
BAM to pull down entire frame of £65m building
BAM will have to demolish the entire structural frame of its Faculty of Social Sciences (FoSS) project for the University of Sheffield. The main contractor announced in May that half the concrete frame will be dismantled following the discovery of piling problems on the £65m project. But BAM has now confirmed that the partially-built structure will have to be completely torn down after starting partial demolition work last month. The move has caused anger among local resident

Henry Boot prepares for uncertain times ahead
Henry Boot has taken the decision to restructure its construction division as it prepares for uncertain times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of Covid-19 saw Henry Boot’s profit before tax tumble from £24.1m in 2019 to £7.2m in 2020, as all operations were impacted by the pandemic. The company’s construction division made a pre-tax loss of £691,000 on a turnover of £55.6m for the six months to 30 June. Henry Boot revealed construction had steadily recovered and is no

Funding agreed for £77m York Central infrastructure work
Homes England and Network Rail have agreed to provide £77m of funding for infrastructure work to kick start York’s new city centre quarter development. The government funding will enable vital infrastructure work to connect the site. John Sisk is lined-up as main contractor for the work which will unlock brownfield land at York Central and allow the development of up to 3,705 homes and 1.2m sq ft of commercial development. A reserved matters planning application for the first

Costain facing fight to recover £49m on gas station job
Costain is holding nearly £50m in unpaid bills for work on an upgrade to gas compressor stations at Peterborough and Huntingdon. The contractor agreed to part ways with National Grid on the job in June when work was more than halfway through. A trading update this morning revealed that Costain will be fully off the job by the end of this month when works completed but not paid for will total £49.3m. Costain said: “The Group continues to believe that it has a strong entitlemen

Laing O’Rourke completes first HS2 bridge in two days
Laing O’Rourke joint venture LM has completed the installation of a 65-metre bridge over the M42, in just two days forming the first permanent structure to be delivered for HS2. The job was carried out by engineering specialist Expanded, working on behalf of HS2 enabling works contractor, LMJV (Laing O’Rourke and J. Murphy & Sons Joint Venture). The 2,750 tonne bridge structure was carried along the motorway on a self-propelled modular transporter. The 448-wheel transporter t

Shed builder Winvic hails £29m rail freight terminal win
Winvic Construction will start a major concrete pour later this month for a new intermodal rail freight terminal at the Prologis logistics park in Northamptonshire. The big civils scheme near Daventry forms part of Prologis’ extension to its DIRFT III logistic park. Under the £29m contract, Winwic will pour a 79,000m2 concrete terminal slab, install 9km rail track linking to the existing terminal and the West Coast Mainline, as well as building three complex bridges. The Winv