Construction National

12/07/2012: Engineering genius goes underground, by Chris Stokes

I'm not usually prone to using this space for a TV review, but I'm going to make an exception this week. In a return to a former life – the first paid writing job I had was as a theatre reviewer – I am going to extol the excellent Channel 5 programme Building the London Underground, broadcast at 8pm on 11 July. It went into great depth on the engineering challenges involved in building underground railway systems that run under major cities, and in particular cities that span major rivers.

Perhaps as amazing is the fact that the upgrading of the Underground that is going on now is biggest of its kind in the world. The programme featured the new station on Canary Wharf, which is being built under the water as there isn't room on the land because of all the skyscrapers.

Read more: 12/07/2012: Engineering genius goes underground, by Chris Stokes

Construction National blog: 18/06/2012

I have, over the years, spent rather more time in health service buildings than I would have liked. That has to be true of most of us, although sometimes my inside knowledge of hospital layouts and even procedures (the bureaucratic kind, not surgical) has struck even me as being sad. Most of the hospitals and health centres I have spent time in have been dilapidated and not fit for a modern service, usually in a run-down wing at the back of a largely-refurbished hospital, tucked away from public gaze.

We are, according to the NHS, embarked on the "biggest healthcare building programme ever seen in the UK", and largely most health centres and hospital premises are being gradually brought into the 21st century. Major campaigns were fought to retain local facilities at the expense of centralised specialist units, but on the whole the progress achieved has outweighed the loss of local amenity. There have been exceptions, of course: the closure of the A&E unit at my nearest hospital has meant extra work for a far older – and frankly uninspiring – unit at the hospital in the next town, which is itself Victorian in origin.

Read more: Construction National blog: 18/06/2012

Construction National blog: 06/06/2012

Sustainable construction as a principle has come a long way since it was first mooted as a way of keeping stock of the environmental impact of a building. Then, the issues were the amount of recycled material used, the ability to recycle the materials once the building came to the end of its life and the amount of energy used both to construct and to run the building. Developments have come to include 'whole-life sustainability' and 'embedded carbon'.

Recently, however, the concept of sustainability has developed further to encompass social and economic sustainability. This latter has been the necessary result of needing to retain sustainable development as a priority in the face of new economic prosperity and the accompanying philosophical attacks on environmentalism from green sceptics – they know who they are. Social sustainability owes its existence to a more grown-up approach to the environment.

Read more: Construction National blog: 06/06/2012

Construction National blog: 25/05/2012

The main construction news of the week happened on 24 May, when Education Secretary Michael Gove announced that 261 schools would receive funding for rebuilding programmes under the Priority Schools Building Programme, out of 587 that applied. A total of £2bn has been allocated to the scheme over the next five years. It replaces the last government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, which aimed to rebuild or replace every secondary school in England. That would have cost £55bn.

Naturally, as with every competitive arrangement of this nature there were some who were delighted, but more who were outraged. The leader of Sandwell Council in the West Midlands was scathing about the fact that only three of its 17 applications had been successful, describing the scheme as "...a half-hearted botch job which will impact on young kids in a deprived area."

Read more: Construction National blog: 25/05/2012

Construction National blog: 15/05/2012

While researching an article for the paper version of a sister magazine of this title, Ecclesiastical and Heritage World, I came across the story of St Andrew's Church in Boxford, Berkshire. Its main claim to fame is that it contains what is thought to be the oldest working Saxon shuttered window in the country. Equally interesting to me is the fact that, when its tower fell down in 1657 it fell into the garden of "a prominent local Quaker named Oliver Sanson, who was in the middle of an on-going feud with the rector, Jacob Anderton, over the payment of tithes," according to David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History.

Mr Sanson refused to let the church have the pieces of masonry back, so new material had to be used, making the tower distinct from the rest of the church, which was medieval (except for the Saxon bit).

Read more: Construction National blog: 15/05/2012

Construction National blog: 03/05/2012

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has been busy over the past few weeks. On 24 it published new quantity surveying and construction standards – the Black Book – together with New Rules of Measurement. The institution described it as: "One of the most significant launches by RICS in the past 30 years."

The new standards reflect the way the industry is changing and has changed over the past decade. A construction site is not – and doesn't look – the same place as it did a decade or so ago. Gone are the huddles of men pouring over flapping pieces of paper, their cigarettes glowing in the biting wind.

Now the men – and women – in charge on site all have separate access to documentation via tablet or smartphone (even a laptop is passé) and the entire site is a no-smoking area. BIM is the new way of integrated working.

Read more: Construction National blog: 03/05/2012

Construction National blog: 25/04/2012

The country has sunk once again into recession, according to figures published today (25 April) by the Office of National Statistics, that august body by whom I was once – briefly – employed. It is what they call a 'double-dip' recession: two quarters of contraction following one quarter of growth. The main culprit was the construction industry, with a 3% decrease in output during the first quarter of this year.

Dave said he wasn't going to try to excuse the figures or explain them away. That, at least, is a first for a politician. The deputy chair of sector skills body ConstructionSkills, Judy Lowe, was quoted as saying: "The huge cuts to public spending – 25% in public sector housing and 24% in public non-housing and with a further 10% cuts to both anticipated for 2013 – have left a hole too big for other sectors to fill."

Those of us who count cranes for a living have been wondering for a lot longer than six months what must be holding up all the buildings under construction. The answer is 'nothing' – there aren't any buildings under construction. Housebuilding has ground to a halt, with a massive downturn in the social housing sector more than cancelling out modest increases in the private sector. According to figures released by the NHBC, February saw a 58% drop in the number of new homes registered in the public sector, against a 27% increase in the public sector.

There have been glimpses of light. New transport projects are in the pipeline or underway, such as the extension of the Metrolink in Greater Manchester and the announcement of an electrification scheme for the trans-Pennine routes. Less successful was the launch of the new, £100m tramway in Blackpool. The first tram to set off from Fleetwood on 4 April was derailed and the line temporarily closed because of – sand on the tracks! In Blackpool? Well I never.

In the capital, the Crossrail project is expected to employ up to 13,000 people in the next three years or so, while the Underground has been busy upgrading stations and lines to take its new trains.

New hotel building has also seen a veritable boom. Last time I counted there were at least a dozen either recently completed or on site in London alone.

The spur for that, of course, has been London 2012. In fact the Olympic building project has almost certainly kept the construction industry alive, with over 10,000 people employed on the Olympic Park and Athletes' Village at one point in 2010. That was in addition to other venues, infrastructure and aforesaid ancillary activities such as accommodation.

What is going to happen when all that is over. Maybe we should patch things up with Herr Blatter et al and get bidding for the World Cup again. When is the next one available; 2026?

 Chris Stokes

Construction National blog: 10/04/2012

Following on the heels of the Budget came the much-heralded National Planning Policy Framework, or NPPF: THE hot topic among construction news stories.

It had been flagged in the Budget, before which it had been attacked by an ‘unholy alliance’ of The National Trust and Friends of the Earth for its proposed presumption in favour of ‘sustainable development’ and its (later amended) failure to favour brownfield development.

In the ends nobody was happy, which state of affairs on another subject His Honour Lord Jackson stated could mean it was broadly right. In essence those who favour lots of development welcomed the new framework, although they think that there is still too much restriction; those who don’t, didn’t. They think there is far too little restriction, meaning the entire countryside is on the brink of being dug up and built on.

One area that will almost certainly see a fall in applications is the building of extensions to listed properties. This magazine’s sister publication, Ecclesiastical and Heritage World, will be examining in some depth what the introduction of VAT will mean to the sector. What no-one disagrees with, however, is that a 50-page framework for making planning decisions is better than 3,000 pages.

One of the ‘in’ terms in construction news circles is building information management – BIM. It even has its own trade show. As acronyms go it’s certainly one if the least inspiring; which is a shame, as the development of integrated IT systems covering the entire build process is crucial to a modern construction industry.

In the words of an article published last November in the paper edition of Construction National, BIM is more than just 3D CAD. To find out more go to BIM Show Live at the Business Design Centre in London on 9-10 May.

On a less-than-encouraging note, the HSE has reported that one fifth of sites visited in a national construction site safety initiative failed the safety check. What is even more alarming is that the figure showed “a slight improvement”! Falls from height are a major cause of death or injury in what is one of the country’s most dangerous industries (celebrity ice dancing does not count) and for 20% of companies not to taking the issue seriously enough is a scandal.

One safety issue that has been clarified concerns non-licensed work with asbestos. The changes are in response to an EC view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on working with the substance. The changes are minor and do not mean a mass exodus of consultants from the Construction Directory on this site.

Chris Stokes

Construction National blog: 26/03/2012

It had to happen! For years we have been insulating our homes into hermetically-sealed capsules in the search for more and more energy efficiency. The inevitable result when you introduce breathing beings into this capsule – particularly if you then heat it – is condensation. Now the Property Care Association (PCA) has issued a ‘White Paper’ on the increasing problem of condensation, making exactly that point.

The author of the document, PCA general manager Stephen Hodgson, said in a statement: "The Green Deal is fast approaching and within the year hundreds, and then thousands, of property owners will be able to release funds to undertake insulation and fuel saving improvements, which will be paid back from projected savings in their gas and electricity bills.

"However, with this in mind, the PCA is becoming increasingly concerned that some insulation treatments are being carried out with little or no attention to the wider implications or consequences of such treatments. This is particularly relevant in relation to ventilation, air movement and condensation."

The issue is one which has become increasingly relevant in my own home, which was built in 1998 to a then-high insulation standard. The bathroom window has to be open ‘on the latch’ every time the heating is on to avoid a small pool under the cistern. In a conversation with my next door neighbour only yesterday, we agreed that opening the living room window was impractical because of the dust and noise (it’s on a main road), so in addition to the small ventilator in the top of the frame, the only option is to have the patio doors open – or pretend it’s a sauna and beat each other with birch twigs, but we won’t go down that road.

Then there was the Budget. Hidden deep among the income tax reduction, the hike in tobacco duty and the ‘is it or isn’t it?’ mansion tax was what the RICS has described as “a missed opportunity” and the Listed Property Owners’ Club an “astonishing, and unexpected, announcement that will affect a significant number of owners of listed properties in the UK”. It was the withdrawal of VAT relief on alterations to listed properties. Not a lot to get steamed up about, you might think – unless you own a listed property.

There are, however, three things to get steamed up about with the measure. Firstly, and this is why Boy George says he did it, the owners of listed properties were getting VAT relief on such things as extensions that everybody else had to pay. Not all listed buildings are of the historic gem variety. In this area many are good examples of weavers’ cottages and the like and are normal family homes. In fact I reckon most people didn’t know you could extend a listed building.

Secondly, and this is where LPOC have expressed legitimate concern, it could deter people from purchasing the kind of listed building I just mentioned, which will then fall into disrepair. Or people may just not carry out repairs.

Thirdly, and this is RICS’s “missed opportunity”, there was the possibility of setting a 5% VAT rate on ALL home repair, maintenance and improvement work.

According to the RICS Budget response: “Research shows that this would have created an extra 26,650 jobs in the construction sector in 2012 and a total economic stimulus of around £1.7bn in 2012 alone. Instead, this will create further barriers to the improvement of housing stock and job creation in the sector.”

Seems like the Chancellor has upset just about everybody. The good news for him, though, is that hardly anybody noticed.

Chris Stokes

Construction National blog: 19/03/2012

“The 5% deposit is back!” That’s how one large sign at a housing development trumpeted the latest in a line of Big Ideas to have emanated from Dave’s hip over the past year or so.

The headline referred to the latest scheme to boost new home building by guaranteeing low-interest mortgages – but only for new homes. That is wonderful news for the housebuilding industry, but not so good for the house buyer. Apart from the fact there are already 5% deposit deals already available, which implies that any new, government-backed deals will probably only be via higher risk (and guess who’s going to be taking the risk), it will either fuel a new house-price bubble or grind to a halt as soon as people need to shift existing properties.

Plus, only a very small percentage of home sales are of new build properties. Plus, the deal only applies to England. Plus, not all lenders are taking part. Plus, not all builders are offering properties under the deal. The list is endless.

The BBC website ran a piece explaining the scheme which included a long list of reasons why the scheme is of virtually no use whatsoever to home buyers, and a poll on the Telegraph website was in no doubt: it’s a gimmick that will only benefit builders.

That in itself is not necessarily bad – except that the idea is not for taxpayers to bail out businesses: unless that business is a bank, or an insurance company, or a finance company, or…or…or. The fact remains, however, that it makes no difference what deposit you need – if you can’t afford the mortgage you can’t afford the home.

And Dave’s announcement was successfully sabotaged by the main lenders increasing their rates, despite the base rate remaining at an all-time low of b****r all. As a saver rather than a borrower I see that as personal!

Among other construction news, roadbuilding got the same treatment from the PM on Monday. He managed to upset just about everybody with his ideas for introducing more private-sector finance into the system. The only people in favour were the AA and the RAC: oh, yes, and the roadbuilding industry. In this part of the world there are still a number of Toll Bars and Turnpikes in road names to remind us of what happens when you turn the road system over to a Victorian land grab.

Still, guess who ALWAYS uses the M6 toll when heading south, to avoid the car park that is Birmingham. The cost is probably recouped by savings in fuel alone. So much for principles.

Away from the big issues, this week is Ecobuild, with the Concrete Centre joining in a feature called Cool Concrete. Concrete inspires love and loathing in equal measure, and a special feature in a forthcoming issue of Construction National will showcase all that that most versatile of substances can offer.

Chris Stokes