Photos | The best images of the month

BAM’s Bullring facade wrap

BAM Construction has been appointed by Hammerson to renovate the iconic Selfridges in Birmingham’s Bullring. The work will see the building’s 16,000 aluminium disks removed, cleaned, restored and stored while the building’s facade is replaced. During the work, the building will be wrapped in a hoarding created by Birmingham artist Osman Yousefzada entitled The Dogtooth Flower. 

Fulham FC riverside stand progresses

Large sections of the steel frame for Fulham FC’s new Riverside stand have now been erected by contractor Buckingham. Work on the stand at Craven Cottage began in May last year and is scheduled to take two years to complete. The new two-tier structure, designed by architect Populous, will add 4,000 new seats, taking the stadium’s capacity to 29,600.

Credit: Alun Griffiths Contractors Ltd

Deck installed on weathering steel bridge

Steelwork on the first UK bridge to use a higher-strength grade of weathering steel has been installed. Engineering consulting group COWI is working with contractor Alun Griffiths on the construction of the 205m-long Carrington Bridge in Worcester, which converts the A4440 from single to dual carriageway. COWI said using the stronger grade of steel has reduced the total material quantity by 15%.

Robot in wind turbine ‘blade walk’

A six-legged robot has undertaken the world’s first ‘blade walk’ by a machine on an offshore wind turbine off the coast of Fife. The inspect-and-repair robot scaled blades at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration turbine. It is being developed under a £1m collaboration project between BladeBUG and ORE Catapult, part-funded by Innovate UK. 

Tideway tug fuelled by hydrogen-treated vegetable oil

Construction materials for the Tideway super sewer project below the Thames in London are being transported down the river by a tug fuelled by low-emission vegetable oil. Tideway said the GPS Vincia vessel, which runs on Green D+ hydrogen-treated vegetable oil, offers a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

World’s biggest CO₂-sucking plant

Construction is underway on the world’s first large-scale CO₂ capture and storage plant in Iceland, which aims to remove 4,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere a year. The plant, called Orca, uses fans to suck in air and filter out some 90% of its CO₂, which is turned into carbonate minerals for storage underground. The plant will be powered by geothermal energy from ON Power, one of the project’s partners.

Snake design for Chinese natural history museum

Shenzhen’s new Natural History Museum in southeast China will be a winding, sinuous form resembling a snake or a river, with a public park on its roof. Adjacent to the Yanzi Lake in the Pingshan district, the 42,000 sq m building has been designed by Copenhagen’s 3XN, multinational B+H and China’s Zhubo Design.