TRAD Southern completes Leon House project in record timing
TRAD Southern have successfully and safely erected 14,500m2 of system scaffolding on a conversion project at Leon House in Croydon. The work was completed in a record 54 days, beating the estimated programme by 16 days!
The combination of TRAD Southern and system scaffolding once again proves to be a successful partnership, building confidence with our repeat business customers and clearly displaying our professionalism and expertise within the scaffold industry.
Leon House is a 22-storey office building which was built in the 1960s, and is now being transformed into 256 residential apartments. Award-winning construction company Bouygues is overseeing the ambitious project at 233 High Street. The exterior conversion involves cleaning the entire building, replacing the existing windows and removing all existing balconies. The ground floor will be given over to commercial space, and residents will have access to a new rooftop garden.
The new 1.30m Altrix HD Beams were an integral part of TRAD Southern’s design, as they enabled huge and impressive spans to be bridged with ease. TRAD Southern’s Divisional Director Craig Hayes commented, “The beams are bigger and structurally stronger than other modular beams, meaning less are required, which saves on time and cost effectiveness for our clients.” The underground car park and local businesses were also able to remain open throughout the scaffold erection, and disruption to the local area was kept to a minimum allowing trade to continue as usual.
TRAD Southern are part of the TRAD Group of Companies. The TRAD Group have a nationwide coverage of system scaffold – they currently hold over 19,000 tonnes in addition to 66,000 tonnes of traditional Tube, Fitting and Boards – ensuring that they have the capability to build many large, complex projects. No other UK scaffolding group has TRAD’s capacity and level of equipment.
Wood Group wins multi million dollar refinery contract
Wood has been awarded a new multi-million dollar contract by Total, supporting their Lindsey Oil Refinery located in North Killinghome, Lincolnshire, UK. The five-year contract is to provide onshore maintenance services and includes the option to be extended up to two years.
Robin Watson, chief executive of Wood said: “We are strategically focused on leveraging our proven offshore track record of strong service, to broaden our downstream footprint in the UK; and this contract win achieves this.
“It was secured by the clear demonstration of our commitment to safety through efficient delivery of our innovative range of services to the oil and gas industry.
“Our extensive capabilities in offshore maintenance gained from over two decades of working with Total, position us uniquely to maximise the productivity while maintaining the integrity of this significant asset.”
The new contract will commence on 1 January 2018.
It builds on Wood’s support of Total’s assets across the globe, including their UK offshore portfolio. In 2015, the company secured a five-year contract to deliver engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services to four of Total’s offshore assets and two onshore facilities in the UK continental shelf; the Alywn, Dunbar, Elgin and Franklin platforms, St Fergus Gas Terminal and Shetland Gas Plant (SGP).
Palmers Scaffolding Contracting Forward with Waste Energy Sector Success
Palmers Scaffolding UK has won a number of contracts utilising their modern access and construction expertise at several top waste energy plants throughout the country.
The Levenseat EfW plant and MRF waste management site by Forth in Lanark and the Viridor ERF plant by Dunbar in East Lothian, are all set to benefit from the company’s skills. They’ll be joined by the Port Clarence renewable energy plant by Tees Dock in Teesside near Middlesbrough. The agreements mark entry into a new established industrial sector marketplace, taking in the expanding waste energy sector.
“The scale and wide variety of safe scaffolding required on contracts like these makes Palmers the perfect choice,” said Palmers Scaffolding UK Limited Managing Director, Lindsay Harle.
“Industrial scaffolding is one of the sectors we have excelled at for decades and it’s fantastic to be involved with such modern, high quality construction and energy projects in Scotland and the North East. We are fully committed to developing long term relationships with our clients on prestigious contractual work like this and we can provide an economic and versatile service that not only meets but exceeds our customer’s requirements.”
A Palmers client, the M and W Group UK, currently run the sites at Levenseat and Lanark. Both involve a variety of tube and fitting system scaffolding solutions to help create 123MWe energy from a waste plant and the adjacent Materials Recycling Facility. The project will recycle more than a million tonnes of materials including plastics, metals, paper and aggregates over its lifetime. It is expected to save 1.3 million tonnes of CO2e emissions, divert more than 1.4 million tonnes of waste from landfill, and produce enough electricity to supply the equivalent of almost 18,000 homes over its lifetime.
The Material Recycling Facility (MRF) is designed to process 42 tonnes per hour of commercial and industrial waste with an annual capacity more than 200,000 tonnes. Palmers scaffolding solutions are providing essential support in these tasks. The £177 million project at the Viridor ERF plant in East Lothian is integral to the Scottish Government’s ambitions to deliver a zero waste, circular economy, encouraging waste reduction, boosting recycling and recovering vital renewable energy from what remains. The site will generate 30MW of base-load renewable energy direct to the grid – the equivalent of 39 wind turbines – enough to continuously power 39,000 homes. This plant will offer up to 10MW of heat for local use and is supporting at least 350 jobs during construction, including many of Palmers advanced scaffolders.
The Port Clarence Renewable Energy Plant is a major outlet for waste wood in the North East. Run by Lagan Construction Group it will have capacity to treat an estimated 325,000 tonnes of waste wood per year. When finished, the plant will generate around 40MW of power – the equivalent of powering around 75,000 homes in Tees Valley and elsewhere in the North East. The development at Port Clarence will create 30 direct jobs and support a further 300 jobs at the peak of the build.
Ian McFarlane Director Business & Project Development added: “We have the experience, equipment and excellence to deal with whatever is required – from the early design phases, through erection to striking. This all helps keep these exciting, essential contracts on time and on budget.” UK Driven Training Centre In Vietnam
A leading industrial trainer in the North East of England has opened a training centre in Vietnam.
AIS Training’s state-of-the-art centre will be run in conjunction with their partner in the territory Black Cat, to help train more than 200 employees. It’s also expected to service the training requirements of the lucrative Indo-China oil and gas and construction markets. This move will strengthen the existing business relationship between AIS and Black Cat.
Allround FW System Launches at Layher Open Day
Layher UK announces the launch of a new product at it’s innovation open day.
Global system scaffolding giants Layher announced the UK launch of it’s Allround FW System. The new product was demonstrated yesterday at a packed innovations open day in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Open day attendees consisted of industry leaders, customers, clients, Layher Germany shareholders including joint Directors, Georg Layher & Carolin Langer, who were all wooed by the colourful launch and practical demonstration of the Allround FW System. Utilising just three additional components the Allround FW system has been designed to offer wide-span bridging arrangements that are entirely compatible with all components of the company’s flagship Allround system.
Layher say the Allround FW system is intended to close the current load-capacity gap between their various lattice beam configurations and the Heavy Duty Allround Bridging system.
Speaking to ScaffMag at the open day Layher UK Managing Director Sean Pike said:
“We were delighted and privileged to have welcomed such a large group of over 140 people to the innovations open day, and appreciated very much the close customer support from our clients. Our intention was to make the day informative, enjoyable and an experience to remember as well as a platform from which we could launch a major new innovation – Allround FW. At Layher, through customer feedback, we strive to always improve our materials, and make available new business opportunities in other industries for our clients. With the new innovations we always base them around our core product, original Allround scaffolding. We believe that the new Allround FW system compliments the existing range and offers our customers more possibilities…”
Additionally Layher also updated attendees on multiple product advancements and other new products that included the Allround Steel Toe-Board, U-Transom, Lattice Beam Suspension Shoe Kit and a U-Corner Deck for Circular Scaffolding.
TRAD Midlands secures its first Timber Frame New Build Projects
TRAD Midlands, formerly known as MTD, has recently secured two timber frame new build projects.
TRAD Midlands are working closely with Bovis Homes and Westleigh Homes on both projects which are located in Lichfield, Staffordshire. This expansion into New Build and Construction Sectors is perfectly complimented by the use of Plettac System Scaffold.
TRAD Midlands is part of the TRAD Group, which also comprises of TRAD Southern, TRAD Northern, TRAD Hire & Sales and TRAD Safety Systems. The TRAD Group operates from 18 locations throughout the UK, has an annual turnover in excess of £110million, and employs over 1,000 people.
TRAD have a nationwide coverage of system scaffold and currently hold over 19,000 tonnes, in addition to 66,000 tonnes of traditional tube, fitting and boards – no other UK scaffolding group has such capacity and level of equipment.
TRAD Midlands are working closely with Bovis Homes and Westleigh Homes on both projects which are located in Lichfield, Staffordshire. This expansion into New Build and Construction Sectors is perfectly complimented by the use of Plettac System Scaffold.
TRAD Midlands is part of the TRAD Group, which also comprises of TRAD Southern, TRAD Northern, TRAD Hire & Sales and TRAD Safety Systems. The TRAD Group operates from 18 locations throughout the UK, has an annual turnover in excess of £110million, and employs over 1,000 people.
TRAD have a nationwide coverage of system scaffold and currently hold over 19,000 tonnes, in addition to 66,000 tonnes of traditional tube, fitting and boards – no other UK scaffolding group has such capacity and level of equipment. Scaffold Inspectors Prosecuted After Roofers Fall
The HSE have prosecuted two scaffold Inspectors after a worker fell through a gap between the scaffolding and the building, resulting in serious injuries.
Greater Manchester Magistrates Court heard how on 26th March 2014, the 49-year old roofer was working on a re-roofing project. As he stepped down from the untiled roof onto a fixed scaffold, he fell through a gap between the working platform of the scaffolding and the building. He suffered fracture injuries to his spine and had to wear a back brace for eight weeks. The HSE say the scaffolding had been signed off as safe for use by Mr Stephen Harper and Mr Garry Arnold. The investigation by the HSE had revealed that they had not carried out the relevant inspections and had falsified the certificates to show that all was safe for use. Speaking after the hearing HSE Inspector Matt Greenly said:“Scaffold Inspectors are relied upon by workers and must be trusted. Falsely completing reports without carrying out a thorough inspection can lead to serious risks being missed and life changing accidents occurring.”Mr. Stephen Harper of Alkrington, Middleton and Mr. Garry Arnold of Crookes, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and were each sentenced to 170 hours community service and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.
Claims of New Scaffolders Card Scheme Are Unfounded
Claims the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and the Scaffolding Association are working to create a new card scheme are unfounded according to senior industry sources.
There have been reports the proposed ECITB breakaway scheme is a direct result of the CISRS project introduced back in July. This is a compulsory two day continuing professional development course (CPD), all scaffolders need to undertake in order to have their card renewed. Unite has been successful in ensuring workers covered by the National Agreement for Engineering Construction Industry and on other individual sites, will be fully paid while taking the two day course. Costs, travel and accommodation will be met by employers.
Unite claims it was informed by the ECITB it was in the process of developing a new scaffolding card scheme. That the ECITB’s decision emerged as a result of pressure from several offshore fabric maintenance companies, supported by the Scaffolding Association and the Offshore Construction Association.
“The proposal to introduce a rogue scaffolding scheme is bad news for workers, “ says Unite national officer for construction Bernard McAulay.
“It will affect standards and create confusion on sites. With workers regularly moving between sites it is also likely to hit them in their pockets as they will be forced to purchase two different cards, to ensure they are able to accept job offers. In recent years there has been a great deal of effort in reducing the number of construction card schemes, in order to improve standards and to avoid confusion and it now appears the ECITB is prepared to chuck that good work out of the window to appease a few penny pinching employers.”
When pressed for a response, Chris Claydon, Chief Executive for the ECITB, told ScaffMag: “We have no plans to bring in a new scaffolding card scheme in the UK. The new programme, which would be entirely voluntary, would award scaffolders based overseas the International Competence in Engineering (ICE) card, in existence since 2013, and used widely overseas as a standardised indicator of competence.
The ECITB is committed to ensuring training supports the highest standards of safety across engineering construction sites. We are currently in discussion with the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) regarding compatibility between the CISRS card and the new programme.”
Having spoken to the Scaffolding Association ScaffMag can confirm there is no firm basis for such a rogue scheme. They told us: “The Association is not working with the ECITB about a new scaffolders card scheme and we have not had any contact with anybody at ECITB.”
Mr Claydon backed this response up by adding: “The ECITB is the UK’s leading authority on engineering construction training and we work closely with industry to ensure the workforce has the highest level of skills needed to compete globally. We say again – we are currently developing a training, development and assessment programme for scaffolders working overseas in response to interest from international engineering companies. Separately, offshore fabric maintenance companies in the UK have expressed an interest in a common scheme supporting the development and assessment of offshore scaffolders against a relevant standard.”
It would seem the union has been miss-informed, and we can re-iterate no compulsory rogue card scheme is being planned. CISRS International Training Continues To Spread And Strengthen
Safety and Access have announced that following the stringent CISRS audits this week both of the partnership ventures for international CISRS training in Korea have successfully passed their renewal audits.
Safety and Access (S&A) have been offering scaffolding related training in Korea for around 5 years and the partnership with Safety & Access (Korea) has been one of the most successful in the scheme with around 3000 people receiving training in the the oil and gas industry.
Rick Statham Joint Managing Director of S&A said: “We are really pleased to report they the two centres in Geoje and Ulsan have passed the stringent audit criteria. Both of these locations are very important strategically in relation to the local shipyards. In addition to the successful training programme so far with Samsung Heavy Industries we are pleased to report that we have also secured a significant amount of government funding which we will be offering our clients to shortly.”
Following the accreditation visits several update meetings were arranged with local oil and gas representatives from Shell. Statoil and Chevron to report on the progress of the scheme so far and local availability.
S&A continue to grow their overseas business with training facilities in Nepal, Oman and South Korea along with the two UK centres in Nottingham and Immingham. There also plans for further domestic and international development in 2018. Bilfinger Salamis Lands £1Million Repair Services Contract
