Laing's Richard Pike delivered the National Ice Centre early by fostering fun and trust. He is Building Manager of the Year and category one gold medallist.
How do you keep your staff motivated when redundancy hangs over their heads? How do you keep everyone focused on finishing your prestigious national stadium on time, when friends and colleagues are leaving in droves?

You make work fun. That was Richard Pike's solution when working on the National Ice Centre in Nottingham, and one reason why he is Building Manager of the Year in 2002.

Hard times
"Laing were going through hard times when we were building the ice centre," says project manager Pike. "We were going through a period of downsizing, a sale (to O'Rourke, for £1), staff were leaving, some were taking voluntary redundancy, some were refused it, morale was low and staff were disenchanted. The only way to get round this was to keep them busy, socially as well as at work. We organised a cricket team, river trips, golf tournaments, we raised money for charity, went on karaoke evenings, and made life as much fun as possible."

Apart from the test of keeping his staff motivated, there were three areas Pike rates as the main challenges on the project, which he overcame with style to impress the judges. These were: the location of the ice centre, creating a team philosophy with an inexperienced team from the local authority, and keeping within the tight financial constraints.

The difficult location meant careful planning and sequencing was essential. "The building occupied the whole site, so there was no room for material storage and the materials would come in and be used on the same day. We employed a full time traffic manager to make sure the materials were moving round the site and that the roads didn't get blocked up."

Because not only was the site crowded, but it was also in the heart of Nottingham city centre, near the inner ring road. Blocking off the road for deliveries and construction traffic could not be a long term solution. "We worked very closely with the highways and traffic authorities," says Pike. "We negotiated restricted use of a bus lane and planned our big deliveries with them in detail. We were told at the start of the contract that if we blocked off the three-lane road the ice centre was on at peak time, the traffic on Trent Bridge - a main route into Nottingham city centre - would be stationary in seven minutes. Hearing that concentrates your mind."

The client, Nottingham City Council, was inexperienced at construction, especially on this scale. That meant Pike had to work hard with them to bring them up to speed on the process, to gain their trust so that his team could deliver and integrate everyone into one team. "Vast amounts of provisional sums were done and we were involved in the design and packing process from a very early stage. I tried to breed a culture of openness, trust and confidence, with each party delivering what they said they would."

Planning ahead
It's all very well to say that there is openness and trust on your project between the members of the team, but how do you go about really developing it? "The project managers Gleeds did a lot of work before the project began," says Pike. "They hosted an open-day workshop to identify the initial areas that needed to be addressed, which also helped with team building."

"One of the first decisions we made at that workshop was to use a steel frame, rather than a precast concrete structure," adds Pike. "It sped up the construction process, built in a greater degree of flexibility for future use of the building and is safer than other types of structure. Historically there are less accidents with steel than concrete."

The ice centre was a lottery-funded project, overseen by Sport England, so breaking out of those tight financial constraints was never a possibility. This was also Laing's first guaranteed maximum price contract since the disastrous Millennium Stadium project in Cardiff, which cost the firm £31m and was one reason why it was forced into a sale. So the pressure was also on Pike from his own company. This wasn't helped when all the contract contingency was eaten up by the forth month, because of the state of the ground. The council's ground survey revealed two caves under the site. There were actually 38. "It gave everyone a greater focus on the financial challenge because there was no room for error," says Pike.

That wasn't the only problem in the ground. 1,400 bodies were discovered on the far end of the site. The work by archaeologists to remove them had started before Laing arrived and carried on for five months afterwards. The remains dated back to Tudor times and were an overspill from the local parish church, so there was no risk of infection.

Openness was the key again to overcoming these problems, says Pike. "We got everyone involved early, were open with the client and spent time on value engineering. We put a lot of work into that area, so much so it became a bit of a strain. But it needed to be done to stick to the budget. We looked at every aspect of the project and researched the materials we could use instead and it was time consuming and draining. But we had a close relationship with our buying and purchasing department which helped us to achieve what we wanted."

Early delivery
Despite these time consuming activities, Pike brought the centre in a month early. "We wanted the project to be early, and through careful sequencing we managed it. We did a breakdown, pre construction, of the specific requirements from all parties and we got the quality right first time."

"Everyone understood what was required of them," he continues. "This is where it being a two-stage tender helped because it meant we could do a lot of work pre-construction on the second phase and the bond was already established. Everyone was involved in the drive to keep the job in budget."

But it was the spirit that carried them through, says Pike. "I've never come across a team spirit like there was on that job. The client's representative, the architect, project manager and me, there wasn't daylight between us. The client's representative, Colin Dyson, said when we had meetings, you wouldn't know who represented who from what we said, because we were all so committed to the project."

"We never said anything we didn't mean or promise anything we couldn't deliver and it was the same for all parties involved. We had problems with some subcontractors, but we managed to sort them out without it affecting the project."

Craig Price, section manager at the ice centre, is construction manager on Pike's current project, a £44m Selfridges in Birmingham city centre. He confirms Pike's view of the atmosphere on the job. "There was a great team spirit. It was the best job I've worked on for Laing and I've been with them 17 years. It was hard work but fun, the social aspect was particularly good."

"Richard is a good teacher, a good leader and he encourages you," adds Price. "He's firm but fair and shouts when he has to, but it's not very often. Most of the time he's cheerful."

Dyson, project administrator for Nottingham city council on the ice centre, agrees Pike is a cheerful character, but it was his honesty he appreciated most. "We had honesty right through the project. Richard wasn't afraid to tell someone when they went wrong. He could deal with anyone, from bricklayers on site to our chief executive and he was honest with us when things went wrong."

Positive attitude
Dyson says Laing brought a very positive attitude to the project which spread to the whole team. "If we had any problems we sat down and overcame them, everybody; private and public sector, gelled well. It was a great experience."

Glyn Pemberton, contracts manager for mechanical and electrical engineer Haden Young agrees that the project was a good experience. "It was very good to work on. There was a willingness among everybody to get the job done and get it done properly."

"Richard was very proactive," he adds. "If there was a problem he confronted it head on, rather than skirt round it."

And after completing the project early and on budget, what did Pike gain the most satisfaction from? "There were two satisfying moments for me about the ice centre project," he says. "The first was the first concert at the centre. All my staff had two tickets and we had a great evening. The second was being presented to the Queen at the official opening in July this year and attending the royal reception afterwards." And after BMYA, he has a third.

The Man

Name: Richard Pike
Age: 53
Home: Loughborough
Family: Married with three sons, aged 27, 34, and 37. And a pet dog
Car: Saab
Hobbies: Playing golf, watching Leicester and Nottingham play rugby and his local cricket club
Ambitions: To do a very big job after the success of the arena

Project details

Project: The National Ice Centre, a 10,000-seater arena, another ice rink, leisure centre and associated facilities
Client, architect and Quantity surveyor: Nottingham City Council
Location: Nottingham city centre
Value: £34.9m (with additional works)
Length: 149 weeks
Contract type: JCT local authority with contractor design portions and guaranteed maximum price supplement
Main contractor: Laing
Project manager: Gleeds Project Management Services
M & E engineer: Haden Young
Structural engineer and M & E design: Ove Arup
Steel frame: Westbury Tubular Structures
Ice and refrigeration: Simco
Cladding and roofing: Kelsey