A father and son have been given suspended sentences following a prosecution by the Insolvency Service for abusing a covid recovery scheme. The post Suspended sentence for two over construction covid loan fraud appeared first on Construction Management ..read more

City of York Council has granted permission to build a six-storey government hub with green features on one the largest brownfield sites in the UK. The 18,100 sq m building, designed by AtkinsRéalis, will be used as flexible office space by up to 2,600 civil servants. It will also have retail and ancillary space on the ground floor. Plan of the proposed proposed north and south elevations of the building (Image: City of York Council) The green features include solar panels, air source heat pumps, a green roof, 230 cycle spaces and a planted pedestrian area. According to the application ..read more

‘Make Your Mark’ initiative seeks to attract the best-in-class employees for award-winning company. Construction, refurbishment and fit-out company Gilbert-Ash has launched a new campaign celebrating the achievements of its people as it seeks to attract the industry’s best talent and cement its reputation for delivering standout projects. The launch of ‘Make Your Mark’ follows the company’s completion of the biggest refurbishment in the history of the National Portrait Gallery and the refurbishment of the Royal College of Music. ‘Make Your Mark’ is aimed at celebrating Gilbert-Ash’s peo ..read more

Skanska and Tarmac are trialling a new carbon-negative aggregate on a stretch of motorway as part of National Highway’s aim to reduce its carbon footprint. The trial is taking place on the northbound carriageway of the M11 in Essex and has been incorporated into essential resurfacing and maintenance work between junctions 7 and 8. It will be subject to real conditions on the heavily trafficked motorway and will be routinely monitored by National Highways. A test strip of asphalt concrete binder course containing the product has been laid alongside a control test strip containing 100% co ..read more

A recycling company has been fined £3m after a man died and another was seriously injured while decommissioning a North Sea gas rig. Stephen Picken, 62, and Mark Kumar were working as demolition operatives for Veolia ES (UK) Ltd at an onshore facility in Great Yarmouth. On 17 October 2019, the two workers were removing a skirt pile – an overhanging piece of metal pipework – weighing more than 27 tonnes from a jacket – a structure placed in the sea designed to support oil and gas rig platforms – when it gave away. The operatives, also known as ‘Top Men’, were undertaking the decommissioni ..read more

Matthias Gropp explains the role that advanced monitoring techniques, AI and IoT can play in retrofitting projects involving historic assets. Interior of the Royal United Services Institute, where Murphy Geospatial installed a vibration monitoring network during retrofitting works (Image: Paul the Archivist via Wikimedia Commons) Retrofitting the UK’s existing assets is a key priority not only for sustainability and ensuring these structures adapt and change as our lives evolve, but also for the rich heritage that exists within the walls of these assets. With over 370,000 listed buildings ..read more

‘First-person view’ drone footage shows the completed excavation of the huge underground box structure 20m below ground at HS2’s Old Oak Common, in west London. The excavation, which was completed this month, has taken three years and was undertaken section by section within the box, starting from the west and the east of the structure and meeting in the middle. The vast underground box has a 1.8km fibre-reinforced concrete diaphragm wall around it, and 1.3m tonnes of London Clay has been removed from inside – enough to fill over 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Balfour Beatty Vinci S ..read more

A £369m decade-long scheme to update Buckingham Palace’s essential systems has been “well managed” to date and “demonstrates good practice in numerous areas”, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report. The Buckingham Palace Reservicing programme, which began in 2017, aims to reduce the risk of fire and flood by updating essential services, alongside improving public access and environmental sustainability. It includes the replacement of 3.5km of electric cabling, heating systems, lifts and lavatories. The Royal Household estimates that 82% of operational improvements, which includ ..read more

A Cheshire-based electrical transmission company has been fined £240,000 after a worker was left paralysed from the chest down after a fall at work. Gavin Pugh, from Bangor in North Wales, was 35 at the time of the incident and employed as a linesman by Wood Transmission and Distribution Ltd. He had been demolishing and replacing electricity pylons in East Staffordshire when he fell more than 9m on 6 April 2022. Gavin Pugh fell more than 9m during work to demolish electricity pylons in East Staffordshire (Image: HSE) Pugh and his colleagues began working on a pylon known as Tower AE11 in ..read more

Historic England has published new advice on adapting historic buildings for energy efficiency and climate change. The document advocates a “whole building approach” that is mindful of the building’s unique makeup to sustain its historic importance. The advice comes with a series of case studies where historic buildings have successfully been retrofitted for climate change resilience. Here are five of them. Becket’s Chapel, Norfolk The opportunity to add roof insulation at Becket’s Chapel was taken during a project to repair the roof (Image: Historic England) This Grade I-listed medieva ..read more