British Construction Industry Awards - Best of the Best
- Published: 04 September 2007 15:48
- Last Updated: 04 September 2007 15:53
What has been the best construction project over the last 20 years? You can decide from a shortlist of 13 put together by this year’s British Construction Industry Awards judges.
This year is the 20th anniversary of the British Construction Industry Awards. To mark the occasion, the best of the winners of the Civil Engineering and Building categories from the last 20 years will be honoured with a special award at the gala awards dinner in London on 10 October.
For information on attending the awards please visit www.bciawards.org.uk or contact Victoria Hart on 020 7505 8514. Numbers are limited for this extremely popular event so book now to avoid disappointment.
Eleven eminent judges representing the cream of the construction industry will gather ahead of the dinner to pick the winners from a shortlist of 13, chosen by this year’s BCIA judging panel. But they need your help.
NCE is calling you, its readers, to vote for what you think was the greatest project of the last 20 years. Since June we have been eliminating one scheme a week before reaching a final showdown in NCE on 4 October. The judges will then convene and we will find out on 10 October if the popular vote will carry the day.
Vote now by emailing hollie.mitchell@emap.com
Thanks for voting
Cardiff Bay Barrage
Major Project Award 2000 High Commendation
The transformation of Cardiff Bay’s tidal mudflats into a freshwater lake by building a 1.1km barrage was praised by BCIA judges as a catalyst for the regeneration of the bay area. Seven years on, a thriving waterfront development illustrates the success of a project that involved some major civil engineering challenges.
Main contractor was a Balfour Beatty and Costain joint venture, principal designer was Gibb, architect Alsop & Stormer and client Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.
Channel Tunnel Rail Link Sections 1 & 2
Major Project 2004 Winner
The £1.9bn project has been hailed as the first high speed railway line to be built in Britain for a century. The 109km of high speed rail track from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone has cut the journey time between London and Paris to 2h 15 minutes. The judges praised the project team that included designers Rail Link Engineering (Bechtel, Arup, Halcrow and Systra) and contractors including Alfred McAlpine/Amec, Miller Civil Engineering, Balfour Beatty and Mowlem for delivering the project to programme
Second Severn Crossing
Supreme Award 1996
The 5km crossing of the Severn Estuary was hailed as a “stunning” piece of architecture that gives no hint of the major engineering and construction challenges that had to be overcome to make it happen. The £300M privately financed structure completed on time and to budget, is a central cable stayed bridge across the navigation channel linked to each shore by two approach viaducts. The project was designed, built and operated by the John Laing-led consortium Severn River Crossing Plc as a “flagship” PFI project
Jubilee Line Line Extension
Major Project Special Award 2000
London’s Jubilee Line Extension opened in 1999 was given a special award at BCIA 2000 for “the pursuit of architectural and engineering excellence in public transport”.
Seven years later, passenger numbers on the line extension to east London have soared. Stations along the route are still being lauded as a tour de force in public transport architecture. Under the design philosophy of the project architect Roland Paoletti, the stations were conceived as huge cathedral like spaces that allowed natural light to pour down into the basement spaces.
Sizewell B Power station
Civil Engineering Project and Supreme Award 1994
ELIMINATED
Building Sizewell B pressurised water reactor (PWR) power station on the Suffolk coast to time and to budget was hailed by the BCIA judges as a “staggering achievement”. At the heart of the project lies the cylindrical 70m high double skinned building that houses the reactor pressure vessel. The structure also has a 6mm thick gas-tight steel inner lining, the design, fabrication and erection of which was contracted separately to Cleveland Structural Engineering. John Laing Construction was main contractor.
City of Manchester Stadium
Major Project – High Commendation 2002
The Wembley Stadium project was mired in delays and went massively over budget and while the arguments raged on a new stadium in Manchester was delivered with minimum fuss. An old steel and gas works on a site known as Eastlands was levelled out from its 6m natural ground slope and a running track was laid. The £80M stadium was designed by Arup Associates and Arup Sport and built by Laing
Channel Tunnel
Special Award – Outstanding Feat of Civil Engineering 1994
The Channel Tunnel was the realisation of a 200-year dream to connect England and France and the hyperbole used to describe the project has included “the civil engineering project of the century”. Achievements in this project include a 50km triple bore tunnel, 39km of which is undersea – making it the longest undersea tunnel in the world. The construction consortium Transmanche Link included Balfour Beatty, Bouygues, Costain, Taylor Woodrow and Tarmac.
Mott MacDonald was civil and geotechnical designer.
Eden Project
Major Project Winner 2001
A waterlogged china clay pit in Cornwall was transformed into the world’s biggest greenhouse under the £57.4M Eden project. Judges praised the project team including architect Grimshaw and structural engineer Anthony Hunt Associates for overcoming a considerable budget cut to £57.4M and difficult ground conditions which often reduced the construction site to a “quagmire”. The construction joint venture of Sir Robert and Alfred McAlpine also marked the two families working together for the first time since the 1970s
