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An Oldham building firm has been fined £50,000 after a friend of a worker suffered life-changing injuries when he fell from the second floor of a partially built house. The 53-year-old, from Oldham, who has asked not to be named, suffered brain damage and spinal injuries in the fall, and will require care for the rest of his life. Global Constructions (Northwest) Ltd was prosecuted by the HSE following an investigation into the incident on Frederick Street in Oldham on 16 September 2013. Manchester Crown Court heard the company had been building twelve large houses when a friend of one of the workers came onto the site. He could not find anyone in the site cabin and so went over to a detached house where two workers …

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Work may not get underway on thousands of sites during the next five years as the construction skills shortage intensifies. That’s the alarmist message from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors who are warning that 27,000 projects a year could be hit by 2019. More than four fifths (85%) of surveyors questioned said that a lack of qualified candidates meant they had problems recruiting. That is leading to paid work being turned down by many companies. Around two in five (43%) surveying firms currently turn down new business opportunities due to a lack of skilled workers – with each of them passing up an average of five contracts per year. The problem looks set to peak in the next five years, with a further 11% of the …

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February, 2015 – Breyer Group has revealed how TomTom Telematics technology and its partnership with HDI-Gerling Insurance Company has led to fleet insurance savings of £60,000 in just 12 months. The building contractor made the savings across its 200-strong fleet by using driver behaviour monitoring tools to underpin a three-year risk management programme with HDI-Gerling. “By meeting targets to reduce the frequency and severity of motor claims in the last 12 months, we have benefitted from a 20 per cent premium reduction,” said Breyer Group finance manager Nigel Wood. “We’ll benefit from further savings again next year if we continue to hit our performance targets.” WEBFLEET, TomTom Telematics’ fleet management platform, allows Breyer to monitor and profile the performance of its van and car drivers with data …

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National contractor Shaylor Group announced recently that contracts have been signed for the construction of Cedars Hall, a new music and performance facility at Wells Cathedral School. The multi-million pound building will provide flexible, high quality recital space and sectional practice rooms for use by the school and wider community. The stylish building, designed by internationally acclaimed architect Eric Parry, will be placed in the centre of the school and, in addition to music, will be used for lectures, meetings and drama productions. Wells Cathedral School is one of the UK’s most distinguished co-educational Independent schools, and one of only four specialist music schools in England. The recital hall will accommodate an audience of up to 350 and is recessed into the surrounding garden, which is …

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ON her latest visit to the University of Huddersfield, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal hailed its recent successes. “What you have achieved here is remarkable,” she said, as she carried out the official opening of the new Student Central building. The Princess was introduced by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, who said that the past year had been the most amazing since the institution’s origins in 1825. He cited a string of awards, including the University of the Year, top place in a Best University Workplace Survey, plus an award for Best Estates and Facilities. Also, the findings of an international survey had just placed Huddersfield at fifth in the world for student experience. Inviting Her Royal Highness to open Student Central, Professor Cryan …

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Quintain Estates has selected a panel of 10 contractors to deliver the remaining work on its £2.1bn transformation of Wembley Park, Construction News can reveal. The successful contractors will be asked to tender for the remaining phases within the scheme, which will include residential, student, hotel, leisure and commercial office facilities. The contractors on the panel are Bouygues, Carillion, GB Solutions, Higgins, John Sisk & Son, Kier, Mace, Vinci, VolkerFitzpatrick and Wates. Projects will range in size up to the “hundreds of millions”, according to Quintain head of construction Matt Voyce, with contractors chosen depending on their areas of expertise and “appetite for risk” on jobs. He said: “As projects come forward we will select from the appropriate contractors on our panel. “We look to engage with…

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Two children had to be rescued after they became stuck in mud on the construction site of the guided busway in Manchester. A family out walking in the fields near Leigh tried to cross the public transport works and got into difficulties in the soft mud yesterday morning. The two adults were stuck up to their waists at one point but managed to get to safety. The two children, who were in the mud to their knees, were not strong enough to pull themselves out. Fire crews from Atherton and Leigh stations and a water incident unit from Eccles attended the scene and managed to find another way on to the building site to rescue them. Ambulance crews checked out the family members, who were suffering from …

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A man has been arrested after two women suffered serious head injuries from a falling scaffold pole in the City of London. The injured pair, both in their 50s, were taken to hospital after the pole fell from a building site in Eldon Street this morning. City of London Police said: “A man has been arrested after two women suffered serious head injuries in Eldon Street. The two were injured after an object fell on them.” The man has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. It is believed the injured women were walking on the opposite side of the road from the nearest scaffold clad building. Witness Michael Jarman said ”The two ladies on the floor seemed to be in a lot of pain. …

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Vale Park Demolition Services has been appointed to clear the site of an £18m student halls scheme in Preston. Eric Wright is main contractor on the regeneration scheme in Friargate for Developer Portergate Properties. Vale Park is mobilising a team of 15 demolition experts using specialist equipment working on the site. Tom Perks, contracts manager at Vale Park, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed on such a high-profile construction scheme in Preston and to be working with the Eric Wright team to deliver the project successfully for Portergate. “At the moment we are operating inside the existing buildings on the site carrying out removal work and our specialist equipment will be on site shortly and then we will begin the overall site clearance. “It …

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Construction companies are being urged to check their rebar stocks following the latest warning over the quality of Chinese imports. Trade body UK Steel claims there could be problems with imported rebar containing small amounts of other elements added in order to qualify the steel as “alloy” and thus benefit from an export tax rebate. UK Steel said a “significant” proportion of the Chinese rebar sold in the UK contains boron in excess of 8 parts per million with some samples tested containing boron at 30 ppm. Experts at the Welding Institute have issued guidance that rebar containing boron in excess of 5 ppm requires changes from the normal welding techniques used. The only way of telling which Chinese rebar contains boron would be to test each bar. Ian Rodgers …

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