More news – Page 2519
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NewsBalfour to create single £500m rail business
Balfour Beatty is planning to restructure its rail operations to create a £500m-turnover business
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Comment
Worst fall in output on record
The construction output figures from the Office of National Statistics covering the first quarter of 2009 highlight the true nature of the construction recession, or should we say depression, with considerable destocking leading to sharp falls in output. Total output in construction during the first quarter of 2009 fell an ...
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Comment
Construction shrinks at the fastest rate ever recorded
It was with genuine shock that I looked at the latest output figures. I was busy finishing something off when Noble Francis of the Construction Products Association called to ask if I'd seen the figures.I thought he was pulling my chain when he read over the numbers.I'm regarded as gloomy, ...
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Comment
Why you might want to raise a glass to building homes?
As we rage about the cost to the taxpayer of 80p bath plugs and the construction of elaborate duck houses, here's a figure to contemplate.For every new home built in recessionary times, each taxpayer is about 10p to 15p better off.Not a lot maybe, but see 20 homes being built ...
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NewsWomen and children first
Chivalry is not yet dead for the good folk of Bolton. Dave Billinge snapped a digger driver who, realising his bucket was blocking a footpath, kindly lifted it out of the way. Seems he can’t look either...
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CommentHansom: Rock, paper, scissors
It’s a dead heat for who’s had the worst week: a load of rockery-dwelling statues, the man faced with a mountain of company records, or a client forced to delay a – ahem – delicate procedure
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CommentThe true aim of architecture
Robert Adam’s rant (22 May, page 24) about architects and how “they like to pretend they know best about what’s good for society ... “ reminded me of a talk Buckminster Fuller gave at the school of architecture at Bristol university in 1965
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Comment
A cable to the sun
In reply to Hugh Bantin’s query about wind energy (8 May, page 32), yes, it is fickle and average output is about 30% of maximum
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Comment
Noises off
In my experience, good acoustics in schools are still viewed as a nice-to-have rather than a must-have (“Can you hear me at the back?”, 15 May, page 40)
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Comment
Good health
Regarding your article on a health scare prompting regulation change (29 May, page 13), hats off to NHBC for producing a report that takes the real world into account
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Comment
The third amendment
The Standing Joint Committee for The Standard Measurement of Building Works has prepared amendment three to the Seventh Edition, effective from 1 June.
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Comment
Messing about near boats
I work for a charity called the Waterway Recovery Group (www.wrg.org.uk) which restores the derelict canals of England and Wales
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CommentThe disaster area
Open mike: The latest data from purchasing managers confirms that construction has been one of the worst afflicted areas of the UK economy. Roy Ayliffe peers into the gloom for signs of hope
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FeaturesIn control: building inspectors
Forget Britain’s Got Talent, last week a Channel 4 documentary finally gave the unsung world of building control its moment in the limelight. Emily Wright finds out what the inspectors involved, and the rest of the industry, thought of it...
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FeaturesReed out loud: the RIBA's first woman president
Ruth Reed wants to change people’s views of the RIBA – and becoming the institute’s first woman president isn’t a bad place to start. She talks to Dan Stewart about her priorities for her two-year stint, the recession and how she hopes to make the RIBA less London-centric
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FeaturesExploding church, invisible architect: Iglesia de Santa Monica
Spanish firm Vicens + Ramos is a reclusive practice, but this iconic/iconoclastic church in Madrid is hard to miss
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NewsViñoly has another go: Battersea Power Station
This is the latest incarnation of Rafael Viñoly’s proposals for Battersea Power Station in south-west London, which will include 3,700 homes and 1.5 million ft2 of office space
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News
Wates dropped from £100m prison project
Wates has been dropped from a £100m prison scheme in Leicestershire as part of a Ministry of Justice drive to cut costs
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News
£1bn scheme to build 25 private hospitals frozen for a year
The construction arm of Europe’s biggest healthcare partnership has delayed a £1bn programme to deliver 25 private hospitals in the UK by at least a year as it seeks new investors