3.7 million tonnes, of which 3.1 million will come from the 25km-long and 7m-wide main tunnel. Transporting all this material by road would normally mean chaos on the capital’s roads and pollution choking the air.

“Construction traffic not only adds to congestion, it poses a risk to the safety of other road users and pedestrians and can have a significant impact on local air quality,” says Daniel Marsh, from King’s College London’s Environmental Research Group, which provides air quality information and research in the UK. However, the £4.9bn Tideway scheme is taking a different logistics

Tideway’s fleet of barges transports spoil from the tunnel to riverside receptor sites

approach – transporting over 95% of the spoil from the tunnel and riparian sites via the Thames.

This was a contractual obligation on the ‘super sewer’ scheme and Tideway says it is investing £54m in its ‘More By River’ strategy.

The spoil is being taken away using a fleet of over 25 barges, which are towed by tugs chiefly to landfill sites downstream. As well as freeing up roads, Tideway says a study it has commissioned indicates that transporting materials by river has reduced the impact of the project on London’s air quality.

“One of our largest 1,600-tonne barges, for example, can carry as much material as almost 100 lorries,” explains Tideway head of environmental sustainability Darren White. “This has obvious benefits for cyclists, pedestrians and other road users.

“But beyond that, the new data shows that Tideway’s use of the river has dramatic effects on the impact of its work on air quality.”

Compared to a modern HGV carrying the equivalent cargo, a tug towing a 1,000-tonne barge will produce up to 95% fewer pollutants (see box).

The tugs are diesel powered, though White says Tideway is “looking into cleaner technology for the engines”.

“The air quality benefits of using tugs and barges [instead of lorries] increases when larger barges are used,” he adds.

“Tideway’s barges range in capacity from between 800 and 1,600 tonnes.”

The dispersion of emissions from the tugs was also analysed. A comparison of the average tug emission rate with the emission rate from 50 HGVs travelling at 20km/h found the lorries to be 2.3 times higher, Tideway says.

“The study found that average emissions from tug ‘Felix’ contributed less than 0.13µg/cu m to concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, even at locations very close to the tug,” says White. “The European standard for nitrogen dioxide levels is 40µg/cu m.” (The concentration of an air pollutant is measured in micrograms – one-millionth of a gram – per cubic metre of air, or µg/cu m.)

White continues: “Given that the tugs will generally travel at distances greater than 50m from the bank of the Thames – and therefore from the closest receptors – the contribution to nitrogen dioxide concentrations from tug emissions at this distance is just 0.01µg/cu m.”

Overall, Tideway’s use of the river to transport materials has reduced its on-road freight requirement by 72%, a significant reduction in pollution exposure risk for London’s population.

Meanwhile, the excavated spoil will end up at riverside receptor sites in Rainham, Ingrebourne Valley, East Tilbury and Pitsea, with the majority being used for landfill restoration.

Work on Tideway, which started in 2015 and is now under way at all 24 of its sites across London, is anticipated to be completed in 2024. ●

Reduction in pollution: barge transport vs HGVs

90% less carbon dioxide

95%

less carbon monoxide

86% less nitric oxide

54% less nitrogen oxides

Comparison between a modern standard Euro VI HGV, carrying the equivalent cargo, and a tug with 75% engine load, towing a 1,000-tonne barge. (Source: Tideway.)

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10/12/2019 15:05

THE KEY ANNUAL EVENT FOR DIGITAL DECISION-MAKERS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT SECTOR

This year's Digital Construction Summit will bring together government, clients, contractors, architects, consultants and suppliers to assess construction’s digital progress, and examine the policies, trends and innovations that will shape the industry over the coming years.

The day will include presentations from industry-leading digital professionals, panel discussions, break-out sessions, plus exhibitor stands in the networking area showcasing cutting-edge technology.

BIM+

35.ad.DCS20.CMJan20.indd 27

Event programme: lT he Government view: Next steps

on construction’s digital journey lC lient digital strategies:

What designers and builders must do differently lT ier 1 contractors: How digital tech

is changing the business model l O ffsite manufacturing and MMC:

The role of BIM and data l H ackitt’s ‘golden thread’: The digital

approach to managing asset information

lD emonstrable digital benefits:

BIM projects which delivered exceptional outcomes lS oftware solutions:

Addressing standardisation and interoperability challenges l A I, robotics and automation: New

machines for construction’s digital age Delegate bookings: Eva Rugeley, 020 7490 5595, eva@atompublishing.co.uk Sponsorship: Dave Smith, 07703 532605, dave@atompublishing.co.uk

3 June 2020 | America Square Conference Centre, 1 America Square, 17 Crosswall, London EC3N 2LB

10/12/2019 11:46

INFRASTRUCTURE

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With over 35 years of surface water design experience, ACO recently took its expertise on the road to help both contractors and engineers to better understand how they can make the best of the latest features of ACO’s free QuAD hydraulic design software.

A unique opportunity was offered to attend one of five half-day design workshops across the UK and Ireland so that attendees could build on and refresh their skills in creating accurate and effective channel drainage and attenuation designs.

REVERSING THE BRAIN DRAIN A NEW ROADSHOW HELPING CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS TO HONE THEIR DRAINAGE DESIGN SKILLS USING ACO’S FREE QUAD DRAINAGE DESIGN SOFTWARE HAS BEEN TOURING THE UK, CREATING NEW ‘KNOWLEDGE CHAMPIONS’

Keith Oldham is national technical consultant at ACO Water Management

It is well known that there is a significant skills shortage within the construction industry and that we must all invest in ongoing development to help close this gap.

It is no different for surface water management, which is one of the most dynamic sectors of the construction industry – with new legislation,

innovative products and ground breaking materials constantly emerging.

ACO recognises that whether new to the workplace or with decades of experience, it can be challenging for individuals to keep up with the latest approaches to design and that knowledge transfer is fundamental in staying up to date.

Sharing expertise The QuAD Roadshow was led by Keith Oldham, ACO’s national technical consultant. Oldham is a qualified chartered civil engineer, and chartered water and environmental manager, with a BSc in civil engineering. He is a full corporate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), and chartered member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

With 40 years in the industry, Oldham has spent the last seven as ACO’s national technical consultant.

His knowledge was shared with participants both as part of the formal professional development as well as the interactive section, assisting with questions and supporting the development of a wider understanding of channel drainage design.

Showcasing the benefits The workshops were designed to showcase the benefits which can be achieved when using ACO’s QuAD software in day-to-day roles across a number of disciplines within the construction industry, including contracting and engineering.

The first part of the workshop covered the use of the cloud-based software and its host of user-friendly features,

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INFRASTRUCTURE

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In association with

“By attending the workshops, users will be able to design drainage to meet the specific requirements of the project in line with any size, shape or catchment area” providing examples of how each one can help take time out – and improve the overall efficiency – of the channel drainage and attenuation design process. The step-by-step approach helped attendees to calculate sizes for a variety of different applications when applied to a real-world example.

The workshop also taught advanced features of the software, including how users can easily create both angled and irregular surface areas – not just rectangular shapes – to provide much more accurate hydraulic analysis.

Those who attended were complimentary about other unique benefits – such as the integration of Google Maps into the design program, meaning users can apply the data to the project site and automatically receive the rainfall intensity for that area, even when a formal address may not yet exist.

When coupled with the ability to use an appropriate run-off coefficient, based on the chosen surface (a number of options can be selected, ranging from grass to asphalt) and surface storage calculation options, designers were able to create a highly accurate channel drainage design and estimate any attenuation requirement in a matter of minutes.

Planning for the future Designing for the future is imperative so that each project is resilient for its entire life. Long-term approaches help to prevent the problems associated with storm water events, including

flooding. As part of the workshops, delegates were shown how to quickly and easily select accurate rainfall intensity as well as review the impact that any changes in duration and climate change allowance would have on their project.

However, to ensure success in the long term, the channel network’s resilience should be considered and the QuAD software’s resilience tool was demonstrated to produce a suitable maintenance regime for the site. A topical subject with recent flooding, and one which caused numerous questions and debates.

What attendees thought Th e wo r k s h o p s we re a tte n d e d by a range of participants from organisations working within a variety of disciplines – from contractors to engineers, architects to merchants.

Each brought their own perspective to the day, whether that was to create designs from scratch, select appropriate products to specify or quickly check both the channel and attenuation sizing against an existing project specification.

Design workshop attendees are able to refresh their skills in creating effective channel drainage designs

The roadshow showcases the benefits of ACO’s QuAD software in day-to-day roles

The range of opinions and input allowed the workshops to not only provide a professional development opportunity but also to improve u n d e rs ta n d i n g o f e a c h o t h e r ’s requirements as well as challenges and pressures. It was an element that, while not planned, provided great value and an opportunity to improve how we work to support colleagues across the industry.

For some attendees, the training also opened up new approaches to managing water, offering alternatives to their usual designs. Jerome Shannon, who works for Murphy Design, said: “Our designs have traditionally focused on road gulleys in hard-standing areas but, based on a recent meeting with a local authority official, we intend on including channels in our designs. Your roadshow came at just the right time to explore this further.”

Were you unable to attend?

It’s always hard finding the time to attend professional development events with busy work schedules and competing priorities. To help make this easier, ACO offers a range of professional development opportunities throughout the year to support you whether that’s online or in your offices.

If you are interested in learning more or updating your skills, ACO is running a webinar in partnership with Colab Professional Development covering how to use and make the most of the free QuAD hydraulic design software on 29 January from 12.30pm. ● CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 37

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BIM & DIGITAL

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BIM & Digital

TAKING TECH TO SITE SHOWING SITE TEAMS THEY DON’T NEED TO BE AFRAID OF NEW TECHNOLOGY IS KEY TO BRINGING ON BOARD THE DIE-HARD TRADITIONALISTS. A CM ROUND TABLE, CHAIRED BY DENISE CHEVIN AND SUPPORTED BY BLUEBEAM, CONSIDERED HOW TO BOOST DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Clockwise from top left: Joe Williams (Bluebeam); James Chambers (Bluebeam); Martin Coyne (KPF); Shervin Yousefzadeh (Graham Group); Donatella Fiorella (ISG); Davide Gatti (Multiplex)

Denise Chevin: If you are starting out on a digitalisation journey, are there some quick wins?

Andrew Gamblen: From the main contractors’ point of view getting naming convention, a common data environment and workflows nailed as a starter means you will generally be ok. But it is difficult and it is a different answer depending on where you sit in the supply chain.

Martin Coyne: A lot of it comes down to bringing the right solution for the right problem. You might see the best bit of technology that absolutely wows you but you need to understand the workflow and the process. There has only ever been a couple of tools in our office, Bluebeam 38 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020

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BIM & DIGITAL

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BIM story for CM? Email denise@atompublishing.co.uk

PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER WOODS

being one of them, that just fit into our workflow. The first step is talking to the user, understanding the problem and saying: “Try this solution and then we can see where we take it from there.”

Donatella Fiorella: I think the easy win would be easy application. For example, we have some smartphones for the supply chain. If they have to give us some specifications, instead of giving us a normal Word or PDF document, they put it in this smartphone app which we import into our authorising tool.

They don’t really know they are doing anything related to BIM or 3D. It is easy for them and it makes our lives so much easier.

DC: Who should drive digital innovation?

Shervin Yousefzadeh: At Graham, I have experienced both approaches [top-down and teams sourcing their own solutions] because we implemented technology into both the building and civils departments. The directors had a completely different approach in building – we had support from the top which made it much easier. When I moved to civils I didn’t have that support and I had to start from the site team up. Both were successful but I can say it is much easier when you have the support from the directors.

Urszula Kanturska: Someone needs to own and drive it. It won’t happen on its own. What worked for us was to have a dedicated team with application developers, people who do integration, business intelligence, all embedded in a construction team. What we found was that the greatest value to unlock lies at interfaces. Improving interface between a contractor and a designer, for example, is where the value lies.

AG: The drive of digital technology has got to come from multiple different places at once. For it to be beneficial you need that top-down to help push it

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“What worked for us was to have a dedicated team with application developers, people who do integration, business intelligence, all embedded in a construction team” Urszula Kanturska, Bylor JV

further but you also need the help from the guys on site to push it upwards.

Those in the middle are generally the ones who are the most resistant.

DC: Is that the biggest challenge with digitalisation – the move from offices to take-up on site, or is it a lack of integration?

DF: Integration is a big problem.

We have different issues, objectives and targets so we use different tools and they are changing all the time.

Interfaces are not studied very well.

The difficult part for us is to figure out the best workflow where everyone can collaborate the best without losing information. At each stage we are

using different software. Exchange of information is always very difficult.

UK: I know that my end users want the tool to do no more and no less than what they need it to and the key to all these bespoke tools is common data structures. So, integration and bespoke apps is where I see it going, and I am not sure if the big software companies see it going in the same way.

Joe Williams: I think integration becomes even more important on the mobile side of things. When we are sitting at our desktops, we have got these robust tools, we can change file formats, export import, move things around. On your mobile phone it is hard to change a file type and then load it into the software. The data has to be accessible everywhere all the time for it to really work.

SY: Interoperability is better than it was in 2016, for example. It is not perfect but it is getting better.

DC: How you measure the return on investment (ROI)? Can you measure it?

JW: This was something we always struggled with. Waiting for the ‘R’ of

THE PANEL

Davide Gatti (DG) BIM manager, Multiplex

Martin Coyne (MC) BIM practice manager, KPF

Donatella Fiorella (DF) BIM Manager, ISG

Andrew Gamblen (AG) Digital manager, Willmott Dixon

James Chambers (JC) Regional director UKI, Bluebeam

Shervin Yousefzadeh (SY) Digital construction manager – civils, Graham Group

Joe Williams (JW) VP of global industry insights, Bluebeam

Urszula Kanturska (UK) Construction data and technology integration lead, Bylor JV – Hinkley Point C

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BIM & DIGITAL

“It is nice having data in the background to back up what we see. We all know that it does create efficiency. Basically, it de-risks the project” Andrew Gamblen, Willmott Dixon

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the ROI is always difficult. When I was in the construction industry, what we looked for instead were mistakes we could have prevented. For example, on one project a surveying team had to hand-key in some co-ordinates and transposed a few numbers and a pier was poured into the wrong place. It was a $15,000 mistake.

That single mistake could have been corrected with having the digital information and feeding it directly into the surveying device. It justified paying for a new survey instrument that could accept that type of data.

UK: I think it has been really similar for Hinkley. Years before it even got the financial sign-off, the idea was that the design from the previous power station would be taken and brought to Hinkley and built from that.

The Bylor JV have been influencing the client to try to demonstrate that there is a value in modelling everything in 3D. They have built a part of the structure – one they knew was problematic on the previous power station – and they have demonstrated the number of non-conformance reports and field change requests and requests for information.

It was a dramatic drop – 70% avoided instantly – and that was something which convinced the client. For us the benefits will also not necessarily be realised on Hinkley. It is only on the next job.

James Chambers: Sometimes you don’t know what the ‘R’ is in ROI. The R can be something to each individual. It could be zero health and safety issues, it could be profitability, it could be building efficiencies which you are not going to see until two or three years of operation. By having a better definition of what the ‘R’ is, you are opening yourself up to more data to come in and say actually, we are winning here, here and here.

Clockwise from left: Shervin Yousefzadeh (Graham Group); Urszula Kanturska (Bylor JV); Martin Coyne (KPF); James Chambers (Bluebeam); Nerissa Tong (marketing manager, Bluebeam); Donatella Fiorella (ISG); Davide Gatti (Multiplex)

DC: Is virtual reality (VR) just a niceto-have at the moment?

MC: Everyone is doing some sort of augmented reality (AR) or VR. But it comes down to how we implement it.

One of the things we have seen with VR is that if you are in a meeting, a lot of people don’t like to put on a headset.

You could spend hours and thousands of pounds developing this brilliant 3D model and then everyone just looks at the headset and says “Oh, that’s nice”.

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BIM & DIGITAL

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How do we demonstrate the value of digital technology to project teams that rely on traditional methods?

DF: We have been working on these things and are trying to build up statistics to show that the clients of BIM Level 2 projects are more satisfied than clients of other projects and this is because of engagement related to the visualisation – they know what they are getting and they feel like we are listening to them.

AG: It is nice having data in the background to back up what we see. We all know that it does create efficiency.

Basically, it de-risks the project. Our third or fourth-generation BIM Level 2 projects are coming up for completion in the next six to nine months and those are ones where we have really tried to push things properly. The data is looking promising and we utilise VR on a number of jobs now. There is no two ways about it – it is totally worth it.

DC: How do organisations keep innovating and how do we stop digital fatigue?

SY: I believe software vendors should understand the construction process better. They should go to the site, sit with the people who are using this technology every day and understand the process.

DF: This is just about culture change. It is not really about fatigue. Construction is very traditional and they don’t want to change, but if you think about it, it is just about shifting ourselves towards another approach.

AG: Software organisations need to understand the processes and not

“Construction is very traditional and they don’t want to change, but it is just about shifting ourselves towards another approach” Donatella Fiorella, ISG

Shervin Yousefzadeh: We need to show site teams they are supported and that they don’t need to be afraid of the technology. On one project I worked on, people started to understand the benefit because they could go home earlier. After two weeks we calculated that each person had saved about half a day per week.

Urszula Kanturska: It is important to show someone impacted by change how introducing something new might make a massive impact on someone else. I tend not to talk to people about technology but about operational processes and efficiencies and productivity. The final thing for us is because the scale of the job [Hinkley Point C] is so big, we just went and scared everyone. The narrative was: ‘Look at the risk of not doing this. Can you afford that risk?’

Martin Coyne: The value that we see is twofold. There is the value of time and using processes like BIM to make sure things are co-ordinated from the start. The other real value is being able to explore the quality of the design to allow people to understand and refine the buildings we are designing.

James Chambers: Values can be interpreted in so many ways – whether it is more work life balance, better quality of product, saving money on the bottom line. But if you are saving any of those things it is all value. There are some great examples where people have run very similarly scoped projects back to back, applying a digital attitude and not, and the values speak for themselves.

oversell what their technology can do.

Everything has AI these days and blockchain and digital twins. That causes fatigue, because people get sold a pup.

MC: I think we are missing the opportunity to really collaborate. Yes, there always have to be differentiators but there is so much there where

Donatella Fiorella: The first question I want to ask here is: “Value for who?” If we are talking about the senior management, they will talk about cost. In this case I would say the answer would be business cases and previous experience.

They need to understand why they are doing this, so the value is related to the awareness of the tools – because many times they don’t know that the tools exist.

Andrew Gamblen: Everyone’s values are different. For example, some of our directors want to see more operational efficiency; some people want to see more financial stability in terms of fewer errors on site. Demonstrating value is one of the hardest things, but once you have found it for the individual who is the most anti-technology, that is when you have got the biggest uptake because that person becomes the most vocal to their peers.

Davide Gatti: When I came to London, I worked with a very skilled interior designer who always worked on paper.

I arrived – this geeky young person – saying I am going to use technology to revolutionise the way he worked and he said “No way”. I had to approach it slowly.

By the end, this was the person who went to the whole office to spread the word.

Joe Williams: You need to show people you are not there to put another burden on them but instead to help them in doing their work more efficiently. Finding quick wins to celebrate as a team makes a big difference. When one project team hears another project team is doing something cool there is a little bit of competition and wanting to do a little bit better.

you can say it makes so much sense to get around the table and do these bits together.

JC: I think we are in an exciting time.

The idea of the solutions providers working with industry is critical and has to happen, and both parties have got to be very vocal with each other. ● CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 41

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CPD

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CPD

STEEL AND OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY THE GOVERNMENT AS A KEY WAY TO BOOST QUALITY. THIS CPD, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH STEEL FOR LIFE, EXAMINES HOW THE STRUCTURAL STEELWORK SECTOR IS WELL PLACED TO DELIVER ON THESE AMBITIONS Steel and offsite construction Designers and specifiers have long recognised the benefits that steel offers the construction sector – noting steel framing as the original offsite framing material.

Fabrication of individual steel pieces takes place offsite, under controlled, highly regulated and safe factory conditions, where the use of digital design and leading-edge fabrication systems deliver precisionengineered components with minimum waste. Steel components are further pre-assembled or fabricated into modules either offsite or at the site at a low level.

Steel structures are often prototyped or trial built offsite to ensure a perfect fit when the fabricated steel modules undergo final assembly onsite. This means that the majority of the value add for structural steel occurs offsite.

It is known that the government wants construction and infrastructure projects to incorporate greater levels of offsite manufacturing. More recently, the government has said that it also wants to take a more standardised a p p ro a c h to d e s i g n , i n c l u d i n g componentisation. It refers to this as a platforms approach.

With the majority of the value-add for structural steel already occurring offsite – in some cases up to 90% – the structural steelwork sector is well placed to be an early adopter of these new approaches.

This CPD will look at the structural steelwork construction process with a focus on established offsite processes and practices and the benefits provided.

Steel frames are constructed under controlled conditions for assembly on site

Structural steel procurement In responding to the tender request, the steelwork contractor will get a price for the rolled steel it will need to buy, either directly from the UK mill or from one of the UK’s many steel stockholders or distributors. Once the job is secured by the UK steelwork contractor, the steel will be ordered.

When the steelwork contractor wins a contract, this is based on a set of estimate drawings.

On an average contract, the lead time (the time before the steel is required on site) may be 10 working weeks. These

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CPD

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To see past CPD articles visit www.constructionmanagermagazine. com/cpd-articles

In association with

route. Orders have to be placed earlier for steel to be bought directly from the mill. If the steel is an unusual grade it might need to be rolled specially or ordered through one of the established routes.

Some products might also need to be purchased through, or fabricated by, specialist suppliers – for example cellular beams (beams with large holes in them to accommodate services), asymmetric beams or plate girders.

Steelwork contractors receive changes to the drawings routinely from the consulting engineer and the main contractor and have to deal with them as efficiently and as safely as possible.

The best way to deal with the changes is by addressing them in the factory before the steel goes to the construction site.

“MRP software can be used to monitor progress of fabrication by capturing data about each part as it passes through the fabrication processes”

The design process The steel construction sector has been utilising 3D design software for more than a quarter of a century and is well versed in the benefits and efficiencies it provides to manufacturing and construction programmes. Today’s computer software is integral to the

© JAMESTOWN

weeks are for the steelwork contractor to design the connections, detail the steelwork (drafting the components, working out how the smaller lots go together etc), issue the drawings/ model to the works, order and receive the steel, fabricate the steel and deliver it to the construction site.

The client’s consulting engineer will normally take the architect’s 3D model of the building and provide the structural layout and member sizes. Additional information, such as the design forces in the connections, may be added for later use by the steelwork contractor.

This model is then transposed into structural and detailing information by the steelwork contractor, using well-known software packages.

In many building projects, the main contractor will manage a building information modelling (BIM) system into which all the key parties (and especially the steelwork contractor and other specialist subcontractors) will provide their detailing information to enable the BIM model to be updated and to act as a comprehensive source of geometric building data for all of the construction team.

The steelwork contractor will create details of all the connections based on the forces specified by the consulting engineer, and may employ its own consulting engineer for specialist design and temporary works tasks.

Once the job has been confirmed, the steel will typically be procured through the stockholder or distributor

Cellular beams, with holes for services, are fabricated by specialist suppliers

design, fabrication, erection and everyday operational processes at most steelwork contractors’ facilities.

Software is interwoven into each stage of the steel fabrication process – supporting activities such as knowledge and bid management, project planning, frame analysis, connection design, 3D modelling, BIM co-ordination and the fabrication process itself.

During the design phase, the structural steel will be modelled to facilitate fabrication. Materials resource planning (MRP) software then processes the bill of materials data from the model which is used for procurement of materials, manages data to drive automated cutting and fabrication machinery, plans logistics, as well as piece weights for crane planning. MRP software can also be used to monitor progress of fabrication by capturing data about each part as it passes through the different fabrication processes.

The structural steelwork sector is also seeing the adoption of modern scribe marking technologies.

Software can allow for full or partial contours to be scribed directly onto the steel to indicate the position of the parts that need to be welded, saving valuable time and minimising errors. In addition, information can be marked on the steel indicating quality, traceability, welding information and assembly details.

Fabrication Once the 3D model and the steel are received in the factory, fabrication will commence. Steelwork fabrication processes include: l Design and detailing of connections and attachments l Cutting to length and chamfering of beams, columns and bracing l Drilling of holes for bolts CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 43

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CPD

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l Welding, a core activity, to prepare joints for connection on site and for attachment of fixtures and fittings l Blast cleaning and painting l Attachment of fitments for installation and protection – for example, edge protection l Manufacture and attachment of secondary components, such as cleats, shims and bolts and lifting lugs l Curving of members, forming of openings, which is often carried out by specialist companies l In some cases, partial concrete encasement and shear connector welding in the factory l Scheduling for delivery on a justin-time basis and transport from the fabrication workshop to the site l Design of temporary works.

Advances in quality and productivity in the steel construction sector are largely due to developments in fabrication machinery. The manufacturers of steelwork fabrication equipment have invested heavily in research and development to produce the technological advances required by today’s steel construction sector.

Offsite construction incorporating M&E services

© SEVERFIELD

Many steel structures have M&E incorporated offsite – some examples include motorway gantries with the lighting and signage fitted, transfer bridges for large manufacturing plants, and even the risers in high-rise buildings

Canopies in place at London Bridge station cabling and junction boxes on the gantry bodies allows greater control, provides safety benefits and yields both time and cost savings.

London Bridge station redevelopment: Construction of the London Bridge station redevelopment included 1,200 prefabricated steel 9m x 3m cassettes installed

by Severfield – each one a bespoke unit due to the changing rooftop geometry.

Fabricated from galvanized I-section rafters, they were assembled at Severfield’s Bolton factory, where the M&E contractor installed the services and the cladding contractor formed the individual canopy roof.

The cassettes were delivered to site in loads of up to three units per truck and, as they only weighed 2.5 tonnes each, were lifted into place by a tower crane.

© VOORTMAN

Motorway gantries for Highways England: Steelwork contractors receive designs from Highways England that have the M&E incorporated into the BIM model. The steelwork contractor fabricates the gantry offsite, in its factory.

The fabricated gantry is then moved to a separate part of the steelwork contractor’s manufacturing facility and the M&E contractor incorporates the electrical/communications cabling and junction boxes on the gantry bodies.

For efficiency, the M&E contractor is only called to the manufacturing facility when a sufficient number of structures are completed. The steelwork contractor then transports the motorways gantries to site and installs them in approximately 30 minutes, after which signage and lights are fitted.

Pre-installation of electrical/communications

Industrial robots are routinely used in fabrication factories for operations such as welding

“Manufacture under factory-controlled conditions is inherently safer than is possible under typical site conditions” Manufacturers of steel fabrication equipment work closely with steelwork contractors planning the factory design and layout with real-time simulation to find the best flow of material and maximise production based on required output through the use of advanced simulation software.

Computer numerical control (CNC) machinery is the standard today and is integrated into each stage of the steel fabrication process. The process may vary between each steelwork contractor but will generally commence with the efficient and seamless transfer of 3D model information from the design office to the equipment in the factory.

Health and safety Site safety is promoted by offsite production, as manufacture under factory-controlled conditions is inherently safer than is possible under typical construction site conditions.

Onsite operations are in the hands of highly qualified site erection teams, who are specialists and are obliged to hold recognised qualifications.

With so much work carried out offsite, the construction programme on site is reduced and the build programme is relatively unaffected by adverse weather conditions. Furthermore, steel components can be pre-assembled or fabricated into modules, either offsite or at low level, reducing the need for working at height. Steel can be delivered to site as and when it is required, reducing the need for potentially hazardous onsite storage.

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CPD

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Offsite manufacture spares local communities much of the disruption generated by construction works

CPD questions 1. On average, how long is the lead time before structural steel is required on site? a) 4 weeks b) 5 weeks c) 8 weeks d) 10 weeks 2. Who specifies the forces the steelwork connections need to be able to handle? a) The consulting engineer and/or the steelwork contractor’s own consulting engineer b) The main contractor c) The architect d) The client

Benefits of offsite construction The benefits of offsite construction have long been appreciated by designers, contractors and owners of buildings. Being fabricated offsite in closely controlled factory conditions means everything is produced to high standards of accuracy and defect free – effectively ‘right first time’.

Factory-based manufacture allows full integration with the latest computer-aided design and computercontrolled production developments.

Digital design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), including full Level 2 BIM, has additionally created new skills in the sector.

Many processes are fully or at least semi-automated, with industrial robots now routinely used in factories for operations such as welding. Coatings including intumescent paints can also be applied offsite – reducing the risk of delay to following trades. It also helps to minimise the onsite construction programme.

Offsite manufacture of constructional steelwork results in waste being minimised beyond what can be achieved

with alternative materials. There are other advantages – with on site work reduced largely to speedy assembly, using structural steelwork means local communities are spared much of the noise and dust inevitably generated by other construction works.

Logistical benefits are also derived from steelwork’s ability for timed or just-in-time delivery as dictated by site requirements. The erection of steelwork direct from the just-intime delivery lorry minimises the requirement for set-down and storage areas, which can be important where space is at a premium.

Additionally, fewer people are required on site, which helps to mitigate issues around skills shortages, and improves onsite safety. The need to work at height is reduced due to the majority of the work taking place offsite, also providing a skills and safety benefit.

The stable long-term nature of jobs in a steel fabrication factory assists in the training of a specialist workforce. Such skills development both motivates the workforce and increases the efficiency of offsite steel construction.

3. How long has the steel construction sector been using steelwork design software? a) Since around five years ago b) Since around 10 years ago c) Since around 25 years ago d) It doesn’t – the majority of specialist contractors still work on paper 4. What type of software is used to process the bill of materials data from the model during the design phase? a) Materials planning base (MPB) b) Materials resource planning (MRP) c) Product quantity database (PQD) d) Steel resource management software (SRMS)

To test yourself on the questions on the right and to see past CPD articles visit www. constructionmanager magazine.com/ cpd-articles

5. What is the benefit of applying coatings including intumescent paints offsite? a) It reduces the risk of delay to following trades b) It can be applied more evenly in a factory environment c) It costs more to apply on site d) It is less hazardous to workers when applied in a factory

Offsite steel construction can also be an advantage for those communities that might not usually benefit directly from investment in construction or infrastructure – such as those outside London and the south – where ongoing employment in steel manufacturing can help to bring stability and growth to the areas concerned. ● CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 45

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LEGAL

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Legal Electronic signatures Th e L aw C o m m i ss i o n h a s confirmed that an electronic signature is capable of being used to execute a document (including a deed) provided the person signing the document intends to authenticate the document and any execution formalities are satisfied.

Electronic signatures are admissible in evidence in legal proceedings and, where a deed is to be signed “in the presence of a witness”, this still requires the physical presence of that witness – even where an electronic signature is used.

Developments in 2020 are likely to follow the commission’s recommendations regarding the setting-up of an industry working group to consider practical issues and a review of the law relating to the execution of deeds.

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Alexandra Buchanan Trowers & Hamlins

Six construction regulatory issues looming in 2020 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW DECADE PROMISES TO BE A BUSY ONE FOR CONSTRUCTION, WITH NEW REGULATION LOOMING THAT WILL AFFECT MOST OF THE INDUSTRY. ALEXANDRA BUCHANAN LOOKS AT SIX KEY ISSUES TO KEEP AN EYE ON

A new regime for building safety Following the government’s consultation document Building a Safer Future, a new duty-holder regime will be introduced to ensure that affected buildings are designed and built to be safe for residents. This will result in stronger enforcement and new sanctions (including criminal liability) for non-compliance. It will be complemented by a new competency framework, which was consulted on in the August 2019 paper Raising the Bar. A new building safety regulator (BSR) will be responsible for overseeing the new regulatory regime, maintaining a register of in-scope buildings and inspecting buildings and safety information to ensure that duty holders and accountable persons meet their obligations. The BSR will also set building standards, advise government and promote competence in the building industry.

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Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 consultation and cash retentions In 2018, the government consulted on the cash retention scheme following the collapse of Carillion, due to long-standing

2

cash flow issues in the industry. This ran parallel to the consultation to support the post-implementation review of the 2011 changes to Construction Act. Subsequently, Peter Aldous MP proposed the Construction (Regulations Deposit Schemes) Bill in parliament.

Despite considerable support, the bill never passed its second reading. But there is pressure on the government to act and provide statutory requirements for improving payment security.

Construction industry licensing and raising standards Another theme for 2020 is the drive to raise standards and quality in the construction industry through the introduction of licensing. Some of the benefits of a mandatory licensing scheme include removing incompetent and rogue traders from the industry, driving up quality, professionalism and productivity as well as improving health and safety compliance.

A group of major construction industry bodies, including the CIOB, have formed a Construction Licensing Task Force, which they hope will lead to the development of a licensing scheme.

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“Another theme for 2020 is the drive to raise standards and quality in the industry through the introduction of licensing”

Smart contracts By combining the logic of contractual processes with the trust created by distributed ledger technology, a smart contract could smooth some of the friction in construction contracting and assist in incorporating BIM data, modern methods, and access to big data.

The convergence of advances in a number of construction technologies means that the long-discussed idea of automation of contractual decisionmaking is now ripe for fruition.

5

The VAT reverse charge Implementation of the domestic VAT ‘reverse charge’ for the sector was planned for October 2019 but delayed until October 2020. Supplies between subcontractors and contractors will be subject to the reverse charge unless supplied to a contractor who is an end user.

The reverse charge will require changes to invoice accounting procedures as well as consideration of appropriate drafting in contracts for construction projects. ● Alexandra Buchanan is a solicitor with Trowers & Hamlins.

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CIOB Community The Foundation Years stage will kick off in January. This is where competitors learn how to play the game, running a virtual construction company, testing out strategies and refining tactics.

The CIOB advises that, based on performance in previous years, teams who do well in the competition are the ones who make the most of this stage.

The Early Years stage starts a few weeks later. The stakes are higher as teams play competitively with others around the world, making decisions that influence the success of their companies.

More than 60 teams entered the 2019 competition, with the six scoring the most in the early rounds invited to the finals in Edinburgh as part of the CIOB’s annual Members’ Forum.

The competition is only open to full-time students, although there is an allowance of one postgraduate member per team. Teams are normally four members, but three is permissible.

Costs for entry are listed online. ●

Competition

GSC opens for entries

2019 WINNERS: JIM MAILER

THE LEADING CONSTRUCTION STUDENT COMPETITION BEGINS

The CIOB’s Global Student Challenge has now opened for registration for the 2020 competition.

In the seventh year of the competition, the CIOB is seeking teams of full-time students studying either a Higher National Diploma (HND) or Bachelor’s degree in the built environment.

The winning team will receive £2,000 in prize money, along with access to a unique mentoring programme – with industry leaders offering advice and guidance to support the team’s professional development.

Since 2014, the competition has challenged built environment students to run their own virtual construction company – with the leaders after six weeks of competition given the

To register, visit the CIOB’s Global Student Challenge website at: https://gsc.ciob.org. opportunity to compete in finals that attract talent from around the world.

This year’s finals will be held alongside the 2020 CIOB Members’ Forum, in Sydney, Australia, in June 2020.

Caroline Gumble, CEO of the CIOB, said: “The Global Student Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for those taking their first steps into a built environment career to demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired and their capabilities with strategic thinking and high-level decision-making.

“It’s also a great chance to get valuable experience in navigating through project scenarios that mirror what can happen on site in the real world. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the challenge plays out next year.”

Above: Six teams will attend the finals in Sydney Right: Last year’s winning Kanigara Banu team from Universitas Indonesia receiving their award from Charles Egbu Global Student Challenge 2020 timeline l Open for entry: 5 November 2019 l The Foundation Years start: 20 January 2020 l The Early Years first submission: 26 February 2020 l Finalists announced: 7 April 2020 l Finals during the week of the CIOB Members’ Forum: June 2020 (exact dates and venue to be confirmed)

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Story for Community? Email Nicky Roger nicky@atompublishing.co.uk

Training

Obituary

Geoff Wright

Novus and Gleeds initiative gives Nottingham students new workplace opportunities

CIOB PAST PRESIDENT DIES AGED 76

EMPLOYEE CREATES INTERN SCHEME TO BOOST THE NEXT GENERATION Next summer two aspiring construction industry professionals will have the opportunity to work alongside cost and project management experts to gain hands-on experience and learn more about the industry, thanks to property and construction consultancy Gleeds.

The scheme, launched at Nottingham Trent University, aims to help close the gap between undergraduates and their first paid work opportunity. It also supports the CIOB’s Novus initiative, which seeks to inspire the next generation of talent and safeguard the future of the UK’s construction industry.

The scheme is open to all property students at the university and a shortlist of finalists will be drawn up with those selected asked to attend an assessment

“Nottingham has traditionally had a thriving construction industry and we are excited to play our part in laying the groundwork for its future success” Simon Morris, Gleeds Nottingham

day at Gleeds’ Nottingham base the following month. The two winners will be invited to join the company as paid cost and project management interns over the course of summer 2020 and work first hand on some of the region’s largest current building projects.

Bella Platts, a trainee project manager with Gleeds, recently accepted the position of CIOB Novus Nottingham chair. She put together the idea of the scheme and, with the support of Andrea Davi, CIOB Novus Nottingham vice chair, and Kathryn Parsons, CIOB Novus Nottingham University representative, the idea was brought to life, with a launch night of over 100 students.

Simon Morris, director, Gleeds Nottingham, said: “Gleeds is proud to support the CIOB in its mission to cultivate the next generation of young talent. Nottingham has traditionally had a thriving construction industry and we are excited to play our part in laying the groundwork for its future success.” ● Bella Platts, CIOB Novus Nottingham chair, came up with the scheme

WORKING WITH EDUCATION The Leeds and York hubs have been building partnerships with education providers across the Yorkshire region.

Working with local colleges and universities, hub members have been delivering talks on professionalism and the importance of chartership along with careers progression advice.

Plans are also being developed for guest lecture spots with some of the colleges and future events for students at Sheffield Hallam and Leeds Beckett universities.

Geoff Wright, former construction and project management director at Hammerson and past president of the CIOB, has died. He was 76.

Wright was the first client to be appointed president of the CIOB when he took up the role in 2005. He later remained active with the CIOB on panels such as Special Fellowship, Honorary Life and as a director of Englemere.

He worked for Hammerson, which he joined as a junior project manager in 1969, until his retirement aged 62, when he was director, responsible for 190 projects across the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Canada and the USA totalling over 24m sq ft of space and in control of an annual budget of £600m.

In his retirement he took on nonexecutive director posts at Severfield Rowen, Ashwell, Waterman, BRE Trust and started his own consultancy business, Geoff Wright Consulting.

Wright attended Whitgift School in Croydon as a boy and gave service as a member of the Court of the Whitgift Foundation and chair of governors.

A Territorial Army member, he was officer trained at Sandhurst and was chair of SERFCA, an MOD organisation responsible for tri-service, reserve forces and cadet administration, property management, recruiting and employer liaison for the south east.

He had three children. His son Tim said: “I will remember him as someone who despite being exceptionally busy, always made time for us. He’d always come to watch us play sport as we were growing up, despite the inevitable pressure that he’d have been under.

“In his latter years, he remained very savvy and would often be an excellent sounding board for us children as we embarked upon our own careers, relationships and lives. He will be greatly missed by us all.”

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“The CIOB is delighted to support this important initiative.

It fits perfectly with our commitment to encourage the highest levels of professionalism across all sectors”

CHRIS GEORGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Paul Le Tissier, CIOB

Awards

Guernsey’s construction professionals celebrate the year’s successes CIOB TAKES PART IN CHANNEL ISLANDS CEREMONY Seminar

Sheffield tackles climate change NOVUS LOOKS AT INDUSTRY’S ROLE IN ENVIRONMENT

In November, Novus Sheffield in conjunction with G4C ran a successful seminar: Climate Change: What Can We Do As An Industry?

Attended by more than 30 students, academics and industry professionals, the session was led

by Emma Knight-Strong, founder of Green Arch Consulting and a chartered environmentalist.

The CIOB’s Paul Le Tissier (left) presents the Construction Professional of the Year award to Oliver Westgarth

The winners of the 2019 Guernsey Property and Construction Awards were announced at a presentation ceremony at the end of last year to a packed audience of industry colleagues at the St Pierre Park Hotel, St Peter Port.

Winners of the awards, which were founded by Julie Todd and Tim Guilbert, represented the full spectrum of the Guernsey construction, building and property communities.

The Lifetime Achievement award winner for 2019 was Peter Falla, founder of PF&A Architects.

Paul Le Tissier, a Southampton Hub committee member and former Guernsey CIOB chair, presented the Construction Professional of the Year award to Oliver Westgarth of CCD Architects.

Le Tissier said: “The CIOB is delighted to support this important initiative. It fits perfectly with our commitment to encourage the highest levels of professionalism across all sectors. We hope to work alongside Julie, Tim and all of the construction and property sectors as part of our focus on supporting business in general.” ●

After touching on current trends and the science behind our current climate emergency, she discussed the implications for the industry.

While there are some concerning statistics around climate change and resilience in construction, there is also some good news.

The financial sector is becoming more aware of the risks and the

opportunities of going green and businesses are following suit.

The introduction of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures recommendations is making climate risk reporting a business imperative.

All of this led to a lively question-and-answer session with a lot of discussion.

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Event

Politics and rugby to mix at Belfast annual dinner WILMA ERSKINE AND CHRIS HENRY FOR CIOB SOCIAL

Morgan Sindall partners up for schools initiative COMPANY TO SPONSOR HEATHROW TECH COLLEGE Morgan Sindall Infrastructure has announced its new partnership with University Technical College (UTC) Heathrow – signing up to sponsor the school as a lead partner alongside existing partners Heathrow Airport Ltd and Brunel University.

The company, which is a CIOB T ra i n i n g P a r t n e r s h i p ( T P ) , i s currently working at Heathrow to upgrade key elements of the airport’s infrastructure including taxiways, landside roads and car parks.

The partnership with UTC Heathrow is at the heart of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure’s strategy to provide opportunities for young people to enhance their skills and development in local communities.

The company will work in partnership with UTC Heathrow to help run a variety of programmes to provide students with real projectbased learning experiences and personal development skills essential for employment pathways.

It will also include funding for the provision of essential equipment and resources, offer work experience

placements as well as contributing employees’ time in school for mentoring and practical project learning.

Simon Smith, managing director of Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, said: “We are delighted to support this innovative school as a lead partner, and privileged to be able to help positively influence the students and their lives after education. We are keen to share our success with students to help them achieve all they want in their future careers.”

He added: “We are very grateful to Lord Baker for his sterling work as chair and co-founder of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, and Wayne Edwards, principal of UTC Heathrow, for the opportunity of this partnership.

“Our own teams benefit greatly from the relationship and we look forward to playing our part within this fantastic school.”

Morgan Sindall Infrastructure’s commitment to social responsibility is accompanied by a commitment to addressing the technical skills shortage that the industry is facing.

Th i s i s t h e s e c o n d U T C t h a t the company has partnered with, following its successful relationship as an established platinum partner and trust board member with Energy Coast UTC in Workington, Cumbria.

Energy Coast UTC achieved an Outstanding Ofsted report this year with the principal citing the company’s involvement as a major factor in its achievement. ●

Left to right in the centre: Joanne Harper, CEO of Activate Learning Education Trust; Simon Smith, managing director, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure; and Lord Baker, chairman of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure and UTC colleagues

“We are delighted to support this innovative school as a lead partner”

Speakers have been confirmed for the upcoming CIOB Annual Dinner in Belfast in March.

Wilma Erskine, former secretary manager of Royal Portrush, and the driving force behind bringing The Open to Northern Ireland, and Chris Henry, former Ulster and Irish Rugby Union player, will take part in a Q&A session with compere Adrian Logan.

Each year the dinner proves a very popular event. The black-tie evening, which will take place on Friday 27 March 2020 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Belfast, is open to members and non-members of the CIOB. Sponsorship opportunities are still available by contacting Julie Fitzsimmons, CIOB member services and events coordinator.

Email: jfitzsimmons@ciob.org.uk or call mobile: 07760 164101.

Gary Blair, chair of the CIOB Belfast Hub, Niamh Webbley-O'Gorman, CIOB development manager, and compere Adrian Logan launching the event

Simon Smith, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure

BRIDGEND STUDIOS

Education

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CBC

Greendale takes safety award CHARTERED BUILDER WINS Dorset chartered builder Greendale Construction has won the Regional Company Award (South West) at the 2019 Building Safety Group Awards.

The company was also highly commended in the Innovation Award category for its recent changes and implementation of a new temporary works procedure.

The Building Safety Group (BSG) Awards 2019 held its fifth annual Health & Safety Awards ceremony in November at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwick.

The BSG is the UK’s largest construction safety group and holds the commemoration event to mark its members’ achievements and excellence in work-related health and safety performance.

Andy Musselwhite, contracts director with Greendale Construction, accepts the award for the firm

In their talks the two speakers will explore: l What is ‘carbon neutral’? l How to become carbon neutral l Carbon neutrality in new-build l Carbon neutrality in retrofit.

Contact: sshort@ciob.org.uk

Learn about drone use in Preston on 28 January

CIOB/CITBNI Annual Lecture Presentation Awards 22 January, 6pm-8pm Antrim, County Antrim Details are still being finalised at the time of going to press. See the CIOB website for updates

Events

Diary dates HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CIOB CALENDAR FOR THE COMING MONTH. FOR MORE EVENTS VISIT CIOB.ORG Adjudication 16 January, 6-8.30pm Norwich The Norwich Hub is hosting a CPD presentation from Michael P Gerard.

As a fellow of the CIOB and a member of the Institute of Arbitrators, he will cover: l Adjudication – statutory and contract l Witnesses: Litigation versus adjudication, expert witnesses of fact. l Forms of dispute resolution in the construction industry l Pre-action protocol for construction and engineering disputes.

Contact: ycollis@ciob.org.uk Becoming Carbon Neutral 21 January, 6-8 pm, Warwick Join Tom Reynolds from MES Building Solutions and James Wilcox of Willmott Dixon for a highly topical look at how to become carbon neutral and how to make existing buildings more carbon efficient.

Health

CIOB trains mental health first aiders ELEVEN STAFF MEMBERS ATTEND MIND COURSE

As part of the CIOB’s commitment to improving mental health, 11 members of staff recently attended a two-day training course to become Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs).

Run by Mind, the course content included spotting the early signs of poor mental health and how to help someone experiencing a problem, particularly in relation to anxiety, stress, depression and psychosis.

Putting Drone Technology to Work 28 January, 6.30pm-8.30pm Preston, Lancashire Drones are increasingly seen as useful tools in the workplace, delivering benefits across many industry sectors. But realising the potential of these new tools isn’t as simple as just ‘buying and flying’ the drone.

This presentation by Matthew Greaves, founder of Drones on Demand, will consider aviation legislation using examples of projects that have realised value for clients. He will outline some of the common pitfalls around starting to use drones and how to maximise potential.

Contact: kpercival@ciob.org.uk Novus: Introduction to Construction Law 28 January, 6pm-8pm London This seminar intends to give delegates an insight into construction law, offering a gentle and basic introduction to what construction law is, how it affects you and why it is needed.

Specific topics to be covered include basic concepts of construction law and an introduction to basic meanings and jargon.

The seminar will be run as a workshop, allowing open discussion. It is suitable for contractors, subcontractors, consultants, students and anyone looking to get an introduction to the topic.

Contact: bgrange@ciob.org.uk

The MHFAs will be available to support staff experiencing a mental health crisis and assist them in accessing help as well as working to reduce the stigma around mental health problems.

They have already begun to raise awareness by sharing self-care tips, introducing weekly walks and starting the discussion around mental health and wellbeing.

Caroline Gumble, the CIOB’s CEO, said: “Mental health is becoming an increasingly important issue. We’ve done some work to survey the industry and find out what works in construction companies and on site. It seemed only right to ensure that we’ve put things in place for our own staff so we can try to provide the right support at the right time, plus help to reduce the stigma around mental health.”

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past two years and I had been doing more public speaking so felt I should be representing the CIOB as a fellow not only at chartered member level. I always say that I am a life-long learner, so I felt I needed to prove to myself I still was.

Being a fellow reinforces the contribution I continue to make to the sector, alongside continuing with my purpose of wanting to make a positive difference in the industry.

I have worked for principal contractors, developers, government agencies and management consultants – that to me demonstrates quality breadth alongside a deep sector discipline and knowledge base too, all recognised by fellow status.

How was it for you?

Completing the fellowship programme is a real commitment, so it’s not something you can pass with half-hearted effort: it needs to be a priority in your life to finish the process. I started the pathway in April 2019, and I achieved fellow recognition in September 2019. I did give up several weekends and evenings to complete the 3,000 word thesis – building that around a full-time director role and personal life was a sacrifice.

The process was easy to follow and I did enjoy it. I enjoyed writing up my project narrative and having the opportunity to really reflect on the subject through the CIOB Leadership Framework. In the interview process I embraced the opportunity to be tested and focused on just wanting to have a really good conversation with the panel.

Claire Handby

Meet a member CLAIRE HANDBY, DIRECTOR, DELOITTE

Congratulations on achieving fellowship. What prompted you to make that progression? What will it mean for your career?

I became a chartered member in the early 2000s and to pursue fellowship in 2019 just felt right for me. The key project I chose to write my submission on was very strategically aligned to the direction of the construction industry over the

Above: Claire Handby looks back on the year in which she achieved CIOB fellowship

You career has spanned site management to management consultancy.

How do those roles compare?

I set out as a sub site agent in the 1990s through to becoming a construction management graduate. I progressed from being a qualified construction manager to senior planning and project manager, all natural next steps in the sector.

“Being a fellow reinforces the contribution I continue to make to the sector, along with wanting to make a positive difference in the industry” Claire Handby, Deloitte

I wanted to experience delivering myriad projects so went into portfolio management – typically multi-billion pound, extremely complex environments.

This is the natural home of strategic management consulting which is where I sit now and have for the past decade.

My management consulting roles give me the opportunity to see the full end-to-end life cycle from deciding to invest in a programme/project/scheme through to handover and occupation.

I gather you have views about construction and social mobility?

I was brought up in Greater Manchester with strong values such as honesty, integrity, ‘can do’ attitude, authenticity and a will to succeed. I am the daughter of hard-working people and went to a standard comprehensive school.

I had a life-changing tragedy in my teenage years when I lost my fouryear-old sister Rachel to meningitis.

This experience and others gave me a fundamental attribute of resilience. I think many people within the industry have this attribute too. That’s why social mobility is very real in this industry.

It is by leveraging this strength and seizing many opportunities the industry has offered that I’ve made progress.

When I work with young people in schools, or 16-24 year olds at the Prince’s Trust, or with people as part of Deloitte’s One Million Futures programme, it is this resilience attribute I share when asked to tell my story so far. ●

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“We’ve commissioned regular drone footage – which we hope has given the local community a genuine overview of the scheme” Me and my project

Community centre THE LOCAL COMMUNITY IS KEY TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW COUNCIL HUB IN WEST SUFFOLK. JOHN STEDMAN OF MORGAN SINDALL CONSTRUCTION TALKS US THROUGH THE PROJECT

I am overseeing the delivery of a new £23m operational hub in West Suffolk, where community engagement has been placed at the heart of the construction process.

Morgan Sindall Construction is delivering the new West Suffolk Operational Hub (WSOH) for two partner organisations – Suffolk County Council and West Suffolk Council – which will use the site to provide waste and recycling services.

The state-of-the-art facility is being built to accommodate the changing requirements for waste management in West Suffolk and will bring a number of operational services together on one site to increase efficiency and to reflect the anticipated growth in population and housing in the area.

I’m extremely proud to have been part of a fantastic team on this significant scheme for West Suffolk and to be involved in the regional community engagement initiatives being driven by Morgan Sindall Construction.

Earlier this year, the WSOH project was shortlisted for recognition by the national Considerate Contractors

Top: Artist’s impression of the £23m service hub Above: John Stedman of Morgan Sindall Construction Below right: The project team

Scheme Ultra Site Awards – which reward models of best practice in construction across the country.

Our project team was nominated in the community engagement and workplace wellbeing categories in recognition of their outstanding performance and commitment to best practice.

From the outset, community engagement has been a priority for the team and we’ve been committed to connecting with people in the local area throughout the project life cycle – helping to keep residents informed and doing all we can to minimise disruption.

We’ve created platforms to keep residents updated, including a website and newsletters, while visitors have been able to watch progress from our viewing platform. We have also commissioned regular drone footage – which we hope has helped to give the local community a genuine overview of the scheme.

Other engagement activity includes hosting a talk by an archaeologist for more than 50 people at the site to learn more about archaeological findings in the pre-construction phase. We’ve also hosted community events such as BBQs

and engagement days with charities to deepen links with local residents.

Our project team has also been acknowledged for its work in ensuring optimum workplace wellbeing. A social value charter was created to monitor the project workforce’s wellbeing and the team benefits from a number of development and training opportunities, which include human performance coaching and in-depth induction processes.

Initiatives have been implemented to boost the project team’s wellbeing, including the presence of specially trained mental health first-aiders, and recreational facilities including a games and study room where team members can relax and enjoy a space dedicated to leisure and training.

This is a project which is completely centred on the regional community and its growing needs. I’m incredibly proud of the work delivered by our project team to date to ensure that everything possible is in place to bring the community with them on the construction journey.

We’ve implemented a wide range of communication platforms and processes to keep residents updated, informed and connected at every stage of the development. We’re looking forward to continuing with our work on site and delivering this central facility for the West Suffolk community. ● John Stedman is senior contracts manager with Morgan Sindall Construction.

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Partnership From drones to AI: how new tech is an asset to the industry HOW ARE TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES BOOSTING THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR? THE CIOB’S INSURANCE PARTNER, PREMIERLINE, EXPLAINS

We’ve all heard of drones and artificial intelligence, but how can these technological advances be an asset to those working in construction?

3D printing While 3D printing is not a new concept, it’s now allowing parts of the construction industry to be more creative and cost efficient as it has become more commercially affordable.

Architects and project managers can use 3D printing in their designs and can be more creative with the materials used. In July 2018 a family in France became the first to move into a 3D-printed house, which only took 54 hours to build and cost 20% less than a house of the same design not made with a 3D printer.

Drones More commonly known for their ability to take stunning bird’s-eye-view photographs of hard-to-reach areas or for causing problems at Heathrow airport, drones are being increasingly used in the construction industry to map out sites, particularly in hazardous or hard-to-reach areas.

These drones take images of sites that can be used to create 3D renders with a high degree of accuracy.

Virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) allows you to see what your project will look like before construction has even begun.

Used alongside 3D modelling, which helps project managers visualise their creation, VR can allow you to walk

Drones can be used for video surveillance or industrial inspection

“VR can allow you to walk around the project, explore the model and perform checks to make sure all is as it should be before work begins”

around the project, explore the model and perform vital checks to make sure all is as it should be before work begins.

Not only that, but images and videos can be saved as VR files and shared between users wherever they are in the world – meaning collaborative adjustments can be made and agreed in no time at all.

Augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is similar to VR except it allows the user to see their creation in a real-world environment.

For example, in 2011, the University of Canterbury created an app which allowed city planners in New Zealand to rebuild the area following the Christchurch earthquake. It meant planners and project workers could build based on previous plans and see their designs in the area where the buildings once stood.

Artificial intelligence When we think of artificial intelligence (AI), we often think of blockbuster movies and the downfall of humanity, but its use is increasing in our lives – from Siri and Alexa using AI that learns from the questions you ask to give the most appropriate response, to Netflix using an AI algorithm to analyse what you watch in order to recommend similar shows.

AI can help CIOB members by helping them to plan projects, creating materials and equipment in production lines or with the design. Perhaps even one day AI may be used to create robotic systems to carry out jobs considered high risk to human workers. ● CIOB insurance with Premierline: For insurance that’s right for your business, whether you use these technologies or not, call the CIOB insurance team on 0330 102 6158, or email CIOB@premierline.co.uk. Visit our website for more information at www.premierline.co.uk/CIOB. CONSTRUCTION MANAGER JANUARY 2020 | 57

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Role call

Training & Recruitment Job spotlight Iain Whittick Building surveyor, National Trust

TRUST ISSUES IAIN WHITTICK’S ROLE MIXES THE TRADITIONAL WITH THE MODERN

What does your job involve?

It’s a very varied role, as the National Trust owns a wide variety of buildings – the large mansions that people probably think of when the Trust is mentioned, though to farms, cottages and visitor tea rooms.

My role is a mixture of maintenance work, ensuring the estate is compliant and safe for visitors, tenants and staff, and projects.

Projects can be minor refurbishments and improvements, to major conservation works.

A particular focus recently has been adaptive re-use of redundant buildings to protect our historic building stock.

Did you need a specific set of skills and experience for this role? If so, what – and how did you achieve them?

I completed my degree in Heritage Conservation in 1993, and initially worked in countryside

conservation. I later moved to a role within a cathedral works department. I studied for a PG Dip in building conservation part time.

Work I did with a local authority built my knowledge of the building industry in more depth, and then I got a job with English Heritage, where I was able to use my specialist conservation knowledge on a daily basis. After working at a university in Edinburgh for a few years, I moved back into conservation with the National Trust as it is the environment that I most enjoy.

All building surveyors within the National Trust are required to be chartered. Many go down the RICS route, but there are a number of us who have chosen to go with the CIOB. In my case the CIOB enabled me to use my experience within the industry to achieve chartered status and, with my previous experience and qualifications, I was able to secure my current role.

Do you see this as a growth area for the construction industry or is there a skills shortage here too?

I recently assisted my local CIOB hub in Exeter to set up a heritage skills day.

Through this we were able to demonstrate a range of traditional skills and to show that there is a place for them within the modern construction industry.

There is a skills shortage in the conservation field, although I feel there has been an increase in interest. Knowledge of traditional materials such as thatch and cob, and masonry and joinery skills will always be in demand to maintain the historic buildings we have, but also have a place within new buildings. ●

Hundreds of the best jobs in construction.

Recruitment news and insight. www.constructionmanagerjobs.co.uk

Katy Dowding on why the industry needs to represent the society it builds for I happened into the construction industry by chance, thanks to a friend. I would love to give you a good story about how it was a grand plan but it was spur of the moment. I was 19, just completing A-levels, and a friend said he was going to become a surveyor. I liked the idea of being outdoors so I made the same choice. It was the best decision I made.

I went from a trainee quantity surveyor through to commercial director by getting a degree and a master’s degree. I then moved into operational delivery, before finally learning about business, strategic planning and becoming an MD then an EVP. I’ve been lucky to work on exciting projects, including the refurbishment of the Ministry of Defence.

Thirty years ago the industry was different. I was treated as a curiosity: there were people on site who had never worked with a woman. Of course I experienced sexism. When you’re on site with guys on the tools it showed in the social chit-chat, but in management it appeared in how people would underestimate your capability – people ask you to pick up dry-cleaning.

But now it’s light years away from that; it’s not unusual or odd for a woman to turn up on site. Ensuring women, ethnic minorities and the LGBT community are welcomed to the industry is the right thing to do morally.

We are building things for a society made up of a whole bunch of people from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different sexual orientations, gender identities, cultures – if we are trying to build all sorts of buildings for those people, why do we think we can do it with a monoculture? We have to represent the society we are building for.

The industry can without a doubt offer a career equivalent to a Formula 1 technician.

The stuff we are doing is really important – so the career paths are infinite. I think it’s sexy, exciting and brilliant.

I work with the construction youth trust. It helps young people from deprived backgrounds find careers in construction.

They might get a job but they may never have caught the tube, have any idea of what to wear in the workplace or how to have conversations with their boss. They don’t have the skills and might find it difficult.

It’s important to be a role model. I do believe ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’.

I want people to look and think they could be a Katy Dowding.

Katy Dowding is executive vice-president at Skanska UK.

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