Projects up to £7m

GOLD

John Darling
Project manager
Como Group

Project: Attorney General’s Office, London SW1: refurb of eight-storey building, completed in 23 weeks
Value: £2.7m
Contract: Design & build

When you have to submit your coming week’s works schedule to the police every Friday so they can satisfy themselves that it’s construction workers on the roof of the building rather than sharpshooters, or materials deliveries rather than suicide bombers drawing up at the site entrance, you know it’s a project where security is a big issue.

With New Scotland Yard as an immediate neighbour and a high-level government minister as the future occupier of the refurbished Whitehall building, John Darling needed to manage complex security restrictions, and mitigate their potential impact on the programme.

He had to procure high-specification bomb-resistant glazing, personally survey the project for potential security risks in the building fabric, and put security guards on the front entrance to control site access.

By taking the client’s interests to heart and adopting an exceptionally positive and non-adversarial approach, Darling successfully delivered this complex and fast-track fit-out.

Good client relationships were crucial to the project, and he also managed expectations and always kept the client team up to date with progress and problems at bi-weekly meetings.

He also held meetings each morning with his management team to identify priorities, manage information and delegate work. He managed the risk at all levels by meeting each week with the architect and every day with the subcontractors.

Darling’s quality control strategy included each subcontractor submitting a plan outlining their quality objectives, as well as regular inspections and progressive snagging. By practical completion, snagging was minimal and there were no outstanding works.

As well as delivering on time and on budget, Darling achieved an excellent BREEAM rating.

He did this through substantial reuse of electrical containment, blinds, doors and frames, and innovative initiatives, such as recycled beech and yoghurt pot worktops, and screens made from melted CDs.

SILVER

Sarah Payne
Project manager
BAM Construction

Project: Lancaster Environment Centre phase 3: construction of two R&D blocks, completed in 58 weeks
Value: £5.2m
Contract: JCT 98

Six months into this project, it was all looking rosy for Sarah Payne. She had successfully controlled costs while achieving the client’s aspirations on a tight budget and work was progressing ahead of schedule.

But when an innovative product being developed offsite for the envelope structure failed, she really showed her mettle.

The setback dealt a serious blow to the programme but Payne was able to motivate the professional team in the most demoralising of circumstances.

After analysing the implications of the product failure, she rescheduled activities so that progress could be made on the internal fit-out while rectification works were carried out on the envelope structure. Her strategy delivered the project ahead of the anticipated delay to the programme.

Payne also drove forward an extensive value-engineering exercise, bringing in the expertise of the supply chain and consultants. Her initiatives included fabricating offsite to benefit the site programme, changing the roof to a lightweight construction, using mass pad foundations that needed less reinforcement and earthwork support, and using precast floors.

By taking a critical co-ordination role with regular user/client meetings, she enabled the contract to run smoothly on a difficult location in the middle of a campus and next to a preschool, main library and sports centre, all of which remained live throughout the project.

Despite budget limitations and the disaster of the envelope structure failure, Payne met the client’s demands for a high-quality internal finish and striking external appearance. The client now plans to use the facility as a benchmark for all new developments.

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