Researchers at Tokyo Tech have designed a CO2 reduction method based only on commonly occurring elements. Achieving a 57 percent overall quantum yield of CO2 reduction products, it is the highest performing system of its kind reported to date, raising prospects for cost-effective carbon capture solutions.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181130111637.htm
Supercomputer simulations show that at the atomic level, material stress doesn’t behave symmetrically. Widely-used atomic stress formulae significantly underestimate stress near stress concentrators such as dislocation core, crack tip, or interface, in a material under deformation. Supercomputers simulate force interactions of Lennard-Jones perfect single crystal of 240,000 atoms. Study findings could help scientists design new materials such as glass or metal that doesn’t ice up.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181130111605.htm
Kier is launching a rights issue in a bid to raise £264m to pay down debts.
The contractor confirmed the move in a Stock Exchange announcement on Friday which saw its share price fall 15%.
Kier said it needs the money because banks are becoming increasingly nervous of the construction sector and subcontractors need to be paid quicker.
The contractor said its net debt as at 31 October 2018 was £624m.
Haydn Mursell, Chief Executive of Kier Group said: “There has been a recent change in sentiment from the credit markets towards the UK construction sector, with various lenders indicating that they will be reducing their exposure to the sector.
“This has led to lower confidence among other stakeholders and an increased focus on balance sheet strength.
“The Rights Issue is intended to address these issues, better position Kier to continue to win new business and further strengthen our market leading positions.”
Researchers have developed a new X-ray method which involves solving a giant 3D Sudoku problem to better understand these granular movements – and the findings could have a big impact on various industries.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181130080355.htm
Plans to build a 500,000 sq ft regional leisure scheme in Swindon featuring a big snow centre have been given the thumbs up.
Developer SevenCapital has gained detailed planning for the first phase of the £270m North Star site.
The development is set to be one of the largest of its kind in the UK.
Included in proposals are a snow and ski centre, along with a 130-bed hotel, a 14-screen IMAX cinema with the largest IMAX screen in the UK and a new Hollywood Bowl
This will all be supported with a large number of new restaurant and retail units.
Developer SevenCapital took over the project in July after it had stalled several times. It now hopes to have a contractor on board to start work on the North Star development in 2018.
John Watkins, director at SevenCapital, said: “We’re thrilled with the decision to grant full planning approval for the North Star Village.
“Since taking on the project in July 2017, the team has worked tirelessly to deliver on our promises to submit plans for an exciting regional leisure and retail destination that Swindon and the wider UK will significantly benefit from.
“We have delivered on all our planning promises and are now looking forward to getting on site and bringing those plans to life.”
Councillor Dale Heenan, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for the town centre, added: “This ski facility has been a vision for Swindon for over six years, but we’ve now passed the final gate and are closing in on the finish line. There has been a tremendous amount of work going on behind the scenes and we are now in a strong position to move forward.
“Last week, SevenCapital announced it had secured the money needed to build the North Star leisure complex and the planning committee was the final hurdle. ”
Local authorities are being given the power to strip combustible cladding from private blocks and recover the costs from building owners.
The Government has lost patience with private owners who have refused to remove and replace unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding in the wake of Grenfell.
Secretary of State for Communities,James Brokenshire said: “Everyone has a right to feel safe in their homes and I have repeatedly made clear that building owners and developers must replace dangerous ACM cladding. And the costs must not be passed on to leaseholders.
“My message is clear – private building owners must pay for this work now or they should expect to pay more later.”
The government has also laid regulations before Parliament banning combustible materials on new high-rise homes.
The ban means combustible materials will not be permitted on the external walls of new buildings over 18 metres containing flats, as well as new hospitals, residential care premises, dormitories in boarding schools and student accommodation.
Contractors are facing another round of major hikes in insurance premiums as the market continues to tighten for cover.
Experts at broker JLT Group are warning that Professional Indemnity (PI) premiums for design and build contractors could more than double when the latest round of renewals starts.
A number of insurance firms have quit the PI market completely while those left are hiking prices.
The market has been hit by demands from insurance regulators to stem losses and the continuing fall-out from the Grenfell disaster.
Policy excesses are also expected to rise sharply and some cover withdrawn completely in certain sectors of the cladding market.
Tim Smith, CEO of JLT Specialty’s Construction team said: “The market has been hardening in the last ten months but things have really intensified in the last three.”
Smith warned the whole supply chain could be affected alongside building owners.
He said: “It has often been the case that main contractors transfer the risk down the supply chain and expect their subcontractors to have cover.
“That may no longer be possible because smaller firms will find it very difficult to get adequate cover so the Tier Ones can no longer take it for granted that the supply chain is secure in that regard.
“Building owners must also be reasonable when it comes to the level of guarantee they expect from contractors.”
JLT is advising construction companies to start negotiating as early as possible with their insurers and brokers.
Smith said: “Insurers need as much information as possible and want to see that risks are well managed by contractors.
“Start to talk about renewals as early as possible and brokers can certainly help you find cover.”
The Manchester College has started prequalifying firms for the first phase of a new city centre campus project
The 200,000 sq ft new build project is expected to be worth £45m, a second phase of around 100,000 sq ft will follow.
The project will be procured as a two-stage design and build process.
Plans to advance the new city centre campus plan follow a strategic review by the college’s parent company, LTE.
This involves plans to reduce the overall estate by over 330,000 sq ft, and reduce the number of campuses from 14 to just 5, including the establishment city centre campus.
Firms have until 4 January to complete PQQs and can obtain further information by emailing Richard Fraser.
Researchers have made a material that can transition from an electricity-transmitting metal to a nonconducting insulating material without changing its atomic structure.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129142354.htm
The hype amplifier will be cranked up to eleven at Sky Sports this weekend with “Super Sunday” featuring a trio of local derbies.
A day featuring the Merseyside derby and the North London derby kicks-off with the rather more genteel West London derby as Chelsea face Fulham.
The Blues will surely be looking to bounce back after their farcical performance against Spurs last week when they played like a pub team after a hard night.
Any plans Maurizio Sarri had to quit cigarettes must have gone up in smoke during a showing which had most supporters grabbing for the gaspers.
Chelsea are long odds-on to win that one so it looks like a game to swerve from a punting perspective.
Liverpool against Everton looks a lot tighter than the bookies suggest with the Toffees over-priced at 7/1 for their Anfield visit.
Liverpool had a tough night in the Champions League on Wednesday and haven’t been totally convincing at home.
Everton and the draw at 2/1 also makes a lot of appeal.
Arsenal against Spurs is a tricky one with the draw at 5/2 looking the stand-out bet.
Happy derby day!
Running total of all bets to a £10 stake for 2018/19 season: +£20.00
A team of researchers has just accomplished the first detailed high-speed imaging and analysis of the microparticle impact process, and used that data to predict when the particles will bounce away, stick, or knock material off the surface and weaken it.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129131039.htm
Theoretical physics discovery paves the way for future technological applications.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129131036.htm
The government could bar main contractors from winning public work if they fail to pay their supply chain on time.
New rules will come into force next Autumn to ensure the government only does business with companies who pay their suppliers on time.
Cabinet Office Minister, Oliver Dowden said: “Companies providing crucial services to the public sector ,like delivering road infrastructure projects, must be paid on time.
“Paying invoices promptly is vital in providing healthy cash flow, particularly for smaller businesses who are the backbone of the UK economy, to help them survive and thrive.
“From next year, if government contractors are late with supplier payments, they could stop winning public contracts altogether – until they clean up their act.”
Chemistry researchers have discovered cheaper and more efficient materials for producing hydrogen for the storage of renewable energy that could replace current water-splitting catalysts.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129100036.htm
Researchers have identified a mechanism by which a hybrid material composed of palladium (Pd) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is capable of storing approximately twice as much hydrogen as a material composed solely of Pd.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129085527.htm
Costly water losses in municipal water systems could be significantly reduced using sensors and new artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128082646.htm
New research reveals why the ‘supermaterial’ graphene has not transformed electronics as promised, and shows how to double its performance and finally harness its extraordinary potential.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129084721.htm
Developer Elliot Group has appointed Careys to replace Forrest Construction and build the concrete frame on its £70m residential development in Greengate, Salford.
The Residence 34-storey, twin-tower scheme was to be built by Forrest with Careys acting as subcontractor for the frame.
Elliot Group took repossession of the site last week after financial problems hit Forrest.
Careys will now begin erecting its tower crane on Tuesday next week.
Elliot Group said it has a ‘Plan B’ on all of its sites where Forrest has been appointed.
Elliot Lawless of Elliot Group said: “We promised our investors that we would roll our sleeves up and sort things out with their interests in mind and this is proof of the pudding.
“Careys has an excellent reputation and I’m delighted to be contracting with them directly.
“It’ll take eighteen months to complete the frame, during which time we will be negotiating with suitable contractors to finish the fit-out and the envelope.”
Morgan Sindall’s plan has been approved to transform one of Bournemouth’s most famous locations into a £150m shopping, leisure and homes complex.
Bournemouth Development Company, a partnerships between Morgan Sindall and the local council, aims to build 350 apartments on the former Winter Gardens site, in what is the most ambitious development plan the seaside town has ever seen.
The plans envisage the complete transformation of the 4.89 acre site, used as a car park since the demolition of the concert hall in 2006.
One, two and three-bed apartments will be contained in four multi-storey buildings with landscaped grounds for leisure, recreation and residential amenity.
The 225 public parking spaces currently on site will be re-provided in a new below-ground car park. There will be a new piazza at the junction of Exeter and Cranborne Road.
Councillor John Beesley, Leader of Bournemouth Council, said: “Winter Gardens is a strategically important regeneration site in the town centre.
“This would be the largest project of its kind ever undertaken in Bournemouth. The scheme will be transformational, combining new homes, leisure and social infrastructure in a location where people will want to live, work and socialise.”
Bournemouth Council’s planning board will consider the application over the coming months.
House builder Taylor Wimpey has awarded Bouygues a £100m-plus contract to deliver the first phase of its redevelopment on an old Royal Mail and Post Office site in London.
The “Postmark” site is located at Mout Pleasant near the capital’s Clerkenwell and Farringdon districts, close to one of the central London Crossrail stations.
Taylor Wimpey snapped up the 6.5-acre swathe of land last year in a deal worth nearly £194m, which was hailed as indicating renewed confidence in the capital’s housing market
It has consent for a mixed-use scheme of 681 homes, alongside retail and offices.
Fabienne Viala, chair of Bouygues UK, said: “We are excited about our new collaboration with the teams of Taylor Wimpey Central London on this residential project.
“In the past, Taylor Wimpey and Bouygues UK have collectively demonstrated the quality of our expertise, our partnership approach and our combined capacity for innovation on such residential schemes as North Wharf Gardens and Greenwich Millennium Village. We are looking forward to building the first phase of the Postmark project.”
West Central 1 is the first phase of a four-phase masterplan.
It consists of 214 homes, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments, in a building ranging in height from six to 15 storeys.
The scheme has been designed to reach a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. Residents will benefit from shared spaces including a concierge service, a rooftop terrace, a cinema and a gym. The exterior development will combine resident and public spaces, including a courtyard, a shaded terrace, as well as shops and open landscaped spaces.
Work has now commenced on site, with first completions expected in 2020 and final completion in 2021.
Up to 400 workers will be on site at peak periods.
Intu is cutting returns to shareholders to protect its capital investment programme after a potential bid offer for the retail developer fell through.
A consortium of the Peel Group, Olayan Group and Brookfield Property Group started bid talks in October but they have now collapsed following continuing turmoil in the retail sector and the uncertainty around Brexit.
Intu said it is now focusing on the longer-term with plans to protect its investment programme and add more diverse elements like housing, commercial and hotels to retail schemes.
Intu spent £147m on capital investment during the first nine months of this year and £18m on maintenance work.
The developer said: “intu intends to continue to invest for the long term in its winning destinations to ensure they remain best in class and adaptable in an evolving retail environment.
“In addition to its core development pipeline, intu continues to look at opportunities within the portfolio for alternative uses of some of its available land.
“This includes residential, hotel, office, flexible working and other opportunities.
“Initial work has highlighted the potential for around 5,000 residential units and nearly 600 hotel rooms, with further opportunities under active consideration.
“All of these would both create value directly but also increase the overall attractiveness and catchment of intu’s centres.”
To protect its investment programme intu is cutting dividends to shareholders starting with a planned payout for the end of 2018.
It said: “intu’s focus is on delivering strong total shareholder return over the medium term and believes that maintaining cash in the business by reducing the dividend to fund the investment programme will be highly beneficial to the total returns intu can achieve.”
Researchers have created the largest publicly available virtual library of macrolide scaffolds. The library – called V1M – contains chemical structures and computed properties for 1 million macrolide scaffolds with potential for use as antibiotics or cancer drugs.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128153953.htm
Researchers using magnetic signals have found unique ‘fingerprints’ on steel, which could help to verify weapons treaties and reduce the use of counterfeit bolts in the construction industry.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128154009.htm
Researchers have figured out how to keep condensed droplets from coalescing into a film, and to make the droplets jump high enough to move away from the condenser surface.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128114831.htm
Human skin contains sensitive nerve cells that detect pressure, temperature and other sensations that allow tactile interactions with the environment. To help robots and prosthetic devices attain these abilities, scientists are trying to develop electronic skins. Now researchers report a new method that creates an ultrathin, stretchable electronic skin, which could be used for a variety of human-machine interactions.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128114927.htm
French energy services giant Engie is set to buy the social housing refurbishment and energy operations of stricken North West contractor Forrest Group.
Bolton-based Forrest has been fighting for survival in recent weeks, and yesterday revealed refinancing talks with banks had failed.
Keith Reid, chief financial officer at Forrest, blamed caution about construction in the debt markets for the deadlock.
He said the firm was now progressing talks with a mystery buyer for Forrest’s profitable housing maintenance and energy operations.
The Enquirer understands Engie, which bought Keepmoat’s regeneration business two years ago, is about to seal a deal for the operations that represent just over two-thirds of last year’s £83m revenue.
A deal with Engie could save many of the 400-plus workforce jobs.
But questions remain about what will happen to the once expanding new build division, which raced to £26m revenue on the back of the North West boom in build to rent projects.
Forrest’s financial problems came to a head last week when work stopped at the building businesses major sites in Manchester and Liverpool.
Part of the group’s cashflow problems come from three major Manchester building jobs: Citu NQ City in the Northern Quarter and developer X1’s Plaza and Gateway schemes.
Forrest agreed its last financial restructuring in March 2017 after racking-up pre-tax losses of nearly £26m in two years.
X1 Gateway scheme in Salford Quays
Reid said: “Over the last few weeks our efforts have been focused on trying to secure a refinance deal and the various contingency plans for the business.
“It has been an extremely difficult period and, unfortunately, we have not been successful in securing new funds.
“The debt markets remain cautious of the construction sector and this combined with a level of cautiousness relating to the challenges the business faced prior to the March 2017 refinance, meant that it wasn’t possible to secure new debt finance.
“Our shareholders also attempted to find an equity solution, but all options would have required some new debt funding.”
Reid added: “We have also been going through a due diligence process with various parties interested in the energy and refurbishment side of the business, which has performed well over recent years.
“A number of offers have been received and we will be finalising agreements for the disposal of these divisions over the coming weeks. This transaction will be covered under TUPE and all staff working on those contracts which are successfully novated will transfer.
“I would like to extend my thanks to the entire Forrest team, our customers and suppliers for their continued patience in what has been an extremely challenging period. We are continuing to work with FRP Advisory throughout the process.”
Yesterday management told staff it would honour all payroll commitments.
Earlier this year researchers developed sensing protocols that allow optical fibers to ‘listen’ outside an optical fiber where they cannot 'look’, based on an interplay between light waves and ultrasound. Now they have constructed a measurement protocol that can map local power levels of multiple optical wave components over many kilometers of fiber. This new insight may be applied to sensor systems of longer reach, higher spatial resolution, and better precision.
from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181128115009.htm
The Construction Industry Training Board is outsourcing a raft of its back-office functions.
The move will affect 337 staff with the “majority” transferring over to new provider Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL).
The move is part of CITB’s Vision 2020 programme to “take on a focusing on securing the right training mix, high standards and quality assurance building employer confidence in the market.”
The programme has already seen CITB exit direct training.
From February SSCL will take over HR, Finance, Procurement, Technology and Change (Corporate Performance), Apprenticeship Processing and certain Customer Operations.
Sarah Beale, CEO of CITB, said the move “will modernise our systems and bring the latest innovations in service to our customers.”
She added: It will allow CITB to focus on our priorities and become a leaner, more agile organisation that delivers the skills needed by British construction.”
CITB has also agreed to sell its Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) to awarding organisation NOCN Group.
Braden Connolly, Director of Products and Services at CITB, said: “We already have a successful relationship with NOCN Group – having sold our Cskills Awards to them last August.”
