News

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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Those who work in the modern construction industry can enjoy a broad range of gadgets. These gadgets are not only designed to improve communication and worker safety, but also to make design and building process easier. Below, you will find a list of gadgets that will make your construction site safer and more productive. The Halo Light While you need the safest couplers such as TEFRA during construction, you also need gadgets that increase workers visibility when they work at night. One of such gadgets is Halo Light technology gadgets. This gadget increases workers visibility to passing motorists and visible during situations with reduced visibility. They are more efficient and can last for longer hours without the need for recharging. DAQRI Smart Helmet These helmets display work …

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A leading construction expert is calling on the industry to start to invest in the future next year as 2016 spells the start of a long-term industry boom. Richard Threlfall, KPMG’s Head of Infrastructure, Building and Construction, said: “2016 will be a good year for the construction industry. “Tier 1s will stabilise, labour supply and price pressures will start to ease, and the industry should be able to start focussing on securing steady growth in what will be a strong market. “It will be a year for businesses to invest, in people, processes and technology, to create a platform for what could be many good years ahead. “2015 has been a particularly ghastly year for many Tier 1 firms, who have been knocked off-course by losses on…

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The “biggest idiot on a ladder” can now be revealed following the largest ever response to the latest annual competition run by the Ladder Association. The winning Idiots on Ladders picture received nearly 60% more votes than its two joint runners-up. It showed two men inside the bucket of an excavator which was already around 20 feet off the ground, with one of them footing the ladder in the bucket so the other could climb to the top. Ladder Association Communications & Social Media Officer, Michael Fern, said: “This year the public sent in more pictures of people working dangerously at height than ever before, and some of the pictures were among the most unbelievable we have seen. “Along with the winner, one of the runners up …

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Willmott Dixon has secured detailed planning consent to deliver a new 20,000 football stadium for Brentford FC, together with 648 new homes. The builder’s residential development arm Prime Place is delivering the project in partnership with the club using the homes to help pay for the new stadium. Around seven new residential buildings rising to 15 floors will be located on a ten-acre site on Lionel Road South, close to Kew Bridge. More than 300 will be sold with the remaining and for private rental through Willmott Dixon’s PRS specialist Be:here. Brentford FC is awaiting the outcome of a public inquiry before construction of the new stadium can begin, after the Capital Court, which owns a key parcel of land for the homes, objected to the compulsory purchase of …

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Developer Sellar Property Group has submitted plans for a much taller cylindrical glazed tower that first mooted in Paddington, West London. The Renzo Piano designed project was initially launched as a 65-storey building containing offices and flats, rising to 224m. But this initial proposal has been ramped up, despite vocal objections from Historic England, with new plans for 72-floor building, rising to 254m, making it taller than 1 Canada Square on Canary Wharf. The development will be known as Paddington Place, but has already been nicknamed the skinny shard, in recognition of Irvine Sellar’s London Bridge skyscraper. It is being taken forward by Sellar Property in joint venture with Singaporean publicly listed Hotel Properties. Slender tower at 254m 1.3 acres of new public realm New means of access, including …

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