Provided by Construction Enquirer.

A Costain Skanska joint venture has won the latest £40m Crossrail contracts to build ventilation and access shafts in east London.

Work will start on the C360 contracts at Eleanor Street and Mile End Park during the later half of this year.

The Costain Skanska team beat-off competition from a list of industry heavyweights:

•Barhale Construction
•BAM Nuttal Kier JV
•Dragados Sisk JV
•Ferrovial Agroman
•Morgan Sindall plc
The shafts will house ventilation and emergency exit facilities between Stratford and Liverpool Street stations. Both shafts will extend around 30 metres below ground.

At Mile End, the works will include the relocation of a coach park and all-weather football pitch within the grounds of the park.

Andy Mitchell, Crossrail Programme Director said: “To enable future rail services to operate through the new rail tunnels, ventilation and access shafts are required to be constructed at various locations along the route including Eleanor Street and Mile End Park in east London.”

The ventilation shafts along the Crossrail route have been designed to ensure optimal air movement within the tunnels.

As Crossrail trains will be air-conditioned, they will release warm air into the tunnels. The shafts will help extract this warm air out of the tunnels.

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Energy giant EDF is delaying its decision on a winner for the massive £1.2bn civils package at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station for at least “a few weeks”.

The Enquirer understands that the two main bidders led by Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty had the delay confirmed this morning.

Both firms were expecting a winner to be chosen next week.

But the election of new French President Francois Hollande has prompted a fresh look at the project as he promises to cut back on nuclear power. EDF is 83% owned by the French state.

A source close to the project told the Enquirer: “The French election has muddied the waters a bit and EDF have said they are delaying an announcement while things are settling down.

“We are only expecting a few weeks delay and everyone is fully committed to the project.”

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

London Borough of Croydon planners have given Hammerson the green light to redevelop the Centrale Shopping Centre.

Revamp work on the 700,000 sq ft shopping centre could now start in early 2013 with the new leisure and restaurant quarter open in Autumn 2014.

The proposals, designed by Leslie Jones Architecture, include redesigning 140,000sq ft of internal shopping space and creating a family-friendly leisure quarter.

Hammerson bought the shopping centre last March as part of a strategic move away from office development to retail.

Two flagship retails units will be built for fashion retailers alongside the new restaurants.

Hammerson also plans to bring a multi-screen cinema to Centrale to create a cinema anchor for the scheme and fit a glazed roof link over Drummond Street to link to neighbouring parts of the town.

Lawrence Hutchings, Hammerson managing director UK Retail said: “There has been significant underinvestment in Croydon’s retail core for some time with major brands missing from the town’s retail mix.

“Croydon has one of the highest catchment spends in the UK and our proposals will deliver well designed space creating a new prime pitch for the town.”

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Building works for a new neuroscience research centre in London will begin later this month, after Kier signed contracts worth over £70m.

The Enquirer tipped the contractor for the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre building job last year, which will be located on the corner of Howland Street and Charlotte Street.

Since the London Borough of Camden approved the plans work to demolish the existing building on the site has been completed.

The construction element of the building, designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, with a team of specialist consultants including Arup, will comprise two basements, rising to five floors.

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre will form part of the UCL main campus and with scientists investigating how circuits in the brain process information.

Provided by Construction Enquirer

Merseyside building services contractor McGoff & Vickers has been placed in administration.

Bootle-based McGoff & Vickers traces it history back to 1925 and ranks as one of longest established building services contractors on Merseyside.

The £10m turnover business is understood to have employed up to 100 staff who have been laid off by administrators Kirker & Co.

MGV expanded rapidly in recent years opening an office in London and moving into the specialist security and fire systems sector to lift workloads.

The firm built up a track record in London on healthcare jobs for the Royal Free Hospital, Royal Marsden and BUPA.

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Developer CLS Holdings has gained planning for its 210,000 sq ft hotel and student flats project in Vauxhall, London.

The Spring Mews project is currently out to tender with Bam, Shepherd, Vinci, Sir Robert McAlpine, Ocon and Watkins Jones in the chase for the £50m building job.

CLS also reported today that its other big scheme in the area, known as Vauxhall Square, was progressing well with the local council.

Vacant possession of this second site for 1.5m sq ft is due to be gained from the end of 2014.

The two applications represent a total of almost 2m sq ft of development and a development cost in excess of £450m.

Spring Mews will include 408-bed student accommodation and a 120-bed budget hotel.

Around these CLS aims to build 30,000 sq ft of shopping units and 50,000 sq ft of offices as well as a replacement community centre.

The developer said it was is in active discussions with potential operators and expected to start on site later this year.

Executive Chairman of CLS, Sten Mortstedt, said: “Gaining planning consent at Spring Mews is an important achievement for our plans in Vauxhall, an area of London which we expect will see significant regeneration and growth in the next few years.”

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Balfour Beatty has confirmed 650 staff will be made redundant as part of a restructuring and efficiency drive at its UK Construction Services business.

The cuts will come from white collar staff among the 12,000-strong workforce rather than project delivery and site workers.

Around 4,000 staff are believed to work in office-based functions meaning one-in-six jobs will go.

The Enquirer first revealed the true extent of the redundancy programme last month.

The restructure will see a stronger focus on growth areas as Balfour looks to “emerge from the current downturn in UK construction as a more operationally efficient business.”

The new-look construction business will operate through three streams from January 2013 as support functions are centralised.

The divisions are:

•Major infrastructure – focused on complex projects in key sectors such as energy and transportation.
•Regional mechanical & electrical – across all sectors.
•Regional civil engineering and building – providing locally delivered, flexible and fully integrated civils and building services through partnerships and frameworks to strategic customers.
A new senior leadership team will also be unveiled at the end of this month which “will take the new business forward during a transition period which will run through to January 2013.”

The existing management team across Construction Services UK will remain in place during the transition period.

Mike Peasland, CEO of Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK, said: “This operating model will sharpen our focus on growth sectors and ensure the seamless integration of our capabilities for our customers as well as giving us the opportunity to create a more efficient structure.”

Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK consists of Balfour Beatty Construction Scottish & Southern, Balfour Beatty Construction Northern, Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering, Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering, Mansell and Balfour Beatty Engineering Services.

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

HM Revenue & Customs is continuing its crack-down on self-employed tradespeople following the conviction of a plumber who dodged paying £80,000 in tax.

Peter Mack, 59, of Ringwood set up his own freelance plumbing business in 1997 but never registered his earnings with HMRC.

During a 14 year period Mack evaded around £88,000 of Income Tax and VAT, plus interest, bringing the total to £112,000.

He was arrested at his home on July 28 last year and pleaded guilty to £40,000 of fraud at Southampton Crown Court.

He was sentenced to a four month jail term, suspended for 12 months, and must also pay £1,800 costs and serve 100 hours of community service.

Mack has recently paid £40,000 to HMRC who will seek to recover the rest of the money through civil proceedings.

John Cooper, HMRC Assistant Director Criminal Investigation, said: “After leaving full-time employment in 1997 it would appear that Mack decided to set-up alone and flout the law. He didn’t register for Self Assessment, and paid no Income Tax or VAT.

“This gave him an unfair and illegal advantage over his law abiding business competitors and robbed the exchequer of vital revenue.”

Mike Wells, HMRC Director of Risk and Intelligence Services, said: “We want people targeted by any HMRC campaign to come forward and use the opportunity to put the record straight and pay any tax due on the best possible terms.

“It really is better for people who owe tax to come to HMRC, before we come and find you.”

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Miller has won the £22m design and build contract for a new emergency care centre at the Gateshead Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The contract was awarded by Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust through the ProCure 21+ Framework.

Work will start on site in October by Miller Construction for its healthcare arm Miller hps. The job is due to be completed by July 2014.

Chris Webster, Chief Executive, Miller Construction, said: “We are delighted to have secured this contract. Miller hps and the Trust will now work together to seek best value and high quality design refinements for this facility which will be built by Miller Construction.

“Health is a key market for us, and our ability to provide solutions is the key differentiator in working with us as delivery partner – our health offer is driven by service-led solutions as opposed to construction-led designs.”

Peter Harding, Director of Estates and Facilities, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are extremely pleased to announce the award of the contract for the proposed Emergency Care Centre to Miller Construction.

“We were very impressed with their credentials and look forward to working with them over the coming months to start the build of this exciting capital project.

“We see the build of the emergency care centre as the essential next step in our aim to provide the highest quality services that we possibly can for our patients.”

The 9,500sqm Emergency Care Centre is a three storey new build, which will create a new focal entrance to the hospital.

Provided by Construction Enquirer.

Energy giant EDF is expected to pick a winner next week for the massive £1.2bn civils package at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Two bids led by Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty are left in the race for the job which will employ 1,500 workers.

O’Rourke is working with Bouygues and Balfour with Vinci.

Both teams are still confident of victory for what will be the industry’s biggest single contract win for years.

A source close to the project told the Enquirer: “This one is really going down to the wire and both bidders have thrown everything at the tender race.

“It will be a huge win for the successful bidder and provide a guaranteed work stream on the site for years.”

An EDF sokesman said: “We do not comment on contract awards while the process is live.”