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Plans to build a new ferry terminal for Red Funnel in Southampton have got the green light. £35m terminal will be built at the Trafalgar Dock The facilities are to be moved from Town Quay to the Eastern Docks to make way for a £450m waterfront development, due to go before planners in August. Red Funnel plans to build the £35m ferry terminal at the Trafalgar Dock to improve links with the Isle of White. It will include a four-deck car park above the marshalling yard to replace existing surface parking and car storage Kevin George, CEO at Red Funnel, said: “We’re delighted that the plans have been approved. “This is a major step for Red Funnel in terms of delivering the first part of the…

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Barnfield Construction is starting work on Burnley FC’s new £10.6m training complex after agreeing a deal to sponsor the centre. The Barnfield Training Centre will be built in Padiham and will take 12 months to finish. Burnley FC Stadium and Operations Manager Doug Metcalfe said: “It’s great news to finally be on site and we can start to see some progress, as it has been a long time in the making. “We have spent four or five years developing plans for the training ground to move the club forward, and it won’t be long now before the site starts to take shape and we can begin to visualise the end result.

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Wiltshire Council has awarded Ringway Infrastructure Services an annual £15m highways maintenance contract to replace its failed Balfour Beatty deal. Ringway Infrastructure Services takes over maintenance in April Ringway will take over maintenance of roads, street lights and pavements for five years in April, with a possible extension of a further two years. Philip Whitehead, cabinet member for highways, said: “I believe this deal is the best one possible for the people of Wiltshire in terms of value for money, but most importantly quality.” The contractor, which ran the contract in Wiltshire between 1999 and 2013, was appointed following a thorough tendering exercise which saw four companies assessed in terms of price and quality. Balfour Beatty Living Places took on the five-year contract with Wiltshire Council in 2013 but relations between both…

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New research by a construction and small business insurance specialist constructaquote.com has discovered that as many as 64% of sole-traders and small business owners within the UK don’t own Professional Indemnity Insurance, with those working as building contractors, engineers and estate agents revealed as the top culprits. Construction and small business insurance specialists constructaquote.com have re-launched their Professional Indemnity Insurance product this New Year, designed to protect business owners when a claim is made against them. Professional Indemnity insurance is there to protect businesses that offer professional advice which could lead a customer to lose money. The research was inspired after constructaquote.com spoke to its customer Adrian Buckmaster, the owner of cladding contractors Terraclad Limited, who employs six people. Adrian took out …

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The bosses of more than 150 contractors have signed up to prioritising health and wellbeing in the workplace. workplace ill health costs construction more than 69,000 lost days a year Firms have agreed to launch a major new initiative to transform the industry’s occupational health record, which sees around 3,500 deaths a year from construction related disease. The latest new drive mirrors the safety summit 15 years ago, which galvanised contractors into tackling the industry’s poor safety record. Chief executives have pledged to raise occupational health as a boardroom priority, after hearing it is costing the industry an estimated £1.3bn a year in lost productivity. The firms yesterday pledged to launch an all-out offensive to tackle industrial diseases like mesothelioma that alone accounts for 2,600 deaths every year. Construction workers suffer three times more…

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The University of Wales Trinity Saint David has picked Kier for the first phase of its £300m Swansea Waterfront Innovation Quarter in the city’s SA1 area. Swansea Waterfront Innovation Quarter Kier has been brought in early to manage the detailed and technical design of the new Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Engineering as well as a new library building. The firm will begin construction in autumn under a £26m contract due to complete in time for the start of the academic year in 2018. Jason Taylor, Kier Construction operations director for South Wales said the waterfront development should also see the creation of 25 local jobs and 250 apprenticeships. As principal contractor on the project, Kier will be responsible for setting up a collaborative working approach with all other contractors, including Stride Treglown…

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 The CITB is set to cut staff numbers by 46 as it continues a major restructuring. The move comes after the training body said “many find the organisation too slow and difficult to deal with.” The latest changes follow a restructuring of middle management last year which saw 26 out of 188 roles cut. CITB chiefs said the next stage is designed “to reach many more employers through online services, improved phone support, and face to face services via a refocused CITB Advisor role.” The new Advisor role will create a “one-stop shop” for business information and advice on training. CITB said: “This will help companies get the right skills for their businesses, based on local knowledge, and save time by carrying out simple processes – like …

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Plans will be submitted next month for a cluster of four residential towers, set to transform Manchester’s skyline. Ambitious proposal for the 3.7-acre site in the Great Jackson Street area It ranks as the most ambitious of several proposed schemes that could turn Manchester city centre into a high-rise residential area. CQ Investments, part of construction group Renaker Build, is aiming to develop the scheme to provide 1,400 flats on the site between Owen Street and Deansgate. The four towers will range from 38 storeys to 64 storeys high, overshadowing Manchester’s present tallest building the Beetham Tower, which is 47 storeys high. Designed by Simpson Haugh & Partners, with Beetham Tower designer Ian Simpson, the glazed towers will feature unusual inverted facades on each face of the buildings. The scheme has been designed to appeal to both…

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Mobile CAD Surveying have today commenced the Measured Survey at Wentworth Golf Club. The commission is for a comprehensive Building Survey of all the main club house and leisure facilities ahead of a planned refurbishment contract. The 19th century house the “Wentworths” (now the club house) was the home for the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. It was purchased in 1850 by exiled Spanish marquis and count Ramon Cabreraand his heiress wife. After his death, his wife, née Catherine Anne Vaughn-Richards, bought up the surrounding lands under The Cabrera Trust to safeguard the meadows, brooks and the trees planted from her travels on the continent with her gentrified husband to form what has become the heart of the Wentworth Estate. In 1912, builder W.G. Tarrant had started developing St George’s…

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Civils firm Alun Griffiths (Contractors) is set to start preparatory work in late January to clear the way for construction to start on the £315m Circuit of Wales racing track. Spanish giant FCC has taken the main contract to transform 830 acres of Blaenau Gwent into an international motorsport circuit, technology park and training facility. Local firm Alun Griffiths will deliver the ground reprofiling and infrastructure package on the project. Scheme promoter, the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, received final planning in November and is now aiming to start construction proper by March. The project will bring an international motorsport circuit to the site north of Ebbw Vale, near the Rassau Industrial Estate, alongside a 1m sq ft technology park and training facility. Backers hope to have the track completed for the circuit to stage the…

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