All articles by Thomas Lane – Page 32

  • News

    T5 pay rate ‘won’t hit market’

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Soaring electricians’ pay rates at Heathrow Terminal 5 have not pushed up wages in the rest of the M&E market according to research carried out for Building

  • News

    ODPM fudges Part L revisions

    2005-05-13T00:00:00Z

    Carbon emission targets promised by the government for the new energy regulations have been watered down by a “sleight of hand” according to critics.

  • News

    Greenwich residents fight developer over noisy flats

    2005-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Local MP Nick Raynsford joins forces with residents furious about noise transmission at flagship millennium village

  • Kirk Smith, Alan Jones and Bruce Haswell (left to right) took on Greenwich Millennium Village Ltd in a battle to sort out noise problems in their homes
    Features

    ‘If our neighbours have people around for a dinner party we go out – I would rather sleep on a friend’s floor for the night’

    2005-05-06T00:00:00Z

    A block of flats in the Greenwich Millennium Village is at the centre of a bitter dispute about noise transmission. Although the building originally passed an acoustic test, the residents claim the problem is so bad they cannot sleep.

  • Features

    Don’t get smart with us

    2005-04-22T00:00:00Z

    RFID tags work like sophisticated bar codes that can provide installation instructions, store a product’s service record and monitor its movements – for the whole supply chain to see. So why is the construction industry being so slow to adopt them?

  • The assembly has a commanding position by the water’s edge in Cardiff Bay
    Features

    The dragon tamed

    2005-04-08T00:00:00Z

    Nearing completion, on time and close to budget, the Welsh assembly in Cardiff has managed to avoid the excesses of the Scottish parliament. But this welcome result belies an arduous, epic journey that involved the client ditching its original procurement route as costs started to escalate …

  • Cities with propellers on
    Features

    Cities with propellers on

    2005-03-24T00:00:00Z

    Fresh planning rules are about to be introduced that call for developments to generate 10% of the energy they will use from on-site renewable sources. We ask whether this is an entirely serious suggestion …

  • Sir Robert McAlpine has been quietly getting on with the Emirates Stadium in Highbury, north London. The north end is at the most advanced stage with the final form of the building visible in its completed roof structure
    Features

    Going great guns

    2005-03-11T00:00:00Z

    What with all the fuss over Wembley, you could be forgiven for forgetting that a certain other north London stadium is under construction. We went to the new Highbury to check the state of play

  • The Arnolfini wedding
    Features

    The Arnolfini wedding

    2005-03-11T00:00:00Z

    Bristol’s famous marriage of art gallery, 1970s office and Victorian warehouse has been comprehensively redesigned by Snell Associates … We found out how it was done

  • The site at the busy heart of Heathrow
    Features

    We have take-off

    2005-03-04T00:00:00Z

    On a miniscule site that gives new meaning to the phrase ‘close to the flightpath’, the team building Heathrow’s new air traffic control tower found an ingenious way to hoist the control room 87 m into the air.

  • Demolishing concrete walls up to 6 m thick was one of the biggest headaches facing Bouygues UK. In the end, the contractor resorted to blowing them up with explosives
    Features

    Explosive situations

    2005-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Discovering old war rooms, tackling six-metre-thick concrete walls, blowing up buildings in the middle of London and racing against time … Well, at least this project wasn’t dull

  • Work continues on the generous covered entrance at Roche's new headquarters building in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
    Features

    What’s unusual about this site?

    2005-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Answer: it demonstrates that, using the much-maligned construction management method, you can deliver a large building early and within budget with minimum waste and safety risks – and have enough time and money left over to put up another one. We went to see this impossible truth for ourselves

  • Urgently required: 8000 surveyors
    Features

    Urgently required: 8000 surveyors

    2005-01-14T00:00:00Z

    The job: to carry out home condition reports for house sellers. The candidate: ideally a surveyor, but possibly a construction professional looking for a change. Experience preferred, but all applications will be considered (we’re desperate).

  • Features

    The Berlaymonster’s back!

    2004-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Nearly five years late and three times over budget, the European commission’s headquarters is back in business. We took a trip to Brussels to admire the £509m refurbishment and find out what originally set the project spinning out of control – and for once, nobody is blaming the eurocrats …

  • Punters can blow their cash in the slot machines (pictured) then leave with just enough money to buy a drink at the bar
    Features

    Vague visions Vegas

    2004-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Kerrching! The prospect of supercasinos cropping up across the land is putting pound signs in the eyes of construction firms. We talk to key players to find out how good the odds are of winning that jackpot – and to discover the rules of the game …

  • The 22,000 m2 Health and Safety Laboratory uses drystone cladding to blend with the moorland vernacular
    Features

    Peak performance

    2004-11-19T00:00:00Z

    The Health and Safety Laboratory provides technical back-up for the Health and Safety Executive, a remit that includes exploding trucks full of fireworks and body piercing. And it now has a £56m PFI base in Derbyshire to work out of. We found out what it does – and how it ...

  • The historic ship will be restored inside a protective ETFE cocoon, while sitting on a basket of Kevlar
    Features

    Ship in a bubble

    2004-10-15T00:00:00Z

    The Cutty Sark has been decaying in a dry dock at Greenwich for 50 years. But now architect Grimshaw has designed a cocoon to protect the record-breaking clipper during restoration.

  • Externally, the original Portland stone was cleaned and repaired and the original bronze windows were waxed and polished.
    Features

    An inside job

    2004-10-08T00:00:00Z

    Breaking into the former NatWest HQ was the easy part. Ripping the heart out of it to create state-of-the-art offices while preserving the listed facade, banking hall and directors’ suites, and shifting 1000 lorry-loads of rubble without disturbing the heavyweight neighbour – well, that needed something like a plan … ...

  • News

    Multiplex hires Aussie IT firm

    2004-10-08T00:00:00Z

    Contractor Multiplex has hired a fellow Australian firm to put its two biggest UK projects – Wembley national stadium and the White City retail scheme – on line.

  • Workers construct the steel reinforcement
    News

    Spotlight falls on role of crane in fatal accident

    2004-10-01T00:00:00Z

    Reports from Dubai indicate that crane lost control and caused critical damage to wall reinforcement