New Build £3m-£15m

Gold

Name
Glen Clements
Company
Dean & Dyball Construction
Project
Three mental health wards. Salisbury Hospital, Wiltshire
Contract
£14m, GC/Works/1 D&B, over 91 weeks

All tenders for this contract came in over the client’s budget, but Glen Clements won it by showing he could make savings without compromising the brief. Three months of value-engineering cut costs by £2m, and a risk reappraisal made significant savings on the contingency budget.

Innovative thinking was needed to achieve the trust’s operational needs. For example, doors to all patient areas had to open both ways so that patients could not barricade themselves in a room by jamming the door. Clements developed the elegant solution of unlockable and removable doorstops using only standard ironmongery. The system has since generated considerable interest in other hospitals,

Clements made considerable efforts to minimise environmental impact by drastically reducing lorry movements. All waste was segregated on site and a change to the foundation design allowed almost all arisings to be retained on site.

Hospital heads were invited to give presentations to emphasise the health and safety risks presented by patients with unpredictable behaviour and a skewed perception of hazards. The site even spawned its own urban myth: that of the new labourer being put through the induction process and preparing to start work before being collected by a nurse and returned to the ward.

Clements carefully fenced off each of the three work areas within the campus of this mental health hospital, and made numerous adaptations and alterations to suit phased handovers, sequenced decanting of existing units, demolitions and revised access routes, keeping the hospital fully briefed at all times. His ability to provide regular, reliable advice was a key achievement, and the client praised his liaison skills and information management.

Silver

Name
George Green
Company
HBG Construction
Project
Six-floor extension to office building. Charterhouse Street, London
Contract
£9.8m, JCT 98, 86 weeks

George Green’s first job as project manager put him straight through the mill. Charterhouse Street was the archetypal city site: little space, poor access, difficult technical issues, high quality standards and additional works and variations by the bucketload.

The Post Office’s railway network runs beneath one part of the site and the proposed route for Crossrail beneath another, so Green had to co-ordinate the piling design closely. To isolate the building from the trains below, the project made extensive use of anti-vibration mountings, but after the first of the mounting plates failed Green took the bold decision to dismantle part of the steelwork – a drastic step but one which saved the client considerable cost and time.

There were times when the flow of design information lagged behind site work, putting the programme and the budget at risk. The problem was compounded by substantial variations. For example, the client decided to bring the construction of a new diamond treatment plant forward to the main construction programme, which required Green to put in an extra reinforced concrete strongroom. He also had to completely redesign the roof-level plant rooms and provide structural strengthening to take extra water tanks. Late design changes also failed to faze him, and in each case Green managed out the problems methodically.

There were other potential obstacles. Although Green knew most of his team, they were relatively inexperienced, with two trainees and several members working in senior positions for the first time.

In such a confined site, continual cleanliness and tidiness are crucial. With no reportable accidents and several in-house safety awards, this was achieved.

Commended

Nick Abbey Bovis Lend Lease, Charles Bolingbroke Wates Construction, Mike Elks Taylor Woodrow, Steve Giles Mowlem, Peter Hancock Willmott Dixon, Leslie Henson Willmott Dixon, Martin Leppard Bovis Lend Lease, Gareth Williams Willmott Dixon