News

The Survey Association’s £2000 bursary award is set to boost the career prospects of two exceptional Geomatics students at Newcastle University. The winners, Connor Foxall and Oliver Smith, received their cash prize at a TSA conference where they also had the opportunity to network with industry professionals and guest speakers. These included Matt Shaw of ScanLAB Projects Ltd., whose laser scanning expertise was recently featured in the BBC series, Italy’s Invisible Cities. Following the conference, Connor was offered a week-long work placement at ScanLAB’s London office and used some of the bursary money to fund his travel and accommodation costs. Connor commented on his time at ScanLAB. ‘’Talking to the different members of the team, exploring new software and equipment and practising the industrial processes needed …

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UK Construction Week, the UK’s largest gathering and community of construction professionals, has conducted a survey to uncover and tackle issues facing construction, housebuilding and skills in the run up to the General Election. With over 1,000 responses from a cross section of professionals working in the sector, key points from the survey include: Sir Richard Branson is named as ‘the best person’ to head up new UK infrastructure projects 77% believe state intervention is needed for more housing 38% want Gavin Barwell to retain his position as Housing Minister 54% call for more housebuilding on brownfield sites One of the most significant results from the survey was for Sir Richard Branson, who was voted as the best person to spearhead new UK infrastructure projects, such as HS2 …

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Liverpool City Council has appointed engineering consultancy Ramboll to lead the design team to develop a permanent cruise terminal on the River Mersey. The multi-disciplinary design team includes architects Stride Treglown, cost managers Gardiner & Theobald, property consultants JLL, and landscape architects Hyland Edgar Driver. The team will initially work up detailed designs for the proposed £50m passenger facility before submitting a planning application for the former Princes Jetty, off Princes Parade, later this year. Further applications are likely to include associated projects like a new 200 room hotel and 1,100 space multi-storey car park to enhance the city’s capabilities in handling the next generation of turnaround cruises, which can carry up to 3,600 passengers. Subject to planning approval the Ramboll team will project manage and assist…

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Northern Irish contractor McLaughlin & Harvey has been named preferred bidder for Blackpool’s new Winter Gardens conference centre. The new exhibition and conferencing facilities form part of a council effort to turn the fortunes of the town around The council has agreed to appoint the firm under a pre-construction services agreement ahead of construction starting in October with a view to completing the project by spring 2019. McLaughlin & Harvey was reported to have had the most attractive bid over rivals Eric Wright, Gilbert Ash, Esh and Willmott Dixon. Architect Bisset Adams designed the £25m landmark conference centre, which attracted central Government funding. The complex will have a double height entrance foyer, with exhibition space on the ground floor and conferencing facilities above The new venue…

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Sellafield has formally invited firms to bid for four key partner roles to deliver its £4.5bn construction programme. The firm, which runs the Cumbria nuclear site, is rolling out a new collaborative procurement model that will change how major projects are delivered. The four successful programme and project partners will work alongside Sellafield’s in-house engineers in integrated teams over the next 20 years. This collaborative model will be used to deliver the huge works programme more safely, efficiently and cost effectively. The selected firms will work together to deliver three initial major projects.  The SPRS Retreatment Plant, SIXEP Contingency Plant and Replacement Analytical Project, together estimated at £1bn – £1.7bn). Further major projects in the pipeline still need more detailed project definition…

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Manchester-based social housing specialist Harbur Construction has sunk into administration. The firm founded just seven years ago turned over £28m last year and employed more than 20 staff out of its Manchester Business Park base near the city airport. Administrators from Leonard Curtis confirmed staff had been now laid off. Harbur specialised in buying land, obtaining planning permission for schemes and then constructing them in conjunction with the relevant residential provider. The firm built up skills in remediating brownfield sites in order to deliver affordable housing and commercial developments. Harbur Construction was on site building a £2.9m 30 apartment scheme at Back Church street in Bolton and was working on several schemes for TAC Development including a £6m housing job of 70-plus units on the…

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The pace of house building is finally showing signs of cranking up a gear with new home registrations for the first quarter of 2017 hitting a 10-year high. Homes starts take off in first quarter Nearly 42,500 new homes were registered in the UK by NHBC in the first three months of the year. This represent a 17% jump on last year with both private and social housing showing strong growth. Private sector homes were up 10% at 31,197 units, while affordable home registration jumped 40% to 11,273 new homes compared to last year. For the first time in seven years all 12 regions across the UK enjoyed growth in registrations, when compared to the same period 12 months ago. The North East (+39%), London (+38%) and Eastern (+…

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has written to supporters of the £200m Garden Bridge project confirming he will not provide the financial guarantees needed for construction to start Khan said that “the continuation of the project will expose the London taxpayer to additional financial risk, both with regard to the bridge’s construction and its operation and maintenance.â€� The scheme has been on life-support for some time and the latest move looks to kill-off any chances of it being built. Khan said: “Under the previous Mayor, a considerable amount of London taxpayers’ money has already been spent on the Garden Bridge. “I have always been clear that not a penny more of taxpayers’ money should be allocated to the project.â€�Having assessed all the information…

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Construction workers at the £18bn Hinkley Point construction site are on course to be the best paid builders in the industry. We understand that pay talks have set the bar at nearly £60,000 a year for full-time builders on the site. Talks are currently ongoing between main contractor joint venture Bouygues Travaux Publics/Laing O’Rourke and the construction unions. And the industry’s ongoing skills shortage means the unions are in a strong position. One source close to the talks said: “This is the biggest construction site in the country and everyone wants to get it built on time. “The unions know that and any pay deal will be better than the one at Heathrow T5 where everyone made sure people were paid industry leading rates…

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