Grapevine ISSUE 15 WINTER 2013
On the cover: - Bromsgrove School - Site Manager of the Year - University Park Worcester - BIM
Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
Cautious Optimism Challenges Ahead As 2013 draws to a close we can look back to what has been a difficult year for the Group, interspersed with some great successes. Successes have included handing over some fantastic projects to delighted customers, winning new clients and continuing to modernise our skills and systems within the group. On the down side we have experienced some tough trading conditions that have taken skill and hard work at all levels to reduce the risks and mitigate any losses.
are becoming more demanding as they begin to recognise the long-term cost of ownership and we are also experiencing increasing costs of materials and energy which will force us to review the way that we treat waste in all its forms. In addition we must learn to manage our subcontractors better and cope with shortages and supplier insolvencies.
We are certainly experiencing an increase in enquiries, though converting these into projects remains tough
Looking forward to 2014 there are signs that work is picking up in the south of the country and we all hope that this will spread further from London. We are certainly experiencing an increase in enquiries, though converting these into projects remains tough. We are also finding suppliers are keen to work with us, ahead of our competitors, as we have retained good payment terms. However, I anticipate that 2014 will bring fresh challenges, in addition to the usual ones of time, cost and quality.
Peter Wakeford described in the last edition the ever increasing regulation within the industry that affects every stage of a building project. This is unlikely to ease in 2014 and is just part of the changing environment in which all businesses must operate. Our customers
One of my key aspirations for 2014 is that we improve our health, safety and welfare record. This has slipped marginally in 2013 at a time when we should be improving it. I know that you all know of its importance, but I urge you to play your part in ensuring that the risks that we and our colleagues are exposed to on a daily basis are removed, reduced or mitigated. Only this way will we improve our record and reduce our risk of serious injury or long term illness. The senior team continue to work hard to create prospects for us all and I am confident that if this upswing continues then the Stepnell Group will be in a good place to provide opportunities for all employees. I and the Directors wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy 2014. Mark Wakeford - Managing Director
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
One down, one to go
The West Midlands team complete phase one at Bromsgrove School Stepnell have successfully handed over the first phase of the £3.1million student accommodation building at one of the UK’s top independent schools.
and parking facilities. The new building sits in the heart of the Bromsgrove conservation area and alongside the Grade 2 Listed Housman Hall.
The Housman Hall development designed by Warwick-based architectural practice, Robothams and built by Alan Lyons’ West Midlands team, will create 96 high specification en-suite bedrooms for students studying at Bromsgrove School. Study bedrooms benefit from en-suite bathroom pod facilities and bespoke furniture which maximises the space on offer to students.
An unusually long and cold winter impacted on the 34 week programme which led to an extremely intensive period of construction during the last 12 weeks of the project. Alan’s team should be credited for showing extraordinary levels of commitment to ensure that the project was delivered on time and to a high standard which has been recognised by staff members and students alike at Bromsgrove School.
The project is being built in a live school environment with 3 student accommodation blocks and a separate primary school situated along the boundary of the site. High levels of co-ordination have been needed by the project team to minimise disturbance to students and staff throughout the project. The scheme uses traditional construction techniques and consists of a two-storey L-shaped building with associated landscaping
The project is now in its first demolition phase, removing one of the redundant accommodation blocks which will make way for the second phase of the project and the associated landscaping works. The development is due for completion before the end of August 2014. Mark Darler - Site Manager
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
George Law update George Law has been building a working relationship with Costain on their five year contract with Severn Trent Water. We successfully completed schemes at Worcester and Broadway Sewerage Works, which lead to us being awarded the civils work on their largest contract to date at Coventry and Rugby Sewerage Works for a total value of £2.2m. The contract entails demolition, pumping mains and an extensive area of reinforced concrete walls, slabs and road. We are also carrying out work at Rock Sewerage Works, this is a very different scheme as Rock is a village community near Kidderminster and the existing sewerage works is being replaced with a self-contained package sewage plant and a large reed bed. The form of contract has been agreed as a ‘Target Cost with Pain and Gain’. We have agreed a contract sum with Costain (£330k) and any savings below the figure are split 5050 with them. Above 10% saving and George Law keep the lot. Should the cost go above the target, then up to 10% of the pain is shared, above 10% George Law take the hit. Rob Brooks is still travelling to National Grid sites and we have men permanently lodging. In the New Year he has work at Exeter, Cambridge, Coventry, Oxford and Rotherham. This has lead on to work with Western Power on adjacent sites. Sean Doherty has picked up a couple of British Telecom Exchanges at Bury St Edmunds and Cromer to carry out concrete repairs and miscellaneous works.
We recently completed a £2m waste disposal facility for Interserve and Chawson First School for Worcestershire County Council. Our work for South Staffs Water is almost continuous on various contracts. We carried out (on Stepnells behalf) work to refurbish four Student Resident Blocks at Warwick University, ten weeks of intensive work. Our major scheme for the new year will be Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester. This is a £4.5m contract to refurbish the Abbey, a new extension and new entrance and access road. This will extend the facilities that the Abbey can offer for weddings and corporate events. Alan Baker - Managing Director George Law
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
The Sound of Music
New £3.7m Music School at Stowe School nears completion Back in August 2012 the Wantage team began work on a £3.7 million contract to build a stateof-the-art new Music School at Stowe School, Buckingham.
With completion set for early 2014 the remaining work includes paving and landscaping. Internally the acoustic panelling is currently being installed.
The contracts team comprises; Des England as Site Manager, Dave Mawby as Contracts Manager and Keith Carter as Quantity Surveyor.
A number of areas have been handed over to the school so that they can start moving in their equipment, including £370,000 of Steinway pianos.
The works include construction of a two-storey concrete frame clad with a mixture of Bath stone and render. The building also features extensive curtain walling giving panoramic views of school grounds. The facility houses a 250-seater recital hall, a Sony recording studio, a library, a fully equipped rock band room, 24 practice rooms each with a piano and recording facilities, two classrooms, a piano room and a soundproofed percussion room.
We’ve encountered a few challenges along the way with this project. Excavation works were complicated by a number of tree preservation orders and the stone cladding has proved difficult at times. Also working within a live school environment always requires careful planning and close liaison with the Client. Dave Mawby - Contracts Manager
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
BIM –
Building Information Modelling
The good news for Stepnell is that we are already champions of collaboration and integration.
BIM is the latest acronym to be flying around the construction industry. Different people will give you a variety of opinions as to what it means and those more cynical will tell you that it is just another passing ‘fad’. BIM however is not a current whim of industry fashion; it has been mandated by the Government and will be an integral part of construction regardless of what we think of it. BIM is a complex subject that is defined differently from a wide number of perspectives but to start with the most useful explanation for our business is: “The adoption of digital technology tools to substantially improve the collaboration and integration of design and construction disciplines and processes” The good news for Stepnell is that we are already champions of collaboration and integration. We have been pushing ‘Lean Engineering’ principles for more than a decade and this along with our non-adversarial problem solving culture was recognised when we won the Constructing Excellence national award for Collaboration and Integrated Working in 2010. We also benefits from a unique perspective in its involvement in the whole construction process from initial site inception all the way through to owning and managing completed property. BIM will not require a major cultural shift for this business and its staff rather it should be seen as a tool and an opportunity to do things more efficiently, reduce waste in all its forms and gain competitive advantage. Presently members of the Project Management Department are half way through a six day training course run by the NFB and BIM experts Room4 Consulting on a BIM Change Programme specifically tailored to Stepnell. Thereafter it is planned to have a series of events and training during 2014 to spread the application of BIM techniques throughout the rest of the organisation. Matt Sargent - BIM Champion
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
University Park, Worcester Works commenced onsite for the new University Park Worcester Sanctuary Housing Group - Health and Wellbeing Development in November with a completion date of March 2015. The residential development is the largest commissioned by Sanctuary Housing Group to date and covers a total site area of over seven acres, comprising two blocks of 16 apartments and eight bungalows of close care, with a three storey 60 apartment extra care block connecting to a two storey 60 bed care home via a community hub facility complete with a basement plant room. There will also be associated landscaping and car parking for the development amounting to 120 spaces. The construction team are utilising 6ix Consulting to create matrix programmes to deliver the complex project within the 68 week programme period. Site strip including cut/fill and basement excavation operations have been completed with the precast concrete piling due to complete pre-Christmas. Precast pile caps
and beams have just commenced onsite with completion planned for late January 2014. Building superstructures are planned to commence in early February 2014 with internal fit out due to follow in late April. Sanctuary Housing Group and Stepnell have committed to achieving CITB CSR targets for the project; these include apprenticeship, graduate and supply chain training programmes along with community benefit projects. The first event is planned for the 18th December. Gerald Robins, Design CoOrdinator, and Sabrina Spagnoli, Assistant Quantity Surveyor, have kindly agreed to dress up as Santa and one of his elves to welcome a class of tiny tots onto site to see the ‘big diggers’ at work and have their paintings judged by Santa himself! John Neill - Project Manager
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
Project Updates Take a look at some of our latest projects Springfield Road Care Home, Grantham Due for completion in early 2014, the new £4m care home in Grantham is progressing well.
St Anne’s Hospital, Poole - A £79k project to remodel and refurbish the Twynam Ward was completed in October 2013.
“The final fix joinery is underway and we are testing and commissioning the M&E systems. Other internal works in progress include the final floor finishes. Externally we are finishing the footpaths, slabbing and tarmacing” Patrick Boyle - Site Manager
Banner Lane, Coventry - The £7.8m residential care home for Restful Homes Developments is virtually complete
Merton Building, Oakham School - The Grantham team are working with Oakham School again on a £1.4m scheme to extend the Merton Building and create a new business school. Gryphon School, Dorset - We are currently working on £500k classroom scheme for Gryphon School in Dorset. The project involves converting two squash courts into two classrooms, relocation of a fitness suite and converting the remaining space into two more classrooms. The project also includes construction of a two-storey extension to house another two classrooms and a lift. Work is set to be completed in March 2014. “We are working to complete the fitness suite and first two classrooms at site one and masonry works are underway at site three” Matthew Villis - Site Manager Nuffield Health Wessex Hospital, Hampshire - Soon to be completed is the £2.2m refurbishment scheme for Nuffield Health.
Between September and November we completed four refurbishment and alteration projects for the University of Warwick totalling in excess of £6.5m. St George’s House, Leicester - A £1m refurbishment scheme in the centre of Leicester. The works include full strip out and refurbishment of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors along with new render and timber cladding externally. In addition, the sixth floor will benefit from a new glass façade that will exit onto a decked roof terrace with a glass balustrade. The project is due for completion in February 2014. “We are currently in the process of patching existing plaster and carrying out first fix joinery. Externally the insulated render is being applied” Richard Wood - Site Manager
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
Brethertons, Rugby - Currently under construction is Glebe House, the new offices for Brethertons LLP Solicitors. The £2.3m project, built for Stepnell Developments, is progressing well and is due for completion in spring 2014. The Sixth Form College, Solihull - We are currently working on a £2.4m refurbishment and cladding project to the Hampton Building. Work began at the end of August 2013 and is due for completion in spring 2014. Cantay House, Oxford - The £2.2m project to construct a new 45 bed student accommodation block for Cantay Investments is now complete. Mansfield College, the University of Oxford - Work is on schedule for the £2.7m refurbishment and new-build scheme which will be completed in Spring 2014. Devizes Care Home - Working with Brackley Investments and OSJCT, the £5.5m care home in Wiltshire is progressing well. Work is due for completion in autumn 2014. Bayards Hill Primary School, Oxford We recently started work on a £5.2 million redevelopment project for Bayards Hill Primary School in Headington, Oxford. Work involves significant remodelling of the current school buildings to create modern educational facilities and is set for completion in spring 2015. “We have just finished the steel frame for the key stage two extension and are now laying the foundations for what will be the music block entrance. The remainder of the current work is the groundworks” Dave Taylor - Site Manager
St Catherine’s House, Oxford - In October we completed a £143k project to replace and upgrade the existing roof on the four storey fellow’s accommodation block at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. Corpus Christi College, he University of Oxford - The £278k project to reroof part of the Grade 1 Listed Corpus Christi College is now complete. Magdalen College, he University of Oxford - We have recently started a £348k enabling works scheme in preparation for a new library building at the college. The project is due to be completed in February 2014. Poplar Grove Medical Centre, Aylesbury - We are now working on a £1.7 million twostorey extension at an Aylesbury Medical Centre which was originally built by Stepnell in the late 1990’s. The new extension will house facilities including 11 consulting rooms; the reception and waiting areas; treatment and recovery rooms; a health education room and toilets and changing rooms. Work is due for completion in autumn 2014. Oriel College, the University of Oxford - The £3.75m conservation programme to create brand new student accommodation for Oriel College at it’s Rhodes Building is due for completion in July 2014.
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
And the award goes to... Andrew Higham awarded Stepnell Site Manager of the Year The award for 2013 has been very difficult to choose as there have been many potential winners from our sites across our geographical area of operation. Last year’s winner Andy Brain has on the two sites he has worked on this year produced a very low fault/visit ratio from the Safety Services inspections. If the award was made for an area office, the Poole Site Managers would be successful for their aggregate fault/visit scores. The winner this year is Andrew Higham who in addition to his good statistical performance has shown a very proactive approach to the Management of Health & Safety particularly with the way the works at the Bretherton site have been planned and carried out on a construction process that is not familiar to us as a company.
The Hinckley Hub scoops LJCC award In October 2013, Stepnell picked up a craftsmanship award for the Hinckley Hub. The ceremony was hosted by Leicestershire and Rutland Joint Consultative Committee for the Building Industry and was attended by Commercial and Operations Manager Tom Sewell and Site Manager Steve Gordon who were part of the team that delivered the project.
Blair Lennox wins award at Construction and Electrical Awards Poole carpentry apprentice Blair Lennox attended the Construction and Electrical Awards in the summer and was presented with the Fulcurm ‘Mypod’ Trophy for Construction Crafts in Wood Occupations & BTEC Construction. The ceremony was held at AFC Bournemouth Football Club and was attended by Janet Moore and Derek Middleton.
Grapevine ǀ Winter 2013
Tom Kay completes masters degree Grantham Quantity Surveyor Tom Kay has recently completed a two year degree course at Nottingham Trent University to gain an MSc in Quantity Surveying.
30 years on the Job Grantham Quantity Surveyor Mark Fox has been with Stepnell for 30 years.
Sorry to see you go Gail Littleton, Peter Wakeford’s Secretary, is retiring in December after over 22 years with Stepnell. Enjoy your retirement!
Rugby Project Manager David Watson is also retiring in December. All the best for the future!
Keep up the good work!
Wedding Bells
Macmillan Cancer Support In October the Rugby office held a Macmillan coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan cancer support.
Congratulations to Rugby Design Technician Cara Hunter who was married to Sebastian Hunter on the 27th July 2013.
Homemade and bought cakes were sold, there was a ‘guess how many sweets in a jar” competition and a raffle. £403 was raised in total. Thank you to everyone involved and for all donations we received!
The Stepnell Group would like to welcome
Grapevine catches up with...
Aspen Simon Lee
- Accounts
Devinder Ubhi Senior Esimator Rugby
George Law Daniel Martin Graham Cooper Katie Stamps Niall Doherty
- Engineer - Estimator - Site Administrator - Apprentice Plasterer
University Park, Worcester Adam Boyce - Trainee Site Manager John Neill - Project Manager Sabrina Spagnoli - Assistant Quantity Surveyor Poole Ben Samways Donald McDonald Matthew Villis Pete Barrett Rugby Adrian Miles Alex Smith Bogdan Nica David Newcombe Nicolaie Balan Tomas Wood
- Apprentice Groundworker - Plumber - Site Manager - Site Foreman
- Site Engineer - Apprentice Joiner - Labourer - Pre-construction Manager - Labourer - Admin Assistant / Labourer
Wantage Alex Roberts - Trainee Quantity Surveyor Alun Bucknell - Quantity Surveyor Anthony Carter - Labourer / Handyman Dale Fairbrother - Trainee Site Manager Daniel Garlick - Labourer Gary Hubbard - Site Manager Jack Dean - Labourer Katie Allen-Robertson - Administrator Michael Savvery - Site Manager
How long have you been working for Stepnell and how did you end up working for us? Six years and counting. Previously I worked for Kier in Cheltenham, some 75 miles from my house. I remember getting caught in terrible flooding, it took me 14 hours to get home which prompted me to look for work closer to home. Stepnell came on the radar and I was convinced that was the best career move. Although I still have a distance to travel, I have come to enjoy sitting on the M6 in traffic. Who has most influenced your career? My grandfather, he was a very exceptional man and a highly skilled joiner. He taught me all his joinery skills when I was a teenager and encouraged me to be creative and imaginative in Architecture. What’s the most satisfying part of your job? Once the tender has been submitted, you wait in anticipation of the outcome to find out you have secured the project. What do you like to do when you’re not being an estimator? I like to play golf at weekends. Also I would like to train my two Siberian Huskies to sledge and myself to Mush. What do you think you’d be doing if you didn’t work in the construction industry? I would be designing special purpose machines for the Engineering industry as I was before the recession in 1979. What would your advice be to anyone starting out in estimating? It can be very tough and the pressures are great during the tender period...and you are expected to know everything in the building trade.