Month in numbers

0

The amount, apparently, of ozone-killing carbon dioxide produced by Berkeley Homes’ new London development, West 3. How? All the power used to build it, and later by the occupiers, will be placed on renewable energy tariffs, which means the power drawn off the National Grid is replaced by energy from green sources. Building West 3 will send 7,300 tons of carbon dioxide (tCO2) into the atmosphere. (In damage, that’s equivalent to 5200 return flights from London to New York.) Most of that comes from the energy sunk into making materials, but Berkeley will try and neutralise that by investing in a hydro project in Bulgaria, and by paying for five hectares of new woodland in Bedfordshire. The result, theoretically, is a “carbon-neutral” development.

30

The percentage of employers who said the quality of construction graduates has deteriorated in recent years, according to research carried out by the CIOB. Only 10% of employers surveyed said graduates have got better. For their part, graduates say courses work best when companies spend money and time getting involved.

Dissatisfaction may be widespread, but Alan Crane, chairing the research remained hopeful that the industry and universities together could improve the situation. “We’ve got to find a way, as an institute and as an industry, to convey to universities what we want from graduates. But at the same time it’s not our job to tell universities how to educate people.”

72

The number of workers who have died in construction over the past year. This figure represents the highest number of fatalities for three years and is a slight increase on last year. However, the figures released by the Health and Safety Executive for the year ending in April 2005 also mark a continued rise in employment that has seen the rate of fatalities per hundred workers fall by 3% to 3.48 per 100,000 workers, continuing the downward trend of the past four years.

Rosi Edwards, Health and Safety Executive acting chief inspector for construction, said that the continuing high number of deaths was unacceptable, and pledged the support of the HSE to drive through safety reform in the industry.

39,286

The average total earnings in pounds of a construction manager. If you think that figure is low you may be right, which may explain why this figure came bottom in the UK’s ‘earnings league table’. With this in mind organisations in the sector are struggling to hold onto employees.

A survey launched by the Chartered Management Institute and Remuneration Economics, show 45.4% of companies are reporting retention problems. Nearly 62% of them blamed competition from other organisations and 45.4% admitted they offered little in the way of career progression or training.

Salaries and job security were also cited as reasons for companies find it difficult to retain employees.

2m

The number of man-hours recorded at the massive Heathrow Terminal Five project without a reported incident. This excellent achievement, however, has been overshadowed by the death of Laing O’Rourke worker Matthew Gilbert.

Gilbert was killed when a concrete section he was working on fell from a height of 17m as he worked on a multi-storey car park. Gilbert’s co-worker Parminder Singh was also seriously injured.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the incident and British Airports Authority will also review its safety procedures on the Terminal Five site. The death is the first to be suffered on the site during the construction of Terminal Five.