Author Archives: Ian Weinfass

The mortal danger to construction workers from silica dust is getting worse Stonemason Stuart Johnson would come home from work “absolutely covered in dust”, his wife Carol recalls. “It was just part and parcel of the job.” Stuart was unaware that the dust he was inhaling – silica – could…

Construction leaders are calling on clients to stop placing more risk on contractors by amending standard contracts. CN examines what drives the practice and how it might be reined in It’s not unusual for details of amendments to construction contracts to run to the same 100-page length as the original…

A roundtable hosted by CN and Gleeds gathered a group of experts to discuss the challenges of delivering more nuclear power in the UK. Topics included how to overcome pipeline uncertainty and inspiring the engineers of the future On the panel Graeme Bellingham, consultant, Bellingham Services Stuart Bridges, operations director…

Which projects are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the year ahead?  Tribeca Work on London’s largest purpose-built life sciences campus will ramp up in 2025. The first phase of the King’s Cross Tribeca project, which features state-of-the-art laboratories and workshops, saw VolkerFitzpatrick complete the 10,450…

Fifty years after the Health and Safety Executive was created, is it still fit for purpose today? When a pile of coal waste crashed down a hill onto a school and row of houses killing 116 children and 28 adults at Aberfan in October 1966, no one was prosecuted. Industrial…

When glazer Alucraft Systems filed for administration in April, a company statement cited “an extremely challenging trading environment”. Then in August, Skonto Plan UK went into administration too. With a £50m turnover in its latest accounts, it would have appeared in this year’s top 10. These two firms are far…

Has the industry or the environment felt any benefit from rules requiring contractors to report on their carbon footprints? CN analysis shows the regime is being undermined by a lack of consistency on what is being reported. Devon-based contractor and furniture supplier TCi spent years developing the sustainable side of…

Work to repair parliament’s tallest structure, the Victoria Tower, faces a year’s delay due to a botched procurement process, Construction News can reveal. Last May, parliamentary authorities launched a tender for a £95m job to repair the tower’s crumbling masonry, windows, cast-iron roof, rainwater drainage and flagpole. However, bidders for…

A lower-risk, two-stage tendering approach has become dominant in the past decade. Will it continue? There was a time when single-stage contracting was the only game in town. “When I started my career 40 years ago, contractors didn’t really get involved with design, they were just presented with a finished…

Three major new road schemes on the A47 in Norfolk are a step closer to going ahead after a legal challenge was dismissed by the Court of Appeal – although campaigners could take the case to the Supreme Court. The roads are: a dual carriageway and junctions between Blofield and…