20 December 2012

The 4Delivery Brighton & Hove (4D) project team (joint venture including Costain) recently collected two National Construction Awards and nine medals at a ceremony in London.

The awards recognise the achievements of individuals and businesses associated with 4D’s work on Southern Water’s £300m environmental improvement scheme, which aims to bring cleaner seas to Sussex by delivering ground-breaking solutions, as part of the National Skills Academy for Construction (NSAfC) scheme.

4D’s first award was for Contribution to Management and Leadership Success through the delivery of Costain Behavioural Safety (CBS) training.

The behavioural safety approach was first adopted on the 4D SEC programme in 2005. CBS pioneers the scientific study of behaviour in order to provide solutions to practical problems in the workplace and community.

It now forms an integral part of the Group’s overall safety, health and environment programme through Costain Cares, which aims to address the growing needs of its stakeholders, including its employees, through greater corporate responsibility.

Since the programme’s inception, 4D has achieved the equivalent of over seven million injury free man-hours.

The second award was for the team’s contribution to Community Engagement, with Costain’s James York, a Community Relations Manager, picking up the award on the team’s behalf.

James and the project team put in a great deal of work to ensure local residents were kept informed about the project’s progress and the benefits it would bring. For example, over the course of the project, the team welcomed over 1,700 visitors for a tour of the wastewater treatment works site.

The team also forged strong links with local schools, colleges and universities, including two successful tunnel-boring machine naming competitions for local school children.

NSAfC Project Lead, George Hilliar, said: “I am delighted that 4D has been recognised by the National Skills Academy for these awards as it demonstrates the commitment of the project team, our supply chain and our client, Southern Water.”

NSAfC is led by CITB-ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council for the construction industry, and an organisation with over 40 years’ experience of successfully meeting the training needs of the industry.  The organisation is a project-based training concept that is tailored to helping clients and contractors get the right skills where they need them, which is on site.

Commenting, Judy Lowe, Deputy Chairman of CITB-Construction Skills, added: “The NSAfC initiative is helping to ensure that we have a construction workforce with the right skills for the right project in the right place.  Through the scheme, we are seeing a culture change, embedding employment and skills as an integral part of the delivery of construction projects.”

 

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