Gold: Christopher Purchase – Willmott Dixon
Project: South Wales Police Learning Centre, Bridgend, South Wales: redevelopment of headquarters building as a learning centre, completed in 208 weeks
Client: South Wales Police
Contract: NEC option A
Value: £49m
On a difficult brownfield site, Chris Purchase scored the big victories in the ground. Pockets of contaminated land meant either removing 19,000 tonnes of subsoil, or covering the pockets with a geomembrane and capping them. That was until Chris suggested a cheaper and easier alternative: sustainable reuse.
By planting more than 20,000 low-maintenance native trees, shrubs and bushes, he was able to have the land certified as a site of importance for nature conservation, allowing the soil to be remediated and retained.
Other finalists
Kevin O’Brien Galliford Try, University of Birmingham
Paul Barrowcliffe MCIOB Sir Robert McAlpine, Henry Daysh Building, Newcastle
Christian Parton MCIOB BAM Construction, Centre for Student Life, Cardiff
Martin Roberts Willmott Dixon, Brunel Building, Bristol
Paul Southgate Willmott Dixon Interiors, University of Westminster CSE, London W1
Similarly, he eliminated a piling operation to deal with voids under one of the buildings. He excavated the fractured rock, crushed it and returned it as fill, along with crushed rubble from the demolition works. It saved the client £750,000 and advanced site start by two months.
Exploiting his extensive experience of heavy civil engineering works, Chris developed a cut solution to create construction plateaus in ground that was extremely dry in summer, but awash with springs during the winter rains.
His drainage solution of trenches with perforated pipes at the base of the escarpments and gabions planted with sedums along them saved time and money.
Silver: Mathew Friedmann MCIOB – Eric Wright Construction
Project: Manchester Met Institute of Sport
Scope: Construction of research block, completed in 68 weeks
Client: Manchester Metropolitan University
Contract: JCT, design and build
Value: £14m
Repurposing this 1960s-built student union as a turnkey state-of-the-art research facility required extensive refurbishment. Located a few feet from an elevated dual carriageway and involving large-scale demolition on a live campus, the risk was substantial. Matt Friedmann reduced that risk by retaining much of the existing structure.
The original plan was to demolish the masonry facade and replace it with a steel structure to support the new cladding. But after exhaustive testing and exploratory works, Matt fixed the support brackets directly to the existing masonry, giving the same appearance and performance for less cost, time and risk.
Matt’s leadership of this project was so effective that he finished 10 weeks ahead of programme – time he spent perfecting the finishes and thoroughly de-snagging.
