A company director has been fined after workers were exposed to asbestos during the demolition of a hotel in Cornwall. Paul Stephens, director of the now liquidated Stephens and Stephens Developers Limited, was fined almost £66,000 as a result of failures at the former Cliffdene Hotel in Newquay in 2020. The hotel closed in 2018 and was part of a redevelopment plan to build residential apartments. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the control of asbestos at the site took place after the hotel had been almost entirely demolished in August 2020. The company ha ..read more

Balfour Beatty, Wates Residential and Laing O’Rourke projects are among the winners of this year’s Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) National Site Awards. The awards recognise the highest-performing construction sites in the UK and Ireland against CCS’s Code of Considerate Practice. The sites are independently audited by monitors who score how considerate they are towards their local community, their workforce and the environment. Of the 5,500-plus eligible sites, the following five construction projects received the Most Considerate Site of 2024 Award across four categories: Und ..read more

A carpentry contractor has been fined £8,000 after a 22-year-old man died following an accident at a building site. Niall McCormack, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was working for KM Carpentry Contractors Limited on 30 October 2019 when he was struck by construction equipment. McCormack was installing roof trusses at a new-build site at Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire. Both the truss packs and party wall spandrel panel had been lifted by crane onto a pair of semi-detached properties the day before the incident – temporarily supported by timber restraints. Niall McCormack was just 22 w ..read more

The UK’s innovation agency has awarded a grant to a group led by Morgan Sindall to improve the contractor’s whole-life carbon measurement tool, CarboniCa. Innovate UK granted £947,000 against the research and development costs of £1,418,000. Morgan Sindall is working with Nottingham Trent University and Warrington-based software company ConstructSys to develop novel algorithms for CarboniCa to automate the process of data collection and evaluation in whole-life carbon assessments. This, in turn, will support people in decision-making, which speeds up the process and achieves productivit ..read more

A timber-framed industrial building designed by Arup shows that sustainability and fire safety can go hand in hand, write Judith Schulz and Simon Bateman. Although demand for office space in UK cities is higher than before the pandemic, high rates for residential rent have been slowly forcing industry further and further out. However, this becomes unsustainable for many people who cannot afford – or don’t want – to relocate. A solution to this problem is the WorkStack: a distinctive five-storey workspace structure that uses a cross-laminated timber (CLT) frame, and is the first of its kin ..read more

A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from across the CIOB community and social media. Waikato treatment plant in New Zealand, part of Watercare Services’ 10-year, NZ$13bn (£6.16bn) programme of work The digital transformation of Auckland’s water works BIMplus 25/03 Farzam Farzadi and Steve Webster of Watercare Services explained the digital journey of New Zealand’s largest company in the water and wastewater industry. The Waikato Water Treatment Plant and Helensville Wastewater Treatment Plant in this article have both been constructed by Brian Perry Ci ..read more

Tilbury Douglas CEO Paul Gandy explains why the contractor is putting its project managers through CIOB’s Principal Contractor Competency Certification Scheme. Two Tilbury Douglas project managers, Dan Harmer (left) and Stuart Palmer, were recently certified by CIOB’s Principal Contractor Competency Certification Scheme As someone who has spent over 40 years in the construction industry, I feel confident in saying that the Building Safety Act is one of the biggest changes the industry has seen for a generation. It will impact everyone – contractors, designers, customers, building operators ..read more

A turbulent economic climate and changing working patterns are not slowing down fit-out demand, says Nitesh Patel. It has been three years since the Covid-19 lockdown measures were relaxed in Britain and, despite a general return to business as usual, hybrid working continues to have a lasting legacy. In this context, employers are increasingly looking at ways to improve the workplace environment by listening to their employees’ views when investing in new office layouts. Without enticing workers back into the office, businesses lose productivity benefits from collaboration and could be l ..read more

The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) has appointed Dame Janet Paraskeva as the new chair of its board with effect from 1 May. Paraskeva is a former civil service commissioner and ex-chief executive of the Law Society. She has extensive experience of high-profile national boards and organisations, including a non-executive director role at the Serious Organised Crime Agency. She will succeed current CSCS chair, Carolyn Uphill, who is retiring after leading the board for six years. Paraskeva said: “I am looking forward to leading the CSCS Board during this pivotal time for ..read more

Katharine Cary MCIOB talks about her work as Sir Robert McAlpine’s project manager for the Covid-19 memorial at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. She led the construction of the most significant modern intervention in the Cathedral in over 150 years. Cary won the silver award in the public category of the CIOB Awards 2024. The post Video | McAlpine PM on her award-winning covid memorial project appeared first on Construction Management ..read more