2018 started with dramatic news of one of the UK’s biggest-ever corporate failures, as Carillion called in the liquidators.
The fallout, including a parliamentary inquiry, numerous stalled projects around the country, and attempts to reassess how quickly (or slowly) major contractors pay their supply chains, dominated the news agenda for much of the rest of the year.
Meanwhile, Dame Judith Hackitt’s final report following her independent review in the Building Regulations and fire safety arrived in May and with it came a clamour for combustible materials on high-rise buildings to be banned – a ban which the government brought into effect at the end of this year.
While the news about the report itself was very widely read, so were articles relating to how to implement some of the changes Hackitt did (or did not) recommend, around procurement, safety, and quality management.
Then later in the year came the news that the new £800m Tottenham Hotspur stadium, project managed by Mace, was to be delayed. It and subsequent stories proved very popular. While many of our readers were interested in the details behind the delay, as well as finding out more about how the stadium’s innovative retractable pitch works, it perhaps also suggests that there are more than a few Spurs fans among CM’s readership (somebody has to be).
More generally, issues around quality management and payment caught readers’ imagination, as did technical innovations and unusual kit such as the world’s biggest crane, being employed on the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset.
Below are some of our top stories for the year and we look forward to informing and entertaining you in 2019:
1) ‘Catastrophic’ losses forecast for Carillion suppliers
2) Hackitt: Eight key recommendations
3) Mace in ‘urgent’ meetings over Spurs stadium delay
4) World’s largest crane readies for Hinkley Point
5) Report slams Kier over defect-riddled leisure centre
6) Didcot collapse: Coleman ‘clear’ on cause
7) Contractor and developer jailed in bribery case
8) QM inadequate say 75% in CIOB survey
9) Kier a ‘poor payer’, MPs told
10) Convicted construction boss ordered to pay £3.5m to HMRC
