News

Canary Wharf Group is starting the hunt for package contractors on its massive redevelopment of the Shell Centre site on London’s South Bank. The move comes despite an ongoing legal challenge against the scheme which has delayed the start of construction. Canary Wharf Group is construction manager on the project and joint development manager with Qatari Diar. The scheme was approved by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in June but is now facing a legal challenge by a lone objector. The High Court challenge is due to be heard in December but the developers are confident of victory and are pressing ahead with the scheme. Canary Wharf Group majority owner Songbird Estates said: “A Section 288 objection to the Secretary of State’s decision was filed and a court date …

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The Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), an initiative which aims to improve the image of the industry by encouraging best practice, has reached its 80,000th registered site. The 80,000th site belongs to Morgan Sindall’s Brampton Village Primary School site in Huntingdon, and the Managing Director for Construction East and the project team from Morgan Sindall were presented with a plaque on Friday 19th September to mark the occasion. Registering a site with the CCS demonstrates a commitment to improving the image of construction, as all registered sites must adhere to a Code of Considerate Practice. This involves a commitment from sites registered with the Scheme to care about appearance, respect the community, protect the environment, secure everyone’s safety and value their workforce. All registered sites are regularly monitored …

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Contractor Leadbitter has been fined £100,000 after a worker was critically injured when he was run over by a nine tonne dumper truck. David Windsor, 62, from Bristol, suffered life changing injuries, including severe brain damage, in the incident at a site in Devonport, on 7 October 2010. He also sustained facial fractures, serious injuries to right arm, fractured ribs, a fractured pelvis, leg fractures and foot injuries all on his right side where the dumper ran over him. He spent two weeks in intensive care, a month in a high dependency unit and was finally discharged home from a brain injury rehabilitation unit in April, 2011 – more than six months later. Plymouth Crown Court heard that Windsor, a delivery driver, was delivering a mortar silo to the Leadbitter site …

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British Land has set a Mayfair record for apartment sale price at its Clarges site being redeveloped by Laing O’Rourke. The developer confirmed today that it has already exchanged on 18 flats at the site at an average price of £4,750 per sq ft. The 18 apartments will cost buyers £210m at an average price of £11.67m. British Land said: “This pre-launch was limited and targeted at an exclusive list of known potential buyers and has been very well received.” Laing O’Rourke started work on the Clarges Mayfair site earlier this year and the job is due for completion in 2017. The residential-led scheme will contain 34 apartments over ten floors alongside 47,800 sq ft of high quality prime office space and 14,800 sq ft of retail and …

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Construction and property leaders hope the Scottish no vote to independence will lead to a work surge in the country. The result was confirmed this morning with a 55% to 45% vote in favour of remaining part of the union. Construction information specialists Barbour ABI had warned that £7bn of planned projects were at risk if Scotland had voted for independence. Kevin Bradley, Head of Scotland, Programme Cost Consulting at consultant AECOM said: “Now that Scotland has voted to remain in the Union and provided the result is accepted as permanent and the risk of any ongoing campaign is removed it takes away uncertainty for investors, we are likely to see a significant increase in commercial property transactions over the coming months. “The Government is committed …

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Over £7 billion of planned construction works could be in jeopardy if Scotland votes for independence next Thursday. Scotland is presently benefitting from a work boom with more than £38bn of construction projects planned. But, according to research by construction intelligence specialist Barbour ABI a fifth of these are being funded by investors based outside of Scotland. Researchers warn that the likelihood of these projects going ahead as intended may hang in the balance depending on next week’s result. Scotland has a higher prevalence of contracts in the infrastructure, healthcare, education and industrial sectors compared to the wider UK market. It is under-represented in the commercial, retail, residential, hotel and leisure sectors. Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said:  ”There are a large number …

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The Government has granted development consent to build the giant Thames Tideway Tunnel project along the Thames in London. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss both today signed the order granting development consent for the 25km Thames Tideway Tunnel to be built and operated. Pickles said: “This is a challenging infrastructure project, but it is clear that the Thames Tunnel will help modernise London’s ageing Victorian sewerage system, and make the River Thames cleaner and safer.” A construction start has slipped from May 2015 as originally planned to 2016. The 7.2 metre diameter ‘super sewer’ is designed to stop more than 39m tonnes of untreated sewage being flushed into the Thames every year. Construction will involve work at 24 sites from Acton in the West to Abbey …

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A fall-off in refurb and maintenance work and new housing growth rates hit otherwise broadly improving output figures in July. Overall construction recorded no growth during the month and just a 0.6% rise in the second quarter compared with the first three months of 2014. But new work output continued to rise by 1% in July and 0.5% in Q2 compared to the start of the year. The latest figures suggest the pace of construction growth is easing as housing starts show tentative signs of tailing off. Private sector home building rose 1.1% on the month in July, down from 2% in June. The annual growth rate slowed to a five-month low of 16%. New orders also published today for the second quarter were 3.8% higher …

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JJ Roofing Supplies, the largest independent roofing merchant in London, have announced the acquisition of thousands of Velux® Roof Windows and Flashings and will be running a stock clearance from 1 September 2014 with at least 40% off Velux® V21 series windows available in stores and online, with next day delivery. VKR Holdings, Velux’s parent company, have worked closely with JJ Roofing Supplies for years and February’s launch of the New Generation Velux® Roof Windows led to another collaboration between the two companies to bring amazing value to their customers. JJ Roofing Supplies have been working closely with Velux® to bring surplus discontinued stock from the previous V21 range to customers at an incredibly low price. The stock has already been delivered to JJ Roofing Supplies and such is …

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Nine contractors have secured places on 20 framework agreements with Network Rail worth £1.6bn over the next five years. The deals cover an extensive programme of enhancements and renewals to the London North Western and East Midlands routes. The winners are: Amalgamated Construction Limited, Amey, Buckingham Group Contracting, Carillion, J Murphy & Sons, Miller Construction, Skanska, Story Contracting and VolkerRail. Network Rail’s infrastructure projects director, Rob Offord, said: “The awarding of these frameworks represents a significant milestone in the implementation of our new procurement and contracting strategy. “This will bring improved safety, whole-life cost efficiency and delivery performance through collaborative relationships with a consolidated and strategically aligned supply chain.” The awards by regions are:

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