The Design for Manufacture and Assembly bridge on A453 in Nottinghamshire was declared ‘overall winner’ and won the major projects award at the regions’ major civil engineering event of the year, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) East Midlands Awards 2015 which took place at the The Belfry Hotel, Nottingham on 5th June.
One of the major events of the regional built environment calendar, the 2015 Awards recognised outstanding examples of East Midlands’ design and construction completed in 2014. The bridge construction project competed with 44 other projects from across the region to gain its well-deserved top place.
David Balmforth, ICE President 2014-15 and Adrian Coy, Vice President 2014-2015 presented the awards at a ceremony during a black-tie dinner attended by over 360 guests.
The Major Projects Award celebrates safety and environmental management, innovation and project design application.
The judges said: “it is exemplar of the step change in civil engineering construction thinking, processes and tools that are needed within the industry to deliver safer, better and faster. This demonstrates an approach to project planning and delivery that is gaining a foothold in civil engineering.
The project also celebrates the state-of-the-art Explore DfMA (Design for Manufacture Approach) and pre-casting facility that Laing O’Rourke has established in the heart of the East Midlands.”
Congratulations to client, Highways England and partners, WYG, AECOM, Tony Gee & Partners and Mouchel.
The winning project is part of the £150m scheme to upgrade a section of the A453 between the M1 and A52 Nottingham by widening the urban section (1.5miles/2.5km) and upgrading the rural section (5.5 miles/8.8km) to become a dual carriageway.
Laing O’Rourke’s project team were challenged to deliver 20% savings from the budget of widening the A453 from M1 J24 to the A52 Nottingham. To preserve scheme objectives, but achieve savings, the team concluded that the project must be delivered more quickly by accelerating construction of critical bridges.
Utilising innovative Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) approach, structural components were manufactured off site and assembled on site by small teams. This strategy reduced the construction period by six months and on site labour by 30% and additionally delivered significant safety and environment benefits.
ICE East Midlands Chairman, Andy Warrington who presided over this year’s awards ceremony said:
“These awards are a great opportunity to celebrate the civil engineering profession with the inspirational people and teams delivering projects across our region. Congratulations to Laing O’Rourke, client, Highways England and partners, WYG, AECOM, Tony Gee & Partners and Mouchel for gaining this top award.”
Read more about great civil engineering projects on Twitter hashtag #thisisicivilengineering
Representing 3,500 members, who live and work in the area, ICE in the East Midlands works to raise the profile of civil engineering share knowledge, encourage new members and influence decision making in the region. For further information on the East Midlands ICE, please visit: http://www.ice.org.uk/nearyou/UK-Regions/East-Midlands
