Mercury is a European contractor that builds and manages complex engineering projects that reimagine how people work and live in the built environment. Their determination and sharp focus enable project teams to deliver leading edge construction solutions across a range of key sectors, taking their clients to new territories including enterprise and hyperscale data centres, advanced technology, fire protection, technical support services, data centre facility management, healthcare and building services.

Mercury employs 6,500 staff, including subcontractors, currently working across over ten locations in Europe. With an overall turnover of £1 billion in 2020, Mercury invests heavily in learning and development for all employees. The company is focused on applying the best standards of health, safety, and governance throughout the organisation to support colleagues.

The team at Mercury focuses on delivering their clients vision through leading edge construction solutions. Pushing to go beyond their duty means Mercury turns clients into partners and builds strong relationships that thrive. Their digital construction journey began two years ago with the data centre sector of the business. As the company had grown, the team adopted lots of different technology solutions for their projects and they lacked a standardised approach to implement a connected construction journey. “Our company grew very quickly and added a number of projects to our portfolio. This meant that we began using several different platforms and methodologies across different projects and regions. It soon became obvious to us that a more standardised approach could improve our efficiencies and give us greater results,” reflects Aisling Goff, Business Unit Quality Manager for Mercury’s data centre business unit.

The business unit decided they would adopt one solution for all of their projects moving forward. The objective was to create a more unified and standardised approach to delivering projects for all of their clients. In the first instance, the team surveyed their employee groups to get an understanding of how technology could help them deliver better outcomes in their role. “We ran a series of surveys with our staff to get their feedback on all the different software they were currently using – asking them for the pros and cons in each case. We received input from colleagues in a range of roles, from engineers to document controllers,” says Aisling.

The road to standardisation

To further develop their technology roadmap, the data centre business unit team reviewed their project pipeline to evaluate incoming work and cost out their technology requirements accordingly. Ronnie Christie, Business Unit Manager, knew that using technology in a smarter way could better support the team to create continuity. Ronnie says: “We recognised that different sites within a division were reporting differently to the directors and their clients so a big ask of the technology solution we chose was something that could help us standardise our reporting mechanisms.”

When it came to choosing a technology solution, Mercury used Autodesk Construction Cloud’s BIM 360 platform for the first time four years ago on one of their data centre projects. The team initially used the solution for document control and generating snag lists on the project.

Aisling reflects: “When we used BIM 360 for the first time, we had to make sure the client was happy with the software and realised the benefit of using it.” After initially using the solution on one data centre project, Mercury then decided to use it on a new build project that spanned the entire construction phase. The team made use of more of the functionality available – such as workflows for daily reporting, commissioning, permits, check sheets as well as tracking labour and site numbers too. “When we used BIM 360 on our second data centre project, we were impressed with the additional functionality. It allowed us to create clearer workflows for RFIs and submittals alongside a whole range of project activities,” says Aisling.

Mandating for consistency

It was during this project that the Mercury team decided to mandate using BIM 360 on all projects in the future. “We knew that we’d need to approach our BIM 360 rollout to the business in a slow and structured way,” states Aisling. “We got the basics working really well on our first project, and it was only after this that we introduced more functionality to the team on the next project to ensure a smooth transition to the wider team.”

When it came to implementing the technology, the team ensured that employees were thoroughly supported through a comprehensive learning and development strategy. They ran training sessions for teams and individual employees and also created peer mentoring sessions for individuals to learn from each other, with the help of technology champions for the platform. The company also created standard operating procedures for using BIM 360, user guides and shared best practice through their internal skills hub.

“Our colleagues responded really well to the training and learning opportunities made available to them during the rollout stage,” says Ronnie. “For us, peer-to-peer training was key. Our business has expanded dramatically in the last few years due to growth across the unit and we have a really talented bunch of people with great expertise in using digital construction solutions. They were instrumental in strengthening the team’s understanding and use of BIM 360.”

Getting the most from the data to improve communication and collaboration

For Mercury, when it comes to integrating technology into their business, the team have focused on using the data they capture on projects in a richer way to develop better project insights. Aisling says: “We’ve integrated BIM 360 with Power BI to export data on quality, health and safety. We were unable to get this visibility before. Now we can draw greater insights from our projects to better manage risk, cost and quality.”

Better insights captured from project data can not only improve the construction process, but it can support the health of a business and improve the employee experience. “When new colleagues join and work with existing teams on different projects, they understand fully what processes they need to follow and what information we capture to measure our performance,” says Ronnie.

Collaborating across the supply chain happens within Autodesk Construction Cloud’s BIM 360 platform. “We now use BIM 360 to communicate formally with all of our project stakeholders,” says Aisling. “It’s where all project communication takes place and acts as a central source of truth for Mercury. Everyone uses BIM 360 – from a Quality Assurance team member or a Document Controller in the office to a supervisor using daily reports on site or a Project Manager overseeing daily activity.”

For me, the transparency [from BIM 360] has been transformative. Everything is real and things are no longer open for interpretation as project data is visible for everyone.—Aisling Goff, Mercury

Using one central source of truth in the form of a common data environment has enabled Mercury to empower their teams with full visibility of the status of all their projects. “All submittals and RFIs go through BIM 360 and our supply chain partners use the solution in the field to report on health, safety and quality. We also use the solution to manage our client teams; that can range from resolving questions that need clarification, verification, and design workflows. It works really well for us as we use the solution to manage up and down as well as across teams,” remarks Aisling. This has improved communication and collaboration between project stakeholders resulting in a dramatic reduction in the amount of miscommunication and lost documentation.

Setting the business up to succeed

For Aisling and Ronnie, the benefits of working more digitally are twofold – not only do their teams deliver a better client experience, but they are also able to ensure they are set up for success from the very beginning of a project. Ronnie says: “All of our projects are structured in the same way now using BIM 360. This means our colleagues can move between projects easily; they know what to expect when they join a new project team, and the business knows how to set itself up for success.”

Both Aisling and Ronnie agree that their favourite features enable them to use their data in a more meaningful way. Aisling remarks: “If I had to pull out my favourite thing about BIM 360, it would definitely be that it enables us to use the same parameters when it comes to analysing our data. This means we have a standardised way of reporting to use the data better.” For Ronnie, being able to benchmark across teams and see how they are progressing when audit reporting supports him in his role. Ronnie says: “I’m able to gauge how jobs are running in parallel with each other which has been really useful.”

Monitoring adoption has helped Mercury to establish where they need to put more focus. “As a company, we monitor what functionality each project is using in BIM 360 to make sure we’re getting the most out of the technology,” says Aisling. “Our data centre business unit has reached an average 90% KPI score for adoption. We’ve found that the last 10% of adoption in terms of maximising all the functionality usually involves brining all project stakeholders along and making sure they’re bought into the technology.” This also means Mercury can work collaboratively across their individual business units with their teams to share best practice, learnings and break down siloes.

“We now have much greater predictability and insights on our projects,” says Ronnie. Mercury has also fostered greater collaboration across their business units and wider company whilst standardising the data sets and data types they capture. “For me, the transparency has been transformative. Everything is real and things are no longer open for interpretation as project data is visible for everyone,” affirms Aisling.

Looking to the future, Mercury plans on ensuring all their teams across the entire company are getting the most from BIM 360 using the functionality available. In addition to this, working in collaboration with their clients, they are promoting the benefits of implementing standardisation and digital workflows within the AEC industry.

This year, Mercury is going through the process of gaining their ISO 19650 accreditation which highlights their ambition to fully utilise the international standards for managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using building information modelling (BIM). As a company, they are wholly committed to driving the digital agenda to create a more productive and efficient industry with better insights to deliver improved outcomes for clients and end users alike.

The post Gaining Better Insights and Creating Greater Predictability on Projects Across Europe With Mercury Engineering appeared first on Digital Builder.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=468

Succeeding in today’s competitive and somewhat uncertain construction landscape requires flexibility, resilience, and—let’s be honest—help from technology. To overcome major challenges, like a global pandemic, you need to have the right skills and mindset, along with tools to make your life easier. 

Jonathan Mabe learned these lessons first-hand as a young assistant project manager at Eckardt Group. It’s a firm that offers a full range of electrical systems and construction techniques. In our latest Behind the Build interview, Jonathan recounts his experience in overcoming unexpected challenges when a project he was working on faced extreme weather conditions and pandemic-related issues. 

Read his story below. 

Tell us a little bit about Eckardt Group and what you specialize in.

We are an electrical contractor and we specialize in hospitals and data centers, so we’re more on the commercial side of things. We also do some service work, but we primarily focus on hospitals and data centers.

Walk us through your career and what led you to becoming an Assistant Project Manager.

This is actually my first real job. I went to the University of Tennessee, but haven’t graduated. I was planning on going into the Air Force. I was an officer in training, and some hiccups in the road led me to decide to take a break from college, earn more money, and get started with a career. 

That’s when I hopped on board with the Eckardt Group. Since I had a leadership background in healthcare, they started me down the path to becoming a project manager. Right now, I’m an Assistant Project Manager and love every second of it.

It’s been an interesting journey. When I first got hired, we had an AT&T project in the Virgin Islands and I was fortunate enough to get put on that job. I was more in the field, just learning the ropes of the electrical trade. Unfortunately, I got sick during that time, so I decided to go back to the States, and this jump-started my project management career away from the field. 

They reassigned me to the Grady Hospital in Atlanta, which is one of the main hospitals here in the city. If the President were in the Southeast region of the United States, he would be flown to Grady for any trauma emergencies. 

I was at Grady at the time COVID hit and the hospital had a flood that wiped out seven floors of a certain wing. We had to renovate it and then we had to switch or convert standard patient rooms into isolation rooms for COVID. So when the pandemic happened and everyone was staying home, we were right there on the front lines at Grady and still having to work.

What project at Eckardt are you most proud of? Why?

I would say all our projects have been important. I’ve worked at a data center. I’ve worked here at Piedmont hospital, but I would definitely say the most memorable and proudest project I’ve been a part of is Grady. 

At first, it was just a distinct opportunity to renovate such a historic hospital, but it evolved into something greater and more meaningful. We had to turn patient rooms into isolation rooms within just a couple of weeks, and we were able to do so in a timely manner. That was painstaking work. It required our field guys to be there 24/7 and some of the guys only had two to three hours of sleep before they had to be right back because we had a really strenuous turnaround time for these rooms. 

It was hard but also very rewarding and memorable.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role? How does technology help you meet these challenges?

I would say the most important is the standardization of files and folders and also tracking of key aspects of your job. Let’s say you have a project management team of three. What happens when a project manager or an assistant project manager gets fired or quits or goes off the grid? What happens to all their work? Well, all the information disappears if you don’t have a solution like Autodesk Build where you can standardize file and folder structures and collaborate amongst your coworkers. 

One thing I like about the software is it takes things a step further. You can share files with your field teams and they can access them through their iPads in the field within seconds. 

Data tracking is also extremely important. One of the biggest parts of my job is managing the flow of money. I need to make sure we make money and pay people. Tracking all that using the cost features of Autodesk Build is very helpful. We’re able to import our budgets, track change orders, and more. 

We’re also using Autodesk Build to stay on top of asset tracking. When we build patient rooms, for example, all the materials required to build will come pre-packed in a cardboard box. So how do you track all that? Simple — Autodesk Build has an Asset tool that allows you to print barcodes or QR codes that you can paste on these boxes and you can set up a workflow that can be tracked. 

So we can start at the build material and say, “Okay, so this kit has been bought.” From there, it has to get pushed to our prefab and we’ll say, ‘They’re starting the kit.’ And then they update the status saying it was delivered or sent. At that point, the field gets it and they’ll say when they’ve received and installed it. 

There are a lot of moving parts, so having that tracking capability helps big time. 

When you think about the future, what are your plans to advance innovation and productivity at Eckardt Group?

My biggest vision is to be able to automate all our processes and standardize our products. For instance, we want to streamline how we get materials on-site, particularly on the front end of the job. Right now we’re using Revit and we’re building our entire job. We want to be able to export build materials and layout drawings, which can then be processed into build materials that turn into kits that get sent to the site. 

But we want that process to be automated. Right now when you need the build materials, you have to request a quote and write POs, then you need to track when the material was released to the site and when it was released to our prehab. There are a lot of moving parts, so automating everything is key. 

What advice would you give to the next generation of men and women entering and preparing for the future of the industry?

There are two key things that I would impart to others. The first is to be open to criticism, but don’t be afraid to push your ideas out there. This is particularly important when you’re beginning your career, because frankly when you’re new, that’s when you have the boldest ideas. 

Someone who’s been seasoned and been working for a while can be set in their ways and do things simply because that’s the way they’ve always done it. However, there could be a better way to complete a task or job, and people who are new are more open to those things. 

Secondly, you need to focus heavily on being organized. This is such an important thing in our industry. If you’re not organized, things are going to get lost. Someone might miss or forget details. And when that happens, you’re going to get into trouble in some way. 

Maybe you forget to order light fixtures for the job and all of a sudden the project is several months behind schedule, and you’re having to pay millions of dollars in back charges. 

Being organized is key.

The post Behind the Build: Interview with Jonathan Mabe, Assistant Project Manager, Eckardt Group appeared first on Digital Builder.

The hunt is starting for a design and build contractor to transform the Grade 1 listed Citadel buildings into a new Carlisle city centre campus for the University of Cumbria.

The £77m project proposes a comprehensive redevelopment of the adjacent site led by the delivery of the new 13,800 sqm campus for the University of Cumbria as the anchor occupier with associated leisure and cultural elements to increase vitality into the city centre.

It is being developed jointly by Cumbria County Council, Carlisle City Council and the University of Cumbria working with Cumbria LEP as a key partner.

As part of the planned transformation of the Citadel, demolition has just started on Paton House Buildings at the rear of the site.

The accompanying tables show the top 10 major upcoming medical and educational construction projects in the U.S. They are all in the planning stage and are mainly new projects, but may also involve additions and/or alterations.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=390

Picture this: there’s a group of people working on a major presentation and each person is assigned their own section or chapter. Everyone has a general idea of what the presentation is about, so team members decide to tackle their sections separately and plan to get together to combine their work.

But problems arise when the team meets to put together their chapters. While each person did well with their respective assignments, the finished presentation lacks cohesiveness. And because some members were unaware of certain changes and updates, the presentation was filled with inaccurate information.

It’s quite obvious where the team went wrong. Each member was assigned their own “thing” and they ran off to execute without collaborating with each other.

Instead of this approach, the group should’ve synced and communicated more frequently with each other. They should’ve connected their workflows and established a single source of truth, so that everyone was working with the same information.

Doing so would have prevented the headaches of having to edit and reconstruct the presentation.

The above scenario may be a bit simplistic, but it illustrates what could happen if workflows aren’t integrated. This problem is prevalent in the construction industry. Too often, teams suffer from miscommunication, data loss, and mistakes due to a disconnect with their processes and systems.

The key to avoiding all that? Three words: connected construction workflows. 

In this post, we’ll go over the value of integrated workflows in construction and shed light on how you can put them into practice.

What are Connected Workflows?

To understand connected construction workflows, let’s back up a bit and discuss what a workflow is to begin with. According to Gennpact, a workflow “is the definition, execution and automation of business processes where tasks, information or documents are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules.”

Workflows are used to coordinate tasks between people and keep information and systems in sync. They play a major role in executing tasks and bringing projects to life, which is why it’s important to optimize them.

One way to do that is to implement connected workflows. By keeping workflows integrated, data flows smoothly from one system to the next, thus ensuring smooth collaboration between all stakeholders.

The key attributes of connected workflows are:

Automation: Data and processes are automated. There’s no need for manual entry, and you can rest assured that information is automatically in sync across all your systems.

Integrated: Multiple systems are connected to each other, which means there are no silos or duplication. Teams enjoy a common data environment and are on the same page at all times.

Transparent: Connected workflows provide a single source of truth for data and information, thus supporting trust, transparency, and accountability in the team.

Benefits of Connected Construction Workflows

Now, let’s look at some of the key benefits of having connected construction workflows.

Increased efficiency. According to the Harvard Business Review, knowledge workers spend up to 50% of their time “hunting for data, identifying and correcting errors, and seeking confirmatory sources for data they do not trust.”

That’s a lot of wasted time and effort, and you can avoid all that by keeping your workflows connected. With integrated systems and automatic data flow, team members won’t have to spend time re-entering information, asking for clarification, or hunting down data. Instead, they can focus on execution and complete tasks more efficiently.

Reduced risk. When data entry and other processes are automated, you minimize human error and information loss. Data is kept accurate and secure, and it’s easy to retrieve the information you need to make important project decisions.

Detailed records. Connected workflows automatically capture records of activities, such as when new information is added or if any changes are made. Names, dates, and time stamps are recorded, making it easy to audit projects.

Improved collaboration. When workflows are connected, so are teams. Everyone has access to the same data and are able to communicate effectively, which streamlines collaboration.

Needless to say, more collaborative teams tend to work better. A survey by Salesforce found that 97% of respondents believe that a lack of alignment within teams has a direct impact on a project’s outcome. What’s more, 86% believe that lack of collaboration and ineffective communication lead to workplace failures.

Commonly Disconnected Construction Workflows [and How to Fix Them]

So far we’ve discussed what connected workflows are and the benefits they offer to construction teams. Below we’ll shed light on the construction workflows that are most commonly disconnected, and how to fix them.

Bidding and Qualification

The bidding and qualification process is often disjointed, particularly when it comes to evaluating vendor risk. This is because risk managers are siloed from the estimating department and the information they need (i.e., company data, info on safety, financials, and insurance of subcontractors) live on separate platforms.

All that makes it difficult to analyze and manage risk.

You can fix this by integrating your prequalification and risk management software with your preconstruction software. This ensures that the information required by both estimators and risk managers are accessible through a tightly-integrated system.

When teams can view all the data they need in one place, they can search for subcontractor data, build lists, and assess risk much more quickly.

Preconstruction and Construction

When done manually, bringing preconstruction data (e.g., plans, models, and estimates) to the field is a process that’s fraught with issues like lost data and wasted time. Information can slip through the cracks and as a result, project managers have to grapple with missing files and data.

Unfortunately, most of the tools used to manage these workflows are outdated and aren’t intuitive, so much of the process involves manual and inefficient work.

All that can be solved by integrating your preconstruction software with your construction management solution. By keeping these two systems together, you can ensure that any information created during the preconstruction phase stays intact when handed over to project managers in the field.

Checklist Follow up Actions

Quality and safety checklists often contain a long list of questions. The answers to those questions can either confirm everything is going according to plan or flag a problem that needs immediate attention.

If the checklists have no built in controls to require action depending on the answer to a question, the necessary follow up can be delayed or even completely missed. This can be avoided if teams set up their checklists to leverage controls such as conditional logic. This approach provides the ability to require a specific action depending on a specific answer. 

Forms in Autodesk Build have this advanced capability — based on the answer someone in the field gives to a question, the form can be set up to require an action. For example, you can require the creation of an issue or suggest the attachment of a photo as proof. This way, project teams can ensure that every flagged problem gets addressed as soon as possible.

Issues and RFIs

As project issues come up, it’s necessary to create RFIs and obtain information or clarifications to move the project forward.

The task isn’t very straightforward, though. When the process of surfacing issues is disconnected from RFI creation, data leaks and delays may occur. For instance, if a team member needs to set up an RFI regarding an issue they didn’t create, that RFI may end up missing important details.

To solve this, ensure that your projects management solutions are tightly integrated. Details about all issues should be readily available, so that anyone tasked with creating an RFI can do so without missing anything.

Integrated project management workflows also come in handy when they’re connected to meetings. By linking issues and RFIs to meeting minutes, you can make sure that they’re discussed during your team catch-ups.

And since all the data lives in one place, team attendees will be able to access the right information and engage in productive discussions. BIM 360 Meetings is a great solution for enabling these connected workflows.

“We use BIM 360 Meetings to document everything going on in our meetings. The tool is fluid and meeting-friendly. We can easily share a screen, pull up documents, and adjust a meeting agenda on the fly,” said John Weaver, Project Director at Charles Perry Partners, Inc. (CPPI).

“It’s also great that it’s linked to our project management module. We can easily access submittals and RFIs directly from meeting minutes.”

Change Management and Cost

Inefficiencies around managing and implementing changes in construction projects can diminish your bottom line. When it comes to change management, poor communication and data sharing results in projects being delayed and over-budget, which can wreak havoc on your financials.

It’s important to understand and anticipate how changes would affect a project in order to manage them in the most cost-effective way possible.

One way to accomplish this is to integrate your RFI and potential change order (PCO) workflows. Ideally, any RFI information you have will be synced with the PCO (and vice versa) so the two components have a bi-directional relationship.

This setup saves you time from having to double-handle data. Details like status information are synced and accessible, so stakeholders can always get the latest information.

Ideally, your solution should have user permission features that enable or restrict access to data based on people’s roles. Cost information is sensitive, afterall, and it’s important to keep that data secure.

Assets and Issues and Checklists

Managing and tracking construction assets is essential in any construction project. Having a solid handle on moveable equipment, building materials, and other assets will ensure that the necessary components are installed and projects are delivered successfully.

As such, it’s important to streamline your processes around asset tracking. Arm your teams with construction management technology that has built-in asset tracking features, so stakeholders can view and monitor the lifespan of your assets. The solution should also enable users to store and access any asset-related documentation (e.g., warranty documents, cut-sheets, etc.).

You should connect your asset management workflows to checklists and issues, to streamline quality assurance as well as the commissioning process. When assets and issues are tracked and viewable in one place, it’s a lot easier to conduct inspections and ensure that issues are resolved. Commissioning agents can create checklists and view those items alongside the right information, enabling them to quickly verify that the assets have been delivered.

Bringing Everything Together with Connected Construction Workflows

As the digital age of construction continues to progress, connected construction workflows are going to be more important than ever. These days, it’s simply too expensive and inefficient to wrangle siloed systems and procedures. The pressure to deliver projects efficiently, on-time, and within budget continues to grow, and the best way to keep up is to tighten up your workflows and the technologies that power them.

The post Why Connected Construction Workflows Power Better Building appeared first on Digital Builder.

Taylor Wimpey is on course to post an operating profit of £820m this year as the house builder delivered a record first half performance.

The firm completed 7,303 homes in the six months to July 4 2021 compared to 2,771 last year as pre-tax profit recovered to £287.5m from a £39.8m loss on revenue up to 2,196.3m from £754.6m.

Pete Redfern, Chief Executive,said: “We have delivered a record first half performance and a strong operating profit margin performance of 19.3%, which reflects tight cost discipline as well as higher completions in the period.

“Our focus remains on driving further improvement in our operating profit margin and accelerated outlet-driven volume growth from 2023.

“Backed by last year’s equity raise we stepped up our activity in the land market before competition returned and we successfully increased our land pipeline with high-quality sites that will deliver a strong financial performance.

“We are progressing this land through the planning stages as expected, providing excellent momentum for growth, enhanced returns for our stakeholders and increased numbers of new homes.

“We have a clear purpose to deliver high-quality homes and create thriving communities and a strategy to ensure the long term sustainability of the business.

“We now expect to deliver 2021 full year Group operating profit of c.£820 million, above the top end of consensus, with UK completions (excluding joint ventures) expected to be towards the upper end of our guidance range of 13,200 to 14,000.”

Taylor Wimpey is now targeting profit margins of 22% and added “looking further ahead, we have excellent momentum going into the medium term and are well positioned for accelerated volume growth from 2023.”

The firm has set aside £165m for fire safety cladding. It said: “Where we own the buildings, we are undertaking assessments on the buildings and where works are required, we are procuring those works. Where a third party owns the building and we have been contacted by the freeholder or management company we are engaging with them in relation to the assessment process.”

Taylor Wimpey said rising house prices were offsetting increases in materials.

It said: “Whilst there is pressure on pricing and supply chains for certain materials such as timber and steel owing to strong global demand, healthy increases in house prices are fully offsetting build cost inflation.

“Our central procurement team and logistics business continues to work closely with our supply chain to understand and track the origins of our components and subcomponents and stocking levels within the supply chain. This helps provide visibility of our materials supply, identifying and pre-empting potential bottlenecks.”

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=280

Mace has been appointed by property investor Astrea to deliver a major new office scheme at 38 Berkeley Square in London.

Located in the heart of Mayfair, the project will provide 85,000 sq ft of premium office space across nine stories with over 7,000 sq ft of communal terracing.

Toureen Group is understood to have secured the enabling and foundations package for the job, which is Mace’s first with Astrea.

Mace is working towards the highest sustainability standards for the project of BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Platinum and LEED Gold. The building will also achieve WiredScore Platinum.

Designed by architects Piercy & Company, the transformation of 38 Berkeley Square will involve using a mix of precast facades and Portland stone.

Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2024.

Ged Simmonds, Managing Director for Commercial Offices and Residential at Mace, said: “We are delighted to work on the transformation of 38 Berkeley Square, on behalf of Astrea.

“Our team will support the client’s vision for a destination office space with an innovative sustainability strategy, minimising carbon emissions during demolition and build.”

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=277

The government has boosted its “active travel” budget by another £81m to £338m.

The money will promote cycling and walking across the country and further increase the construction of bike lanes.

The government said: “This funding will help see the construction of hundreds of miles of new high-quality cycle lanes.”

A new version of the Highway Code is also being published which “ensures road users who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they may pose to others.”

The new code will also give “guidance on safe passing distances and speeds and ensuring that cyclists have priority at junctions when travelling straight ahead.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Millions of us have found over the past year how cycling and walking are great ways to stay fit, ease congestion on the roads and do your bit for the environment.

“As we build back greener from the pandemic, we’re determined to keep that trend going by making active travel easier and safer for everyone.

“This £338 million package marks the start of what promises to be a great summer of cycling and walking, enabling more people to make those sustainable travel choices that make our air cleaner and cities greener.”

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=247

Campaigners have won a court battle to block the £1.7bn construction of a road tunnel near Stonehenge.

Mr Justice Holgate has ruled that a decision to allow a dual carriage way road and tunnel to be built within the ancient World Heritage Site was unlawful.

The judgment effectively quashes development consent for the A303 improvement project which was granted by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

Shapps will now have to decide whether to appeal against the judge’s ruling that he had not properly assessed the risk of harm to the World Heritage Site

The judge further concluded that Shapps had made an error of law by failing to consider alternatives to the scheme, such as a longer tunnel, which may have been less damaging to the Stonehenge.

Highways England said: “We now have to wait while the Department for Transport considers its options.

“This is a setback, but we remain confident our project is the best solution to the ongoing issues along the A303 past Stonehenge and was developed after a long and extensive collaboration with our key stakeholders.

“We are hugely disappointed by the decision, and we know this will also dismay many people in the local community who have waited decades for a solution and all those who use the road to travel to work or on holiday in the south west.”

John Adams, Acting Chairman of the Stonehenge Alliance, said: “We could not be more pleased about the outcome of the legal challenge.

“The Stonehenge Alliance has campaigned from the start for a longer tunnel if a tunnel should be considered necessary. Ideally, such a tunnel would begin and end outside the WHS.

“But now that we are facing a climate emergency, it is all the more important that this ruling should be a wake-up call for the Government. It should look again at its roads programme and take action to reduce road traffic and eliminate any need to build new and wider roads that threaten the environment as well as our cultural heritage.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith said: “This is a huge victory, which means, for now, Stonehenge is safe.

“The judgment is a clear vindication of our client’s tremendous efforts in campaigning to protect the World Heritage Site.

“The development consent for this damaging tunnel has been declared unlawful and is now quashed, and the Government will have to go back to the drawing board before a new decision can be made. Meanwhile, one of the country’s most cherished heritage assets cannot be harmed.”

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.cmcconstruction.net/?p=240