Heathrow team promises a “major shake-up” in construction

Heathrow’s team has completed its tour of 65 sites longlisted to become off site construction hubs for the airport’s £14bn expansion plan.

Heathrow said “Britain’s construction industry is set for a major shake-up” as it plans to build as much as possible off site.

The nationwide tour concluded in the Midlands this week with the Heathrow team visiting sites from Balfour Beatty, SEGRO and Prologis located in Tamworth, Derby and Daventry.

The next stage of the selection process will be a pre-qualification questionnaire which opens in autumn this year.

A shortlist of potential Logistics Hubs will be announced early in 2019, before the final four sites are announced later in the year, with construction set to begin at these sites in 2021.

Emma Gilthorpe, Expansion Executive Director at Heathrow said: “Heathrow expansion is much more than the delivery of Britain’s new runway.

“Expansion is a once in a generation opportunity to transform British construction as the country prepares for life post-Brexit.

“This nationwide tour has shown us the possibilities offsite construction offers and we’re looking forward to announcing the shortlist early next year.”

Business & Industry Minister Richard Harrington said: “We want the UK to lead the bytes and mortar revolution within the built environment and our Construction Sector Deal lays the foundation to take advantage of these opportunities – boosting productivity, creating better jobs and increasing new offsite manufacturing technologies to speed up construction.

“The Heathrow Logistics Hubs have the potential to be an example of this modern construction in action, embodying the principles of our Industrial Strategy and benefitting millions by allowing businesses across the UK to harness the strengths of their own regions to deliver a landmark infrastructure project.”

About Heathrow Logistics Hubs  

Heathrow will be the first major infrastructure project in the UK to pioneer the large-scale use of Logistics Hubs – aiming to build as much of the project offsite as possible. The hubs will work by pre-assembling components offsite before transporting them in consolidated loads to Heathrow just as they are needed. This method will boost the project’s efficiency and cut emissions by transporting components to site in fewer lorries. Research by WPI Economics revealed that integrating an offsite manufacturing supply chain into a major project has the potential to reduce the overall cost of the project by as much as 25% whilst speeding up delivery by up to 30.

On these tours, Heathrow’s representatives are looking for sites that will be able to work together to pre-assemble components of the expanded airport before transporting them in consolidated loads to the site. This method is set to have several benefits include the reduction of traffic on the airports surrounding roads, which will benefit the local community, as well as being able to provide better site welfare

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2018/07/27/heathrow-team-promises-a-major-shake-up-in-construction/

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