All articles by Thomas Lane – Page 33
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News
ODPM fudges Part L revisions
Carbon emission targets promised by the government for the new energy regulations have been watered down by a “sleight of hand” according to critics.
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Features‘If our neighbours have people around for a dinner party we go out – I would rather sleep on a friend’s floor for the night’
A block of flats in the Greenwich Millennium Village is at the centre of a bitter dispute about noise transmission. Although the building originally passed an acoustic test, the residents claim the problem is so bad they cannot sleep.
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News
Greenwich residents fight developer over noisy flats
Local MP Nick Raynsford joins forces with residents furious about noise transmission at flagship millennium village
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FeaturesDon’t get smart with us
RFID tags work like sophisticated bar codes that can provide installation instructions, store a product’s service record and monitor its movements – for the whole supply chain to see. So why is the construction industry being so slow to adopt them?
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FeaturesThe dragon tamed
Nearing completion, on time and close to budget, the Welsh assembly in Cardiff has managed to avoid the excesses of the Scottish parliament. But this welcome result belies an arduous, epic journey that involved the client ditching its original procurement route as costs started to escalate …
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FeaturesCities with propellers on
Fresh planning rules are about to be introduced that call for developments to generate 10% of the energy they will use from on-site renewable sources. We ask whether this is an entirely serious suggestion …
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FeaturesThe Arnolfini wedding
Bristol’s famous marriage of art gallery, 1970s office and Victorian warehouse has been comprehensively redesigned by Snell Associates … We found out how it was done
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FeaturesGoing great guns
What with all the fuss over Wembley, you could be forgiven for forgetting that a certain other north London stadium is under construction. We went to the new Highbury to check the state of play
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FeaturesWe have take-off
On a miniscule site that gives new meaning to the phrase ‘close to the flightpath’, the team building Heathrow’s new air traffic control tower found an ingenious way to hoist the control room 87 m into the air.
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FeaturesExplosive situations
Discovering old war rooms, tackling six-metre-thick concrete walls, blowing up buildings in the middle of London and racing against time … Well, at least this project wasn’t dull
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FeaturesWhat’s unusual about this site?
Answer: it demonstrates that, using the much-maligned construction management method, you can deliver a large building early and within budget with minimum waste and safety risks – and have enough time and money left over to put up another one. We went to see this impossible truth for ourselves
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FeaturesUrgently required: 8000 surveyors
The job: to carry out home condition reports for house sellers. The candidate: ideally a surveyor, but possibly a construction professional looking for a change. Experience preferred, but all applications will be considered (we’re desperate).
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FeaturesThe Berlaymonster’s back!
Nearly five years late and three times over budget, the European commission’s headquarters is back in business. We took a trip to Brussels to admire the £509m refurbishment and find out what originally set the project spinning out of control – and for once, nobody is blaming the eurocrats …
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FeaturesVague visions Vegas
Kerrching! The prospect of supercasinos cropping up across the land is putting pound signs in the eyes of construction firms. We talk to key players to find out how good the odds are of winning that jackpot – and to discover the rules of the game …
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FeaturesPeak performance
The Health and Safety Laboratory provides technical back-up for the Health and Safety Executive, a remit that includes exploding trucks full of fireworks and body piercing. And it now has a £56m PFI base in Derbyshire to work out of. We found out what it does – and how it ...
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FeaturesShip in a bubble
The Cutty Sark has been decaying in a dry dock at Greenwich for 50 years. But now architect Grimshaw has designed a cocoon to protect the record-breaking clipper during restoration.
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News
Multiplex hires Aussie IT firm
Contractor Multiplex has hired a fellow Australian firm to put its two biggest UK projects – Wembley national stadium and the White City retail scheme – on line.
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FeaturesAn inside job
Breaking into the former NatWest HQ was the easy part. Ripping the heart out of it to create state-of-the-art offices while preserving the listed facade, banking hall and directors’ suites, and shifting 1000 lorry-loads of rubble without disturbing the heavyweight neighbour – well, that needed something like a plan … ...
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NewsSpotlight falls on role of crane in fatal accident
Reports from Dubai indicate that crane lost control and caused critical damage to wall reinforcement
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News
Revenue probes IT provider BIW
The Inland Revenue is investigating IT project services provider BIW Technologies over tax credits it received on research and development