Enabling work on the 4.9m sq ft Wood Wharf scheme next to London’s Canary Wharf Estate will start in a matter of months thanks to a £200m government loan.
Under the terms of the deal, the Canary Wharf Group will use the loan to fund infrastructure needed to unlock the new phase of Canary Wharf – formerly called Wood Wharf – to the east of the present estate.
The development will deliver 3,500 homes, including 607 affordable homes, as well as 2.8m sq ft of offices, shops and leisure facilities in 30 new buildings.
Proposals have already got planning permission, so work will be able to start within months. Basic enabling works will include relocation and upgrading of utilities for the site.
Completion of the first phase of the plans will coincide with the arrival of Crossrail in 2018.
The centerpiece of the scheme will be a 57-storey cylindrical residential skyscraper facing the waters of South Dock, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects behind the Tate Modern and the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium in Beijing.
Skanska, a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden, has signed a SEK600m ($69.3m) contract with Swedish property investor and developer AMF Fastigheter to reconstruct a property in the center of Stockholm, Sweden.
Under the contract, Skanska will refurbish and renovate 27,000 square meters of office space in nine floors.
The project will also involve construction of an extension corresponding three stories and a total of 7,000 square meters of gross area.
The project, which forms part of AMF Real Estate's development Urban Escape Stockholm, will include an entire block of five buildings with an area of 130,000 square meters.
Construction on the project will commence immediately with completion of the office building due in summer 2017 and will meet sustainability standards to acquire LEED Gold certification
The expansion plans come as the firm revealed strong results for the six months to February 28 2015 with pre-tax profits up to £32m from £18.2m last time.
Revenue rose to £118.5m from £149.7m as McCarthy & Stone started building work on 39 sites during the period.
Group chairman John White said: “We continue to target investment of £2 billion in land and build over four years to deliver around 12,000 new homes across more than 300 locations, support growth and capture a wider share of the active retiree market.
“Our strategy of creating an efficient and scalable business capable of building and selling more than 3,000 units per annum over the medium term remains firmly on track.
“The challenges presented by an ageing population means that there remains a pressing need to build more specialist retirement housing, and we have been actively calling on all political parties to focus on this area ahead of the forthcoming general election.
“It is imperative that they look beyond the needs of first time buyers and proactively encourage more and better housing options for our growing elderly population.”
The UK and Norway governments have formed a partnership to build the North Sea Network (NSN) electricity interconnector to link up electricity and gas networks.
The undersea interconnector will be the world's longest subsea interconnector with the capacity to transmit 1.4GW of electricity providing enough low-carbon energy for almost 750,000 British homes.
The two-way electricity cable will run from Blyth in Northumberland to Kvilldal, in Rogaland, on the Norwegian side extending through 450-mile (730km).
UK Government said: "NSN strengthens mutual security of supply, enhancing energy security in both countries by linking our power markets, and reinforcing capacity in times of system stress."
National Grid and Statnett, the Norwegian transmission system operator, have signed the ownership agreement for the project.
Scottish contractor Barr has reportedly bagged the contract to develop a new building complex at University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus in Roslin, Midlothian.
The scheme, designed by a British engineering, design and project management firm Atkins, will offer specialist research facilities, teaching laboratories, offices and an exhibition space for veterinary students and university staff.
The innovation centre and campus hub at Easter Bush will feature incubator space for animal bioscience labs and offices, facilities for research apart from additional campus facilities including a shop, public outreach centre and multi faith room, reported Construction Enquirer.
The centre will also have a glazed atrium with the building to incorporate a series of bridges at higher levels that will connect laboratory spaces.
The Manpower Ministry said investigations into previous construction worksite deaths showed that contractors had ignored safety guidelines to meet deadlines before Chinese New Year.
SINGAPORE: The Manpower Ministry (MOM) has launched an enforcement operation to weed out poor Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) practices at construction sites. This comes after investigations into eight construction site-related deaths last January showed contractors had rushed work and disregarded guidelines in order to meet deadlines before the Chinese New Year holidays.
The ministry said in a news release on Wednesday (Jan 28) that the blitz will "ensure contractors maintain their focus on WSH" ahead of the festive period. Operation Sunbird, as it is codenamed, will involve inspections at more than 200 worksites island-wide over a three-week period, ending in early Feb 2015. This is on top of regular inspections MOM conducts throughout the year. Inspections under this operation will cover a range of work areas, including formwork, work-at-heights and lifting operations, among others, according to MOM.
Errant contractors and employers will face a "thorough investigation and harsh penalties" as well as corrective actions - including "intensified monitoring, inspections and traiing requirements", said MOM's Director of Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate Mr Chan Yew Kwong. Companies that fail to comply with safety rules can be fined up to S$500,000 for their first offence.
Last Friday (Jan 23), a worker died in after being crushed by a formwork structure at a Alexandra Terrace construction site. Preliminary findings indicate that four workers were assembling two formwork panels, working in between them, when one of the panels toppled inwards, MOM said. It struck a Bangladeshi national, who died from his injuries in hospital.
Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin called this "unacceptable". "Every worker is entitled to a safe workplace, and every employer and occupier is obliged to provide that. I call on all stakeholders to play their part to prevent accidents and ill health at work. Prevention is key as no amount of investigations or penalties will bring a deceased worker back to life,” he said.
The only UK-owned major manufacturer sold 70m bricks in 2014 as production rose to 67.5m.
Chairman Eric Gadsden said: “A generational oversupply of bricks has come to an end and the market is now reliant on increasing levels of imports.
“The current environment brings a new set of challenges with our stocks, and industry stocks, at an all time low.
“Bricks are no longer immediately available on demand but we have successfully managed our customers’ requirements.”
Average selling prices last year increased to £395 per thousand as “sales were constrained by capacity for the first time in many years.”
The price rise helped Michelmersh post a doubling in operating profit to £2.8m from £1.4m on turnover up to £28.5m from £25.9m
In January HTC Plant sold its UK hoist division to Dutch specialist Reco to concentrate on its “core market” of tower cranes.
But the Enquirer now understands that a potential sale of the crane business is an option under consideration by Harrington.
A possible buyer could be German manufacturer WolffKran who supply HTC with its machines.
HTC – which stands for Harrington Tower Cranes – was formed in 2002 when PC Harrington Contractors acquired the tower crane division of Hewden Stuart.
HTC added to its fleet in 2013 with the acquisition of Kier’s crane division which consisted of 40 machines and 25 staff.
HTC has a workforce of around 180 drivers and its red cranes are a familiar sight on major projects across the country.
Work starts this spring on the 340,000 sq ft development on the existing main campus of the University of Warwick site.
It will involve building a four-storey ‘L’ shaped building, with Balfour’s engineering services arm delivering significant mechanical and electrical installation works.
At the height of construction around 750 people will work on the project.
The NAIC is being built to bring a fresh national focus for expertise in automotive research and will bring together under one roof over 1,000 technologists, academics, designers, students and engineers.
The total investment in NAIC and the initial technologies it will house by will be £150m.
The facility will also help to address the current shortage of skilled research and development staff in the automotive supply chain and foster collaboration to develop and utilise new breakthrough vehicle technology.
The NAIC is being funded through a collaboration between Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, WMG and the Government’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund.
NEW DELHI: The dumping of construction material on roads, a common sight across many places in the city, has drawn attention of the National Green Tribunal which has directed South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to confiscate vehicles carrying such items.
A bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani expressed concern over encroachments on Khaira Road in Najafgarh here and said such "hazardous activities" were causing nuisance on the road.
"In cases where the police as well as SDMC finds any person who is illegally dumping building material or any other waste material on the road, they shall immediately confiscate those vehicles whether they are tractors and trolley and appropriate and criminal action should be initiated in accordance with law," the bench said.
The Tribunal said in cases where building materials were illegally brought and dumped on a private land, it is for the MCD to take appropriate action in accordance with law.
"The MCD shall give appropriate notice to the owner of premises concerned and after giving opportunity and being satisfied that illegal dumping has been done in an unauthorized manner, the premises shall be sealed," it said.
In cases where non agricultural products are dumped on agricultural land, the SDMC shall give suitable directions to the authorities concerned, the bench said.
It directed Delhi Police to ensure that parking on the road whether tar road or adjacent to it is prohibited.
The Tribunal's direction came on a petition filed by Ravinder Yadav, an Assistant Professor in a government college in Haryana, who had alleged that authorities have turned a blind eye to the encroachments in Khaira Road area.
"Building material is illegally transported, stored and being dumped by tractors (originally used for agricultural purposes) and trucks on the roads at Krishna Vihar East and West on Khaira Road, Najafgargh, resulting in environmental pollution," it had said.
The Tribunal also directed SDMC to pay an amount of Rs 3,600 to Yadav as he had to take six days casual leave for the purpose of this case.
CONFIDENCE within the Scottish construction industry has reached an all-time high.
According to the new Scottish Construction Monitor, recorded confidence levels in the sector are plus 29, up three points on the rating recorded at the end of 2014.
The positive rating recorded by the Q1 2015 construction monitor means that industry confidence has now been rated positive for seven consecutive quarters since the second quarter of 2013.
A quarterly survey of the membership of independent construction trade body the Scottish Building Federation (SBF), the Scottish Construction Monitor is published just a week before new regulations which will impose significant new health and safety responsibilities on domestic building projects come into force.
The report also examines the impact the 2015 Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM 2015) will have on the sector.
Nine out of 10 (94 per cent) of those who responded to the survey were either fully or partially aware of the new regulations while two-thirds said they felt either fully or somewhat prepared for them.
Almost two-thirds of respondents said they thought the new regulations would create additional costs, while almost one-third thought they would make health and safety compliance more complicated.
Scottish Building Federation managing director Vaughan Hart said: “It’s good to see confidence within the Scottish construction industry up once again for the first three months of 2015.
“We continue to monitor the industry’s performance carefully since certain sectors still offer significant scope for improvement over the coming months. In order to be sustainable, it’s important that the industry’s recovery is suitably balanced across all sectors.
“Ordinary consumers are probably largely unaware of the impending entry into force of the CDM 2015 regulations. But they will have important implications for the responsible management of health and safety on domestic projects.
“It’s more important than ever that customers choose a reputable, properly qualified contractor to carry out building works on their home.”
The study found almost six in 10 (59 per cent) thought the impact of the new regulations on their business would be minor while six per cent said they thought it would have no impact at all. One in 10 (11 per cent) said they thought the new regulations will have a significant impact.
Hart said: “As a trade federation, we have been working hard with our members to ensure they fully understand their responsibilities under the new regulations.”