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Roll-over to pause display. Click to englarge.
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Our Annual Dinner will be held on Wednesday 1st October at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel, Knightsbridge , London starting at 7pm. The after dinner speaker will be Paddy Greene. Tickets costing £1000 for tables of 10 will be available from 1st July. |
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After last year's encouraging statistics about fatal injuries in the construction industry, the Health and Safety Executive(HSE) has published a set of figures for 2006/7 which show a sickening rise from 60 to 77 deaths. Just as disappointing is that the industry's fatalities rose from 28 to 31% of all deaths recorded in the workplace. |
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Having reviewed the assessment criteria and standards used in the SpeCC Limited audit, the CHAS national management board have (with the consent of SpeCC) agreed a “deem to satisfy”. SpeCC registered contractors can therefore register with CHAS without assessment if they require it. For further information contact CHAS on 0208 545 3838. |
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HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published factsheets in a number of languages, to help subcontractors with the New Construction Industry Scheme (New CIS) which started on April 6 2007.
The factsheets have been translated into Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian and Turkish.
These are available on the HMRC website.www.hmrc.gov.uk |
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This year's panel of judges was chaired by Professor Peter Hewlett (John Doyle Group). Other members of the panel are Mike Crane (Whitby Bird), Andrew Minson (The Concrete Centre), Paul Lewis (Stanhope), Steve McGukin(Land Securities) and Professor David Nethercott(Imperial College).
After reviewing the entries, the judges decided that the Climbing Shoe submitted by Peri Ltd was the winner. The judges also highly commended the entry from Ischebeck Titan-a self drilling micropile with a bayonet coupling. |
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CONSTRUCT, along with The Concrete Centre and BRE, is sponsoring a series of six best practice guides based on the innovations resulting from the European Concrete Building Project, a whole-building research programme carried out at Cardington, and incorporated into the St. George Wharf development in London. The first three have been published with the remainder due by summer 2005. |
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The suppliers of Formwork have formed a group within CONSTRUCT to offer support to customers. The Chairman is Andrew Mair of Doka and his contact details can be found in the Membership Section. |
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CONSTRUCT, in association with The Concrete Centre, has produced guidance on why major specific projects, originally designed in steel, have been constructed in concrete. Framework 6 makes interesting reading.
The new Oldham Library was built using a concrete frame "because of soaring steel prices". For details see Construction News dated 20th October 2005. |
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Additional opportunities present themselves for concrete in the design of tall buildings. The effect of 9/11 has been dramatic, as explained by Stuart Alexander who delivered the 2003 Peter Campbell Biennial Lecture and new designs throughout the world have taken into account the major issues surrounding disproportionate collapse, fire protection, robustness and escape management. Concrete is now regarded as the preferred option for cores, shear walls, escape routes such as wider stairs and lift shafts. The findings on both sides of the Atlantic on any number of other issues are remarkably similar.
For a fuller report, please click on Publications and read Framework 5. |
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Construct has been, and will be in the future, working alongside Celsa UK and The Concrete Centre to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by the continuing massive and frequent rises in steel prices(£150per tonne in less than a year). Although this escalation affects reinforcement as well as structural steel sections, the impact on the average building will be of great benefit to concrete as the total value of reinforcing bar in a concrete frame would be a fraction of the extra costs incurred should a steel frame be used.
The main reason for these increases is the growth in the Chinese economy which has just started to click into gear. The demand from this market is immense and is consuming an ever-growing proportion of world capacity. It is also a sustainable demand, not simply a current, reversible trend, as both the Middle East and Indian economies are taking off as well.
For a full report on the pressures now being felt by the steel industry, please click on Publications and read Framework 5 |
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The Structural Engineer published on July 20th 2004 contained a CD which gave detailed information on the major projects that CONSTRUCT has completed over the last 10 years and gave information on topics such as Contractor Detailing of Reinforcement, Surface Finishes, Post-tensioning, Flat Slab Formwork and Falsework, Best Practice and various Case Studies.
Free copies of the CD can be obtained from Carmen Shead at the CONSTRUCT office on 01276-38444 or enquiries@construct.org.uk |
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