UK Construction Excellence Issue 2 2014

ISSUE 2 2014

THE BEST IN BRITISH BUILDING

You see that small white dot down there?

That’s the Schwing Stetter SP2800 concrete pump used to build this tower - all 45 floors of it.

It’s just part of the Schwing Stetter range of concrete pumping and placement equipment.

Oh and that’s also a Schwing Stetter placing boom down there too…

Contact us to discuss your equipment requirements.

Schwing Stetter (UK) Ltd. t: +44 (0) 20 8997 1515 e: productinfo@schwing-stetter.co.uk w: www.schwing-stetter.co.uk U n i t 11 P e riv a le P a rk , Hor s e n d en L a ne S ou t h , P e r iv al e , G r e e nf o r d, Mi d d l e sex, U B 6 7 R L

6 News 12 BIM - The digital age of building

In this issue, UK Construction Excellence takes an in depth look at the development and application of Building Information Modelling - BIM - and brings you comments from the leading voices in the field. We start the discussion with a piece from The BIM Hub, designed to help you learn, connect and develop.

17 BIM - Arup develops BIM tool for a future particle accelerator 20 BIM - Shepherd Engineering Services

Martin Howe, National BIM Manager at Shepherd Engineering Services, discusses the uptake of MEP BIM

21 BIM - Defining better information management Duncan Reed, Digital Construction Process Manager, Tekla

23 BIM - UK BIM Task Group

David Philp, Head of BIM, UK BIM Task Group discusses the Government’s intention to require collaborative 3D BIM on its projects by 2016.

25 FARO - Quality without compromise 26 CDM 2015 HSE Regulations

EA Goddard, Executive Director of the Guild of Builders and Contractors and Fellow of the Association for Project Safety, discusses the revised CDM Regulations for 2015.

33 BAFE - Current fire protection legislation 38 AMP6 - eight20

UK Construction Excellence spoke with Graham Keegan - eight20’s Chief Operating Officer about eight20 and the challenges facing this newly formed alliance.

41 AMP6 - The Society of British Water & Wastewater Industries

Martyn Hopkinson – Society Chairman and Managing Director of MH20 – discusses the role of the SBWWI Managing Editor Gareth Trevor-Jones

Studio Manager Séamus Norton

Editor Victoria Lee

Designer Richard Gill

Editorial Robert Atherton

Proof Reader Matthew Brown

Web Editor Raimy Greenland

Data Administrator Ryan Irwin

Staff Writer John Train

Approvals Sarah Smith Credit Control Carol Ryan

General Manager Ian Parker E: ian.parker@ukconstructionmedia.co.uk Display Advertising Sales T: 0161 638 8779 E: sales@ukconstructionmedia.co.uk

ISSN 1461-1279

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UK Construction Media, Lowry House, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, M2 3AW T: 0161 638 8775 E: enquiries@ukconstructionmedia.co.uk www.ukconstructionmedia.co.uk © Copyright Pro-Mark. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form without the prior permission of Pro-Mark. Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher.

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A Blueprint for Lower Cost Stadiums James Middling, Buildings Director, Mott MacDonald Complex technical requirements, constrained urban locations, financial demands and high media interest mean sports venue projects typically demand significant ingenuity and collaborative thinking.

Their once-in-a-generation nature creates further challenges. Whereas property and infrastructure developers accumulate experience through a continuous stream of projects, sports venue owners can wait decades between major construction projects. Experience and information rarely traverse such lengthy gaps, so the individuals involved in sports projects are likely to be ‘first-time buyers’ facing a steep learning curve.

Like all clients, they want high quality assets delivered fast, at optimised cost, with assurance of high whole-life operational efficiency. Venues must be sustainable and tailored to a unique location, business case and community.

This is no mean feat for a first-time buyer – but is manageable for experienced project partners. To help inexperienced clients tap into this expertise, leading sports consultancy Mott MacDonald has developed a ‘blueprint’, mapping a path to optimal delivery of world-class stadia.

stadium industry. Suppliers have extracted further value by producing seating, hand rail and other products that interface with these standard terracing units. The resulting highly customisable terracing meets Green Guide safety requirements, yet can be delivered in the most efficient way possible.

Beyond the seating bowl, spatial, aesthetic and functional requirements are too variable for this strategy to work at a whole-venue level. There can be no standardised, productised solution for stadia design – but there can be a standardised process of arriving at a bespoke design. The blueprint details just such an approach.

Design with intelligence

Building information modelling (BIM) – processes and technologies which facilitate managing and sharing asset data throughout the lifecycle – is central to the blueprint.

High-level BIM ensures the right people have the best data, in the proper form, at the optimal time. To achieve this, the blueprint includes process mapping of every step in the project lifecycle, planning multi-directional information flows through the supply chain.

The blueprint is a repeatable process for bespoke venue design that responds to a unique location, business case, fan base and environment, and was inspired by the standardisation of precast terracing.

Although many stadium elements will be bespoke designs, some components – particularly mechanical and electrical (MEP) – are common to all venues, varying only in quantity and dimensions. To increase efficiency, we use repeatable BIM component designs supporting ‘parametric’ adjustments between predetermined limits, to tailor the best fit for each venue.

Repeatable prefabricated seating bowl components have unlocked in quality, programme and cost improvements for the

We incorporate further intelligence by linking BIM to time, cost and carbon data to immediately see how they

Customisable standardisation

interrelate. BIM also allows us to optimise designs for more efficient, sustainable and safe construction through design for manufacture and assembly.

Operational benefits by design

As well as efficient programme and capital cost, clients increasingly seek operational efficiency. The blueprint ensures this is designed in from an early stage.

Operational efficiency could mean optimising the venue’s energy efficiency, or using our pedestrian modelling software, STEPS, to analyse evacuation times and effects of layout on revenue. Operational efficiency also concerns maintenance. The blueprint prescribes using BIM for best retention of maintenance data, leading to better performance and less risk of event disruption.

Further, the blueprint requires consideration of ways to design in functional flexibility, allowing venues to accommodate a greater range of events through measures including changeable signage and overlay.

Demonstrative results

The blueprint’s strategies have already produced results. For example, Mott MacDonald designed MEP systems for the 6500-seat Baku Arena in Azerbaijan using flexible parametric component designs which have since been reused on venues five times as large.

We designed a bespoke solution for the London 2012 Olympic Games temporary shooting venue, using rented steel truss frame modules and recycled and reclaimable elements for foundations and drainage. This high quality

venue was constructed quickly, left virtually no trace once removed, and produced minimal waste. Almost every element has been reused elsewhere, including in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

We also designed retractable terracing for London’s Olympic Stadium in legacy use. By rigorously testing our design using BIM and a full scale physical prototype, we perfected the design and proved that conversion between modes required only four days, compared to the target of seven.

Our blueprint-thinking crystallised under Northern Ireland’s Casement Park stadium project, which won a raft of awards for achievements including automated steelwork design, parametric components and cost modelling. Compared to averages for similar sized venues, the blueprint approach delivered a 52% shorter delivery programme, 38% lower fees, 70% more efficienct quantity and cost take-off, and impressive cost efficiency per seat.

Blueprint for a revolution

These successes represent a step change in the design, construction and operation of venues. By following an effective blueprint, inexperienced clients can confidently execute projects with maximum efficiency and coherence.

However, the blueprint alone cannot guarantee success.

Cooperation by forward-thinking clients, consultants, contractors and asset management teams is essential to extract its benefits.

Operational advantages, maintenance savings, improved reliability and better planning are achievable – but only if project parties seize the opportunity for a wholly modern means of project delivery.

www.mottmac.com

ISG returns for second scheme at Park House

ISG has been awarded a further £3M fit-out project at Park House, the largest new build mixed-use development to be constructed on London’s Oxford Street in the past 40 years.

The project sees ISG carry out a fast-track 80,000sq ft Cat A commercial office fit out across three floors of the ninestorey building, which includes seven floors of modern high specification offices, 39 residential apartments and high quality double height retail space. This appointment follows ISG’s successful completion of a Cat B fit out for the building’s level six office occupier last year.

This latest scheme involves installation of new mechanical and electrical services and suspended ceilings across office levels three, four and five, transforming the shell and

core space to a high quality Cat A specification. ISG will also upgrade the existing lighting to LED lighting across additional areas of the building already fitted out to Cat A standard as part of the project.

Matt Blowers, Managing Director of ISG’s UK Fit Out business, commented: “With premium office space at unprecedented levels of demand in many of London’s most desirable business locations, strong delivery credentials are highly prized by customers. ISG’s track record of managing the complex requirements for minimising programme duration, with an unwavering focus on the highest quality outcomes is key to our success as London’s leading fit out contractor, and we are delighted to be returning to Park House to deliver this prestigious scheme.”

Balfour Beatty project team celebrates ‘topping out’ of the superstructure at Trenchard House in Soho Balfour Beatty has celebrated the ‘topping out’ of the £16.95M Trenchard House housing scheme in Soho and completion of the superstructure. The joint celebration included representatives from its customer Barratt London and development partners United House Developments, Dolphin Square Foundation and EC Harris LLP. Built on Broadwick Street on the site of a demolished 1930s hostel, Trenchard House is a contemporary mixeduse building built to high sustainability standards. It will incorporate 78 residential units, including 65 affordable

homes and 13 private apartments, with additional retail space at ground floor level and restaurant facilities in the basement.

Sustainability features include a combined heat and power unit to supply low carbon heat for heating and hot water and installation of a planted ‘brown’ roof to provide a natural habitat for wildlife. Demolition materials and construction waste are being sorted and recycled with only 6% to be sent to landfill sites.

Mark Ashall, Operations Director, Barratt London (BDW Trading Ltd), said: “Before being purchased by BDW Trading Ltd, Trenchard House had been vacant for 11 years and was in a very poor state of repair. With Balfour Beatty’s help we are developing the space into a modern mixed-use building with sustainability at its core.”

Ed Morgan, Balfour Beatty Managing Director for London Infrastructure, said: “We are delighted to be working on this new housing development in the heart of Soho. Sustainability will be a primary focus for us during construction, with the retail section designed to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’ and a Code for Sustainable Homes ‘Level 4’ rating.”

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Unprecedented £5M donation and world renowned architect combine to bring mathematics to life at the Science Museum Zaha Hadid Architects have been chosen by the Science Museum to design a pioneering new mathematics gallery, made possible by the largest individual donation ever made to the museum from long standing supporters of science David and Claudia Harding.

Welcoming the £5M gift, Science Museum Director, Ian Blatchford said: “David and Claudia stand out among philanthropists as dedicated champions of science. We are determined to match their enormous generosity with the ambition we show in harnessing our world class collections to tell the stories of how mathematicians have helped to shape the world. This is a game changing gift to the museum, and it is my hope that this will inspire further transformational philanthropy.

“With this gallery we want to evoke the kind of excitement around mathematics as our Collider exhibition has done around particle physics and with Zaha Hadid’s extraordinary designs this project is off to the best start imaginable. This appointment reflects our ambition to deliver the world’s foremost gallery of mathematics both in its collection and its design.”

The permanent gallery will tell stories that place mathematics at the heart of our lives, exploring how mathematicians, their tools and ideas have helped to shape the world from the turn of the 17th century to the present.

Zaha Hadid’s pioneering practice has embodied this idea

by anchoring engineering and mathematical thinking throughout their designs.

Zaha Hadid said: “The design explores the many influences of mathematics in our everyday lives; transforming seemingly abstract mathematical concepts into an exciting interactive experience for visitors of all ages.”

David Harding has a long record of working with the Science Museum Group, both as an individual and through the business he founded, Winton Capital Management.

Recent projects include support for the Collider exhibition and tour, Information Age and the Science Museum’s educational work. He said: “We hope the gallery will bring pleasure and interest to Science Museum visitors and feel privileged to be able to associate ourselves with it. Mathematics is a fascinating and mysterious but, for some, forbidding subject. The new gallery has been created to convey something of that fascination in a way that will appeal to a wide audience.”

The David and Claudia Harding Mathematics Gallery will open in 2016 and will be curated by David Rooney, who led the delivery of the award winning Codebreaker exhibition about the life of Alan Turing.

The Mathematics Gallery is being delivered as part of the Science Museum’s Masterplan, which will transform around a third of the museum over the next five years.

Skanska wins Phase One Battersea Power Station contract Over the next two years, Skanska will fit out 866 new homes as part of Phase One of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment in London that lies to the west of the iconic building.

Integrated support services company, Carillion, which is responsible for the overall Phase One project, has awarded Skanska a two year agreement to deliver the mechanical and electrical shell, core and fit-out works.

Martin Neeson, Managing Director, said: “This contract is great news, not just for Skanska, but also for our client and eventually for those people who will be living in the newly built homes. Residential schemes are a strategic priority for our engineering business and this development offers an opportunity to build on our successful work at One Tower Bridge.”

The contract is worth £88.6M to Skanska and will provide employment for approximately 250 people across its duration.

The iconic site has been a feature of the London skyline since the 1950s. It appears on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals, as well as in numerous films and TV shows. The 83 hectare (200 acre) Battersea Park is also close to the site.

The prime residential apartments will be contained within two buildings and include a large communal basement and podium areas.

Work on the mechanical and electrical elements is set to commence in autumn 2014 and scheduled to conclude in October 2016.

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£400M Leeds development gets underway Contractor, I & H Brown, has been appointed to the £400M Kirkstall Forge development in Leeds.

Developer Commercial Estates Group (CEG) has already completed a multimillion pound investment into the demolition and remediation of the 23-hectare site. The scheme will deliver a new railway station, access road and service the site by late summer 2015; paving the way for more than 1,000 new homes and 300,000sq ft of office space.

MP for Leeds West, Rachel Reeves met CEG, Network Rail and Northern Rail on site. She said: “Kirkstall Forge is unique; the quality of the on-site amenities combined with its stunning riverside and woodland location will undoubtedly make it one of the most sought after destinations in the north for businesses and residents. Kirkstall Forge is set to stimulate the local economy and will ultimately be a catalyst for major regeneration, much needed housing delivery and job creation on a brownfield site.”

Kirkstall Forge will be transformed into a thriving mixeduse community in a wooded riverside setting. Ultimately

it will deliver new homes, a high quality office park, shops, restaurants, a gym, crèche and other facilities. The scheme will create in the region of 2,400 new jobs, boosting the local economy by more than £5M per year.

CEG will be investing in excess of £10M in affordable housing, education and transport improvements as part of the wider Kirkstall Forge redevelopment. The Company has recently seen an increase in interest in the commercial space which will be offered on a bespoke lease and design package, allowing tenants to tailor the building and lease terms.

Jon Kenny, Director of CEG, commented: “Today kickstarts one of the most ambitious schemes in Leeds’ development pipeline. Working closely with Rachel Reeves MP, Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, we have ensured that something very special and unique can be delivered at Kirkstall Forge; this sustainable travel offer and the quality of the new amenities and stunning riverside location will undoubtedly make it one of the most sought after destinations in the north for both businesses and residents.”

Kier chosen for £50M Greenwich residential tower Knight Dragon Developments Ltd has appointed Kier as preferred bidder to Design & Build a new £50M residential tower on Greenwich Peninsula, one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe.

The riverside project is one of the first to be built on the Greenwich Peninsula site and will see Kier design and construct 224 luxury apartments arranged in four blocks, anchored by a 24-storey tower.

Paul Symons, Knight Dragon Developments’ Head of Project Management, commented: “This contract award marks yet another milestone in the landmark Greenwich Peninsula scheme, and we are delighted to have appointed Kier to undertake the build of this particular plot.

“We are confident that Kier has the right expertise to deliver our overall vision, alongside our other contractors, and we are looking forward to working with them all collaboratively to deliver the forthcoming plots on the development.”

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Chris Dyer, Kier Pre-Construction Director, commented: “We are delighted to be working with Knight Dragon at

Greenwich Peninsula. It will be a critical regeneration project for London, providing much needed high quality housing, alongside leisure, retail and commercial space, to create a vibrant new district for the city. It’s also excellent to have the opportunity to partner with a developer that has the skill and vision to deliver such substantial projects, so we look forward to working together in the long term.

“This particular scheme is also a testament to our skills in high rise development, which we believe will prove important in the London market as we witness a surge in tower schemes.

With over 200 projects currently in planning in the city, this will undoubtedly be a growth market.”

A major regeneration scheme, the Greenwich Peninsula development will include over 160 acres of residential, business and leisure space with nearly two miles of river frontage. In total more than 60 new development plots will be created by Knight Dragon in this brand new district for London by 2039, and the scheme will deliver over 10,000 new homes for up to 23,000 residents.

Interserve wins £21.5M Solent University contract

Interserve, the international support services and construction group, has won a £21.5M Design and Build contract for a new teaching building at Southampton Solent University.

Interserve will build a new seven-storey building with an internal floor space of 9,250sq m connected to one of the University’s existing buildings, alter a vehicular access route lying to the north east of the new building and create extra car parking space.

The new building, designed by Scott Brownrigg, will feature a main atrium, within which a pod-like structure – housing an 80 seat lecture theatre – will be suspended, with a number of bridges linking the pod to the new and existing building.

The design of the pod is intended to reflect Southampton’s nautical heritage and the University’s forward thinking ethos. Beneath the pod, a lower atrium will lead to subterranean lecture theatres as well as lower level classrooms, kitchens, offices and a plant room.

The new building will also feature a main conference centre, a number of smaller conference rooms and

numerous classrooms (part of a total 2,000sq m of classroom area). Various projecting balconies and glazed spaces will overlook the main atrium.

Commenting on the project, which is scheduled for completion by the end of December 2015, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Van Gore, said: “This imaginative and exciting project for the University has been years in the planning and I am thrilled to see it start to take shape. It marks the University’s coming of age.”

Justin Elliott, Associate Director of Interserve said: “We are a regionally based office local to the University employing twelve graduates from its built environment degree courses. Being part of the local community we see how important this project will be for it and the University.”

The construction phase design team are Scott Brownrigg (and CDM Coordinators), Arup M&E Designers, Scott White & Hookins Structural Engineers, International Fire Consultants Ltd and Hann Tucker Associates Acoustic Engineers.

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The evolving role of visualisation in the AEC industry

To find out more about Lumion or request a free trial, please contact enquiries@lumion3d.co.uk www.lumion3d.co.uk

Lumion developers, Act 3D, give their take on the changing role of visualisation across all aspects of the construction industry, discussing how the widespread adoption of BIM is enabling a greater number of companies to start implementing visualisation across a wider range of projects.

Why should people involved with construction projects be interested in visualisation?

Visualisation has always played an important role in the design process of construction projects. From architects’ sketches and physical models through to full 3D animated walkthroughs, it is an invaluable tool in helping to communicate an idea, review a design or sell a project.

That isn’t to say visualisation has always been universally available or embraced. The historical high cost and complexity involved in the production of high quality 3D visualisation has restricted use to only high value projects such as large scale commercial or high profile residential developments.

But things in the industry are changing. The appetite and demand for high quality digital visualisation has grown significantly in recent years with more practices finding value in producing visuals for an increasingly wide range of applications.

In an increasingly competitive environment, it is clear to see how visualisation can help to elevate a project vision through compelling (even emotional) images and videos. At its core, the whole aim of visualisation is to help designers communicate their ideas more clearly, to allow for better engagement and understanding from clients and above all to make it easier to win business on the strength of good design.

If visualisation is so beneficial why aren’t more practices producing visuals for all of their projects?

The time, cost and skills associated with traditional visualisation methods have prevented widespread adoption

on smaller schemes. For most practices, these barriers are unrealistic within the scope of an average project.

Often, those companies that attempt visualisation without the necessary skills are left with disappointing results, spiralling costs and missed deadlines.

With Lumion, our goal has been to overcome these skill and time issues, enabling everyone to start taking advantage of the benefits visualisation can bring to a project, regardless of organisation size, available skills or budget. We wanted to give designers an accessible tool that can be learnt in a matter of hours and enable them to start delivering impressive images and walkthroughs in a fraction of the time they might expect from traditional visualisation software.

Our thinking from the start was always Lumion needs to give its users the ability to deliver, impressive, visually engaging stills and walkthroughs on 100% of their projects.

What does the future of visualisation hold?

There are a multitude of factors shaping the development of visualisation as a process. Improved hardware performance and the increased affordability of software are driving factors, but it is the growth of Building Information Modelling (BIM) that has provided the most significant catalyst for change.

For the first time, a 3D model isn’t just an additional facet to a project - it is the central component, so there is no need to create a separate model specifically for visualisation.

Now, anyone can easily import a raw, technical model and place it at the heart of a creative visualisation process.

So where does Lumion fit in?

Lumion can import data from most major 3D / BIM applications including Revit, Sketchup, AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, Microstation and Vectorworks. With powerful environment editing tools and a library containing thousands of objects, plants and people, users can start rendering stills and walkthroughs in minutes.

Thanks to the speed at which a still image or video can be produced, we are finding many companies are using Lumion in ways that we hadn’t previously expected. For example, the interactive Lumion environment has become a regular tool for internal design review.

We believe that Lumion can play a key role in helping companies achieve greater engagement with their existing clients and crucially, win new ones.

Importantly, by overcoming the majority of traditional skill, time and budget barriers, visualisation authoring is now available to all.

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Lumion Visualisation solution for AEC professionals Lumion is an essential tool for everyone who wants to visualise their building designs. It produces impressive, high quality videos very quickly and is extremely easy to master. Lumion has customers in over 60 countries around the world. They include architects, designers, engineers, BIM modellers and universities. Lumion is now seen as the leading software in its class because it has redefined the process of making 3D visualisations. It has also become an essential part of the BIM toolkit for many AEC professionals.

“It’s completely changed our workflow! As a result, there’s a lot of hype about Lumion around WATG” Tal Aisenberg, WATG, Senior Landscape Architect

See how Lumion will revolutionize your creative workflow For more information about Lumion please visit www.lumion3d.co.uk or to request a demonstration and free trial please contact enquiries@lumion3d.co.uk

Supported Software:

Lumion 3D UK, 34 Wellington Business Park, Dukes Ride, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG45 6LS

Tel: 01344 751300

Fax: 01344 779700 www.lumion3d.co.uk

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The BIM Hub E m p owe r i n g B I M p rofe s si o n a l s to b e t te r co n n e c t , l e a r n a n d d eve l o p The construction industry is complex, fragmented and rife with problems such as delays, rework, standing time, material waste, poor communication, conflict and being over budget compounded by the global slowdown and the need to address sustainability issues.

Professionals across the construction industry, although experts in their fields, often have an incomplete understanding of either how other trades could benefit from their work or why they should share information. The advantages inherent in sharing output or, in other words, the ‘knowledge-sharing culture’, are neither evident nor desired. Sharing knowledge is the driving force of evolution and eventually a point is reached when in order to take the next step, an organisation has to look beyond itself.

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of the construction market. Whilst this enormous amount of BIM information is valuable it is quite unstructured and takes a considerable amount of time to filter down to what the reader is looking for, and quite often the reader ends up spending hours upon hours searching the internet with little or no benefit in return.

For any organisation to adopt new processes, cultural change is necessary. Any short-term risk to the business in sharing its knowledge is limited, as competitors will take time to bring about a change in their processes and work culture, during which the ‘front running’ company continues to advance.

Social networking, is now blooming in the business world, thanks to new social networks that enable professionals and executives in industries such as advertising and finance to rub virtual elbows with colleagues. Millions of professionals already turn to broad-based networking sites like LinkedIn to swap job details and contact information, often for recruiting purposes. Business executives also have turned to online forums, email lists and message boards to sound off on information related to their industries. The active use of these social sites has helped the growing use of social networking by business professionals. However these sites are not really suited for meeting the growing need in supporting BIM professionals.

Technological: If an industry uses common technology, there is a shared interest in seeing that technology advance.

If businesses share successful processes and applications, there is an increased likelihood that technology vendors will respond through their development programmes.

Skills: It is essential that the industrial training providers and educational establishments are aware of current best practice, so that relevant education and training programmes can be evolved to match the demand for required skills.

Kudos: Publicising the fact that you are the best is an excellent way of elevating your business status and raising profitability.

Construction has a knowledge-sharing culture, but this is focused on the specific disciplines that make up a project team, rather than the construction process as a whole.

Sharing knowledge across trades with BIM, to make the entire process more cohesive and efficient, is the logical next step.

Why The BIM Hub With the take up of BIM growing daily the construction industry is going through change, which many construction professionals believe will revolutionise the industry. The use of the different ‘BIM applications’ is slowly but surely growing including project management and construction sequencing. The full impact of BIM in the construction industry sector is yet to be realised.

The BIM Hub is has been developed specifically with these problems in mind and has already been successful in resolving many of them. The BIM Hub is a highly targeted and focused network for professionals in the construction sector. Many governments around the world are mandating the BIM process such as the UK, USA, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Norway etc as a deliverable on construction projects. These governments can now use The BIM Hub as the first social platform bringing together their local construction industry into a single Hub. The BIM Hub’s goal is to empower the BIM community to better connect, learn, develop and communicate real world data and help people better understand and engage with the places we live, work and play, and together build a more connected, liveable and sustainable world.

Connect Until now, connecting with others about BIM has been a formidable challenge. But when the strength and might of the construction sector is harnessed, streamlined and brought together through BIM, the industry as a whole will become more efficient and more effective.

Join the BIM community free at www.thebimhub.com today and help shape the future of the construction industry.

Sharing information is vital in many aspects Cultural: The key is to get brilliant results from average people managing and improving brilliant processes. Often companies get mediocre results from brilliant people managing around broken processes. When they get in trouble, they try to hire even more brilliant people.

Read more on page 16

To help the construction industry have a better understanding of BIM, a number of global and local initiatives have been set up such as BIM events, BIM academies, BIM forums, BIM task groups, BIM training, BIM conferences etc all aimed at construction professionals to help them with information sharing and provide an education around BIM. The greatest challenge in the construction industry is to connect the BIM stakeholders in a single specialised networking service, enabling the BIM community to work together.

Today thousands of companies have started to promote their businesses in line with the BIM adoption in a quest to be more competitive and are aiming to get a bigger stake

www.clearboxbim.com

+44(0)800 085 9872

The BIM Hub enables everyone in the construction industry to network and connect whether they are government officials, project managers, consultants, architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers, management operators or educational bodies. This will lead to improved efficiencies and profitability for those that adopt and adapt.

Learn Learning about BIM requires a great deal of time and effort. Construction companies and organisations are presently working in silos, left to their own devices.

Before The BIM Hub there were no online platforms that covered the full spectrum of information required to implement BIM. The BIM Hub is about usefulness and relevance of information today and tomorrow, in a trusted environment. The BIM Hub works to provide professionals with the internet’s best-curated content on BIM.

Develop The BIM Hub develops the capacity of people to understand and implement improved policies, enhanced processes, and overall a better way of working to shape the evolution of BIM. The BIM Hub showcases the work of leading companies involved in BIM, developing and enabling businesses to benefit from interoperable processes and technology.

You’re in the right hands The BIM Hub mission is to be the ultimate source of inspiration, knowledge and tools for the BIM professional.

The BIM Hub is the world’s leading platform for the BIM sector, catering to all parties interested in BIM and construction. If your company is seeking to reach a niche construction audience, The BIM Hub is for you.

4Projects by Viewpoint Tel: 0845 330 9007 Email: info@4projects.com www.4projects.com

C o m p a ny P rof i l e

4Projects by Viewpoint is an award winning provider of collaborative online software for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sectors. Established in 2000, we are a market leading innovator in our field and have a presence throughout the world, either directly or indirectly through our global partner network.

The toolkit helps teams increase collaboration and project control at every stage of the construction lifecycle, and each team member be more effectively involved, whatever their role in a project. Our solution coordinates the work of all parties, including the high volume of drawings, documents, emails, contracts, and specifications common in most construction projects.

Whether Contractors, Clients, Consultants, or Facility Managers, our customers come back time and time again because our collaboration software solution works — delivering tangible cost and time savings.

4Projects by Viewpoint is also your easiest and cheapest route to Level 2 BIM compliance, providing the common data environment needed to satisfy Government BIM requirements from January 2016. Don’t be left behind – call

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us to find out more about our 4BIM solution that will be at the heart of BIM projects going forward. The clock is ticking and the time to act is now.

Our mission is to connect people, information and processes, helping our clients to save time, money and mitigate risk. Our solutions are low cost, easy to use and quick to deploy and help our clients to deliver impressive returns on investment.

4Projects by Viewpoint is the trusted solution by many leading and successful companies. You can have confidence that our experience will translate to improved collaboration and control for your organisation.

Whether you are working on a single project, portfolio of assets or you need a solution to improve and enhance collaboration in your company – we can help.

Winner of Collaboration Product of the Year Construction Computing Awards 2013 Winner of Product of the Year Construction Computing Awards 2013

Arup develops BIM tool for design of a future particle accelerator at CERN

Arup has been appointed by CERN to undertake conceptual design studies for both the tunnel engineering and geotechnical aspects in the scope of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study (cern.ch/fcc).

As a response to the recommendation made in the European Strategy for Particle Physics in 2013, CERN Director General, Dr Rolf Heuer, announced the launch of a study in a global context, with an emphasis on nextgeneration proton-proton and electron-positron highenergy frontier particle accelerators.

To provide an efficient and cost effective decision aid for the feasibility assessments of the particle accelerator infrastructure, Arup has been working closely with CERN and project partners Géotechnique Appliquée Dériaz S.A. (GADZ) and Amberg Engineering AG, to deliver the first phase of the conceptual design study. A key element of this stage has been the development of an early stage BIM tool to inform performance, risk and cost optimized options for a 100 km long, circular particle-accelerator tunnel.

Arup has developed a dynamic Web-based GIS application, which integrates numerous existing geological data sources, incorporating the geological, tunnelling and particle collider system constraints in a user-friendly digital environment.

Matt Sykes, Project Director, Arup said: “Using BIM this early on in the design process is invaluable. It allows us to make critical decisions using data that can be easily visualised, enabling the team to make decisions with a clear overview of the multiple, highly complex components of this ground breaking project. We’re delighted to be working with such a far-sighted client and strong project team to help CERN achieve its objective to break new boundaries in particle physics research.”

John Osborne, Civil Engineer, CERN said: “Several layouts for this new machine are under consideration, with the tunnel circumference ranging from 80km to 100km. This tool being developed by Arup, will be crucial in the decision making process, to help decide which layout is most feasible” The new accelerator tunnel would be nearly four times the size of the present Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The studied infrastructure would be able to host frontier particle colliders delivering unprecedented intensities and energies to the worldwide particle physics research community throughout the 21st century.

www.clearboxbim.com

Read more on page 20

+44(0)800 085 9872

activeplan

The Activeplan team has been developing BIM solutions since the mid 1980s including the processes and technologies (BSLink, Sonata, Reflex) that contributed to the eventual development of RevitŠ.

We were founding members of IAI UK (now BuildSmart) and, unlike most software firms, have always worked to provide inter-operation with other software applications.

In fact, we believe technology is a minor part of a successful solution and have been very actively involved in research and improvement initiatives focused on reducing risk, waste and improving collaborative working.

ActivePlan encourages organisations to use their various applications of choice but provides the means for each stakeholder group to provide the corporate database with the required information as a by-product of day to day operations. This means each contributor becomes a stakeholder in the information being reliable and complete because it is informing their day to day reporting.

To enable this, we developed an enhanced SQLServer application that includes the spatial data normally held in the CAD or other BIM applications. This addresses the risk of data being held in two places and enables dynamic inter-operation with any other ODBC-compliant database.

We support ifc and have created a COBie SQL environment that manages project data, generates COBie drops and allows them to be validated and approved.

activeplan is an advanced BIM system that helps you: Understand an estate and how each space is being used Model services & activities and the space they need Identify spaces/buildings that carry risks or are no longer suitable Improve utilisation to create more capacity in existing buildings Evidence why disposal is sensible Specify new facilities and manage their procurement Oversee the delivery to ensure you get what you expect Create a fully coordinated model for operational management Inform future design through effective performance management

deliver through BIM briefing, specification through to performance

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Why is the uptake of MEP BIM perceived to be slower than its sister professions?

B y M a r ti n H owe , N ati o n a l B I M M a n a g e r at S h e p h e rd E n g i n e e r i n g S e r v i c e s The adoption of BIM in the construction industry has seen rapid progress over the last 12 months, however, it is often muted that whilst architectural and structural disciplines are making great strides towards Level 2 compliance, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) is less advanced and can be sometimes seen as the weak link.

This is particularly surprising given that, for many years prior to the publication of the Government BIM Strategy, MEP contractors were using 3D models with embedded data for the production of construction documentation, digital manufacture and improving their business process efficiency.

Although much of this good work has laid solid foundations for us, we now need to encompass the greater influence of BIM throughout the whole project life-cycle rather than specific deliverables for one particular project phase.

This has presented the MEP industry with a number of challenges: • Multiple owners and authors of MEP data throughout the project life-cycle has led to difficulties with data exchange.

• The MEP scheme can undergo significant change between Stage 3 and Stage 5 leading to wasted modelling.

• There is often little clarity of project BIM expectations and deliverables.

• No single software solution is available that satisfies the needs of designers and contractors whilst giving consistent IFC data output.

• Product data is often unavailable in a consistent, useable format.

• Different workflows and processes need to be adopted rather than trying to make the old fit the new.

• The extended time for pre-construction and BIM workflows needs to be recognised in our construction programmes.

• The changing and emerging project roles coupled with a skill set shortage need addressing.

• Eroding of fees – we need to do ‘more for less’.

• We need to address the availability of MEP BIM components.

Although we don’t have answers to all these challenges, we are definitely moving in the right direction.

Martin Howe

Potentially, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is that the MEP design community has yet to see the business efficiency improvements that have been heralded by the architectural discipline (up to 33% reported in some cases) and indeed the MEP contracting sector.

This particular issue has many facets but I’m sure a major step in the right direction will come when a single software solution is made available allowing bi-directional transfer of data between calculation and modelling packages.

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Potential software solutions are now emerging but I believe it will be another 18 - 24 months before fully functional products are ready for use.

It’s clear that increased business process efficiency through the use of technology would enable us all to be more competitive and will go some way towards alleviating the issue of fee erosion and will allow us to do ‘more for less’.

The vast array of MEP products and the complex data associated with them present further issues for us to address such as; what level of detail do we include at what stage and how do we classify and organise the data into a unified format.

Some of these questions will be answered in the forthcoming publication of the remaining Government ‘BIM Pillars’ – the Digital Plan of Work, Uniclass2 and COBie BS1192-4. However I believe it will need the MEP community to resolve much of the finer detail.

The development of CIBSE Product Data Templates are a great example of how designers, contractors and manufacturers can pool their resources to provide a solution to a complex issue.

Another significant area for improvement is how we streamline the exchange of MEP information between project phases.

Quite often there may be several authors involved from concept through to construction and handover including design consultants, contractors and specialist sub-contractors with the result being a disjointed scheme and potentially significant amounts of rework for one or more of the parties.

At SES we are experiencing real success in overcoming these inefficiencies through our early involvement with both the client and their design team enabling the construction strategy to be embedded into the design.

Traditional procurement methods have often exacerbated the inefficiencies, but the use of the two stage tender process is leading to greater co-operation and collaboration from an early stage in the project.

As may be expected, a programme of change on this scale will take time and is fraught with teething problems however this certainly demonstrates that the much-needed transition is well under way.

I am convinced that, with the continued drive and enthusiasm that we have witnessed over the last two years within our industry, the eagerly anticipated rewards will be available to us all through the adoption of BIM. We should be under no illusions – the future of our industry is digital, we just shouldn’t expect a revolution overnight.

BIM – Defining Better Information Management

B y D u n c a n R e e d , D i g it a l C o n s tr u c ti o n P ro c e s s M a n a g e r, Te k l a

Models are important but they aren’t the be all and end of the information revolution – it’s the data that’s important, and for many in the industry that will still be shared in familiar 2D products like MS Word or Excel.

BIM allows clients, operators and maintenance teams to have all their data for an asset in one place. It allows for meaningful analysis across a wider selection of business information to be carried out rather than making business decisions based upon anecdotal guesses. By combining disparate data sets together, linked around a model of the asset, it becomes possible to review infrastructure data in a much more powerful way and as a result manage assets better.

Implementing and using shared data sets with feedback of what actually works, proven by hard evidence, will improve design in the future. However, this shift of how

we manage information requires more than just using software, it requires a behavioural change. This is the real change that BIM brings to businesses. It breaks down silos and enables for individuals, groups and departments to share information openly and transparently. This doesn’t mean that all information needs to be shared with everyone all the time – BIM provides the opportunity for relevant information to live in the model and only be accessed when needed.

While BIM has and is continuing to help evolve and change the construction industry the next big step will be harnessing remote sensing and telemetry. Real time feedback on the performance of structures such as bridges and tunnels will allow managers to understand how their assets are actually performing. Automating processes so that out of range of figures trigger further analysis or inspections creates the ability for pre-emptive maintenance to be carried out in a structured way rather than just having reactive or end of life strategies in place.

BIM can mean something different to everyone and that’s not a bad thing. But better data sets make for better decision making and help owners, operators, designers and installers work much more efficiently from a position of knowledge rather than ignorance.

www.clearboxbim.com

“Better data sets make for better decision making and help owners, operators, designers and installers work much more efficiently from a position of knowledge.”

BIM, despite being a small acronym, is a big word in construction. While there has been a lot of hype around BIM over the last few years we see the conversation is starting to shift toward companies asking – what’s really in it for me? However, the discussion needs to further evolve to start looking at how BIM can help define and create better business outcomes.

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Moving towards a “digital built Britain” The Government Construction Strategy (GCS) was published by the Cabinet office on 31st May 2011.

The report declared the Government’s intention to require: collaborative 3D BIM (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) on its projects by 2016.

Fundamentally the UK Government embarked with industry on a four year programme for sector modernisation with the key objective of: reducing capital cost and the carbon burden from the construction and operation of the built environment by 20%. Central to these ambitions is the adoption of information rich Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies, process and collaborative behaviours that will unlock new more efficient ways of working at all stages of the project life-cycle.

So has this ambition been a success so far? Well three years on the combination of UK Government and industry has made abundant progress on several fronts in both the implementation of Level 2 BIM and reimagining the construction sector as more innovative and technologically advanced. The image below from this year’s Government Construction Summit illustrates the savings and value proposition that are being realised from a more lean way of working, with new forms of procurement that focus on early contractor engagement and a soft landings approach to ensure that capital and operational stages are threaded together.

Early adopters the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are well on their journey to a digitized approach to procurement and operation of their built assets. Terry Stocks, Head of Programme and Project Delivery / Deputy Director Estate Directorate acknowledged over 20% savings from “Cookham Wood” their pathfinder Level 2 project. The scheme also saw significant stakeholder benefits; Emily Thomas, the Governor at Cookham Wood, described these by saying: “For the first time I could understand a building design, it allowed me to contribute and comment (both positively and negatively) rather than having to look at a flat drawings.”

The MoJ has used the strategy and learnings from this early Level 2 project as a spring-board for rolling-out BIM and related Construction Strategy initiatives across its estate, with the ambition to achieve similar levels of savings and improved outcomes. Now with over nine projects worth circa £500M using BIM underway in MoJ they are well on the way to embedding it as part of the standard practice of the organisation.

The BIM Task Group has been helping transfer the learning’s from Cookham Wood and other projects to new central departments that are coming on-board. We have seen tremendous take-up from other departments adopting BIM into their organisation practices.

Additionally, in order to ensure a consistent and collaborative approach to Level 2 BIM the task group has also focused much of their efforts along with the British

Standard Institute (BSI) and Construction Industry Council (CIC) to create a suite of documents which have been recognised globally as industry leading in the creation of a process for: creating, exchanging and managing data across the asset life-cycle. The BSI Road Map written by the B/555 team, specified the documents and standards that have been produced to support the BIM requirements for Level 2 maturity. The documents specified will continue to be added to until completion; expected by the Spring of 2015 when BIM Level 2 is completed; these form an extensive body of work. The documents have been defined under a number of headings as set out below: Currently available: 1) PAS 1192-3:2014 Information management for the operational phase of assets.

2) PAS 1192-2:2013 Information management for the capital/delivery phase of assets.

3) BS1192-4:2014 (COBieUK 2012) Organising and exchanging information 4) CIC BIM Protocol 5) Government Soft Landings Available Spring 2015: 6) Digital Plan of Works 7) Classification system Significant progress has also been accomplished in creating and bringing together communities of BIM practice, what we refer to as BIM4 groups such as BIM4SME, BIM4Clients, CIC BIM Regional Hubs.

These communities are joined together via a steering group to help knowledge exchange and a commitment to collaborative working through a charter of working: www.ciob.org/campaigns/bim4-communities.

All this foregoing work is helping us forge a “digital built Britain” fit for the second decade of the 21st century. The digital economy is fundamentally transforming the way we live and work and the UK construction industry will not be immune. It is essential therefore that organisations, academia and individuals are prepared to adjust to potentially radical changes of a digitised built environment and seize the opportunity that an innovative and technologically advanced future offers.

David Philp

BIM and digital workflows in the built environment are extremely important to the UK. Economists have estimated that the UK market for BIM-related services will be an annual £30bn by 2020. In a global context, UK-based firms already export £7Bn of architectural and engineering services.

Taking a global leadership position in developing BIM capabilities will provide strong potential for further export growth. The UK currently leads a global race to develop both open standards and supporting tools for adopting BIM it is essential we stay at the vanguard of this “switch to digital” David Philp MSc, BSC, FCIOB, FRICS – Head of BIM, UK BIM Task Group

www.clearboxbim.com

+44(0)800 085 9872

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Indeed, wealth is the word. The market is forecast to expand from an approximate $2.06Bn in 2013 to $4.08Bn by 2018. This unprecedented growth can be attributed to competitive hardware and software pricing, increased product efficiency and greater ease in converting point clouds to CAD models.

At the forefront of this new wave is FARO – the world’s most trusted source for 3D measurement technology.

Originally established in 1981 by Greg Fraser and Simon Raab, Fraser and Raab Orthopaedic (FARO) develops and markets computer-aided measurement and imaging devices and software.

The applications for such devices are innumerable. Whether inspecting components and assemblies, documenting large volume spaces or structures in 3D, or investigating and reconstructing accident sites or crime scenes, laser scanning has proven an immensely useful modern tool with a potential that FARO was quick to recognise.

FARO Technologies’ Laser Scanner Account Manager, David Southam explains: “In 2005 FARO acquired a German-based company – iQvolution. The company had previously worked with a number of large automotive manufacturers, mapping their factories and creating 3D representations to be used as layout schemes. When installing a production line, iQvolution would first do everything virtually to ensure it all fit. This was cuttingedge stuff.

“Once FARO acquired the company, we invested heavily in the product to get to where we are now – a small, sleek laser scanner that can scan entire areas within a matter of minutes.”

FARO’s acquisition of iQvolution and their phase shift laser technology has allowed the company to make inroads into a variety of different sectors, particularly in the construction industry. With BIM (Building Information Modelling) high on the agenda, laser scanning has enabled clients to take three dimensional replicas of spaces and their innerworkings for future reference. Elsewhere, heritage buildings can be mapped and monitored to provide a reference point for any imperceptible changes in the fabric of the building.

FARO’s considerable financial backing, worldwide presence and R&D focus has also allowed the company to become a market leader. The Focus3D X-Series for instance is an industry benchmark, offering a degree of image quality, portability and price unavailable elsewhere.

But while FARO’s iterative design approach has brought about a number of hardware refinements, David identifies recent improvements in the software component as being responsible for the major growth seen recently. David states: “The inclusion of point cloud engines has allowed users to bring their raw data directly into their architectural package.

It is the market need for data and the software capability to handle that data that has made laser scanning so popular.”

For more information about FARO please visit: www.faro.com/home

In a relatively short space of time, the global 3D laser scanning market has become something of a new frontier a burgeoning industry with a wealth of possibilities.

Such software improvements are indicative of things to come, and as the software component becomes more sophisticated so too will FARO’s far-reaching capability.

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CDM 2015 – HSE Yo u c a n n ot b e s e r i o u s !

Surely the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) cannot be serious about issuing revised CDM Regulations in 2015 that are seriously flawed and will have a detrimental effect on the number of fatal and serious injuries in the building industry.

The HSE issued a draft of the proposed new regulations with a consultation document earlier this year and they have reviewed the submissions that they received.

Their latest proposals make little sense and will produce unsatisfactory regulations.

The CDM Regulations 2007 are powerful and workable and substantially protect the health and safety of all who work in the construction industry. The only intelligent revision necessary is to include domestic clients as duty holders as required by the EU Directive.

The HSE were required to review the CDM Regulations by the incoming coalition government as directed by David Cameron to reduce “red tape” and reduce misused health and safety law. This obsession of the prime minister has resulted in the proposed, but not yet implemented, new CDM Regulations being not fit for purpose.

The HSE initially proposed removing all together the Approved Code of Practice and substituting “a suite of guidance” in its place. We believe that regulatory requirements create the motivation for achieving higher

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standards and continuous improvements in health and safety leading to innovation and best practice. Omit regulation and standards will fall and fatalities and serious accidents will increase. Guidance should assist in the understanding of regulations not replace them. Guidance can never have the same impact or standing in law as an Approved Codes of Practice. It would appear that the HSE has seen the stupidity of its original proposal and will now issue a revised Approved Code of Practice.

The intentions of including domestic clients as duty holders was initially seen as honourable and progressive but in practice the proposed responsibilities and legally binding requirements are hopelessly inadequate. The HSE state that “two thirds or more of fatalities now occur on small sites – sites where fewer than 15 people work”. The EU Directive requires the UK regulations to include building work for domestic clients much of which constitutes “small sites”. It is totally illogical to change the requirements for notification of a project to one that will have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project as well as lasting longer than 30 working days. The current requirement of 30 working days or 500 person days is more logical and likely to be more effective in ensuring competent management of smaller projects. In addition there are no specific and expressly defined responsibilities for the domestic client similar to those of the commercial client included in the proposed new regulations. All domestic

the proposed duties. The training of an architect does not currently cover fully the duties envisaged in the consultation document. Many architects do not want to take on the role as it would involve additional training and increase their workload for which they may not be able to seek additional payment from clients.

The most significant and unwelcome proposed change to the regulations is the removal of the CDM Co-ordinator from the list of duty holders and replacing the role with a Principal Designer. The CDM Regulations were originally introduced in 1994 and created the role of Planning Supervisor. The Regulations were then redrafted in 2007 and these changed the Planning Supervisor’s role into the current role of the CDM Co-ordinator that is a familiar part of the construction industry today. The CDM Coordinator is a trained and competent health and safety professional and is the principal advisor on health and safety matters to the entire design and construction team. The proposals to remove this role and incorporate the responsibilities in the new role of Principal Designer will mean removing the independent and professional role in health and safety planning and the continuity of responsibility from initial planning to practical completion of the construction process. The costs of instructing an independent CDM Co-ordinator are grossly overstated in the consultation document and the benefits are appreciated and acknowledged by architects and clients.

This is the most irresponsible proposal that the HSE has made in the consultation document and now appear to be incorporating in the final 2015 Regulations. Only people who are competent and experienced enough to act as CDM Co-ordinators could possibly carry out the role of Principal Designer effectively. However the title indicates that a person who is a designer is capable of performing

The removal of the requirement for a competent duty holder to advise clients on the suitability of the Construction Phase Plan is extremely irresponsible. This requirement was effectively a final preconstruction check that ensured that the principal contractor had considered all of the risks associated with the project. Under the CDM 2007 Regulations, the CDM Co-ordinator often identified omissions in the Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan and therefore the removal of this requirement will undoubtedly lead directly to an increase in accidents and injuries.

The HSE said in a statement published a short while ago: “There have been significant reductions in the number and rate of injury over the last 20 years or more. Nevertheless, construction remains a high risk industry. Although it accounts for only about 5% of the employees in Britain it still accounts for 22% of fatal injuries to employees and 10% of reported major injuries.”

However it is a fact that the annual rate of fatalities on construction sites has reduced by 62% since the introduction of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994. Over the same period the rate of major injuries on construction sites has reduced by 38%.

E A Goddard, Executive Director of the Guild of Builders and Contractors and Fellow of the Association for Project Safety For further information: Telephone: 0208 977 1105 Email: info@buildersguild.co.uk www.buildersguild.co.uk

client responsibilities are forced on to other duty holders, principally the designers. The requirements of notifying the HSE of a project are so watered down for the domestic client as to make the point of including domestic clients a total waste of time. Domestic clients should have the same legal standing and responsibilities as commercial clients.

In the light of these facts, why is the Government about to make fundamental changes to the CDM Regulations? It is undoubtedly a grave error to remove the “competence” requirement from the Regulations. There is overwhelming evidence that the lack of training and experience and pure incompetence is the root cause of the majority of accidents. It is not acceptable for the HSE to refer to the balance between costs and benefits in the competence arena as a reason for omitting a requirement for a high level of competence of all individuals and corporate bodies involved in the construction process. Proof of competence need not be excessively bureaucratic if it is engrained in the policies of corporate structures of any size. It is untrue for the HSE to say that competence is most effectively promoted through cultural change and leadership in the industry rather than regulation. Anyone involved in small and medium size building projects will have seen evidence of a lack of training and knowledge and simple incompetence resulting in avoidable and unnecessary accidents and injuries.

When it comes to the lives and well-being of workers on building sites what should be the criteria of Government represented by the HSE? Should it be to do as much as possible or as little as they can get away with? We hope that the answer is clear.

The construction industry has worked hard to reduce the appalling rate of accidents in construction we hope that Government does not accept the current proposals by the HSE and set the construction industry back 30 years in terms of the number of fatal and serious injuries. We owe it to the hard working men and women working on construction sites to do all in our power to keep them from preventable and sometimes fatal accidents. Removing the CDM Co-ordinators role, or the competence requirements will be a disaster and will be seen as throwing the baby out with the bath water.

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The course is highly interactive and includes presentations, notes, syndicated exercises, delegate discussions; and an examination to ensure learning outcomes.

Shaping and sharing best practice in construction health and safety risk management

Association for Project Safety CDM2007 DESIGN RISK MANAGEMENT 2 DAY COURSE The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM2007) require a cultural change in the management of health and safety by the construction project team, but particular emphasis is placed on the requirements for competence of designers, design co-ordination and communication of design information.

The designer is a fundamental member of the project team and has a significant input throughout the lifecycle of the project, from feasibility design through to construction. CDM2007 makes specific demands on the designer to consider health and safety risks associated with the construction, commissioning, use, maintenance, repair, testing, cleaning, de-commissioning and demolition of their designs and attempt to eliminate or reduce those risks by their design decisions.

The Association for Project Safety (APS) and Callsafe Services Limited (Callsafe) believe that the full benefit of CDM2007 can only be achieved by meeting the philosophy implied within CDM2007 that requires that Designers are proactive and fully integrated members of the project team.

This two-day course is designed to provide Designers and Design Risk Managers with the necessary knowledge and confidence in the performance of the task to ensure compliance with the designers’ duties under CDM2007.

An individual who successfully completes the accredited course in CDM2007 Design Risk Management may claim 3 points (as detailed in the Qualifications and Experience table on the APS website) towards meeting Full Membership of APS. An individual who meets the above criteria will also be exempt from sitting the Examination for admission to the APS Register of Designers for a period of three months from the date on which APS issues a certificate confirming successful completion of an accredited course.

This course is also recognised by RIBA as CPD for architects.

Intended For

This course is aimed at design team members and managers who wish to ensure effective design risk management and compliance with the CDM2007 designers’ duties to a professional and benchmarked standard as set by APS. The course will also benefit other construction and health and safety professionals with an interest in the values and philosophies of risk reduction by design.

Entry Requirements

Delegates should have a basic understanding of CDM2007, associated construction related legislation and the ways in which construction projects are procured and managed.

The Tutors

The Callsafe tutors are widely experienced in the understanding and practical application of the regulations and are practicing CDM Co-ordinators. All of the tutors are Registered CDM Co-ordinator Members or Fellows of the APS, RFaPS or RMaPS.

Course Objectives:

On completion of the course, delegates should: • understand the designers’ duties under the CDM regulations 2007; • know how to effectively reduce risk by design; and • be familiar and confident in the supply of information and production of evidence.

Course Content:

• Design Risk Management and Project Risk Management • Construction Related Health and Safety Legislation • Personal Safety & Professional Responsibility • Role of the Designer in Construction • Design Risk Management Services & Systems • Advising the Client • Demonstrating and Assessing Competence and Resources • Hazard Identification and Working within the Team • Contractor Related Issues and Design During Construction • Designer Input into Information (PCI, CPP & HSF) • Examination

Maximum number of course delegates: 16

Public Courses

This course is offered as a public course, for individuals to book and attend.

Course Cost: £600.00 per delegate, plus VAT (Discounts for multiple bookings) Currently programmed public courses are: • Wednesday & Thursday, 21 & 22 January 2015 (Staffordshire) (Ref: ADRM150121)

In-house Courses

This course is also offered as an in-house course, where an organisation can book the tutor for the 2 days and the course is presented within the organisation’s own premises.

A lump sum price can be provided for in-house courses.

Further details of this, and other, courses can be found at: www.callsafe-services.co.uk, or by contacting Gemma Esprey at: gemma.esprey@callsafeservices.co.uk or by phone on: 01889 577701

Course Content:

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health MANAGING SAFELY IN CONSTRUCTION 5 DAY COURSE This is the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Managing Safely course, amended to make the subjects and content more specific to the construction industry, and separately accredited by IOSH. It is highly interactive and is presented by qualified and experienced construction health and safety professionals, who also are appointed to projects as CDM coordinator.

Intended for:

Anyone who supervises or manages designers or contractors in the construction and allied industries. Also relevant for client representatives and CDM coordinators.

Course Aims:

To ensure that managers/ supervisors: • Understand their responsibilities for health and safety as an integral part of their construction and other management/ supervision roles; • Are able to recognise a sound health and safety management system, including effective construction risk management; • Are able to recognise the key risks in the construction industry and understand the precautions to be taken.

Day 1 • Introduction and Setting Course Objectives • Principles of Good Safety Management • Legal Foundation for Health and Safety • Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide • Safety Management on Construction Projects Day 2 • Understanding the Legal Framework for Safety and Health at Work • Accident Causation and Accident Prevention • Applying Management Principles to Health and Safety Day 3 Key Legislation, Commonly Occurring Hazards and Their Controls: • The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 • Working time • First aid • Reporting of accidents • Fire • Safety signs and signals • Electricity • Display screen equipment • Manual handling • Chemicals/Hazardous substances • Personal protective equipment • Work equipment and Machinery • Traffic management Day 4 Construction Related Legislation, Commonly Occurring Hazards and Their Controls: • Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, Part 4 • Lifting operations and equipment • Noise • Vibration • Lead • Asbestos • Confined spaces • Pressure systems • Radiation • Elevated working places • Safety in earthworks • Flammable liquids and gases • The construction working environment Day 5 • Human Behaviour in Accident and Ill-Health Prevention • Effective Communication • Control of Contractors • Training

• Course Assessment (A 30 minute test paper, similar in format to mock assessments performed during the course) • Course Discussion and Completion (Including the introduction to the Course Project, which is an inspection and risk assessment performed by the delegates of their workplace. This is performed subsequent to the course and submitted to the course tutor for marking)

Maximum number of course delegates: 16

Public Courses

This course is offered as a public course, for individuals to book and attend.

Course Cost: £800.00 per delegate, plus VAT (Discounts for multiple bookings) Currently programmed public courses are: • 3, 4, 5, 11 & 12 February 2015 (Staffordshire) (Ref: IMSC150203)

In-house Courses

This course is also offered as an in-house course, where an organisation can book the tutor for the 5 days and the course is presented within the organisation’s own premises.

This option can reduce the course cost and the travel/accommodation costs where the organisation has a number of their staff requiring this training.

A lump sum price can be provided for in-house courses.

Further details of this, and other, courses can be found at: www.callsafe-services.co.uk, or by contacting Gemma Esprey at: gemma.esprey@callsafeservices.co.uk or by phone on: 01889 577701

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Taking Japanese knotweed seriously P ro p e r t y C a re A s s o ci ati o n

Native to eastern Asia, the plant was introduced in the early 19th century to adorn gardens of Victorian England.

Along with Giant hogweed and Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed is one of three non-native plants most commonly encountered in Britain that concern homeowners, landowners and developers.

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely recognised as an invasive species. Where the plant grows on development sites, it can cause damage to hard structures and surfaces.

Developers also often need to tackle the plant in order to avoid contravening the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The Property Care Association (PCA) - the trade association representing specialists who can be trusted to resolve problems affecting buildings - offers advice to developers about the impact of Japanese knotweed and the risks posed by this invasive weed, and is continuing to help the UK property and land management sectors take control with a comprehensive training programme designed to normalise the problem.

It includes a two-day modular course, control and eradication of Japanese knotweed, which focuses on identification and control measures, but also briefly covers other invasive plants.

A training programme for technicians and field operatives working on the control of Japanese knotweed has also been devised by PCA. Steve Hodgson, General Manager of the PCA, spoke about the steps to eradicate the problem of Japanese knotweed.

He said: “Japanese knotweed is just a plant and we are taking all steps necessary to normalise it, so it is viewed generally as any other type of property problem, in that it can be identified and treated with minimal impact.

The company works with government departments, responds to consultation documents and provides assistance with the department of new guidelines, all with the aim of improving outcomes and promoting best practice.

When choosing a member of the PCA, people can be certain that in order to become a member, these companies have undergone rigorous checks to achieve and retain membership.

All members are audited and the quality of their work already checked, and regular technical, operational and procedural checks give consumers the assurance that all members can deliver high quality service and peace of mind, supported by independently insured guarantees.

The origins of the company go back to 1930, when the British Wood Preserving Association (BWPA) was founded for the industry with the key aim to ‘spread knowledge of wood preservation with a view to prevent wastage of timber and to standardise specifications for wood preservations and their application; to investigate all possible methods of wood preservation; and to afford members opportunities for the interchange of ideas regarding improvements in wood preservation’.

In 1977, the British Chemical Dampcourse Association (BCDA) was formed and 12 years later, the two Associations merged to form the British Wood Preserving and Damp Proofing Association (BWPDA).

For more information about the Property Care Association please visit: www.property-care.org

Japanese knotweed has become increasingly well known in recent years, and is a growing commercial problem because of the challenges it causes in the urban environment.

Members of the BWPDA were instrumental in the formation of Guarantee Protection Trust in 1982, to offer insurancebacked guarantees to customers, which became Guarantee Protection Insurance on achieving FSA approval in 2002.

A year later, two divisions were created; the Property Care Association and the Wood Protection Association. In 2006, members of the BWPDA voted for the separation of these two divisions and shortly after, both became individual trade associations in their own right.

“The delivery of professional training is a major step forward in that process and this course shares the latest thinking and expertise to enable the UK to take control of Japanese knotweed and give reassurance to lenders that it can be remediated.”

It is an important function of the PCA, whose members can investigate and provide solutions that involve damp, condensation, timber decay or insect attack, dampness and water penetration in basements, floodwater recovery and flood protection, structural defects, as well as invasive weed control.

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Fire Protection Protecting You and Your Business Bryland Fire Protection is a leading provider of fire suppression products, extinguishers, and detection and alarm systems. For over 40 years, we’ve served industrial and commercial clients throughout the UK, with a commitment to protecting you and your business. For more information on our products and services, visit brylandfire.co.uk.

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We are a BAFE SP203 approved company for the design, installation, commissioning, maintenance and verification of fire alarms and gaseous fire suppression systems.

We specialise in the design, installation and maintenance of fire systems for the data centre industry and have established ourselves as one of the leading providers of systems in the UK. We offer a full design and installation service and provide work to very high standards.

Our team of highly trained professionals are on hand to manage projects from concept to handover and then provide ongoing maintenance thereafter.

The full range of fire protection gases and agents are available including Argonite, FM200 and Novec amongst others.

We also specialise in the design and installation of VESDA and other high sensitivity smoke detection systems.

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Helping you to meet your fire protection obligations BAFE

To demonstrate that the responsible person (duty holder in Scotland) has met their obligations, many public authorities and commercial organisations now insist that their fire protection services are carried out by a company that has been third party certificated. Many now specify that providers are BAFE registered. You can find out if your potential provider is third party certificated, by looking on the BAFE website: www.bafe.org.uk.

BAFE is the independent third party certification, registration body for the fire protection industry. We develop schemes for UKAS accredited certification bodies to assess and approve companies to recognised standards.

There are now more than 1150 BAFE registered companies across the UK. Our aim is to support property managers to ensure that they get quality fire protection for their premises, staff and service users.

In 2012 BAFE launched the first UKAS accredited scheme for Companies who carry out Fire Risk Assessments

(SP205) which is a vital part of meeting obligations under fire legislation. The scheme considers the competence of the individual assessors as well as the quality requirements for the organisation. There are a growing number of companies registering to the scheme, throughout the UK. If you are looking for the supply and maintenance of portable extinguishers, look for one of the 330 Companies accredited to BAFE Schemes SP101/ST104. Companies are certificated to ISO9001 and all of their technicians are assessed by BAFE for initial and ongoing competence.

There are currently more than 1200 BAFE registered technicians, working for our registered companies.

For installing or maintaining fire alarm systems Companies should hold BAFE modular SP203-1 scheme approval. This scheme includes design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection systems and also requires that all equipment used is third party certificated. The scheme now has over 730 registered companies. Registration to this BAFE scheme is often a key requirement criteria in tenders for the provision of fire alarms.

Our Emergency Lighting scheme (SP203-4) sets out the standards and staff competence criteria to be met. It is modular as with the fire alarm scheme and is achieving growing recognition from end users.

So if you want to be sure you are getting your fire protection from companies who are properly and regularly assessed look for more information at: Email: info@bafe.org.uk www.bafe.org.uk

Current fire protection legislation across the UK requires property managers of all non-residential premises to have adequate fire protection. It is their responsibility to ensure that there is an adequate, updated fire risk assessment and that all aspects of the requirements are carried out competently. This is not only to ensure that customers, staff and premises are adequately protected, but also to minimise the risk of costly unwanted false alarms. The most recent CFOA guidance for the Reduction of False Alarms and Unwanted Fire Signals highlights some of the solutions to this problem, amongst which is the use of third party certificated providers of fire protection services.

There are a range of other BAFE schemes covering particular sectors of the fire protection industry and details can be found on the BAFE website, along with a complete search facility to find registered companies in your area.

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Organic construction solutions have experience in the use of timber frame, Sip panels and ICF's so we can tailor you house to your exact requirements and preferred construction method.

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eight2O AMP6

In spring 2013 Thames Water embarked on an ambitious new approach to AMP delivery – eight2O, an eight-strong alliance of industry leaders working in concert with Thames Water to improve its now ageing infrastructure.

With AMP6 on the horizon, UK Construction Excellence spoke exclusively with Graham Keegan – eight2O’s Chief Operating Officer – about eight2O and the challenges facing this newly formed alliance.

Could you provide a brief overview of your own experience in the water industry?

I’ve been in the water industry my entire career. I left Liverpool University with a Civil Engineering degree and joined what was then North West Water, more latterly United Utilities (UU).

I was with UU for 31 years and - for a five year period - the engineering team of which I was part was outsourced to Bechtel, an American project management company. On my return to UU I was asked to lead the capital programme in AMP3 from the client side of the organisation – an approximate £3Bn capital programme over five years.

During AMP4 I had the opportunity to move to the other side of coin as it were. UU was looking for opportunities to work with other water companies, to bring their expertise of operated a large capital programme to those about to embark on their own capital programmes. A joint venture organisation was created, 4Delivery, which was comprised of UU, MWH and Costain and I was the Chief Operating Officer of that organisation.

Latterly, UU sold out their interest in the contract and that has been taken over by Veolia. When that happened, UU also sold out their interest in contracts outside their region and I therefore took the opportunity to lead the water team for Costain.

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I’m one of the few people who have moved from client to contractor and for the last 18 months I’ve been looking after the eight20 alliance as the Chief Operating Officer.

What would you identify as being the aims and objectives of the eight20 alliance?

In every other contract I have been involved in there has been a clear distinction between client role and contractor role.

Here Thames Water is included inside the alliance and so we are treated a little more like a department of Thames Water rather than it being a traditional supplier/client relationship.

As a result, we are aligning our goals with the goals of Thames Water itself. Thames Water has just developed a new vision and which we have adopted as our own. The main objective of this is to deliver a safe capital programme with customer benefit. As we are so closely embedded with Thames Water, operations is our partner and the customer truly is Mr and Mrs Smith.

Why has an alliance approach not been adopted previously?

A number of companies have tried an alliance to varying degrees. Anglian Water has an alliance that has proven a pretty successful model. The same is also true of Scottish Water.

The challenge for some is that you do need a fairly mature organisation and an understanding of the programme before you can open your business to bring an alliance

Another challenge for alliances is that they can be seen to be commercially soft once in the delivery period. To that end, we are working alongside Thames Water to put together the business plan, which is a step beyond where water companies would ordinarily go. Here, the contractor is actually embedded into that process.

A simple answer to the question is that an alliance doesn’t suit everybody. There is nervousness. You have to be willing to open up a lot of your business and you have to create an environment of trust but I think if you can get there, there are massive advantages to be had.

Thames Water previously embarked on an exhaustive ‘Listening Phase’ to help improve performance. How has this helped to shape delivery of AMP6?

Lawrence Gosden, who is now Wastewater Managing Director, thought it was necessary for Thames Water to listen to the supply community and take into account their feedback. To this end, Lawrence went on an exhaustive Listening Phase - he actually took himself and his team to the premises of all of the potential partners he might work with. This enabled Lawrence and his team to get a feel for that culture and environment. Thames Water believe as do I - that the culture and environment that you create is very important. They wanted to see if people could collaborate, as it’s incredibly difficult to get eight companies all aligned in one direction.

Has the alliance improved relationships between client and contractor?

I think we’re on a journey. Inevitably success will be dictated by our ability to get across that boundary and clear the muddy water. The relationships have been tested. We’ve had some issues already and I’m pleased to say that the behaviours have stood up. We have looked at issues from each other’s perspective and responded accordingly. We’ve

had a really good start and I think the relationships are better that they would be.

A lot of us are new to the AMP arena. Many of us have worked with Thames Water before, though not necessarily in the AMP5 phase. As we approach AMP6 there are a lot of relationships to be developed and a whole culture to be created. For this, the two year Early Contractor Involvement phase has been absolutely vital.

What factors contributed to the appointment of the chosen alliance partners?

The challenges are significantly different from the previous five AMPs. Now we are embarking on the world of totex, a world of outcomes rather than outputs where the customer has an ever increasing voice.

Thames Water recognised that they needed to make a radical change. They identified three aspects that needed to be provided; innovation, sustainability and collaboration. Those are our three watchwords and we have tried to engender these principles throughout everything we do.

When Thames Water was looking for partners it seemed quite a simple step to introduce IBM. What we wanted from IBM was analytical data analysis capability.

Water companies aren’t short on data – there are masses of data wherever you look – but what you need to be able to do is take data and turn it into management information. You need some strong analytical capability and IBM brings that.

“A number of companies have tried an alliance to varying degrees. Anglian Water has an alliance that has proven a pretty successful model. The same is also true of Scottish Water.”

alongside. It can take time for people to get comfortable with that. We are experiencing this now as we try to embed in the business. Thames Water is a huge organisation and there is great leadership and direction and belief in this approach but as you get down into the business people are just beginning to learn about the way the alliance is going to operate and what the advantages might be. It takes time; you have to be brave and preserve.

You’re looking for companies with a great track record, with size and balance sheets that can cope with the financial demands of this business. You’re looking for companies that can put forward people who can respond to the ISC (Innovation Sustainability Collaboration) challenge and tick the behavioural box. That’s how you pick your eight partners.

What is the outlook for the future?

We’re all very pleased, though we’re aware that we haven’t done anything yet. But I would say that we’ve made a great start, we’ve laid a great foundation and we’re in a great position to go on and do some good work. I’m quietly confident. Once the Final Determinations are in place we’ll be in good shape to hit the ground running on 1st April 2015.

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The Society of British Water & Wastewater Industries The Society of British Water & Wastewater Industries (SBWWI) is a trade association which looks to represent the best interests of its members to clients, regulators and Government bodies.

Martyn Hopkinson – Society Chairman and Managing Director of MH20 – discusses the role of the SBWWI with UK Construction Excellence and spoke about the impact AMP6 may have on the industries’ beleaguered supply chain. and we have seen some progress on that front. We’re seeing some early release of funds for AMP6, which will predominantly be targeted at getting schemes designed in advance so that we’re ready at the start of AMP6 to hit the ground running. Whether that’s successful or not, only time will tell.

Our main objective is to represent the best interests of our membership, to client organisations, regulators and the Government. We meet regularly with Ofwat, Defra, the Environment Agency and other Government and nonGovernment organisations to hopefully give the supply chain point of view and ensure that we are giving our members a voice in the wider industry.

There’s also the move to totex and the impact that this is going to have. Clearly, the thinking behind this is good – a more holistic approach and outcome-based solutions to problems. Potentially this could be a very positive move.

We’re a company limited by guarantee. We have an Executive Director and a small staff in our Leamington Spa head office, but a lot of the work that goes on is voluntary. We have a management committee, which is basically made up of individuals from different member companies. We rely a great deal on our members and their support to keep our subscription price low and ensure that smaller companies – even one man bands like myself – can afford membership.

SBWWI has a diverse and wide-ranging membership comprised of many different companies of varying size and skills. Why might a company become a member?

What are the benefits of membership?

One of the main advantages of membership is networking opportunities. We are particularly strong in terms of representing small businesses that wouldn’t necessarily have a voice otherwise. Membership also gives them the opportunity to network, not only with client organisations but also with our larger members. Through our seminars and our regular supply chain forums – we have four of those a year – our members can come and discuss the various topics of the day and, more importantly, network with other members.

What are the challenges facing the supply chain during AMP6?

There are a number of ongoing challenges, the biggest one being the cyclical nature of the industry. The five year AMP cycle has always been a problem, particularly for the supply chain. What tends to happen is that there is very little work in year one. Things ramp up in years two, three and four, only to then fall off a cliff in year five. In terms of being able to look at a long term investment strategy, it does create some real problems.

One of the things that we are involved is the Cyclicality Working Group, which was set up after the Treasury published the ‘Smoothing Investment Cycles’ document,

Are water companies doing enough to foster good relationships and better lines of communication with customers and the supply chain?

One of the major problems we have had is that there has been a lack of cooperation and communication. Things are better but there has been recognition, certainly in some of the conversations that I have had of late, that if we don’t start cooperating we are not going to achieve the kind of outcomes that we are looking for.

Another thing that water companies have recognised is that they have customers. I think most water companies would admit that past customer service records have not been great. The regulator has pushed water companies towards a greater recognition that customers are key to all of their activities. Water companies are now investing a lot more to ensure that customer service is at the top of their agenda.

“One of the main advantages of membership is networking opportunities. We are particularly strong in terms of representing small businesses that wouldn’t necessarily have a voice otherwise.”

What would you describe as being the current aims and objectives of SBWWI? The Society was initially set up to provide a forum for the supply chain to the water and wastewater industry. We have 100+ members and we’ve managed to retain if not increase our membership through some fairly difficult times.

How can the strenuous procurement process be improved?

The procurement process has become strenuous and increasingly complicated. You have an increasing requirement from the client to provide a high quality service, yet price is ultimately the driver. As a small business, you may look at what is on paper a five year framework but you need to look at that rather closely to see if it is commercially sustainable. In a lot of cases, certainly in previous AMPs, that has proved disastrous for a number of companies.

There is also an argument to be made about the whole procurement process and tender documentation, and whether there should be some standardisation in terms of the specifications of the water companies. There is so much time involved in actually submitting tenders. It really is a costly process and I think there are a number of ways that it could be simplified and standardised.

More important is ensuring that collaboration and communication between the client and the supply chain is sufficient that the supply chain fully understands the needs of the client so that they can ensure that they are capable of delivering.

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