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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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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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The headquarters of insurance giant Aviva in London could be demolished to make way for what would be the city’s tallest tower. Architect Avery Associates has been working up a design for the site known as 1 Undershaft, which would see the existing building replaced with a sloping sided skyscraper rising to almost 270m. The unique profile of the building has already prompted one contractor to dub the building “The Fang”. A spokeswoman for the architect said: “It is very early days and a planning application has not been submitted yet. “We have come up with a scheme that is sympathetic to the surrounding buildings.” The architect has aimed to preserve the views of the nearby Gherkin with a building that has sloping sides and mirrors the …

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Supermarket giant Tesco will slash capital spending to £1bn in 2015/16. The announcement was made in its latest trading statement to the City on Thursday. Tesco has cancelled plans to build 49 new stores which will wipe 1.8m sq ft of new space from its pipeline of planned work. The firm cut capital spending in the current financial year by £400 last summer to £2.1bn. That figure will now be halved. Chief executive Dave Lewis said: “We have some very difficult changes to make. “I am very conscious that the consequences of these changes are significant for all stakeholders in our business but we are facing the reality of the situation.”

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Hanson has restarted production at its Accrington plant to feed soaring demand for bricks. David Cameron and George Osborne yesterday visited the site which was forced to close down seven years ago. Hanson has reopened the factory following a £1.6m investment which has created 30 new jobs with 20 more set to follow this year. Hanson has already reopened its nearby Claughton Manor plant near Lancaster and added additional shifts at its midlands factories at Kirton, Desford and Wilnecote. The restart at Accrington will be carried out in two stages with phase one kicking off this month and phase 2, which will require further investment of around £350,000, following later in 2015. Osborne said: “The closure of the brickworks was a painful symbol of how our economy has suffered in …

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Ray O’Rourke is planning to pilot a new prefabricated concrete panel building system on his own multi-million pound mansion in Essex. O’Rourke received planning after winning an appeal to knock down his existing £7m arts and craft home to replace it with a two-storey mansion with basement. The new home in the exclusive Essex village of Fryerning will be built from large concrete panels, a system produced at the firm’s factory in Steetley. The method is part of a programme of building research being undertaken with the University of Cambridge with the aim of providing bespoke designs that can be delivered at speed. So far the firm has used it to build schools and offices and O’Rourke is understood to be keen to use a similar approach …

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The government has given its seal of approval to an exciting new development at Newquay Cornwall Airport. Constructed by a team at Rubb Buildings Limited, Aerohub will offer 25,000sq ft of space for aircraft storage and maintenance tasks carried out at Newquay Cornwall Airport. In fact, the hangar is already home to a new CIS UK Ltd facility and the site for Apple Aviation to carry out repairs, overhauls and recycling of aircrafts. Upon visiting the travel hub to explore the new Aerohub hangar, Local Growth Minister Kris Hopkins declared that the facility is “helping [England] to create an economy driven by private sector growth”. Mr Hopkins commented: “It is fantastic to see businesses choosing Newquay as their British base and winning new business in decommissioning aircraft….

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