2009 Winners
Leadership & People Development
Sponsor: Northern Counties Builders Federation
Winner: Seymour (Civil Engineering Contractors) Ltd
The Leadership & People Development category is arguably the cornerstone of all the other categories,
as without good leadership and the correctly trained
and stimulated people to undertake the work, the
whole of our industry would flounder. As a beacon of
best practice when it comes to developing its people, the judges agreed that Seymour (Civil Engineering Contractors) was the worthy winner of this Award. With a raft of initiatives for people development, underpinned by its Investors in People accreditation, the management team is committed to employee welfare, skills development and to creating the workforce of tomorrow.
Integration & Collaborative Working
Sponsor: Northumbria University
Winner: Cundall, Lord Laidlaw, Faithful & Gould, Howarth Litchfield
Partnership, Surgo Construction
Project: Excelsior Academy, Newcastle
The companies appointed to work on the Excelsior Academy in Newcastle's West End formed a cohesive and mutually beneficial partnership, resulting in a team ethos driven by the desire to deliver an exceptional building through continuous mutual improvement, the application of effective business management, excellent design and full integration with each other.
Highly Commended: Morgan Ashurst, Durham County Council, William Saunders, WYG
Project: Freeman's Quay, Durham
Commended: Durham County Council, Surgo Construction, Turner & Townsend
Project: Seaham Trinity Primary, Seaham
Sustainability
Sponsor: IGNITE
Joint Winner: JDDK Ltd, RSPB, Teesside Environmental Trust, Lumsden & Carroll Construction
Project: Saltholme Wildlife Reserve & Discovery Park
Joint Winner: Kier North East, DEFRA, Frank Shaw Associates, Davis Langdon, AECOM, Appleyards, Haden Young, Frederick Gibberd
Project: Project ZEBRA @ Lion House, Alnwick
The judges were unable to separate two entries that brilliantly demonstrated the principles of sustainability. In their design of exciting and inspiring Saltholme visitor centre in Teesside, architects JDDK Ltd fulfilled a brief that demanded the highest attention to environmental sustainability, particularly around climate change. With the implementation of a sustainable energy strategy, water efficiency measures and the specification of recycled and recyclable materials throughout the building and site, the aim for the centre is to achieve a BREEAM rating of 'excellent'.
Project ZEBRA @ Lion House (Zero Emissions Building Renewing Alnwick) is a flagship ultra low-emissions office designed to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability and environmental performance. Throughout design, construction and occupation the focus has been to minimise environmental impact throughout the building's life. The final solution incorporates 110m squared of photovoltaics, solar thermal, a biomass boiler, three wind turbines and rainwater harvesting.
Health & Safety
Sponsor: Association for Project Safety
Winner: Byzak Ltd, Gateshead
The judges looked for organisations and projects where health and safety had been driven forward to go beyond what is required within the duties as stated in CDM 2007 in order to achieve an excellent result. Throughout the Browney Sewage Treatment works project, the Byzak team showed evidence that best practice had been utilised, incorporating health and safety into the planning and management of the project's life cycle. As a result, no reportable incidents occurred and construction was managed without compromising the safety or performance of existing works.
Innovation
Sponsor: Bailey Building Services
Winner: Laing O'Rourke
Project: Project Managing BIM models using an Education Platform for Delivery
Laing O'Rourke's North East operations have led the development of a sophisicated new technology which is able to create and manage a wealth of information about a building, even before it is actually built. The Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology, described by the judges as being of national significance, can enhance almost every aspect of the design, manufacturing, construction and facilities management processes - offering a degree of detail and integrated knowledge sharing never before available.
Highly Commended: Roundhouse Building Solutions Ltd, Barnard Castle
Value
Sponsor: National Construction Academy
Winner: Turner & Townsend, City of Sunderland College
Project: St Peters Sixth Form College
The judges looked for projects on which long-term value has been best achieved - and once again the top prize in this category goes to Turner & Townsend. St Peters was the second project Turner & Townsend has worked on with the City of Sunderland College. As a result, they were able to draw on lessons learned in the previous project. Through the effective use of value management techniques, the cost consultants were able to achieve a 15% capital cost reduction against the Learning and Skills Council's own benchmarking cost model for further education colleges.
Highly Commended: Yorkon, Interserve Project Services, North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust
Project: University Hospital of North Tees
SME
Sponsor: Constructing Excellence North East Club
Winner: Spring Oak Developments Ltd
Spring Oak Developments Ltd was founded in 2007 with the mission 'to provide beautiful, energy-efficient, customised homes to meet the growing need for well designed sustainable housing in North East England'. With a desire to innovate at the heart of the business, Spring Oak decided that the code for Sustainable Homes would be the basis of all its projects. This passion and excitement regarding sustainable building has led to a generally more open approach to construction at all levels of the company.
Highly Commended: B&I Thompson Construction Ltd, Barnard Castle
CIBSE North East Building Services Best Practic
e Award
Sponsor: CIBSE
Winner: AECOM (formerly Faber Maunsell), Haden Young
Project: The Lion House, Alnwick
The CIBSE Award is given to the project or organisation that in the opinion of the judges, has best complied with the spirit and standards of best engineering practice in design and procurement of building services associated with the Built Environment. AECOM's winning submission was a unanimous decision by the judges which was consistent with low carbon design solutions which were well evidenced. The design contained photovoltaics as solar shading, biomass energy generation, wind turbine technology and was a collaborative design solution by an M&E contractor and consultant.
Achiever's Award
Sponsor: Dickinson Dees
Winner: Paul O'Brien of Dorin Construction
This award is presented to the individual who has been inspirational to their peers in the built environment sector. This year's winner, Paul O'Brien of Dorin Construction, has demonstrated an outstanding dedication and commitment to making a significant difference to his employer's practices and procedures in relation to environmental regulation. Currently a Contracts Manager with his company, Paul has voluntarily undertaken to educate himself in environmental good practice and to create an environmental management system which, at the beginning of this year, was instrumental in achieving IS014001 acceditation for his employer.
Commended: Brian Reston of Surgo Construction, Newcastle
Client of the Year
Sponsor: Ward Hadaway
Winner: Jane Ritchie
Project: The Work Place, Newton Aycliffe
This year's deserved winner is Jane Ritchie - the inspiration behind The Work Place, a new learning centre in Newton Aycliffe which opened in September 2008. Nominated by Peter Burrell of Clugston Construction, Jane not only funded the creation of The Work Place through sacrificing a multi-million pound inheritance, but successfully delivered an iconic and forward-looking facility through her single minded drive to engender a 'family' approach to overcoming the many challenges faced by the construction team. Peter said, "Jane has been a client-developer 'extraordinaire' and all who have had the pleasure of working with her have benefited from her insatiable appetite for getting to the root of a problem, seeking advice, and driving the matter forward. Her enthusiasm has been infectious."
Highly Commended: Fabrick, nominated by Southdale Homes
Project of the Year
Sponsor: Renew @ CPI
Winner: Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, WYG Engineering, Expedition Engineering, Tees Valley Regeneration
Project: The Infinity Bridge, Stockton
The judges were unanimous in their decision to award Balfour Beatty's Infinity Bridge with the highly-esteemed Project of the Year Award. The £16 million iconic footbridge over the River Tees demonstrated the highest level of technical achievement, innovation and application of best practice. Moreover, it was delivered on time, to budget, and demonstrated teamworking throughout the supply chain. The structure is now a landmark for the area, and was achieved with a sustainable, functional and striking design.
Highly Commended: Morgan Ashurst, Durham County Council, William Saunders, WYG
Project: Freeman's Quay, Durham
Click here to view a selection of photos from the evening.
Click here to view the winners from the 2008 Awards.