PERI boosts BIM-compliant formwork range

PERI has taken its partnership with Trimble a step further by increasing its range of BIM-compliant formwork systems available on Tekla Structures – Trimble’s BIM software.

The decision to expand the range is a direct response to customer demand, enabling more formwork planning to take place in a BIM environment customers are familiar with.

This means PERI customers can benefit from working with a comprehensive range of PERI products, without compromising the quality of their management and planning operations.

Users are able to work with wall, column and slab formwork from PERI by simply downloading the 3D components from Trimble’s online library.

PERI products have featured on Tekla Structures software since 2016. The expanded range enables both PERI and Trimble to continue providing the best possible solution to customers in the future.

Jochen Köhler, Head of BIM Competence Centre at PERI Group said: “For PERI, BIM is a method that helps to plan and control all construction processes. PERI enables its customers to drive efficiency and significantly increase productivity by facilitating the latest and most advanced BIM Methodologies and Technologies.”

PERI’s UK subsidiary plans to host a series of BIM workshops this year to offer customers a deeper insight into its BIM-compliant models and compatible digital engineering services.

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/01/02/peri-boosts-bim-compliant-formwork-range/

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Britain heads for worst house building decade since 1940s

Britain is heading for the worst house building decade since World War Two.

Despite Government efforts to boost house building, completions in England between 2010 and 2019 are set to average out at around 130,000 per year.

This is well short of the 147,000 achieved in the 2000s or 150,000 of the 1990s, and half of the level in the 1960s and 1970s.

The picture becomes even worse when population size is factored in.

In the 1960s, the new-build construction rate in England was roughly the equivalent of one home for every 14 people over the decade. In the 2010s, that ratio was one to 43, more than three times higher.

The figures are improved somewhat when you factor in conversions of existing properties, which push the total up – but even then, the total of net additional dwellings – the yardstick for overall housing supply – is likely to be lower this decade than last.

Across the United Kingdom as a whole, the pattern is broadly similar, with house building falling from a peak of 3.6m new units in the 1960s to 1.9m in the 1990s and 2000s, with the 2010s set to come in lower still.

Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “The housing crisis is blighting the lives of a generation, and robbing them of the dream of home ownership.

“But as this analysis shows, this is not just the consequence of the financial crisis – it is part of a pattern stretching back half a century, in which we have steadily built fewer and fewer new homes.

“The Government has rightly promised to focus on this issue, and there are encouraging signs that housebuilding is picking up.

“But ministers need to take bold action in 2019 to ensure that the 2020s become the decade in which we break this hugely damaging cycle.”

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/01/02/britain-heads-for-worst-house-building-decade-since-1940s/

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Construction bosses will have to justify huge pay packets

Construction bosses will have to start justifying their pay rates under new regulations which come into force this year.

The pay ratio regulations will apply to all large UK listed companies with over 250 employees.

The first statutory disclosures will be provided from the start of 2020 to justify the pay for top bosses and explain the gap between that and their average workers’ salaries.

Companies will have to disclose annually the ratio of their CEO’s pay to the median, lower quartile and upper quartile pay of their UK employees.

The new laws also require all large companies to report on how their directors take employee and other stakeholder interests into account and require large private companies to report on their corporate governance arrangements.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “We do understand the frustration of workers and shareholders when executive pay is out of step with performance and their concerns are not heard.

“The regulations coming into force today will increase transparency and boost accountability at the highest level – giving workers a stronger dialogue and voice in the boardroom and ensuring businesses are accountable for their executive pay.”

Alongside the pay ratio reporting will be a new statutory duty on companies to set out the impact of share price growth on executive pay outcomes.

This will provide greater clarity for shareholders about the impact that significant share price growth can have on executive pay outcomes and whether discretion has been exercised before pay awards are finalised.

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/01/02/construction-bosses-will-have-to-justify-huge-pay-packets/

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Spencer takes £14.5m hit on wood pellet handling job

Multi-engineering contractor Spencer Engineering Group has plunged into the red after suffering a £14.5m loss on a major materials handling project.

The Hull headquartered business did not identify the project after reporting a pre-tax loss of £9.8m in the year to March 2018.

But the problem project is believed to be a £65m scheme to design and build facilities for the handling, storage and rail-loading of wood pellets at the Port of Tyne.

It involved building three 36m high silos and 1,300m of enclosed conveyors.

This handling facility, which completed last September, supports the conversion of Lynemouth Power Station to biomass burning and represented the largest single contract Spencer Group has secured in the materials handling and storage sector.

As a result of the project running late Spencer suffered £4.5m of liquidated damages and incurred higher costs.

Revenue also took a major hit falling a third to £75m.

The setback comes after Spencer previously hailed a landmark 2017 with record profitability of £5.6m and a £275m pipeline of work.

Spencer founder and executive chairman Charlie Spencer said the group enters this financial year with £108m of secured work and a pipeline of £367m.

The group is now trading profitably with overall gross margins at levels previously seen on core contracts.

Despite the tough year the workforce remained around 315.

 

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/01/02/spencer-takes-14-5m-hit-on-wood-pellet-handling-job/

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Physicists record 'lifetime' of graphene qubits

Researchers have recorded, for the first time, quantum coherence of a graphene-based superconducting qubit, meaning how long it stays in superposition to compute with two logical states simultaneously. The work is a key step forward for practical quantum computing.

from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190101094514.htm

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Metamaterial with inherently robust sound transport

Researchers have developed a metamaterial that can transport sound in unusually robust ways along its edges and localize it at its corners.

from Engineering and Construction News – ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190101094511.htm

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Mini robots plan to fix underground pipes

New micro robots will be built to repair the country’s underground pipe network and cut the disruption caused by road excavations.

Scientists from four British universities will use a £26.6m government investment to develop 1 cm long robotic devices that use sensors and navigation systems to find and mend cracks in pipes.

The traffic closures and disruption to businesses of these roadworks is estimated to amount to more than £5 billion.

Robots will also be developed to be sent sent to hazardous work places such as offshore wind-farms and nuclear decommissioning facilities.

Science Minister Chris Skidmore said: “While for now we can only dream of a world without roadworks disrupting our lives, these pipe-repairing robots herald the start of technology that could make that dream a reality in the future

“From deploying robots in our pipe network so cutting down traffic delays, to using robots in workplaces to keep people safer, this new technology could change the world we live in for the better.

“Experts in our top UK universities across the country are well-equipped to develop this innovative new technology.”

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport said: “The projects announced today demonstrate how robots and artificial intelligence will revolutionise the way we carry out complex and dangerous tasks, from maintaining offshore wind farms to decommissioning nuclear power facilities.

“They also illustrate the leading role that the UK’s innovators are playing in developing these new technologies which will improve safety and boost productivity and efficiency.”

The £26.6 million government funding boost is part of the modern Industrial Strategy, investing in the technologies of tomorrow and creating high skilled jobs across the country.

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2018/12/31/mini-robots-plan-to-fix-underground-pipes/

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