Weekly news round up - latest

Honorary CBE for Dervilla Mitchell, Highways Agency StART scores, Murray Rowden takes on chairmanship of Constructing Excellence and more.

Jackie Whitelaw
19 December 2014

Twitter FacebookLinkedIn

Print

1. Arup’s Dervilla Mitchell has been awared an honorary CBE. During her career so far she has been the Arup lead for Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 (2000 to 2006), the largest construction project in Europe at the time, structural team leader for the technically complex and high profile Portcullis House project in Westminster and led the Arup team on the concept for the Athletes’ Village in Stratford. Read our interview here.

2. Balfour Beatty Skanska JV has been selected for a £55m scheme to upgrade junction 30 of the M25 to reduce congestion that regularly sees queues of vehicles backing up onto the motorway. The 150,000 people who every day use or pass junction 30, where the M25 meets the A13, will experience improved journey times through increased capacity and the scheme will accommodate any future plans for land use around the Thurrock Thames Gateway and in South Essex. Work starts next year and is due to complete in 2017.

3. The Highways Agency has published its latst StART assessment  scores for its maintenance contractors who are measured against criteria of leadership, collaboration, supply chain, delivering value, diversity and inclusion and sustainability.

   StART League Table scores – December 2014

   EM Highways 140

   Carillion Civil Engineering 133

   Skanska Civil Engineering 132

   Costain 131

   Balfour Beatty 129

   Laing O’Rourke 125

   CH2M Hill 124

   Taylor Woodrow 123

   Amey 123

   Mott MacDonald 120

   John Sisk & Sons 113

   Kier Infrastructure 112

   Bouygues Construction 108

   Colas 105

   HOCHTIEF (UK) Construction Ltd 103

   Morgan Sindall 102

   Vinci Construction Grands Projects 102

   Galliford Try 101

   BAM Nuttall 95

   Lagan Construction 92

4. One time Bernard Matthews managing director and chair of aviation consultancy ACL Jeff Halliwell is to be the new chair of Passenger Focus. He starts the job at the watchdog in February taking over from Colin Foxall.  Subject to parliamentary approval, Passenger Focus will be taking on a new role next year representing the interests of users of the strategic road network.

5. Lafarge and Holcim have received initial clearance from the European Commission for their proposed £30bn merger. The approval means the rival French and Swiss materials giants can go-ahead with a series of planned major disposals, including that of the Lafarge Tarmac business in the UK which was put up for sale in the summer.

6. The finishing date for work to decommission and close the Dounreay nuclear power site in Caithness has been pushed back from 2025 to 2029. Changes in the way radioactive fuel should be handled and a requirement for additional security at nuclear sites has created more work at Dounreay.

7. Leading Australian contractor John Holland is being sold to China Communications Construction International by Leighton Holdings for £603M.

8. Danish consultancy Ramboll has bought US environment consultant Environ. The acquisition of 1,500-strong Environ puts Ramboll into the top 10 environmental consultancies globally with 2,700 experts working within environment, health and water worldwide and a total staff close to 12,500 employees working in 35 countries. Combined revenues now exceed £1bn.

9. The new A11 dual carriageway has been opened by the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. The £105 million improvement to more than nine miles of the A11 – a key route between the M11 and Norwich is promised to bring a significant boost to the economy, reduce congestion and improve road safety. The Highways Agency scheme between the Fiveways roundabout and Thetford has involved widening 5.5 miles of the A11, building a new 3.6 mile bypass around the village of Elveden, and five new structures. In addition a new underpass was constructed, for users without vehicles, near the war memorial – this received funding from Suffolk County Council. Main contractor was Balfour Beatty.

10. Turner & Townsend head of infrastructure Murray Rowden is to be the new chairman of Constructing Excellence. He takes over from Ian Reeves.