Gold Award Winner: Michael Braiden MCIOB, Morgan Sindall Construction
Project: Maybole Community Campus, South Ayrshire
Scope: Construction of school campus and community hub, completed in 151 weeks
Client: Hub South West Scotland for South Ayrshire Council
Value: £59m
A succession of storms badly damaged a crucial 100m retaining wall and backfill, on which this project’s structural frame was dependent, resulting in a 12-week delay.
Michael Braiden was brought in as project director to avert programme doom and reset the project dynamic. His 40+ years of successful project delivery, managerial skills and dedication to achieving quality projects on time and to budget were equal to the task.
Other finalists
Liam Evans Willmott Dixon
Gareth Fallows Willmott Dixon
Chris Scoins MCIOB BAM Construct UK
Neil Smith Apex Contractors
Braiden restructured the team, to better leverage its knowledge and skills, and work and plan more collaboratively. He also brought in an independent tester to map a compliance route. Braiden drove the programme, inspiring the design team and supply chain, and monitored all activities and implemented recovery measures whenever required.
His interventions were key to the success of the programme. Braiden introduced, for example, prefabricated modular plant rooms as well as retaining and reusing excavated soil to construct additional sports pitches. He rolled out a completion criteria dashboard that managed the commissioning process right through to effective handover.
On a location far from the Scottish central belt and all the benefits that brings in terms of costs, procurement and labour pools, Braiden nevertheless delivered a building completed to the highest quality and compliance standards. The thrilled client has singled him out for work on future projects.
Silver Award Winner: Greg Browne MCIOB, BAM Construct
Project: Babbage Building, Plymouth
Scope: Refurbishment of five-storey block and construction of 3,160 sq m extension, completed in 147 weeks
Client: University of Plymouth
Value: £40m
This ever-evolving project involved installing a wind tunnel, a heavy structures lab with a 60-tonne cast-iron bed plate, and a clutch of precision labs. The research equipment in the heavily serviced block was so cutting-edge that some simply did not exist at precontract.
One big switch required specialist labs be turned into clean rooms. Another was the introduction of local exhaust ventilation systems, which needed bespoke support to elevate them above the air handling units that already filled the roof space.
Project manager Greg Browne faced steep challenges, including making £3m in cost savings. He won client approval by bringing proposed changes to life with imagery and fly-throughs on the BIM platform. Big savings were made by reducing internal glazing, removing a piled retaining wall and reducing the width of the linking extension corridors.
