Articles by Date : April 11 2005 - April 17 2005

Unions spurn 4% apprentice pay offer
Building and civil engineering employers who are party to the Construction Industry Joint Council have offered their apprentices pay increases of 3%.... more
(15 April 2005 09:28)

CITB launches £1m degree scholarships
CITB-ConstructionSkills has joined with leading contractors to launch a £1m scholarship scheme that is open to the top 35% of students applying for.... more
(15 April 2005 09:25)

Amey sets up tube services division
Amey has created a new internal division, Amey Tube Services, to better reflect the company’s two-third stake in Tube Lines, the shareholding.... more
(14 April 2005 14:47)

Mansell wins £10m Waterside contract
Mansell Partnership Housing has secured a £10m contract from Waterloo Housing Association to develop a modern apartment block in Birmingham. more
(14 April 2005 11:53)

Mowlem off Bath Spa by 7pm tonight
Mowlem should be off the troubled Bath Spa site by 7pm tonight (Thursday). more
(14 April 2005 11:52)

Thousands wasted on chemical remedial treatments.
Construction professionals must wake-up to the fact that they are wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds every year on unnecessary chemical remedial.... more
(14 April 2005 11:20)

Three bid to make Fairbriar private
Housebuilder Fairbriar has announced that it has received an approach from its own chairman, Kevin McCabe, and two other shareholders. more
(14 April 2005 11:18)

Birse bags £28m A14 Suffolk roads scheme
Birse has held off its only remaining rival to emerge triumphant from the battle for a £28m Highways Agency deal in Suffolk. more
(13 April 2005 17:08)

Miller checks in for Aldershot health centre
Miller Construction has scooped a contract to design and build one of the largest primary healthcare centres in the UK. more
(13 April 2005 17:07)

Three tap into United Utilities' water improvement scheme
Three consortia have tapped into at least £900m-worth of work as part of one of the UK's largest programmes of water improvement schemes. more
(13 April 2005 17:07)

Banner and Trant get MoD call-up
Two firms have received their call-up papers for £10m-worth of design and build Ministry of Defence (MoD) deals in Surrey and Gloucestershire. more
(13 April 2005 17:06)

Multiplex: the plot thickens
The plot to extort monies from Multiplex thickened this week, with the finger of suspicion moving away from the Russian Mafia, to a well read - if.... more
(13 April 2005 17:05)

Cost and sustainability issues become a juggling act
Contractors could struggle to balance cost against the need to meet environmental targets under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme,.... more
(13 April 2005 17:04)

Penny drops kerb lifter into market
Penny Hydraulics is the latest company to offer a mechanised kerb-lifting device in the form of Swing Lift derivative the Kerb Lift. more
(13 April 2005 17:04)

Armcon mixes it with Pumpmaster auger
A new mixing auger that allows the matching of top-fed concrete pumps with volumetric mixers has been launched by Armcon Cementech. more
(13 April 2005 17:03)

Renault Quickshift6 for Trafic and Master vans
Renault has introduced an automated manual transmission for Trafic and Master vans fitted with the 2.5-litre dCi engine. more
(13 April 2005 17:02)

Breheny goes for greener oil
J Breheny Contractors has purchased four Komatsu PC210LC-7 excavators filled with biodegradable hydraulic oils. more
(13 April 2005 17:02)

CITB income tops the £200m mark
CITB-ConstructionSkills' income topped the £200m mark for the first time last year. more
(13 April 2005 17:01)

Keller on track as profit rises
Keller, the global ground engineering group, is back on an even keel after financial hiccups knocked a £14m hole in its 2003 results. more
(13 April 2005 17:00)

Taywood aims to build on £390m profit boost
Taylor Woodrow has unveiled a pre-tax profit of £390m for 2004, well ahead of the figure of £300m achieved in the previous year. more
(13 April 2005 16:59)

Mowlem: no more surprises
Mowlem's new chief executive Simon Vivian has insisted that after making three profit warnings this year, the group will spring "no further.... more
(13 April 2005 16:58)

Wilson Bowden completions hit 5,600 in 2004
Housebuilder Wilson Bowden lifted its housing completions to 5,600 in 2004, well ahead of the 5,000 figure achieved in the previous year. more
(13 April 2005 16:57)

Atkins tops construction in best employer listing
Atkins was the best-placed construction company in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For list - coming 10th on the large company list. more
(13 April 2005 16:56)

Laing case to set manager precedent
Construction managers are liable to their clients and must ensure they protect their clients by giving objective advice. more
(13 April 2005 16:56)

Height regs may be delayed
The Work at Height Regulations (WAHR), due to be implemented in April, could be delayed until the autumn if a general election is held in May. more
(13 April 2005 16:54)

Hirebase takes on more Volvos
Hirebase has taken delivery of six EC15BXTVs and three EC25 mini excavators. Buildbase Group hire manager David Grainger said Volvo is preferred.... more
(13 April 2005 16:53)

No Griffiths apology over Bath Spa
Construction minister Nigel Griffiths has refused to apologise for comments made against Bath & North East Somerset Council (Banes) over its role in.... more
(13 April 2005 16:52)

Clampdown on foreign firms avoiding fines
Foreign contractors that try and avoid paying fines for breaking health and safety regulations in the UK can now be chased across the Continent and.... more
(13 April 2005 16:51)

Ringway slashes reportable worker incidents by 20%
Ringway has achieved a 20% annual reduction in reportable incidents over the past three years in its drive to change worker behaviour and attitudes.... more
(13 April 2005 16:51)

Firms crack-down on accident reports
Contractors are stopping staff from making direct entries into site accident books and incident report forms because of a dramatic increase in no.... more
(13 April 2005 16:50)

Mastic Asphalt Council denies SMA association
The Mastic Asphalt Council (MAC) has distanced itself from problems associated with stoned mastic asphalt (SMA) after a BBC Radio 4 programme pointed.... more
(13 April 2005 16:49)

Readymix plans strategy change to improve profit
Readymix plans to focus on higher-value contracts after the company reported falling profits. more
(13 April 2005 16:49)

Timber firms lose business as scheme accreditation delayed
Timber firms are losing business while the government delays over accreditation schemes. more
(13 April 2005 16:48)

United we stand?
Would a new super union be a headache for contractors? UCATT has the largest representation on site, but a super union covering the whole supply.... more
(13 April 2005 16:47)

Norfolk Council to vote on Jarvis PFI payment
As CJ went to press, Norfolk County councillors were preparing to vote on whether to accept Jarvis's offer to hand over designs for the doomed.... more
(13 April 2005 16:46)

ADTs speed quarry output
Alfred McAlpine has taken the UK's first Bell B50D articulated dump trucks (ADTs) to replace a fleet of 60t rigid dump trucks. The seven top weight.... more
(13 April 2005 16:45)

A steady hand on the tiller
When he's not behind a desk, David Tydeman, Morrison's chief operating officer, is happiest riding an ocean wave. more
(13 April 2005 16:44)

More to benefit from Constructionline data
The success of construction's involvement in the government's pre-qualification database Constructionline has resulted in the service being expanded.... more
(13 April 2005 16:43)

Ringway hits back at the doubters
Ringway's managing director David Lee has hit back at rival contractors after its Capability Assessment Toolkit (CAT) validated score doubled in just.... more
(13 April 2005 16:43)

Unions reassured on RMC takeover fears
Union fears that Cemex's takeover of RMC will affect current labour agreements have been dismissed. more
(13 April 2005 16:42)

Industry backs call for zero tolerence on site deaths
The construction minister Nigel Griffiths has received huge support following his speech at the summit in which he called upon all stakeholders to.... more
(13 April 2005 16:41)

Amey fury as DoH pulls plug on Plymouth PFI
The £300m Plymouth Vanguard Hospital PFI has ground to a halt after two of the three bidders pulled out, leaving third bidder Ferrovial/Amey furious.... more
(13 April 2005 16:40)

Ready-mix sales keep profit up at AI
Aggregate Industries (AI) reported a slight decline in its UK asphalt sales in 2004. But the year saw an improvement in demand for ready-mixed.... more
(13 April 2005 16:40)

B-series grapple joins Cat range
Caterpillar Work Tools has introduced a range of 'orange-peel' grapples for the hydraulic Cat excavator range. more
(13 April 2005 16:38)

Speedy Lifting buoyed by recent acquisitions
Following the acquisition of the lifting and tool rental businesses of Lloyds British Hire, Speedy Lifting said it is now in a prime position to.... more
(13 April 2005 16:36)

Network Rail issues fresh track renewals warning
Rail renewals contractors have been given their toughest threat yet after being told by Network Rail (NR) to continuously improve on areas such as.... more
(13 April 2005 16:36)

Four more workers dead
Four more construction workers have died in accidents. more
(13 April 2005 16:35)

Equipment sales set for 13% drop by 2009
Sales of construction equipment will fall 13% by 2009, predicts a report by Market & Business Development. more
(13 April 2005 16:34)

Miller UK wins quick coupler case
A patent dispute between Miller UK and Hill Engineering has been settled out of court with the latter entering into a royalty license agreement.... more
(13 April 2005 15:30)

North Midland Construction founder dies at 87
Major Terence Moyle, founder of Nottinghamshire-based contractor North Midland Construction, died this morning aged 87. more
(13 April 2005 14:51)