NEWSBRIEF

Ove Arup for new manchester stadium

Ove Arup & Partners has been appointed engineer for the design of the City of Manchester Stadium at Eastlands. Arup Associates is architect for the scheme and Manchester City Engineers is to design elements of the infrastructure for the 45,000 to 50,000 seat stadium.

Avonside pre-tax profits up

Building services group Avonside has posted pre-tax profits of £1.74 million for the six months to June, up from £1.07 million in the same period last year, on turnover also up from £40.15 million to £41.44 million. Chairman Nicholas Talbot Rice attributed the results to a strategy of building long-term partnerships with housebuilders.

New md at luff construction

Luff Construction, the Berkshire-based regional building contractor has appointed Ian Jarvis as managing director, previously construction director of Collier & Catley.

RICS can be world leader says president

RICS president Richard Lay said the Chartered Institution of Chartered Surveyors should become the world's leading research authority in land, property and construction. The RICS is currently looking at ways to develop a Property Research Foundation as part of Lay's Agenda for Change initiative.

"Site safety handbook" now on CD-ROM

The Construction Industry Research & Information Association has published an interactive CD-ROM of its best-selling "Site safety handbook", which it hopes will help to reduce figures which show that half of those who die on a construction site have been working there for less than two weeks.

Baggeridge brick acquires a bigger pile

Baggeridge Brick, the country's third largest brick manufacturer, has acquired the business, fixed assets and stock of Rudgwick Brick. The acquisition gives the company access to the sizeable market for traditional clamp-fired stock bricks, particularly in London and the south east.

Nursery schools cost more in the south

The current average cost of building a nursery school is approximately £4,200 per place, according to a new study published by the Building Cost Information Service. The study shows that costs vary from "£1,400 per place for a single storey school of 233m2 in Bolton, to £12,000 per place in a single-storey school of 558m2 in Croydon.

doors market increases by two per cent

New market research from MSI says that the value of the UK domestic doors and door-frame market increased by an estimated 2 per cent last year to £703 million. The increase in value comes after two years of decline and reflects the upturn in housing construction output and RMI work in 1997 and 1996.

Rugby gets the bull over Y2000 date change

Rugby Group has awarded Bull information systems a Year 2000 global constancy contract, to identify and overcome the impact of the millennium date change across its entire business. Under the terms of the contract, Bull is integrating the company's existing Year 2000 programme into a business-wide solution at over 130 sites.

New contract for johnson from IBM

IBM has awarded Johnson Controls IFM an extended contract to deliver facilities management services to its UK portfolio of buildings, one year before the current contract was due to expire.