PULSEWinter 2015

• Profile: Neil Gaskell,

Chief Engineer p2

• Blackfriars Station,

London p3

• St Paul’s Square,

Liverpool p4

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Workstream Engineering Services has been involved in establishing site primary control and some early setting out to assist with site set up and enabling works on Brookfield Multiplex’s new £90 million Helix project in London’s Docklands. The project will see the building of two elliptical residential towers of different heights sitting above a 2-storey podium in a mixed-use development near Canary Wharf. The two concrete frame towers – one of 28 storeys, the other 35 storeys – will be linked by steel bridges and will provide a total of 395 apartments. Each floor will have a wrap-around balcony with views to the nearby marina. The podium below will house shops and a restaurant on the ground floor; and

Engineering Update

Workstream Launches Recruitment Services for Architectural Practices

Having introduced a new permanent recruitment division in Spring last year to serve the needs of its construction industry clients, Workstream is now offering services aimed specifically at the architectural sector. The company’s new Architectural Practice desk is led by Bicester-based consultant Lewis Lawes (pictured left), who recently joined from Amoria Bond in Manchester. Lewis is currently working with practices across London and the Home Counties and has already agreed terms with firms ranging in size from fewer than ten employees to 200-plus.

“The market is extremely busy right now,” says Lewis, “and the practices with

whom we’re working are constantly on the lookout for new and exciting talent. With most having full order books for the next two years at least, we can only see it getting tougher for them to source that talent themselves. Happily, because of Workstream’s track record in sourcing professionals in related areas such as CAD and engineering, we’re very confident that we can generate enough candidates of the right calibre to meet demand.”

Workstream’s architectural recruitment services encompass all levels from junior technicians and assistants to senior project architects and design managers in private practice and the public sector.

a children’s playground, screened sports pitch and landscaped public space on the first floor. Construction is scheduled to start in Q1 this year.

———Workstream has been surveying various elements, including high definition 3D laser scanning, at the old East Ham Police Station for Morgan Sindall, which won a £10 million design-and-build contract to open a ground-breaking university technical college (UTC) on the site. The London Design and Engineering UTC – one of a new breed of government-funded colleges combining traditional GCSEs and “A” Levels with specialist technical vocational qualifications – was to have been built on the site. However, the location for the UTC is now under review and the government is currently considering another three potential schools as alternative options for the East Ham Police Station site. In the meantime, Morgan Sindall has shelved the project.

———Workstream’s engineers have been working on primary control and grid lines for the enabling works on a new Mace site at 8-10 Grafton Street/22-24 Bruton Lane in London’s Mayfair district. The development will see the demolition of the existing buildings and the construction of a 7-storey office building (plus a basement) with retail units at ground floor level fronting Grafton

The Helix, Canary Wharf

8-10 Grafton Street & 22-24 Bruton Lane

Street. There will also be an 11-storey-plus-basement building comprising a mix of office use and residential – 11 self-contained flats fronting Bruton Lane.

Morgan Sindall used Workstream Engineering Services for primary and secondary control (and installation and maintenance of grid lines and datums) during the refurbishment of 1-3 Regent Street, London. The £8.5 million project, completed last year, saw the regeneration of this elegant landmark building with comprehensive refurbishment of its internal fabric and services. The works also involved the repair and cleaning of the building’s existing façades.

Profile: Neil Gaskell, Chief Engineer – Workstream Engineering Services

Workstream PULSE Winter 2015

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Both of Workstream’s two founding partners – Keith Alderton and Lea Manoe – began their construction careers as engineers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Early in 2004, when their company had already established itself as a leader in site personnel recruitment services, the pair decided it made sense to make more use of their shared technical expertise – to go back to their roots and set up a new division dedicated to the delivery of engineering services. So it was that Workstream Engineering Services started delivering surveying, fixed-price setting out, monitoring, survey control, instrument hire and a range of associated offerings aimed at architectural practices, civil engineers, contractors, house builders, piling contractors and just about every other type of construction-related enterprise in the UK an overseas.

Neil Gaskell at Workstream Engineering’s new, purpose-built premises at the company head offices in Bicester, north Oxfordshire

Seven years later, when Neil Gaskell was invited to take on the role of chief engineer and manage Workstream’s overall engineering operations at the company’s north Oxfordshire head office, the division was not only highly successful but still growing fast, with a number of high profile national and international jobs under its belt.

“The ability to tap into Workstream’s own database of highly skilled, vastly experienced freelance engineers, which numbered more than 17,000 people even back then, gave the team here a huge advantage,” says Neil. “The recruitment database provided Workstream with the resources and flexibility to take on just about any engineering job, large or small, anywhere. It was then – and still is – an excellent business model.”

Being a surveyor and site engineer with over 30 years’ experience himself, much of that time spent working as a

freelance, it’s little wonder that Neil Gaskell immediately understood the benefits of Workstream’s engineering proposition – both for clients and candidates. “After all, I’ve worked in the industry since the late 1970s,” he recalls.

“After taking my ‘O’ Levels, I started a course in Business Studies, which I soon decided was not for me. I left the course and went to the job centre to see what was about. They recommended that I apply for a job as a trainee assistant land surveyor with a local firm in St. Albans. That turned out to be fortuitous advice because I found I really liked the work. I learned on the job and gained my qualifications through day release at De Havilland College in Borehamwood and then block release at North-East London Polytechnic. By the mid-1980s, I was working as a senior land and engineering surveyor and enjoying every minute of it.”

There followed some 25 years in which Neil worked in a variety of roles, including stints as a contracts engineer during the regeneration of London’s Docklands; as the contracts manager for a groundworks company; as a freelance site engineer and project manager on various housing developments (mainly for Willmott Dixon); ten years managing the engineering and surveying activities for Hertfordshire-based construction services company P J Dunphy; and a number of years managing his own engineering business.

Now, having worked with Workstream for nearly four years, Neil has lost none of his enthusiasm for the work. “Every day is different,” he says, “and the company is expanding rapidly. The team had to move into a much larger office in Bicester last year to accommodate all the new staff. We live in exciting times!”

Winter 2015 Workstream PULSE

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The £350 million Blackfriars Station redevelopment, opened last year after some five years of work, is currently the largest solar-powered bridge in the world. Comprising around 4,400 photovoltaic panels, the new station’s roof has been designed to generate 900,000kWh of electricity per year, delivering up to half the station’s future energy needs and cutting its carbon emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes a year. At the same time, the roof’s distinctive shape has transformed the station into an architectural landmark that can be seen for miles along the River Thames, providing a bold statement of London’s intention to become one of the planet’s most sustainable cities.

The project at Blackfriars, built by main contractor Balfour Beatty, forms part of Network Rail’s £5.5 billion Thameslink programme. It is the first station fully to span the Thames and has effectively resulted in two new stations – one on each bank of the river. The Underground station at Blackfriars was also entirely rebuilt as part of the project.

Workstream’s recruitment arm provided a range of trades and labour operatives, as well as supervisory and engineering staff, to subcontractor Prater to help the company work on the highly

complex roofing structure of the new Blackfriars Station. Prater’s package of works included the installation of Colt louvres and soffits, a curved standing seam roof system from Kalzip, and drop down eaves that created part of the interior finish to the station.

The roof actually comprises over 100 individual roofs, each with its own gutter, louvre glazing to let in natural light, and an array of photovoltaic panels. In addition to the installation of those panels, the provision of access was required for their future cleaning and maintenance. The need to maximise the size of the panels meant space to move around on the roof was limited strictly to the areas occupied by the gutters, so a special, hinged walkway system had to be devised and installed to enable workers to gain that access.

The huge number of restrictions, challenges and health and safety issues presented by the Blackfriars Station project made it one of the most complicated jobs Prater has ever been involved in. Despite the unique logistics challenges arising from the fact that the station’s platforms span the River Thames, work on the roof was completed with the station having remained open to the public throughout most of the works – a major achievement for everyone concerned.

Blackfriars Station, City of London

Just Another Day On Site for Simon..?

This rather charming picture won Workstream engineering stalwart Simon Wood the “on-site” category of a photography competition hosted by survey equipment supplier Korec. It shows Simon (left) with his assistant Jonathan Vickery supposedly relaxing, sharing a Champagne breakfast at work. According to Simon, who won £250 for his picture, it’s the increased productivity resulting from their use of the latest, state-of-the-art instruments that enables him and Jonathan to enjoy such diversions from time to time!

Workstream PULSE Winter 2015

Workstream PULSE is published by Workstream Construction Services Ltd, The Old Stables, Newton Morrell, Bicester OX27 8AG www.workstream.co.uk info@workstream.co.uk

Bicester (Head Office)

Tel: 01280 848888eFax: 01280 849031bicester@workstream.co.uk

Birmingham

Tel: 0121 381 9034eFax: 01280 849034birmingham@workstream.co.uk

Edinburgh

Tel: 0131 614 9035eFax: 01280 849035edinburgh@workstream.co.uk

London

Tel: 020 7345 5027eFax: 01280 849032london@workstream.co.uk

Manchester

Tel: 0161 403 9038eFax: 01280 849038manchester@workstream.co.uk

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Tel: 0191 633 9037eFax: 01280 849037newcastle@workstream.co.uk

Sheffield

Tel: 0114 368 9036eFax: 01280 849036sheffield@workstream.co.uk

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Tel: 01793 602570eFax: 01280 849033swindon@workstream.co.uk

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No. 4 St Paul’s Square, Liverpool

Royal London Hospital

The three mammoth Skanska-built towers of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel Road, east London – two 17 storeys high (one of them crowned with a helipad) and the other 10 storeys – feature around 65,000 square metres of curtain walling between them. The frame comprises 175,000 tonnes of concrete, 11,000 tonnes of metal reinforcement and 1,750 tonnes of structural steelwork. Workstream provided a range of general trades and labour, CPCS and IPAF operators, fixing teams and technical staff to a number of firms working on the Royal London project, including Graham Wood Structural and Permasteelisa Group and its subcontractors.

Woodberry Down, LondonThe regeneration of Woodberry Down, a vast north-east London council estate, has involved the demolition of 1,980 old homes and the building of some 5,500 new ones, 41% of which are for social renting and shared ownership. Over the past five years, Workstream has delivered fixing teams, supervisory staff and logistics teams to glazing contractor Lindner Façades. The current phase of the project is scheduled for completion by main contractor Berkeley Homes in summer this year.

One of the most significant developments in Liverpool city centre of recent years, the RICS award-winning No. 4 Saint Paul’s Square is rated BREEAM “Excellent” for sustainable features such as its 213 square metre sedum roof, water-efficient taps, cycle racks and a lighting system designed to minimise light pollution and reduce carbon emissions by more than 22%. The building provides 10,000 square metres of high quality office space over eight floors and provides a

new focal point for Liverpool’s central business district.

Wherever possible, main contractor Shepherd Construction used recyclable equivalents to materials that might normally have gone to landfill, ultimately achieving 100% of material being diverted from landfill. (Through its partnership with Tarmac and the White Recycling Group, the company was able to send all waste that could not be recycled to be used as biofuel at a Tarmac plant in Derbyshire.)

Lindner Façades installed the main envelope using a prefabricated and pre-glazed unitised form of construction that eliminated the need for costly scaffolding. Lindner used floor cranes and its own “table method” to enable installation of the façade elements with the slab edge protection remaining in place, providing a safety barrier for operatives and others on site. Workstream provided logistics crew, fixing teams, and supervisory staff to Lindner for the duration of the project.