Olympic roads logistics centres go live

The Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA’s) road logistics centres that manage deliveries to the Olympic Park are now fully operational.

The news comes as the site gets ready for the busiest phase in the project over the next 18 months.
 
The M11 Logistics Centre takes vehicles from the north and west of the UK and has processed 5,000 vehicles to date.  The Barking Logistics Centre takes vehicles from the south and east of the country and has now processed nearly 15,000 vehicles.

Deliveries to the Olympic Park go to the logistics centres to be screened.  The drivers’ identification and the vehicle details are also checked, all of which are pre-registered.  The vehicles are then recorded onto the Vehicle Tracking Module (VTM) before being called forward to leave the logistics centre to meet their allotted time for arrival at the Olympic Park.

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The data taken from the VTM is used to manage demand accordingly and ensure that the Logistics Centres stagger vehicles arriving into the Olympic Park. 

ODA Chairman John Armitt said: “The вЂbig build’ is well underway with construction work now started on all of the permanent venues on the site. With around four vehicles a minute entering the Olympic Park, getting the logistics right to support all this activity is imperative and the Logistics Centres help manage the flow of vehicles in and around Stratford.

“We can expect to see a marked increase in the number of vehicles going through the centres and into the Park over the next 18 months and it is reassuring that the off-site support is in place and the centres are fully operational and prepared for the peak of construction next summer.”

 

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Turnover plummets 40% at A&H Construction & Development

West Midlands-based A&H Construction & Developments has seen its turnover plummet 40% to ВЈ36.3m.

Meanwhile pre-tax profit for the year to 30 April 2009 was also down 33% to ВЈ3m (ВЈ4.5m).

The company, which handles education, local authority, commercial, retail and industrial projects, said that the reduction in turnover was due to one of its major contracts reaching completion.

The average monthly number of employees at A&H was 57, down slightly from 60 in the previous year.

The highest-paid director received ВЈ73,098.

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O'Brien secures Aston University infrastructure scheme

O’Brien has been awarded the £1.2m deal to deliver infrastructure upgrade works at Aston University in Birmingham.

The midlands-based firm will be principle contractor on the 26 week package. It will install services including district heating mains, high and low voltage electric, cold water and fire hydrant mains plus IT and communication cabling.

The work is part of the university's redevelopment programme, which will provide 3000 new rooms for students on the campus. It follows the ВЈ1.7m enabling works package already undertaken by O'Brien.

Stuart Chamberlain project manager for O’Brien, said: “This is a great contract win for us. It’s a repeat work from a valued client, showing our strong commitment to client satisfaction and the company’s flexible approach to our clients’ requirements.”

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Richard Middleton, chief operating officer at Aston University, said: "We are delighted to continue working with O'Brien. Aston Student Village will provide the best possible environment for our students as part of our commitment to make the University even more attractive to today’s best young talent.

"This contract with O'Brien will help us to redevelop our campus and deliver truly excellent facilities."

Work starts on the new phase this month.

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Report analyses big plant owners’ performance

The 2008/2009 Plant Hire Investment Report by Catherine Stratton analyses the accounts of the biggest plant hire companies and some of the plant owning contractor and reflects the start of the recession. However, as only six companies have filed their year-end accounts in 2009, the snapshot does not fully reflect the sharp downturn that took place in the second half of 2008.

The two biggest international plant owning companies, Ashtead and Aggreko, retain the top two slots in terms of gross book value of their fleet (at ВЈ1.76bn and ВЈ1.38bn respectively) while at ВЈ544m Lavendon has climbed to third place demoting Speedy (ВЈ514m) to fifth. Balfour Beatty remains the highest placed contractor with a fleet worth ВЈ526m and rises from fifth position to fourth.

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Five of the major plant holding companies have boosted the gross book value of their fleet by over a half with Coats Hire growing by 62.2% to ВЈ25.3m while Keller Group was up 60.2% to ВЈ372.9m.

The biggest fallers in terms of fleet value are Taylor Wimpey (which divested much of its plant interest but remains in 30th position) and Ringway (-18.9%). GE Capital Equipment continued its slide with a 17.8% fleet reduction seeing it fall to 20th position while Speedy Hire and sixth-placed Hewden reduced their fleet by 9.7% and 8.2% to stand at ВЈ514.3m and ВЈ436.7m respectively.

Good performers among the hire companies include MFG (Trench), Andrew Sykes, Brandon Hire, HSS and Hydrex, all of which recorded rental revenue higher than the gross book value of their fleet, and rail plant specialist Quattro Plant which grew its income by 87.3% to ВЈ21.3m.

Analysis of the hire companies’ pre-tax profit shows Aggreko’s ВЈ190m is six times second position Ainscough (ВЈ28.8m) while Speedy recorded the biggest pre-tax loss of ВЈ70.6m (due to exceptionals) with five other big names also in negative territory. The report also ranks hire companies using KPIs like changes in revenue, trading profit, profit as a percentage of revenue, gross return on plant, depreciation costs and interest cover.   

Among the 74-strong plant hire customer league table, Balfour Beatty remained firmly on top having spent ВЈ120m on plant hire in 2008 and BG Energy retains second spot with ВЈ104m - albeit that the figure relates to 2007.

Copies of the 112 page Plant Hire Investment report can be ordered on www.phir.co.uk and cost ВЈ499.

 

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Workers save bee colony with bucket

A group of workmen repairing a bridge in the Cotswolds came to the rescue of a colony of bees whose nest was in a stone parapet which had collapsed.

The crew used a bucket, stones and moss to make an impromptu nest after taking advice from the council's ecologist.

Jenny Watkins from Gloucestershire Highways told the BBC: "Two hours later the bucket was full of bees, and they seemed to be using it as a new nest."

The bucket has been left near the old nest at Ablington Bridge, near Bibury.

Gary Kennison, ecologist for Gloucestershire County Council, said: "It's definitely a nest of bumble bees but we don't know which species yet.

"We've taken photographs and will send them to the biological records centre near Standish, to confirm what we have found.

"This is important as it could be a scarce species that's not been recorded in the county before, or it might even be the first time such bumble bees have been found in a bridge or structure like it."

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SES lands £16m waste package

Building services specialist SES has landed a package worth at least ВЈ16m to help build 27 household waste recycling plants across Greater Manchester.

SES will work alongside main contractor Costain over the next three years to install M&E systems including external lighting, sprinklers, external water mains and CCTV systems.

Costain's ВЈ397m contract for Viridor Laing is one of the largest PFI deals of its kind in Europe.

Work includes the provision of five mechanical biological treatment plants, one materials recovery facility, four in-vessel composting plants, six transfer loading stations, two green waste facilities and works on 24 household waste recycling centres, spread over a 50 mile radius.

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A main factor in the choice of SES for the contract was its safety record. CEO Mark Perkins said: "Working on any waste project brings its own health, safety and security issues, both for our operatives onsite and, ultimately, the personnel working on these sites and the general public using them.

"I’m encouraged by the proactive nature and the joined up approach adopted by the client, principal contractor and SES Safety Teams to ensure that safety and security is paramount at all times whilst onsite and going forward.”

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Severfield Rowen completes Olympic Stadium ring of steel

Contractor Severfield Rowen has welded in the final piece of external structural steelwork to complete the outer shell of the main Olympic stadium.

Construction of the outer shell, including roof sections, was finished Thursday, 14 months after work started and three years before the start of the games.

The first of the 85-tonne steel sections of the roof was lifted into place at the end of January 2009, and now all 28 sections are in place more than a month earlier than originally planned.

The 80,000-seat stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field competition.

ODA chairman John Armitt said the Olympics will be delivered within the budget despite the "external shocks" caused the recession.

"We have hit all, and exceeded some, of the ten Milestones we set ourselves last year and we are on track and within budget."

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