The future looks bright for Costain, despite the recession.  With changes in public spending and a general election on the way, the Group is focusing on the opportunities presented by changing times.

From the global financial crisis to the banking bail out, the past 12 months have seen a major shift in the UK's economic and political climate.

While the recession has hit the whole construction industry, Costain's Being Number One strategy - to target key customers with long-term capital spending programmes - is standing the Group in good stead.

"The strategy is working," says Stephen Wells, Group Strategy and Business Development Director (pictured right). "We've increased our order book from £2billion to a record £2.4billion already in 2009."

Three years ago, Costain narrowed its activities down from 16 to 11 chosen sectors to focus on key markets and a select group of customers. That targeted approach saw Costain's repeat business grow from 78 per cent to 87 per cent.

"Because we have chosen our sectors and our customers well, we are actually seeing an increase in the number of tenders and our conversion rate has gone up from 38 per cent to above 45 per cent," says Stephen. "We must keep that success rate going."

Public service

The Group is now exploring the opportunities arising from changing market conditions.

A significant amount of the Costain order book is public sector investment in infrastructure to support services in Education and Health; Rail and Highways; and heavily regulated sectors like Water and Waste.

The Chancellor's budget in April saw the announcement of increased borrowing of £500billion in the next four years and reductions in public spending.

To help clear the deficit by 2015, spending on public investment is to be cut in 2013 by 50 per cent from £44billion to £22billion.

Gordon Brown has committed to spending on infrastructure to create employment and initiate recovery.

"Analysis of previous recessions has shown that infrastructure spending does produce economic growth and we are seeing some fiscal stimulus," says Stephen.

The Treasury has already intervened to protect 110 Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects from problems in the financial markets.

The Government safeguarded £13billion of infrastructure investment, including Waste, Transport and Education projects like Building Schools for the Future.

 "We think there is a broad consensus on health and education spending. The transport system is seeing huge investment and there are committed capital programmes in the Waste, Water and Nuclear sectors," he says.

"But we are putting a lot of effort into understanding the implications of change and that possibly includes a new Government."

Being prepared

Costain's strategy is to look at all the possible impacts of change to make sure it is prepared in the short and long term.

In December, the Executive Board decided to adopt a weekly rather than monthly management reporting system. Issued every Monday, the reports examine the possible impact of external factors from macroeconomics through to the fortunes of customers, competitors and partners.

"We are looking weekly across those issues to understand the market and everything that could impact on our business," says Stephen. "We made the change so that our barometer is much more sensitive to things being slowed down."

The signs for the UK economy have been more encouraging. Declines in manufacturing output are slowing down, the housing market is picking up and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a leading economic think-tank, reported that the UK economy had returned to growth in April and May.

Stephen adds: "What is certain in this market is that customers will be looking for 'more for less'. Companies that innovate, robustly manage costs and deliver  excellent customer service will be the winners."

The politics of change

With a general election due on or before Thursday, 3 June 2010, Costain is preparing for all eventualities.

Stephen says: "Part of the challenge for Costain and others is a change of Government, what their attitude to public spending is and where their focus might be."

The debate over public spending and reducing the public debt is intensifying in the build-up to an election. But neither Labour nor the Conservatives have published detailed spending plans beyond 2011.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said in June that a Conservative Government would protect 'priority' spending on the NHS and schools.

The need for new healthcare facilities to cope with Britain's ageing and expanding population is being met locally by the NHS, which suits Costain.

Healthcare is changing with a move away from large acute hospital complexes to smaller community-based clinic facilities. Costain has a good track record of delivering the types of projects that the NHS now requires.

"We have proven we can deliver significant projects on time and within budget," says Jean Wright, Health Sector Director (pictured right).

"We're looking at the long term, developing relationships with customers and identifying upcoming projects early on.  We take particular pride in our work in the health sector.

"By drawing on the expertise of our people with previous experience within the NHS, we understand the politics and the constraints that the sector is working to.

"And throughout the supply chain, people have been brought together who also have that expertise in the sector and understand what constitutes value for money for the NHS Trusts."

Although Costain secured a place on the current NHS Procure 21 framework, the Group cannot afford to be complacent. The next framework (P21+) in 2010 will see increased competition as new players are brought in.

"We have set up forums across the country so we can invite NHS Trusts for discussions on topics such as sustainability that impact across the NHS. It's about raising our exposure in the market," adds Jean.

"At the heart of the Procure 21 framework is collaboration and teamwork. With our experience in the sector, we are well placed to build on our successes to date."

The 2009 Budget announced a £15billion cut in public spending, but Jean sees  that as having a positive effect on Costain.

"The cuts are most likely to have a far greater impact on the very large schemes that Costain is less likely to bid for. Most NHS Trusts no longer want expensive projects that take too long to complete."

The future lies squarely with the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and it's with the PCTs that Costain will continue to do most work to deliver community care projects.

"As we move forward in the sector, relationship forming, growing exposure in the market and planning for opportunities will be crucial," says Jean. "The NHS is about people, they want to buy a team they can work with.  It's all about partnership and collaboration and they are among our chief strengths."

PERSPECTIVES: CUSTOMER

Len Hartley is Capital Projects manager at United Lincolnshire Hospitals.

He says: "The quality of the Johnson Community Hospital is exceptional. That came about through the NHS, the Primary Care Trust and Costain coming together as a team.

By partnering and having the passion to deliver, we understood one another's needs.  That teamwork has made this project the success that it is.

"We now have excellent facilities that will be fit for purpose for the next 60 years and beyond.  Already, the new hospital is being seen as a model for future builds elsewhere."

PROJECT PROFILE:

Johnson Community Hospital, Spalding

Light, airy and spacious, the new Johnson Community Hospital, near Spalding, is one of a new breed of local healthcare facilities.

Consolidating existing and scattered services, it serves a population from Boston to Kings Lynn and Peterborough. The new hospital opened to its first patients on 1 June.

Costain won the £24.3million contract to develop the greenfield site in May 2007.

Costain project manager Steve Merrin says: "From the very start we worked alongside the Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) and local healthcare user groups to challenge initial ideas with new ways to create a facility that really works."

Occupying 8,500m2, the hospital draws on Costain's knowledge gained from previous builds to move away from the more traditional rectangular box shape with dark corridors.

Around the hospital are open plan areas to give a more relaxed and welcoming feel.  Extensive landscaped gardens, courtyards and seating are visible from almost every window.

Steve adds: "Teamwork across Costain has helped to deliver an exceptional building. One of the PCT's initial requirements was to have a contractor that would truly work with them. We are very proud to be associated with the new hospital that will provide such excellent service to the local community."

Costain is proposing to make changes to its pension arrangements and is now consulting with all employees.  Here, Group Finance Director Tony Bickerstaff (picture right) explains why.

Costain is committed to providing good quality pension arrangements for our employees, and in a way that allows us to deliver these benefits responsibly.

Following a recent review of our pension arrangements, we have decided to propose a number of changes including the closure of the Costain Pension Scheme to future accrual and the introduction of enhanced, defined contribution arrangements.

The decision to propose closing the Costain Pension Scheme to future accrual has not been taken lightly. However, like many companies that provide defined benefit schemes for staff, we have seen the risks associated with the Scheme rise quickly and at an unpredictable rate. This situation has been fuelled by external factors over which companies have little control, such as rising life expectancy, interest rate changes, and investment returns being lower than expected.

These pressures are having a significant impact on the Scheme's funding position. For example, in 2007 there was an estimated shortfall of £50million. Last year, the shortfall had grown to £120million. Estimates indicate that this year the shortfall will be even bigger.

Having carefully considered our options, we have decided that the Scheme is no longer sustainable in its current form and the only practical solution is to propose further changes.

Costain's current pension arrangements

• The Costain Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme in which contributory members build up a pension linked to their salary and service.

• It closed to new joiners from 1 June 2005. About 800 of our 2,500 employees are members of the Scheme.

• The Costain Group Stakeholder Plan was launched in June 2005.

• The Plan is a defined contribution arrangement in which members build up long-term pension savings by investing the contributions that their account receives.

• Around 1,200 employees are in, or eligible to join, this plan.

Costain is not alone in facing these challenges.  Across the UK companies in all business sectors are looking for effective ways to predict and control the risks and costs involved in providing pension arrangements for employees. For a growing number of companies, this has involved the decision to close their defined benefit schemes to future accrual. Companies that have already taken this step include Carillion, Debenhams, WH Smith, Michelin and Harrods.  Barclays and Morrisons recently announced similar proposals.

Costain's pension proposals

• To close the Costain Pension Scheme to future accrual on 30 September 2009.

• To offer all employees the opportunity to start building up benefits in an enhanced new defined contribution arrangement from 1 October 2009. (This new plan would replace the Costain Group Stakeholder Plan.)

• To end the limited annual discretionary consolidation of pensionable salary for members of the Costain Pension Scheme.

• To introduce a 'Salary Exchange'  arrangement for making pension contributions.

Waste, water and energy may no longer be publicly owned utilities, but large capital programmes make their regulated private counterparts big business.

Driven by EU legislation on disposal, Waste has emerged as an increasingly important sector for Costain. By 2020, the UK must be recycling and composting at least 50 per cent of its municipal waste and reducing the biodegradable amount landfilled to 35 per cent of 1995 levels.

In the Budget, the Chancellor announced that the landfill tax escalator will rise at £8 per tonne each year to £72 per tonne by 2013.

The result is a recession-proof demand for more new treatment facilities, like those in Costain's £397million Greater Manchester Waste contract.

"The Greater Manchester award is a fantastic achievement that gives us secure turnover for the next three years," said Mark Huddart, Waste Sector Director. "And along with Belvedere it gives us a real presence in waste. We're already a leading player in delivering capital works and now we're looking to move into PFI schemes as an investor, which creates two revenue streams."

Key to Costain's success in the waste industry has been its expertise in the water industry, where it remains the leading player. Costain's win of Severn Trent for AMP5 (2010-2015) gives it a total eight existing framework contracts, with discussions about other AMP5 work underway.

Capital investment in AMP5 by the 21 water companies is expected to be around £24billion, down from the £27billion proposed in last summer's draft, but still up on AMP4's £20billion.

Nevertheless the water companies will be looking for greater value and innovation from Costain, believes Phil Appleby, Water Sector Director (North): "They'll be looking at 'no-build' solutions - enhancing rather than starting from new - and pushing harder and harder for efficiencies."

Matt Crabtree, Water Sector Director (South) sees a shift from capital schemes to asset maintenance. "The schemes are smaller and there are more MEICA (mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control) elements. So although the scale of spend hasn't diminished it is now spread over more projects. The challenge for us is to further enhance our MEICA capability."

Finally to nuclear, where, despite its recent warning that it needed more support from the Government, EDF has begun prequalifying stages for a new nuclear power station at Hinckley Point, expected to be operational by 2017/18.

Costain's track record on decommissioning related work such as the Evaporator D project at Sellafield will be a big advantage when it comes to winning new build contracts, said Paul Campbell, Nuclear Sector Director.

"It secured our place within a very strong and experienced joint venture team, working with Hochtief, Sir Robert McAlpine and Heitkamp to pursue the construction opportunities, estimated in the order of £20billion for the first wave of new nuclear power stations up to 2025."

Project profile: bromate pre-treatment project Hornsey

The biggest capital project carried out by Costain for Thames Water in AMP4 was the £42million Hornsey bromate pre-treatment plant in north London.

It involved installing a highly sophisticated pre-treatment, bromate removal and wash water recovery plant next to an existing water treatment works that had to remain functional at all times. Space was tight: the Hornsey reservoir and New River bordered the site on two sides, with housing estates on the other two.

The project also made use of using existing assets, upgrading the disinfection and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) control system to meet the increased output.

Thames Water can now supply potable water from the Hornsey Water Treatment Works during algal blooms at full plant capacity for the first time, and also when bromate levels in the raw water exceed levels that the old works could not have treated. Flow into supply was achieved by the regulators' required date of 31 January 2009.

Project profile: Riverside resource

The UK's largest energy from waste plant is rapidly taking shape on the banks of the River Thames at Belvedere, south east London.

When it goes online in 2011, it will process more than 500,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial waste per year, and generate 72 MW of electricity. Most of the waste will be delivered by barge on the Thames, removing 100,000 lorry movements annually from London's roads.

Construction began in summer 2008 and has progressed at pace, according to John Russell, Costain Project Manager. "The tight programme to ensure waste is taken into the plant before the end of 2010 has meant some 24/7 working. We've also had to work closely with our client VonRoll Inova, who began fabricating and installing the process equipment in March this year."

Work so far has included the slip forming of the waste bunker in March, when 4,000m3 concrete were placed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three weeks. Two of the largest concrete pumps in the UK were used on the pour.

This summer sees the next milestone when the boiler/incinerator areas are handed over. The jetty is due to be completed just before Christmas.

With huge capital investment programmes underway across Britain's railways, Rail is one sector that's unlikely to hit the buffers.

Network Rail has committed to spend £35billion over the next five years; the £5.5billion Thameslink programme is underway; and there is Crossrail. Billions will also be spent on the London Rail and tube network by Transport for London and Tube Lines in the build up to the Olympics. The future's bright in the Rail sector.

Add projects outside London such as the half billion pound remodelling of the station and track at Reading Station and the Network Rail multi-asset framework, and you've got what Lee Davies, Contracts Director, Rail, (pictured right) describes as "a rosy outlook".

Thameslink and Crossrail are particularly significant for Costain. A Costain/Laing O'Rourke JV team is now at work on the reconstruction of Farringdon Station, one of the first major Thameslink projects (see right), and in April, the Costain/Skanska JV was one of nine contractors appointed to the four-year Crossrail advance works framework agreement.

The Costain/Skanska JV is among three of the nine appointed to carry out all aspects of the framework. Awards will be made throughout 2009, and Lee is confident Costain/Skanska will get its fair share of the £250million of contracts up for grabs: "We are certainly well placed to get more than one ninth."

He believes fears that a change of Government might endanger the programme are unfounded. "We have been talking with numerous Rail experts who are all very confident that a Conservative Government would continue with the project."

And Costain is now pursuing further Crossrail work, in particular its 21km of tunnelling and six new stations.

Lee said: "We've formed a JV with Skanska and German company Bilfinger Berger, the European leaders in tunnelling. Costain has a strong record from the Jubilee Line and CTRL so together we make a formidable partnership."

There are also major opportunities for Costain beneath the capital, where work on the first two of three huge London Underground projects will begin this year.

Lee said: "We've submitted bids for Victoria Station upgrade worth £400million, and we are working on tenders for the £150million Bond Street Station redevelopment, and the £450million improvement works at Tottenham Court Road which will link to Crossrail.  They'll be challenging jobs: the programmes are lengthy and they also involve maintaining an operational station."

All of which makes Rail one of the UK construction industry's most exciting sectors. That's not to say Rail has been unaffected by the downturn: train operators have seen the increase in passenger numbers slow down.

But for Lee that is the only cloud on what he sees as a very bright horizon. "There are a lot of opportunities for us in the Rail market and we're going to pursue as many as we can."

PERSPECTIVES:CUSTOMER

Richard Walker is Network Rail's Programme Manager at Farringdon Station. 

"This is a key part of the biggest live programme currently underway on the national rail network. Our work here will not only provide a hugely improved travelling experience for passengers but will also pave the way for the future Crossrail scheme.

"Thameslink and Crossrail together will transform Farringdon into one of the network's most important interchanges, the point at which the north/south and east/west lines meet."

Project profile: Farringdon Station redevelopment

Farringdon is one of two central London stations undergoing major redevelopment in the first phase of the Thameslink programme. It's set to become a key London interchange, linking Thameslink with not just tube services but also Crossrail.

The £16million first phase completed at the end of March involved the building of an additional footbridge to accommodate the extra 10,000 passengers who now use the station during peak hours following the closure of the Moorgate branch line.

The £100million second phase will include the extension of two of the station's platforms to accommodate 12-car trains, an improved London Underground station entrance and the construction of a new, dedicated Thameslink station building. Demolition and enabling work is now underway.

Working in a live station is never easy but the job has gone "extremely well", according to David Whiteford, Project Director. "We've had no overruns of possession, no disruption to services and no complaints from the passengers."

What's more, the work at Farringdon should stand Costain in good stead: "It's an opportunity to prove ourselves and develop our reputation with Network Rail, an important client, and so gain further work on major investments in the railways."

The decision to extend its capabilities into highways maintenance is paying off for Costain and its joint venture partners, as Aone+ is now the industry leader.

"A serial optimist" is how Tim Bowen, Costain's Sector Director Highways, (pictured right) describes himself, and looking at the Highways Agency's future spend, it's not hard to see why.

In 2009/10, the Agency plans to spend just over £1billion on maintaining and improving the road network, a slight increase on last year's budget.

Add the £400million of planned investment that has been brought forward as part of the Government's fiscal stimulus package, and Highways look like a sector on course to provide steady income.

"In terms of our turnover, 2009 looks 100 per cent secure and provided that most of our early contractor involvement schemes progress then 2010 looks 86 per cent secure and 2011 looks 73 per cent secure," said Tim.

His confidence reflects a shift in the balance of Highways work. Where Costain was previously heavily reliant on capital projects, now a significant amount of turnover comes from five-year maintenance and four-year framework contracts.

In maintenance, Aone+ - the Costain/Halcrow/Colas joint venture - is the industry leader with three Managing Agent Contracts in Areas 7, 10 and 12. It is now hopeful of securing the contract for Area 14, where Aone (Halcrow and Colas) is the incumbent.

"Volumes for maintenance for the next two or three years look very secure - after all, maintenance has to be carried out," said Tim. "There may be some volatility on frameworks because they're the most easily slowed down but the next two years look OK."

And possibly further down the line too. Costain will be one of the companies bidding for a slice of the recently announced £2billion, four-year framework for the Highways Agency's managed motorways programme. Three or four contractors will install, test and commission six hard shoulder running schemes around the country.

Then there's Costain's two, very big ECI (Early Contractor Involvement) contracts: the £627million A14 widening scheme between Ellington west of Huntingdon and Fen Ditton northeast of Cambridge, due to start in 2011, and the £350million M1 J10 to J13 widening, due to begin later this year.

And there are plenty of other projects in the pipeline, according to Tim.  "In fact there are so many capital works coming up, we see more opportunities than we have the resources to tender for.

"Some projects may be deferred because of the economic situation but that's not a major problem - it just helps us focus on which schemes to bid for. And there will still be sufficient work out there to maintain good levels of turnover and  profitability."

PERSPECTIVES: JV PARTNERS

Andy Jamieson, Managing Director, Aone+

"The Government's fiscal stimulus will see an extra £18million going to Area 10 in 2009/10 - a 30 per cent increase in turnover - and there should also be fiscal stimuli in Areas 7 and 12.

Add Area 14, which is currently Aone but which we'll hopefully retain as Aone+, and the picture's looking fairly rosy.

It would be unrealistic to expect spend to remain at 2009/10 levels. No one really knows what will happen but there could well be a reduction in 2010 to, say, 2007 levels. Even so, the work is still there: these are five and seven year contracts that should see us out of the recession."

Geoff Brown, Executive Director, Transportation, Halcrow

"We're delighted with the success of Aone+, which is very much down to the very strong relationship between Costain, Halcrow and Colas.

In the longer term, what gives us confidence going forward is that our business is based on essential maintenance spend. The Highways Agency is committed to maintaining a safe and reliable road network, and though allocations will fluctuate, our contracts should provide us with a dependable, future workload."

In a recession-hit building market, education is one area of the public sector where spending looks fairly secure.

With two Building Schools for the Future (BSF) schemes at Bradford and Lewisham, and several other education projects underway, Costain has proved itself a leading player in the sector.

Short term, the picture is certainly encouraging, says Jerry Williams, Education Sector Director (pictured right). "Over the next two or three years our workload looks pretty secure.  There's a considerable amount of work at Bradford, and although there's currently a bit of a lull in Lewisham, there is still a good forward workload there.

"We're now considering other BSFs, and we're also aiming for other school opportunities."

But he admits that the longer term looks less certain. "The Government is locked into funding for the main BSF programme for the next two to three years, with the expectation that the programme of works will increase in size until 2010 when it will plateau. There are then questions about what will happen to funding due to come on stream in 2011, not least because there might be a change of Government.

"We're robust in terms of pipeline of work in the short term but we need to keep a close eye on what may happen in 2011 and beyond."

And while the credit crunch may not have directly hit BSF spend, it has impacted on funding for the PFI schemes. "Funders are now much more cautious. Costain has not had a problem obtaining funding for schemes but securing funding has taken longer and that has delayed some jobs."

The Education sector isn't just schools of course, although BSF currently accounts for around 90 per cent of Costain's Education turnover. Further education colleges, recently hit badly by a shortfall in Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding, are just a "watching brief" at the moment, says Jerry.

"In further education, we've just finished a new business school at Reading  University (see project profile), and are building student accommodation at Worcester University, with more work there in the pipeline.

"Funding from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) is in place for some time, and there is also funding for projects from the universities' own earnings.  Most universities still have some capital projects even if they are more modest than a year ago."

There's no doubt that education is a tough, highly competitive market.

But it's one Costain is fully committed to, says Jerry:  "We are definitely in BSF for the long term. We've got to make sure Bradford and Lewisham are our flagships and become our springboard to future BSF schemes."

PROJECT PROFILE: READING UNIVERSITY

University projects offer a great variety of work and they are an important part of Costain's Education portfolio.

Take, for example, the £22million International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Centre extension at the New Henley Business School at the University of Reading.

Started in July 2007 and completed in March this year, it is the largest single development in the university's history.

The ICMA project comprised an extension to the original 1998 ICMA Centre, housing a 185-seat lecture theatre, a new state-of-the-art 40-seat dealing room - the largest training facility of its kind in Europe - and a dedicated research centre. The New Business School houses a 280-seat lecture theatre, three smaller theatres, numerous offices, seminar rooms, admin and study areas.

Positioned right at the very front of the Reading University campus, the site was a fairly tight one for Jerry Hayes, Costain Project Manager, and his team, but it was an interesting project.

Jerry said: "The design of the New Business School had a number of novel features. The roof, for example, was constructed from curved glulam (glued laminated timber) beams manufactured in Germany and erected by a specialist German subcontractor. The result is a very different and striking building."

PERSPECTIVES: CUSTOMER

Colin Robbins is Director of Estates and Facilities Management at the University of Reading.

"We have had a lot of positive comments and we are pleased with the quality of the build.

"This ambitious flagship development will become a focal point on campus, providing a visually impressive home for an internationally renowned centre."

Costain is engaging its supply chain to help improve one of the construction industry's best safety records.

A record 45 wins at last year's Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) awards cemented Costain's status as construction's leading safety practitioner.

The Group's accident frequency ratio of 0.17 in 2008 made Costain the best-performing company in the Major Contractors' Group.

To maintain and improve on that performance, Costain is looking to extend its safety culture throughout the supply chain by assessing suppliers and offering practical support.

"We expect suppliers to follow us in choosing safety as their number one priority," says Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) Director Peter Fisher (pictured right).

Under the Partners for Progress (PfP) initiative, Costain has been developing close working relationships with key strategic partners, aligning working practices and processes, including approaches to SHE.

"We do a safety audit of our PfP members, identifying any shortcomings and then working together to make improvements," Peter says.

The PfP initiative was recently extended beyond Mechanical & Electrical contractors to include steel, erection, cladding and scaffolding suppliers.

Last year, a safety audit of Costain's Top 100 suppliers was undertaken to ensure a commitment to SHE runs throughout Costain's supply chain.

Peter says: "We checked that all the right systems and processes were in place for education, production and risk assessment, and ensured that, provided the suppliers work to those systems, their practices were acceptable to Costain."

This year, the Top 100 are being evaluated on the practical application of those systems, with spot checks on site.

An additional 30 suppliers that entered the Top 100 this year as a result of increased infrastructure work will also be audited.

"Compliance with legislation is the minimum we expect," Peter says. "We are looking for suppliers to go beyond that with robust management systems, a training framework, an internal system for monitoring and inspecting work and a commitment from the top that anyone has full authority to stop any job on safety grounds."

For those that fall short, support is available from Costain SHE professionals who will work with suppliers on site.

"Most audits pick up isolated areas within good systems, but we're looking for our suppliers to achieve top notch standards," Peter says.

Branding and good site presentation go hand in hand with those standards.

"If we look professional, with a tidy, clean site that cares for the environment and workforce, we will get buy-in and support from the people we work with," says Peter.

Costain's next target is improving occupational health management across the construction industry.

"We want to raise the bar ourselves and bring our supply chain with us," he says. "Costain has a very good name, but we will lose it if the Company and those associated with it are not considerate towards the environment and workforce, and do not make safety the number one priority."

PERSPECTIVES: SUPPLIER

Tim Outteridge is Sales and Marketing Director at Bourne Steel.

"Costain aligns itself to preferred partners on the basis that we provide a good service and share their values like operating safely at all times.

"When we take our place at the project table to provide technical and commercial advice, safety is always a primary consideration.  They provide advice and regular assessment of our operational safety.

"What tends to happen with client safety audits is we get a big tick in the box. But Costain will say: 'Your systems, attitude and behaviour are all good, but what are you going to do next?' It is a process of improvement and they provide support to raise standards.

"Getting everyone home safely is Costain's paramount objective. The way the Company delivers its health and safety message and strives for improvement is second to none. Whoever you speak to on a Costain project, there is no confusion about what is expected."

Costain is engaging its supply chain to help address the shortage of skills in the construction industry and create a positive legacy in local communities.

From Barack Obama to Gordon Brown, leaders around the world have recognised investment in infrastructure as a way to drive job creation and economic recovery.

The type of long-term frameworks that are delivering improvements in UK health and education facilities offer continuity of work for Costain and its supply chain, but also opportunities to develop skills in local communities, train apprentices and create jobs.

Costain was the first UK constructor to sign up to the Government's Leitch Pledge - a voluntary commitment to develop employees' basic skills to NVQ level two - and has since established an internal NVQ centre to help all employees achieve a minimum of NVQ level three.

The Group is now a leading participant in the National Skills Academy for  construction (NSAfC) - a partnership between contractors, customers, ConstructionSkills and the Learning and Skills Council that uses major construction projects as a platform for training and apprenticeships.

"We want to invest in skills as a general philosophy across Costain because it is essential for our future and that of the industry," says Jeremy Galpin, Costain Group Skills and Development Manager and chair of the National Construction Skills Academy Group (pictured right).

"The quality of our projects is based on the skills of the people on the ground. With around 70 per cent of our work delivered by supply chain partners, we can't address the skills issue without their engagement."

The NSAfC model involves developing a local employment and skills plan; working with the community and stakeholders to set realistic targets for employment  opportunities, and securing funding from all available sources. It delivers a number of benefits, not least in the supply chain, where the bulk of job opportunities and skill shortages exist.

Jeremy says: "The model puts employers in the driving seat in determining the skills they need. The skills are then delivered where and when they are needed: directly on projects."

Costain has appointed three skills advisors, Val Thompstone, George Hilliar and Tony Mansbridge, responsible for the NVQ centre, developing project training plans and a strategy for any projects that apply for Skills Academy status like Lewisham BSF.

By identifying people in education or unemployed locally and bringing them into the construction industry, NSAfC also supports local communities.

"We've done this successfully at jobs like Porth Relief Road, where we recruited around 40 new entrants from the community," explains Jeremy. "It's all about looking at the bigger picture and leaving a positive legacy of skilled people, who can potentially manage the facilities we are building."

Safety is also a key skills issue. Costain is committed to achieving 100 per cent Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) compliance on site and will work with its suppliers to help them achieve that target.

"Our expertise in NVQs and CSCS, and the skills team we have, are a key benefit of working with Costain," says Jeremy.  "Improving the skills of everyone working for Costain will improve delivery of projects - in terms of time, cost, quality and sustainability - benefiting the customer, Costain and our supply chain."

Academies for the future

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in Lewisham is Costain's first skills academy project.

BSF is a £45billion Government programme to upgrade every secondary school in England.  Costain recently handed over Sedgehill School, the first of two Lewisham BSF Phase One schools, and will deliver another ten schools over the next ten years.

Under BSF, a Local Education Partnership brings together all key stakeholders to develop a project skills plan, considering training and recruitment needs at all levels.

"BSF is about education - but not just in the classroom. It is about bringing the worlds of work and school together to deliver key training that benefits all parties," says Costain PFI Director, Alistair Handford. "This has been confirmed by the Government's recent announcement that BSF projects must generate an additional 1,000 apprenticeships this year."

Since Lewisham was granted NSAfC status in July 2008, Costain Skills Coordinator, Patricia Walker, has been working to put the training plan into action.

She says: "I've been monitoring training needs at Lewisham - from CSCS compliance, inductions, to health and safety courses and NVQs. It's early days yet but so far we've set up a training centre and have already been running a training programme with subcontractors."

NSAfC projects have to take on a certain number of apprentices each year, so Patricia has been working with local schools, colleges and Job Centre Plus to target potential recruits, who will generally be placed in Costain's supply chain.

She adds: "The suppliers have been really responsive, which is great because it wouldn't work without their buy-in."

PERSPECTIVES: SUPPLIER

Michael Tildesley is a Site Supervisor for Precision Brickwork at Sedgehill School, Lewisham.

"It's really important that we invest in our workforce, with the way the industry is right now and looking at skills is one way of doing that.

"We've been quite involved with Costain on skills and training issues at Lewisham - attending workshops and toolbox talks. These mainly relate to health and safety issues such as working at height, which is important for us as we use scaffolding.

"It's great that Costain provides support to help develop training and improve skills. We've had a few people doing NVQs and Costain people have come on site to assess them.

"So far the assessment has largely been done on a supervisor level with Costain telling us what we need to improve, which we then feed back to our project manager.

"We're looking forward to getting more involved with them on skills initiatives such as the Academy."

As competition intensifies across the recession-hit construction industry, Costain is engaging its supply chain to improve performance and deliver even higher standards.

It is difficult to escape the economic gloom in the UK right now and parts of the construction industry are among the hardest hit. House-building has collapsed, orders have dropped dramatically and an average of eight construction firms are reportedly going out of business each day.

In this climate, the chance to work with a major contractor with a £2billion forward order book is not just an attractive prospect for some subcontractors and suppliers - it is a lifeline.

With less work to win across the industry, competition for the large infrastructure projects has intensified between the major contractors.

Customers are also choosing to work with fewer contractors on long-term framework agreements that deliver cost savings and consistency of service.

As more than 80 per cent of Costain's order book is repeat business, the need to consistently deliver the highest standards of quality and value is greater than ever.

"We are relying heavily on a selected number of key customers," says Costain Commercial Director Patrick Bruce (pictured right).

"We have got to get it right first time.

"We have to deliver safely, with the right level of quality, no defects, and to the right cost. If we don't do that there are a number of other contractors waiting in the wings to get onto our customers' list."

More than 80 per cent of the work delivered by Costain is subcontracted to supply chain partners, so the need to monitor performance and develop productive partnerships is pressing.

"We are heavily reliant upon our supply chain to help us deliver. Ideally, we want to create a win-win-win situation for the customer, the contractor and the supplier," says Patrick. "Working with fewer people is one way of trying to achieve that."

Costain's strategy is that fewer links make a stronger chain. The Partners for Progress (PfP) initiative was introduced in 2007 to improve performance by developing stronger working relationships with the supply chain.  Since then, the number of suppliers on Costain's database has been reduced from more than 30,000 to less than 3,000.

Costain has now identified a list of its top 100 suppliers, made up of strategic and preferred partners who account for the majority of the Group's supply chain spend. These partners are now being engaged to help achieve the PfP aims: keeping costs down; delivering consistency of service, safely, to quality, time and within cost; deploying the best team possible; and maximising the benefits of long-term partnership.

"It is a cultural change that involves a lot of trust and honesty in our relationships. The industry has changed in that there are a lot more opportunities for collaboration with suppliers and customers. Everything is much more transparent," says Patrick.

"The industry has moved on from the days of fixed price lump sum contracts where cheapest was best. We are now building up target costs and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) tenders with our customers. We want to get our suppliers involved from cradle to grave."

"We want to create an environment that allows people to participate in the early stages," says Richard Howell, Head of Costain Supply Chain. "Ideally, our partners contribute before the design is too far advanced, allowing us to consider all build issues and to explore innovation approaches."

In the current climate, cost can be the deciding factor, not just on who wins a tender but whether the project is viable at all. Recent estimates suggest that overall construction prices could fall by as much as four per cent.

Richard adds: "Clients are being advised that there are cheaper prices out there. We have got to be in a strong position to be able to negate that argument with a credible approach to the supply chain that will offer the best quality and value. We believe our approach to the supply chain offers our customers the best solution."

Counting the cost

Engaging the supply chain early in the procurement phase can help avoid delays, spiralling costs and legal disputes.

"Early involvement in building up a target cost means transparency and far fewer surprises later in the job," says Patrick.

"Fixed-price lump sum bids may seem cheap at the beginning but they rarely end up that way. Cheap can get nasty."

High profile examples of fixed-price projects that have overrun include Wembley Stadium, which opened 18 months late in April 2007.

Litigation between developer Multiplex, now called Brookfield, and steel supplier Cleveland Bridge ended in September 2008.

"With target cost, there is more flexibility. At St Pancras International, there was a lot of debate and compromise between the four joint venture partners but the job was delivered on time and on budget to the highest quality," says Patrick.

"At Costain, we create a team approach with our suppliers from the outset, working in a culture of mutual understanding that helps resolve problems as soon as they arise."

Having your home flooded by sewage is a horrendous, foul experience. It has happened to several hundred homes in East London all too often in recent years and Thames Water has called in Costain to help solve the problem.

The problem

Heavier rainfall due to climate change, population growth, the concreting over of gardens to create parking space for cars: all factors that have put a major strain on the sewerage system of West Ham. In recent years the capital's Victorian drainage system has regularly been unable to cope, resulting in over 700 homes being flooded by backed-up waste water.

Residents are understandably angry at the situation and the West Ham Flood Alleviation Scheme, one of Thames Water's main projects in the capital, is designed to remedy it.

The solution

The excess water overloading local sewers has to be got rid of somehow. Construction of a 2.8m-diameter tunnel snaking 3.3km under the streets of the East End will act as an emergency storage tank, holding the excess storm flows that the drainage system cannot handle, before gradually feeding it back into the system when it is able to cope.

Underground efforts

Twenty metres below West Ham, it's 25 degrees Celsius, very humid and everything is coated in clinging, black clay.

"Dehydration is a constant factor for the tunnelling crew," says Tunnel Agent Angus Mackenzie. They sweat with exertion as their tunnel-boring machine (TBM) 'Theodora' - named by pupils from a local primary school - carves its way, centimetre by centimetre, through the ground.

The crew manning the Canadian-built TBM performs an unchanging choreography: for every metre of advance, the cutting head at the front of the TBM excavates nearly nine cubic metres of ground, depositing it via a conveyor system into the empty muck cars of a waiting train that has also delivered the pre-cast tunnel lining sections. After each metre and the cutting head has stopped rotating, the 600kg arc-shaped sections are pulled forward by a hoist, then lifted and bolted in place. Six segments make a metre-long ring of lining. Then, one metre closer to its destination, the cutting head starts up and the excavation cycle begins again.

This happens around 40 times a day, hopefully rising to 50 when the TBM shortly hits better ground conditions.

Those conditions have been tricky to work in, varying from stiff clay through sand and small gravel to bands of iron-hard calcrete. The TBM occasionally hits what are known as channel sands, effectively underground streams composed of a fluid mix of sand and water, which suddenly pours in through the cutting blades. "Quite exciting," comments Mackenzie laconically.

The tunnel is being constructed around 20m beneath the streets. Any settlement of more than 10mm would require Costain to pay compensation to affected residents or the local authority. Extensive settlement contour analysis of the area and subsequently following less susceptible ground conditions, has seen settlement kept to a maximum of 3mm.

"The biggest challenge is keeping it all going," says Mackenzie. "In effect it's an underground factory designed to do one thing - bore a hole and line it with concrete segments. You have to keep feeding the TBM with oil and greases, grout, various excavation additives, the segments and then get the muck out of the hole. The machine must never stop."

Overground efforts

As Theodora drives through the clay and gravel, Community Relations Manager Martin Griffiths is driving through an equally strong programme of activities at ground level.

As always, keeping people informed of what's happening is vital. As well as five vertical shafts to the main 'holding tank', 17 microtunnel shafts are being sunk in local streets to allow smaller tunnelling machines to widen 2.35km of existing sewers that feed in to the main chamber.

Preparation for the scheme began 18 months before any visible work, with close working relationships built between Thames Water, Costain, London Borough of Newham and the City of London, responsible for West Ham Park, site of one of the main tunnel shafts.

"There have been many, many letters and flyers, because we're closing roads, creating diversions and suspending parking in an area where the car is king," says Griffiths. "It's a major co-ordination job." An initial letter informing people of the scheme went out to no fewer than 13,000 homes.

Wherever possible, Costain has tried to limit disruption: a team was starting to block off one street when two residents emerged to tell workers they were having a wake the following day and up to 50 mourners' cars were expected. Work was delayed for 48 hours.

The team is well aware of the impact it is having on the community, but residents are largely prepared to tolerate the inconvenience for the eventual benefit.  "I've been really pleasantly surprised at the minimal level of complaints," says Griffiths . "When I make home or business visits I've had very good reactions when people understand the scheme.

"Overall, it's fantastically well supported."

West Ham sewerage relief scheme: Facts & figures

Length of new main storage tunnel: 3.3km

Length of existing tunnels being enlarged: 5km

Start/completion dates: April 2008 / Spring 2010

Average daily progress: 36 - 44m depending on ground conditions

Value to Costain: £40million approx

The Costain Group is placing major emphasis on innovation as part of its drive to lead the way in delivering business excellence.

As Group Innovation and Knowledge Manager, Tim Embley (pictured right) has the task of not only seeking out ways of improving Costain's performance but also of ensuring they are brought to the attention of the widest possible audience in the company.

In any organisation of Costain's size, not everyone can see into every other part of the business. But an innovation that works in one part may be equally useful in another: it's Tim's job to ensure that all parts of the Group are aware of technical or operational advances that are developed across the Company.

Support for his role comes from the very top. Chief Executive Andrew Wyllie sees innovation as a very important part of delivering the Costain strategy.

In the months after he arrived in September 2008, much of Tim's time was taken up conducting interviews around the business on what was good when it came to sharing information and what needed to be improved.

"Where we have strong innovation - like the water and highways sectors - we can learn from those and transfer it to other sectors that are growing, such as rail," he explains.

So how do new ideas get spread round the Group?

Innovations identified by site staff or visiting executives are funnelled back to Tim via innovation summary sheets. In just a year, his 'innovation bookshelf' - a resource that anyone can search electronically for tips that might help their own projects - has grown to 160 case studies. Each innovation is costed and tracked, so a record can be kept of which sectors are using the bookshelf and applying the ideas.

There are already examples of innovation becoming best practice. The Quick Movable Barrier was developed on one highways site and is now becoming a standard safety measure on other road projects. Laser-scan surveying, which was trialled first in the highways sector is now being used across the group.

Apart from the bookshelf, there are other ways of pushing innovation out to the Group:

• an Innovation Alert goes out to senior executives and systems managers, who are responsible for forwarding it on to relevant people in their business;

• an Innovation Newsletter goes out to all staff three times yearly;

• and every project site should have a Quality and Innovation Noticeboard, showing innovations from elsewhere in the business that could be relevant to it, or any that have been developed on the site itself.

As well as aiding existing projects, innovations have helped in winning new business. For example, as part of Costain's successful bid to get on to the Crossrail enabling works, "we used the innovation summary sheets to provide evidence of our capabilities", says Tim. They were put to similar use when winning the Severn Trent AMP5 framework agreement.

Innovation, he says, "will help us win more work."

It's wet in Newbury. Very, very wet. Which is making the creation of a new retail-led, mixed-use development in the town centre more tricky than you might at first expect.

It's not that the Berkshire town has a peculiar micro-climate, rather that its groundwater table is very high.

"We're building a two-storey basement. Groundwater is within one to two metres of the surface and we're digging down 8.5 metres. We're also right next to the River Kennet." notes Project Manager Rupert Shingleton. This explains why the few old basements of which the team is aware in this district of Newbury are not very deep.

No fewer than 40 wells have been sunk to dewater the area. It has not been possible to carry out a straightforward dewatering exercise, however, as the presence of a layer of peat has meant that a further 27 wells have had to be created around the immediate building site to recharge water from the construction site back into the ground. All this is monitored by a complex 3-D computer model.

Project Director David Woodhouse's team is creating an £80million development for Standard Life Investments. It is designed to revitalise the town centre and attract local residents to shop in their home town, rather than driving to Reading and beyond.

The development sits between the buildings on Northbrook Street, Newbury's main shopping street and the town's park. Demolition, significant alteration, and retention of old structures have been completed and bulk earthworks are underway. Major service diversions, plus complex Secant wall, tension, and load-bearing piling are now also in the past.

The work will consist of eight blocks running the length of the rear of Northbrook Street. Two basement levels will be created under some of the blocks for car parking, ground and first floors will be taken up by retail units and two further storeys of apartments will be built above them.

Three of the blocks adjacent to the basements are complete to structural slab level, with steel frames almost complete and following trades are expected to start work in them before Christmas.

The schooling scene in Bradford and surrounding towns is being rapidly transformed, as Costain helps renew the area's educational assets.

Phase 2 of the plan to revitalise Bradford's schools is now well underway, with Educo (a joint venture between Costain and Ferrovial Agroman) building four primary and seven secondary schools, including three special education needs schools. Phase 1, which encompassed a further three secondary schools, was completed last year and lessons are in full swing. (See below.)

Bradford Metropolitan District Council was chosen as a 'pathfinder authority' for the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme because of the urgent need to renew its crumbling school stock. The vehicle for doing this is the Integrated Bradford Local Education Partnership, which includes the council, Costain, Amey and Building Schools for the Future Investments. Phase 2 of the Bradford project is worth some £230million. Costain and Ferrovial Agroman are providing the design and construction services. Amey are providing the information and communication technology and facilities management.

The job's biggest difficulty, according to Jerry Williams, Costain's Education Sector Director, is the timetable. Work on the four primary schools (three special needs and one mainstream primary) began simultaneously and all are due to be completed on the same day near the end of this year. The four secondary schools also began together and are due to be ready for lessons in early 2011.

"The pressure was on us and our partner to mobilise and get underway very quickly," says Williams. "That's been a huge challenge, not just for us but for the supply chain in getting the right level and quality of resources."

The four primaries are close to completion and the frames of the four secondaries are well advanced.

Other challenges have been some very tight - and sometimes steeply sloping - sites, plus working, in most cases, next to existing, 'live' schools.

Ensuring the safety of pupils has obviously been a priority, says Williams: "We've been doing a lot of classroom talks. We give them information both on safety and general information on what we're building so we get some buy-in from the students for what we're building. If you've got the children supportive and on-side you have a much easier ride."

Phase 1 (completed)

Phase 1 Secondary Schools 
Buttershaw Business & Enterprise College - Bradford
Tong High School - Bradford
Titus Salt School - Baildon

Phase 2 
(Primary Schools to complete beginning of 2010, Secondary Schools early 2011) 
 
Primary Schools
Chellow Heights - Bradford
Delius - Bradford
Phoenix/Guard House (co-located) - Keighley

Secondary Schools
Hanson School - Bradford
Grange Technology College - Bradford
Beckfoot School - Bingley
Greenhead High - Keighley

November's Highways Agency contract award for road maintenance schemes in the Midlands is just the latest in a series of such wins pulling in an increasing flow of work for Costain and its partners.

The Group currently holds three Managing Agent Contractor (MAC) agreements and three Managed Works Framework Contracts (MWFC). MACs cover routine operational, maintenance and improvements to roads with individual contracts worth up to £500,000. MWFCs cover road maintenance schemes worth £500,000 to £10million.

These contracts typically run for four or five years and can be worth up to several hundred million pounds, providing valuable medium-term revenue streams.

Despite Costain's long experience in building roads, success in the maintenance sector did not simply gradually develop as an offshoot of this existing expertise.

"It didn't develop accidently," says Tim Bowen, Highways Sector Director. "It was a very deliberate effort and required an enormous amount of effort to make it happen.

"It was a sector where we realised we could grow our business reasonably readily. We had a client, the Highways Agency, where we had considerable trust and respect for each other."

However, transforming that respect for Costain's abilities as a roadbuilder into the maintenance sector required much work.

"We had to develop the client's perceptions of our capabilities," says Peter Crabtree, Costain's Highways Sector Customer Director. "We undertook a gap analysis of what we were, and were not, capable of at that moment in time. Then, we established joint venture partners to enhance our service offering."

Costain's success in doing so he attributes both to having the right partners and to "listening carefully to what clients want in terms of service provision and then offering those services at reasonable value".

At site team level, he believes that the qualities that have brought Costain success in winning contracts have been "first and foremost, fundamental safety awareness and delivering on our promises". Having staff working just feet away from traffic travelling at 70mph requires the highest safety standards.

Other factors that have brought success include sensitivity to build-ups of congestion when maintenance works have been underway and an understanding of the inspection of assets, such as bridge structures and road surfaces, to detect problems.

While Costain is pursuing a further MAC contract with the Highways Agency, says Tim, the Group is expanding its client portfolio into local authorities, who also hold responsibilities for operating, maintaining and improving the road network.

The Costain Group has launched two new health and safety initiatives.

The leading UK construction/engineering company is introducing a Blue Hat scheme aimed at front line supervisors and a major drive on Behavioural Safety.

Peter Fisher, Costain Safety, Health and Environment Director, said: "We cannot afford complacency. We, at Costain, have stipulated that our number one priority is safety and we are continually looking at ways of improving what we do with a view to adopting a 'zero tolerance' standard with regard to accidents.

"The Blue Hat initiative is a variation on something that originated with the Major Contractors Group on front line supervision.  All of us, representing the top contractors, were extremely keen to make changes and improvements on the front line. We decided the best place to start was with the supervisors who put people to work.

"At Costain we started the initiative in August. Basically, it revolves around working with our supply chain and checking, at induction stage on each project, the competency levels of supervisors. We have introduced a new supervisors' induction that outlines the responsibilities of the particular individual. For example, if you are responsible for conducting start of work briefings, you are responsible for ensuring that everybody involved in a particular operation has a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. The responsibility is yours for ensuring that people you put to work are competent for the role they are undertaking."

Once this process has been completed and Costain is satisfied the competency level has been achieved, then a Blue Hat will be issued to the individual. For Costain's own supervisors the rigorous checking system will equally apply.  As Peter says: "No one will get to wear a Blue Hat unless they have satisfied the Company that they have reached a certain standard. We are identifying any individuals who fall short of the mark. They will be brought up to the required level asap and then issued with a Blue Hat."

Costain not only has the other Major Contractors support. "The Government's Health and Safety Executive is fully behind this scheme and so are our customers," said Peter.  "We can never do enough on safety. The checks must be made and failure cannot be tolerated. We have to adopt a very stringent approach. The people on site appreciate that, because they know we are trying to ensure that everyone stays healthy."

The drive for health at all times is also fuelling Costain's second initiative. Behavioural Safety focuses on ensuring the culture at work is correct. It is about getting people to do something not because they are told to but because they choose to.

Catherine Warbrick, Costain's Corporate Responsibility Manager, is responsible for driving this initiative through and she says: "We must strive to ensure a culture is established that understands, appreciates and enacts the need for Safety Leadership where the characteristics and impacts of human behaviours ('human factors') are identified and controlled. Behavioural Safety focuses on understanding and identifying these 'human factors', i.e. understanding why people do the things they do. We are focusing our training and this initiative on the REASONS why we want people to do something. Explanation is key.

"When we first introduced this programme a consultant came in to brief our Executive Board.  We then trained specific individuals who are now tasked with spreading the word throughout the Company.

"Our people must set the example. They must create the right environment and behave in the correct way. 

"Our target for 2010 is for all Costain people to attend a Behavioural Safety training session. That's a start. But it must continue. There will be different levels of training depending on an individual's specific job.

"When people clearly see the need to do something it invariably gets done. Just giving out instructions and blind adherence to the rules is not the way forward.  Creating a safe culture is what we and others must do...and we must do it now! "
    

In the Middle Ages alchemy sought to transform base metal into gold. Today, Costain is involved in creating almost as miraculous a transformation - turning sewage sludge into energy.

When the new incineration stream at Mersey Valley Processing Centre (MVPC) in Shell Green, Cheshire, comes online for the first time next spring, these bio-solids will find a useful new purpose generating electricity. The old alchemists would have been impressed.

The MVPC caters for the population of the Manchester and Liverpool areas. Under a 50-50 joint venture with Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, Costain is building a new incineration stream at the facility for longstanding client United Utilities.

The £92million contract is for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the new incineration stream. Two such streams already exist at the plant and these will become back-ups once the new one is operational.

"The sludge has quite a high calorific value and, once it gets to a certain temperature, burns of its own accord. You don't have to add oil or gas to it," explains Phil Appleby, Costain's Sector Director for Water (North). Heat given off by the incineration process will be used to generate electricity for the plant, providing around 50% of the facility's needs and thus improving the MVPC's green credentials, he adds.

Challenges for the team handling the project include working around an operational plant as they install the new equipment, together with the sheer scale and complexity of the contract, he says.

Pictured right - Mersey Valley Processing Centre (MVPC), Shell Green.

Church Village bypass engineers joined forces with local residents to enter a Guinness World Record event to plant 200 trees next to the £90million highway project.

As part of National Tree Week, BBC's Breathing Places encouraged people to plant as many trees as possible within an hour on the same day in an effort to break the world record.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council's contractors for the bypass, Costain, in conjunction with Capita Glamorgan and landscaping sub-contractors UPMTilhill, welcomed almost 150 local residents to Parc Nant Celyn in Efail Isaf to plant the trees.

Braving the elements, the Mayor of Rhondda Cynon Taf Cllr Robert Smith, and his consort Mrs Margaret Smith, started the proceedings by planting the first tree at 11am.

Local ward member, Cllr John David who is also Chair of Llantwit Fardre Community Council and fellow councillors Margaret Burtonwood and Joel James soon followed suit. Residents enthusiastically joined forces to plant the 200 trees in a staggering 40 minutes!

Cllr Smith said: "This was an exceptionally successful community event which brought together engineers, councillors and neighbours alike to not only break a world record but make a lasting impact on the surrounding area.

"The tree planting will not only reduce the traffic volume on nearby homes, but also greatly enhance the local environment for the benefit of future generations."

Barry Woodman, Church Village bypass Project Manager for Costain, said: "We were delighted to be able to support this event and it was an ideal opportunity for us to mark the start of a comprehensive landscaping plan for the area.

"The plan will involve planting over 28,000 trees and shrubs over the next twelve months which is a significant increase on the number of plants that, unfortunately, had to be removed to allow construction of the bypass."

Ian Walsh, Director of Capita Glamorgan added: "As a member of the construction partnership we were pleased to be involved in such a worthwhile event and I have every confidence the landscape plan will greatly enhance the finished project."

At Gatwick Airport, Costain is engaged in a number of projects designed to make it easier for travellers to enjoy the experience when they fly in or out from the summer of 2010.
 
Costain is currently constructing two infrastructure projects forming part of Gatwick's North Terminal Landside Development Programme.  The £20million North Terminal Interchange (NTI) will see a new passenger interchange facility and station constructed for the train that shuttles between the North and South Terminals. The £5million North Terminal Forecourt (NTF) project, meanwhile, involves remodelling roads to improve vehicle capacity in front of the terminal and meet new airport security requirements.

Construction of the new train station for the NTI required demolition of the existing station structure then building a replacement around the existing tracks.  The works immediately adjacent to the tracks have been undertaken within a five-month possession of the railway infrastructure.  Construction involves installation of 250 piles, 30 pile caps, 850 tonnes of structural steelwork, 3000 m² of inflated ETFE roofing, a vertical transportation system, plus associated mechanical, electrical and building management systems.  Features within the new station will include two 75 metre long travelators, two escalators and 10 new lifts, says Brendan Conlon, Project Director for the NTI & NTF projects.

The new structure will provide direct access from the arrivals and departures concourses within the airport terminal building to the new train station, multi-storey car parks 5 and 6, the passenger pick-up and set-down facilities and the adjacent Sofitel Hotel.

Although it will have rain screens and wind protection, plus shelter from existing buildings such as the adjacent multi-storey car park, the new station will essentially be open-sided. At around 100 metres long by 60 metres wide and 20 metres high "it will provide a clean, light, airy, low maintenance space that will provide the airport's passengers with an impressive first impression of the terminal building," says Conlon.

In terms of complexities, the proximity of other, operational airport facilities is "a significant engineering challenge", he says. 

"At the east side there is the airport hotel and we are literally digging up their front doorstep and reconstructing their hotel reception area. To the south, the new structural steelwork is just 30cm away from the existing multi-storey car park. Immediately to the west is the existing road and passenger drop-off and pick-up point.  To the north are temporary buildings for airport engineering and maintenance staff.  The only barrier between us and the public and airport operations is the site perimeter hoarding."

As if that is not enough, airport engineering workshops and engineering maintenance facilities occupied the lower floor of the original station building. This section of the building is fully retained and incorporated within the new structure and is directly beneath the demolition and subsequent new build works. This section of the building remained occupied by airport operations staff until September 2009.

Work on the station began last April and, although some delays have led to re-sequencing of the work, Conlon is confident the projects will be completed and handed over on schedule.  The first contract milestone to be met was handing back the first train track to the train operator on 20 January. The completion of the NTI is planned for 30 April 2010. 

Alongside this work, the North Terminal Forecourt project involves realignment and re-construction of the existing airport roads, plus drop-off zones and bus lay-by facilities and provides a minimum 30 metre security buffer zone between public vehicles and the front of the terminal building. The NTF project is primarily to improve airport passenger capacity and increased security in the light of the abortive terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport two years ago when a vehicle tried to ram into the terminal building's frontage.

Through a combination of open communication with all stakeholders and a pro-active and flexible approach adopted by Costain and Gatwick Airport, the site team has been able to deliver this prestigious project with minimal disruption to ongoing airport operations, the public and stakeholders.

Any construction graduate would be more than happy to come top in a Chartered Institute of Building graduate diploma programme and that is exactly what Ben Miloudi, Costain Assistant Design Manager, has achieved.

Ben, currently working on the Newbury Parkway project, is 'non cognate' - his formal education is in a non construction-related discipline, having previously graduated with a Masters of Design in Industrial Product Design.

Held at the College of Estate Management, Reading University, the graduate diploma was nothing if not tough. There was a high drop-out rate from the course, which covered a wide range of subjects including building technology, construction site management, building structures, planning tendering finance and strategy.

"I don't have a construction degree, so this was in effect a conversion course," explains Ben. "It's been really useful and has helped me at work. My next target is to gain MCIOB status in 2010."

Ben joined Costain in 2006; his projects to date have included South Holland Community Hospital, Prime Care Health Centres, University of Worcester's student accommodation and now the Newbury Parkway mixed-use development.

As Alec Newing, Head of Design Management, Community Sectors, says: "I am extremely proud to have Ben as a member of our team. He has always embraced challenges enthusiastically and has been willing to take on responsibilities to ensure the schemes that he has been involved with have been effectively delivered."

Costain's Project Managers' Forum is moving forward into 2010 with renewed emphasis on tackling issues that directly impinge on their jobs and the projects they handle.

The original terms of reference for the forum, set up in 2007, were largely aspirational. A refocusing exercise last summer more clearly defined its aims, objectives and delivery strategy.

Tangible benefits are continuing to emerge from the forum, says its Chairman, Dafydd Lloyd.

As a company-wide organisation, it helps break down sector silos. To this end, it is collaborating with Innovation and Knowledge Manager, Tim Embley, to maximise the benefits of knowledge-sharing and innovation across the company. A forum database shares innovations and safety lessons.

Another benefit is the creation of the Project Performance Assessment: whereas previously projects were marked on the basis of having delivered documents in accordance with a process, it now focuses on assessing the project's leadership, strategy, partnering and people.

A further 'plus' has been the creation of a Project Managers' Academy - a development centre for PMs aligned with the Association for Project Management (APM). A substantial group of forum members are already APM members and an initial group of 16 PMs received APM Practitioner status in January 2010.

Dafydd hopes that this type of practical benefit will encourage more of Costain's PMs to take an active role in the group. Around 70 attended the 2008 forum conference. "A hard core of approximately 40 people are actively involved in forum business," he says. "The challenge we face is engagement with the others to demonstrate benefit and, in turn, to gain the benefit of their participation."

With the Riverside Resource Recovery Limited (RRRL) Energy from Waste Facility at Belvedere now looming large along the south banks of the River Thames, the Cory Environmental Limited tug /barge crews are eyeing with anticipation the day when they can berth at the facility.

Works progress at pace with delivery of the first waste and subsequent hot commissioning due to commence later in the year and a final take over certificate obtained before the middle of May 2011. Construction of the 270m long jetty and 200m long access bridge is virtually complete and first of the two large waste container handling cranes manufactured in Scotland has been delivered by barge from Tilbury docks and is being erected on the jetty.

During 2008 nearly 2,500 CFA piles (25,000m3 concrete) were installed for the foundations and in 2009 over 25,000m3 of structural concrete placed in pile caps, floor slabs walls and columns of which 4000m3 was poured in the non-stop slipform operation to construct the waste bunker. The bunker will store the delivered waste until placed into the feed hoppers and subsequently into the three Boiler grates.

Three boilers will then produce steam to drive the single turbine which will generate over 66MW of electricity. This electricity will be distributed to the national grid through a new substation currently being built on the site.

Out of a total of 5,700 tonnes, over 2,200 tonnes of steel is being erected for the building envelope and structural supports and the external steel cladding and roof panels, 50m height at its highest point, are now being installed.

The Costain design and build contract also includes the building services for the plant and the installation of these and the fit out of the accommodation area, control room and electrical rooms is well underway. The drainage, roads, hard standings, flood defence works and landscaping will all be completed in 2010.

One of the many challenges on the project for the Costain team is the successful coordination of all their activities with those of VonRoll Environmental Ltd, the EPC contractor for the project. The logistics of managing the many deliveries with over 700 people now working on site has also been a difficult, but a successful challenge.

Some 1.7million Costain manhours have been worked to date with much on site training of the Costain workforce and those of our supply chain. Frontline Supervisor, Behavioural Safety, Working at Height to name a few also with Drugs and Alcohol testing and a programme of health screening which has just been completed.

March 27 is the date ringed in the diaries of Costain Project Manager, Darren Dobson, and his team working on the new Wolvercote Viaduct near Oxford.

That night will see the climax of the two-year Highways Agency project to replace the existing viaduct when a 5,000-tonne, 250 metre-long bridge deck is jacked 16 metres horizontally across from its temporary bearings and plinth to become the viaduct's new southbound carriageway.

Once settled into its new position, it will be stitched together with the new northbound carriageway and Darren reckons the project will be finished by June - three months ahead of schedule and on budget.

The existing viaduct, which carries the busy A34 dual carriageway across a flood plain, the A40 Oxford - Cheltenham road, the Oxford - Birmingham railway line and the Oxford Canal, is a relatively young structure, having been built in the early 1960s.

However, water has penetrated the viaduct's deck joints to such an extent that the structure has deteriorated badly and requires substantial, disruptive ongoing repairs. A new bridge is the more economic solution.

Darren's team initially built a temporary viaduct (but with a permanent deck) beside the southbound carriageway.

The process then went like this:
• Switch southbound traffic on to the temporary viaduct;
• Switch northbound traffic on to the old southbound carriageway;
• Old northbound viaduct demolished and replacement built;
• Northbound traffic switched back to new northbound viaduct;
• Old southbound viaduct demolished;
• Rebuild southbound viaduct foundations and piers.

At this point, that bridge slide takes place during an overnight closure. Afterwards, the temporary viaduct's foundations will be demolished and the area landscaped.

The advantage of this method is that the A34 has remained open, without disruption to traffic, throughout the contract. And making the new deck atop the temporary supports a permanent structure from the outset, rather than a temporary one that would have to be replaced, "has taken millions off the cost and saved several months", says Darren.

Good project management may not entirely guarantee a project's success, but bad project management will surely guarantee its failure. In view of this, Costain has put so much emphasis in recent years on improving the skills of the people at the sharp end of contracts via its Project Managers' Academy (PMA).

As the 1 March closing date for applications to the Academy's third two-year course nears, change is in the air: as well as the Group's own candidates, it is now open to personnel from both its supply chain and customers who want to improve their skills in this most critical of areas.

The Academy aims to raise the capability of project management across the Group, in particular the ability to work across the whole life-cycle of projects and offer Costain's customers a total solution.

Last year the Academy won the Construction News quality award for training and it recently featured in Project Management Today and the Association of Project Management (APM) Project magazine.

One sign of the degree of commitment by academy candidates can be seen from the fact that since its first intake 42 have joined the Association of Project Managers (APM) and an examination pass rate of 95% has been achieved.

The benefits of their time in the Academy has also been subject to careful measurement. On average, delegates' whole-life project management knowledge has increased by 19%. 

Even getting on to the course is a challenge. Candidates have to pass a series of tests, not only of their technical knowledge but of more indefinable factors, such as behavioural traits, strength of motivation and ability to cope with new concepts. Their abilities in these fields are measured against a benchmark set by eight of Costain's industry-leading Project Managers, whose skills mixes were dissected to uncover precisely what makes them so successful.

The Academy aims not only to further its candidates' technical skills, but to give them the knowledge and capabilities to look beyond site work if they choose to do so, into more business-oriented roles.

Support for the candidates comes from the highest levels. Having a cadre of top-quality, motivated PMs is "imperative", says Group Chief Executive, Andrew Wyllie. "The Project Management Academy has a key part to play in meeting this objective."

For further details see the attached case study.

Costain's Graham Swain helped keep a railway restoration project on track, when he carried out a survey at Wheathampstead station, Hertfordshire.

The station closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts and the platform is all that remains. Now a group of local volunteers is aiming to restore the platform in time for the 150^th anniversary of the station's opening in September.

Graham, Costain Project Engineer at the West Ham flood alleviation scheme, became involved when one of the volunteers, an ex-boss, asked him if he could carry out a topographical survey.

He explains: "The volunteers want to restore the platform so that it can be used by the local community for events such as exhibitions. But to do that they need to know the layout of the site and have a clear idea of the gradients involved in order to provide public access up to the platform. Now they have a drawing that will show them the best place to site steps."

The volunteers are very grateful to Graham for his help, says David Johnston, who is managing the restoration project on behalf of Wheathampstead parish council.

"The survey has helped us to record the site as it is, something of great interest to not only local people but also to the Museum of St Albans, which is currently putting together an exhibition about the lost railway lines of Hertfordshire."

For Graham it was an unusual way to spend a Saturday afternoon but he says he was happy to do it: "It was all in a good cause. And I'd help again if asked."

An exciting and unusual school project, in conjunction with Costain's A40 team in Pembrokeshire, is growing in momentum and attracting a great deal of local media interest.

Sir Thomas Picton is a large secondary school in the County Town of Haverfordwest and prides itself in preparing its young people for the adult world. A big concern for this area is the number of young people who are forced to move away to gain employment or to go to University and its always difficult for them to return. This is a real problem for the county's economic prosperity and the school wants to play its part to the full.

A recent Estyn inspection has deemed the schools enterprise efforts to be outstanding and Deputy Headteacher Tim Williams thinks that we've come up with a cracker of a new initiative for our Year 10 students. This is in addition to us already working with Pembrokeshire Lottery who provides us with £2000 every year to lend on to our sixth formers "Dragons' Den style".

Tim comments "The scheme involves us working closely with the construction giant Costain".

The village of Robeston Wathen on the A40 is being by-passed and will soon benefit from the absence of trunk road traffic passing through.

The school has set up a working party to imagine a rebranding of the village in collaboration with Costain, Pembrokeshire County Council, the local pub, various B&Bs and the local people. The initiative will involve site visits, sales pitches by the pupils, company presentations and displays and some very interesting ideas on what the village could be transformed into. Ideas have already included a book village like Hay-on-Wye, gambling village Las Vegas style, spa village, jazz village, designer outlet village etc- the young people's imaginations are the only limitations.

Phil Baker, Costain Public Liaison Officer, is working closely with the school team to co-ordinate and participate in the launch on 5th March, there will be two days of site visits and a final Dragons' Den style presentation to the judging panel on 21st May.  Phil commented that he is astounded by the interest that the project has generated, a HTV film crew covered the first lesson where the project was explained to one class of the year group, BBC camera crews wish to cover the launch, site visits and the final presentations and National and local radio stations are already covering the event.

The judging panel will consist of Costain Project Manager, Mr Mark Young; Welsh Assembly Government Project Engineer, Mr Martyn Leech; County Council Officers; County and Community Councillors and local businesses. This promises to be an extremely interesting project and builds on the strong links with local schools, Careers Wales and Construction Skills.

As the UK's North Sea gas reserves dwindle and the country increasingly relies on supplies from overseas, the need for reserves to cope with peaks in demand and other contingencies becomes ever greater.

To improve this situation Costain is helping to create huge gas storage facilities deep under the Cheshire countryside.

Cheshire has one of the UK's main rock salt deposits and two projects involve pumping water down wellheads to the salt beds around 600 metres below the surface. The water dissolves the salt and the resulting brine is then extracted, creating vast underground caverns.

The first of these, the Stublach Gas Storage Project, will create 28 caverns capable of holding 400 million m³ of gas by 2018.

It will accept natural gas from the UK's national transmission system, storing it until needed to cope with spikes in demand.

Costain's involvement in the £400 million project initially involved front-end engineering design (FEED) of the brine and water facilities for INEOS, which subsequently 'sold' the project to Storengy, a subsidiary of the giant French-based GDF SUEZ energy company.

Storengy subsequently awarded Costain the contract for engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) of the brine and water facilities, which have been recently completed safely, on time and on budget.

The brine and water infrastructure contract included the creation of 10 wellheads, 26km of buried pipelines, a pumping station capable of delivering 45,000m3 per day, an electrical substation and control systems.

Costain has also successfully completed another Storengy contract for the FEED of the associated Stublach gas plant.

Some 2km away, Costain is also involved in a gas storage project at Holford for Holford Gas Storage, part of German energy utility E.ON. Under this contract, eight  caverns will be created, capable of retaining up to 156 million m³ of gas. This is equivalent to supplying 3.5 million homes for 10 days.

Each cavern will be 100 metres in diameter and 100 metres deep - tall enough to hold Big Ben.

Costain's responsibilities include the engineering, procurement and construction management contract to complete the gas plant infrastructure and wellhead modifications.

As always, the projects have had their own particular hurdles to overcome, explains Charles Sweeney, Managing Director of Costain Energy and Process. One of these has been their locations, close to several working farms and residential villages.

Stublach "is being installed in the heart of the Cheshire countryside, so developing the design so that it would be acceptable and get through the planning process was a challenge. Then we had to execute it within the strict rules and regulations that were set against the plant's construction."

Other environmental aspects of the sites included the relocation of great crested newts, bats and birds and drainage issues.

"Site drainage was a significant issue because the local area is highly susceptible to flooding, so early drainage work was necessary," says John Meakin, Project Manager at Holford.

With only one brook available to dispose of excess water from the site, Costain installed an underground 'storm cell', to gather excess water and dispose of it into the brook gradually.

At Stublach, meanwhile, the rural nature of the site meant constraints on deliveries of materials, says Project Manager David Richardson: "We could only bring in 30 HGVs a day." Close liaison with the Environment Agency was also required to build crossings over several drainage ditches and streams, as well as laying pipework under them.

Both sites picked up several plaudits for safety including RoSPA Gold Awards and, in Stublach's case, a safety award from the Society of British Gas Industries.

Costain's work will bring security of supply to UK energy users for years into the future and is a further example of the Group helping improve the nation's infrastructure.

Mike Field, Senior Works Superintendent at Costain, has become the first ever Technician Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). This unique achievement is testament to the level of responsibility and important part played by Costain's senior front line supervisors on project sites.

Fellowship is only awarded to individuals who can demonstrate not just professional knowledge and leadership skills, but who have been responsible for a project of national or international significance.

With a portfolio of past jobs that includes CTRL Contract 105 at London's St Pancras Station, London Bridge Jubilee Line Tube Station and the Newbury bypass, Mike had no difficulty in meeting the criteria.

Mike's Fellowship comes after a 40-year career that began with a five-year apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner. After joining Costain in 1976 as a foreman, he then steadily rose through the ranks of the Company.

Mike regrets the fact that most youngsters no longer do apprenticeships, but he remains a fervent believer in the benefits of the apprentice system and feels strongly that staff should be encouraged to get professional qualifications as they progress through their working lives.

Mike's jobs stretching back to 1985 have seen him charged with keeping major projects working smoothly. In his present role - as Senior Works Superintendent at Riverside energy-from-waste facility at Belvedere, south east London - he is responsible for the management and co-ordination of all on-site activities.

Having become a Technician Member of the ICE only last year, Mike explains: "Various people said they were surprised I didn't apply for Fellowship because my submission was well up to that standard."

Sponsored by three ICE Fellows, Mike duly submitted his application and has now received the coveted title.  The Institution has now also invited him to become a reviewer of prospective Technician Members' applications.

For further details see the attached case study.

Stepping off a parapet into 50 metres of thin air rarely seems a particularly good idea - a sentiment pretty much guaranteed to be going through Michelle Gillham and Vicky Jones's minds on 5 June.

The two staff from Costain's Westminster Bridge Road offices in London plan to abseil down the side of Guildford Cathedral to raise funds for Surrey Crossroads, a charity providing respite care for local families whose lives are dominated by looking after a loved one at home.

In Michelle's case, it has helped look after her father, who is terminally ill with motor neurone disease, a progressive ailment in which messages from the brain fail to reach the body's muscles.

"Crossroads looks after all age groups from children to pensioners to enable their full-time carers to have a few precious hours off each week," explains Michelle who, together with Vicky, works on Costain's PFI team.

"It has a group of volunteer carers who give their time to help others. Most of them have lost their partners to some form of illness, have been helped by Crossroads and want to give something back. As I work full-time I can't volunteer but I'd still like to help them."

Michelle and Vicky are doing so via their sponsored abseil, despite their fear of heights. "I have put our target at £1,000 but if we can get any more I would be really excited," says Michelle. "We have set up a Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/michelle-gillham.  You can find out more about the charity that cares for my dad on www.surreycrossroads.co.uk.  We really hope people will chip in to help us raise cash for the great team there."

Pictured: Michelle (right) and Vicky plan to push themselves off a cathedral's roof - despite a fear of heights.

Three of the Costain Group's most promising youngsters were honoured for their achievements recently.  The talented trio - Sarah Richardson, Adam Cooper and Robert Costello - received Sir Albert Costain Memorial Awards for being Trainees of the Year.

The presentations were made by Andrew Wyllie, Costain Chief Executive, at the 21 Club Dinner and AGM. The 21 Club comprises individuals who have worked 21 years or more for the Costain Group.

Sarah Richardson is an assistant estimator in the Cardiff office and joined the Company as an enquiries clerk.  She is described as 'highly motivated' and in her spare time she runs for charity and will be in the London Marathon this year. Adam Cooper, a graduate section manager at the Belvedere waste project, has impressed colleagues with his positive attitude and willingness to learn and help. Robert Costello, a trainee quantity surveyor at the Greater Manchester Waste project, has driven his own development and, as a result, has recorded many achievements.

The 21 Club Dinner and AGM was held at the Oval in London, one of the world's great cricket grounds. One 21 Club member Grahame Barwell, present at the Dinner, had played cricket at the legendary venue as a youngster for the Kent Association of Cricket Clubs.

Pictured left to right: Robert Costello, Sarah Richardson and Adam Cooper. 

Three major road schemes - the M1 hard shoulder running scheme between Junctions 10-13, upgrading of the motorway's Junctions 11 and 12 and the A5-M1 Link Project - have reached a combined total of a million hours free of reportable accidents.

One of the more remarkable aspects of the achievement is that work on the latter two schemes is still at the statutory stage, with public inquiries due later this year.  While construction work on the road widening project only got underway with advance works in August 2009 and formal Notice to Proceed to Construction in December 2009.

The fact that one million hours have already been racked up gives an idea of how much preparatory work goes on behind the scenes for major transport projects, before the first earth is turned or first load of concrete poured.

Achieving a million accident-free hours for work largely accomplished in design offices rather than out on 'live' construction sites may seem easy, but "These are all man-hours worked on the Project whether on-site or off-site", says Bruce Richards, Project Director for the Costain-Carillion joint venture managing all three schemes.

In a message to team members, he described the one million hours as "a fantastic achievement" and "a tribute to all your hard work and dedication to the health, safety and welfare of our staff, sub-contractors and workforce".

The M1 J10-13 project between Luton and Milton Keynes will see the hard shoulder strengthened to create an extra lane to help cope with periods of heavy traffic. The project, due for completion in spring 2013, is an Early Contractor Involvement scheme worth in excess of £300 million to the Costain-Carillion JV.  It involves work on 23km of motorway, strengthening 14km of embankments and cuttings, creating 7km of retaining walls as well as the creation of 30 emergency refuge areas and erection of 60 sign and signal gantries.

• The million man-hours achievement is to be marked with a gift of around £1,000 to St George of England Church, Toddington, for improvement works plus another £200 to Toddington and Harlington District Girl Guides or local tree planting.

The Costain team handling the renewal of education facilities in the London borough of Lewisham is gearing up for a busy year after the local education authority issued the go-ahead for a cluster of new school projects.

Learning21, a joint venture between Costain and VT Group, was awarded the Lewisham Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Project in 2007.  BSF is a government programme to renew all of the country's secondary school estate, and at Lewisham, Costain and VT have formed a Local Education Partnership (LEP) with the London Borough of Lewisham and Building Schools for the Future Investments.

Costain has already completed the first two schools in the Lewisham BSF. These are now fully in use and delivering education in a first class state-of-the-art environment.

As a part of the ongoing programme, Lewisham has now issued New Project Instructions for no fewer than eight schools. "Effectively this is a letter from the Authority to the LEP asking us to prepare a proposal for the design and construction of the schools," said Jerry Williams, Costain's Education Sector Director.

"The Authority provide their requirements, and an education 'vision', and we develop a design, working with the schools and others, such as the facilities management and the IT providers. The schemes go through a two-stage development process - an initial outline design and cost plan, then the full design and pricing leading to contract award."

The approximate value of the remaining programme of work, which will consist mainly of secondary schools, is £130 million. The projects are a mix of new-build and refurbishment, and are procured either under a Private Finance Initiative, or Design & Build arrangement. The most advanced of these latest new schools, Deptford Green, is also one of the most substantial, with a construction value of approximately £28 million.

"It takes us just over a year from getting the New Project Instructions to getting underway on site," said Jerry. "The projects will be starting on site late 2010 and 2011; the build times vary, but the construction will mainly be 2011-12."

Pictured: Sedgehill School, Lewisham, London

Among the thousands of contestants setting off on the London Marathon will be 10 Costain staff, all running to raise money for their good causes.

"I never intended to be a runner," says Sarah Richardson.

That's odd, as she will be lining up at the start of the 2010 London Marathon this coming weekend.

"A few years ago I got roped in for a few 5km runs, then the Cardiff half-marathon last October. It's just turned out like that," she laments.

Ensuring the Cardiff-based Assistant Estimator keeps going over the 26 mile and 385 yard course will be sister Kirsty, who won a place in the ballot that allocates places for the heavily over-subscribed event. "She's a personal trainer, so she'll be dragging me along," says Sarah.

Sponsored car washes and other activities have so far raised at least £1,000 for her charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The hardest bit about long-distance running? "Switching your mind off," she says.

www.cftrust.org.uk

Keeping Paul Clough motivated during the race will be thoughts of the pint of Guinness he intends having at the finish line, having not sunk one now for three months.

The Shoreworks Agent, from the Felixstowe Docks project, will also be looking forward to a well-earned meal once his heart rate has slowed down after pounding the London streets: "My thoughts quite often turn to food whilst running. It is amazing how hungry you get whilst burning off all those calories during that length of run," he says.

Training has been going well, but getting up at 5am to train has been a trial, he admits.

Although sporty - "I've been playing competitive squash since I was eight years old and generally just keeping fit through that and football" - this will be Paul's first marathon. He is targeting under 4hrs as a time and £2,500 for his charity, The Lighthouse Club. This helps to relieve poverty suffered as a result of accident or disability or ill-health by persons employed or formerly employed within the building and civil engineering industries and allied trades in the United Kingdom including the widows and children of such people.

www.lighthouseclub.org/marathon/

Also running to benefit The Lighthouse Club is Tracey Wood, the Group's Human Resources and Legal Director.
 
http://www.justgiving.com/Tracey-Wood

Bernice Cowton has the distinction of having represented the UK 155 times in water polo, but has found training for the marathon harder than anything she remembers from her international sporting days.

"I've always been a water sports person and I find it really quite harsh on the body," she says. "I retired a couple of years ago from international water polo and thought: 'I need to have another aim,'" says the Commercial Manager on Bradford's Building Schools for the Future project.

Having said that, she only really started training for the race at the start of the year, is now panicking after taking two weeks off to ski and has another worry: "I'm only around 5 feet tall, so I need to take twice as many paces as anyone else!"

Despite that handicap, she is targeting a 4h finish and is running for canine charities the British and North of England Dalmatian Welfare. "I own two Dalmatians myself and volunteer a bit of time assisting these small charities with their work."

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/supportthespotties

Another worryingly fit staff member is Hayley Gamble. An experienced triathlete, she has done several half-marathons in recent years, but thought she had three more years to work up to the full 26-mile standard.

"It usually takes four years to get in," she says referring to the ballot needed to pare down the numbers who apply to compete in the event. She got in first time.

She has been in serious training since December and is looking for a 4h finish. "I've been averaging 120 miles a month in training. I had to take a week off after pulling a muscle in my foot but apart from that, it's gone fine."

Site colleagues and subcontractors at Newbury Parkway, where she's a Graduate QS "have been absolutely brilliant" in sponsoring her and she is already almost £1,900 to the good for her charity, Children With Leukaemia.

www.bmycharity.com/hayleygamble

This will be the third London Marathon for Andrew Leonard, who reckons he'll be lucky to replicate his 4h 30m times for his previous attempts.

A recreational runner, the harsh winter and a couple of injuries have made it a hard training season: "It's been a bit of a struggle this time, but I'm getting there".

Based at Canary Wharf as Senior Planning Manager on Crossrail tenders, his running strategy is 'Put the head down' and keep going. "On the day the support is fantastic and really helps to get you to the finish." He's running for muscular dystrophy charity Action Duchenne and has already raised just over £4,000 thanks to the very generous support of friends and work colleagues.

www.actionduchenne.org/stopwasting/AndyLeoLondon2010

Kevin Cousins, a Senior Engineer working on the Crossrail Royal Oak Portal project, is raising money for Whizz Kidz, a charity focused on giving disabled children the chance to lead a more independent life.

www.justgiving.com/KEVIN-COUSINS

Meanwhile, a trio from Maidenhead - Group Strategy and Business Development Director Stephen Wells, Communications Director Graham Read and PA to the Finance Director and Communications Director Caroline Harris - are all running for WellChild.

www.justgiving.com/TheCostainGroup

Pictured: Assistant Estimator Sarah Richardson has been raising money for her London Marathon appearance through sponsored car washing.

The Thames Water Ring Main Extension Project has received a special award from the Institution of Civil Engineers for its work helping to ensure the future resilience of London's water supply.

The project has seen several major contractors, including Costain, driving nearly 10km of new tunnels plus four large-diameter pump-out shafts through some of the capital's most congested areas - both above and below ground.

The aim was to increase the Ring Main's capacity by 500 million litres per day, without adversely affecting further extensions in the future. This was to be achieved without any road closures, transport suspensions or interruption to amenities.

The Costain team based at the Hampton Advanced Water Treatment Works in southwest London was responsible for sinking one of the major shafts and tunnelled connections to an existing Ring Main shaft and the High Lift Pumping Station.  The shaft was 15m in diameter and 40 metres deep. The connecting tunnels were constructed either by open-face heading or using a Costain Tunnel Boring Machine.

Ground conditions were an initial problem, with an unexpected substantial brick Victorian pumping station three metres below the surface whose foundations extended a further six metres down. The team also had to contend with contaminated ground and the diversion of multiple utilities.

The shaft was constructed using traditional underpinning methods through the historically disturbed ground, followed by an innovative design employing a sprayed concrete lining (SCL) for the remaining two-thirds. The SCL was a value engineering/contractor proposal comprising two layers of sprayed concrete which sandwiched a spray applied water-proofing membrane.

This alternative method provided benefits in cost and programme where the tunnel portal construction was considerably simplified.

ICE judge Chris Wise, speaking at the 2010 London ICE Awards where the special prize was presented to the teams involved in the 10km extension project, commented: "At 80km long, the Ring Main's achievements were already breathtaking and fundamentally underpin life in this city as we know it.

"With these four new extension projects the water supply will be even better, giving greater certainty, greater resilience, using less energy and extending both its usefulness and its sustainability."

The Costain team in Lewisham, south London, is targeting August for final planning approval for the Prendergast-Hilly Fields College project, which will both deliver a new school and refurbish an existing, listed building.

The school will have 1,000 pupils when completed - 600 girls in the main school and a mixed sixth form that is being expanded from its current 250 pupils to around 400. Specialising in modern languages, music, maths and information and communications technology (ICT), it is rated as the best-performing school in the London borough.

Stage One approval - outline acceptance of the design and price by the borough's authorities - came a few weeks ago and the detailed planning work now underway is due to go in front of a council committee in August.

If approval is granted, financial close will come in November and work will then start almost immediately.

"The new buildings are designed around a retained sports hall and are for all pupils from 12 to sixth form," explains Project Director Brian Fisher. A mix of both three and four-storey structures, they will have  steel frames with brickwork and cladding finishes.

The refurbishment part of the project will take place in a Victorian building situated some 400 yards away. This has Grade II* listed status because of its internal painted murals. "We're trying to do the work with minimal intrusion to the building, to bring it to current school standards so that it's suitable for the disabled, is up to modern fire standards and has improved ICT infrastructure," says Fisher.

The first phase of the new building, which will house the enlarged sixth form, is due for completion in January 2012. Full completion of the project is scheduled for April 2013.

Costain Geotechnical Services* has recently opened a new laboratory and site testing operation in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester.

The laboratory is staffed by 11 technicians led by Nathan Busby, the Laboratory Manager and Rob Bell, Assistant Laboratory Manager. This team has been working hard to establish the new laboratory facilities and develop the Company's materials testing portfolio so that it is better equipped for completing testing relevant to highways investigations and the local market. This is part of a larger plan for the expansion and focus of the Geotechnical Services business as a whole.

The new laboratory is conveniently situated to serve all locations within the north and north west, enabling Geotechnical Services to offer a full materials testing service throughout the UK. Currently the laboratory is completing materials testing for Costain's MAC 7, 10 and 12 contracts as well as the Greater Manchester Waste Department Authority, Bidston Moss and various external clients. The new facility compliments the existing northern geotechnical office based in Allerton Bywater, West Yorkshire, as well as the main office and laboratory in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

The Cheadle Hulme laboratory has recently become UKAS accredited for a wide range of laboratory and in situ testing including blacktop sampling and testing. The Company intends to continue this expansion to include structural surveys, pavement surveys and pavement engineering and design as well as falling weight deflectometer capability in the near future.

Newly accredited testing capabilities for the laboratory include the following:

Blacktop Testing: Coring, Core Logging, Surface Texture (Sand Patch and Macrotexture), Rolling Straight Edge, Sampling from Heaps, Sampling from Paver Augers, Temperature (Delivery Paver Hopper, Rolling), Density (both Nuclear and Non Nuclear Methods).

Laboratory Testing: Moisture Condition Value, Plastic Limit, Liquid Limit, Optimum Moisture Content (BS Heavy, BS Light, Vibrating Hammer), California Bearing Ratio, Concrete Curing, Concrete Compression, Making Cubes (both Vibrating Table and Hand Tamp Method).

This is in addition to the laboratory's existing testing capabilities that include: Pull Out Testing, Particle Size Distribution (BS and BS EN), Core Cutter Density, Plate Load Testing, Dynamic Cone Penetrometer, Moisture Content (Oven Drying Method), Slump Testing, Air Content of Concrete.

Within the next month the laboratory will also re-apply for UKAS accreditation for covermeter surveys, Schmidt Hammer testing as well as half cell potential and depth of carbonation in order to be able to undertake full structural surveys of concrete bridges, culverts etc.

* Costain Geotechnical Services provides a one-stop facility for geotechnical and geo-environmental site investigation, in-situ materials testing and geotechnical and materials laboratory testing. Clients include engineering consultants, specialist geo-environmental consultants, infrastructure and utilities operators as well as the Costain Group. 

Physical endurance and mental agility will be the order of the day on 22 May when four graduates represent Costain in a 12 hour competition to raise money for charity.

The Disaster Relief Challenge is an annual competition between more than thirty teams, traditionally from civil engineering companies. The organiser, Redr, offers professional training to aid agencies and local people working in disaster hit areas. They provide expertise in water supply, sanitation, health, shelter, and security. (www.redr.org.uk)

The event, to be held at Cuffley Park Outdoor Centre, presents teams with challenges based on scenarios faced by aid workers in the field. The teams navigate a cross-country course between challenges not knowing what scenarios lie ahead. Activities in the past have included transporting emergency shelters up a steep slope, improvising stretchers for multiple casualties and installing a working water pump - all against the clock.

The Costain graduates participating are Site Manager Sanjit Barham, Mechanical Engineer Sam Carey and Civil Engineers Stephanie Wong and Duncan Smith.

You can support their efforts to raise £2000 for Redr by donating at:  www.justgiving.com/costainredrchallenge

• The team is organising a 'Wear Red for Redr' day on Friday 14 May in Maidenhead and on any other sites willing to take part. Turn up wearing something red in return for a small donation. If you're willing to collect for the team on your own site, speak to Duncan Smith on 07920 494289 or simply donate any proceeds to the web page above.

A West Wales road improvement project is bringing not only relief to frustrated drivers and beleaguered villagers but also plaudits to the Costain team building it.

The A40 trunk road in Pembrokeshire is a strategically important route between the national motorway network and the port of Fishguard. A 6km stretch between Penblewin and Slebech Park is being made safer through the £37 million Welsh Assembly Government project to bypass Robeston Wathen, together with other trunk and side road improvements and environmental mitigation measures.

Currently the road has a poor alignment with limited overtaking places and a consequently high accident rate. It also funnels heavy traffic through the village of Robeston Wathen where pavements are narrow or non-existent, making life difficult for pedestrians.

The project will create a bypass for the village and widen the carriageway with a roadway design making its first appearance in Wales. Some 4.5km will be in a '2 + 1' lane configuration, with alternating eastbound and westbound stretches of road having twin lanes to ease overtaking.

The project began in February 2009. It will be completed in early 2011, but the Costain team is already making an impact on the area.

Extensive work is underway with local schools, says the project's Public Liaison Officer, Phil Baker. The project team approached Sir Thomas Picton School in nearby Haverfordwest and, in co-operation with Pembrokeshire County Council and other local groups, pupils are working on a project to 're-brand' Robeston Wathen.

Ideas put forward by Year 10 pupils have included a spa village, designer outlet village, even a Las Vegas-style gambling village.

The pupils are undertaking site visits, presentations and 'sales pitches' on the future of the village, with the final being a 'Dragons' Den'- style presentation to a judging panel that includes local business people, the Welsh Assembly Project Engineer and Costain Project Manager Mark Young on 24 May.

"I'm astounded by the interest that the project has generated," says Phil. "An HTV film crew covered the first lesson where the project was explained to one class of the year group; BBC camera crews covered the launch, site visits and want to cover the final presentations; and national and local radio stations are also following it."

Apart from this, there have also been extensive site visits by other local schools, including Greenhill School, Tenby, where students were having difficulty gathering information for aspects of their BTEC in Construction and where Phil is a governor.

With all these efforts, it was perhaps less than a complete surprise that Phil was named Construction Skills Wales's Construction Ambassador of the Year during this year's Skills Competition Wales event.

The judging panel commented: "Phil has helped extensively in West Wales supporting events such as school activity days, work-based learning pathways, site visits and careers advisors' training days. "

Further praise came from Martyn Leech, Project Engineer for the Welsh Assembly Government, who described Phil's work as "outstanding", adding: "There is a site team behind him who are so willing to give of their time and energy in joining in."

Ends

The recent round of Asset Management Plan (AMP 5) awards from regional water companies has brought further success for Costain in Wales with a new contract from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW).

Having successfully completed the five-year AMP 4 contract worth almost £70million, Water Sector Director North, Phil Appleby, feels justified in saying: "We've got a satisfied customer.

"We've had more than 150 individual projects delivered to time and within target price."

Typical contracts have included a series of improvements to Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) and Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) to improve the quality of outflows to watercourses and the sea and thus assist DCWW in meeting its regulatory obligations.

A significant element of the programme has been flooding projects, where relief has been provided to properties that have previously suffered internal and external flooding from foul water and sewage. These projects have relieved almost 800 properties from the prospect of future flooding damage.

Another project that required particularly sensitive handling was improving an existing Water Treatment Works (WTW) at Mynydd Llandegai in the Snowdonia National Park. Situated within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the buildings required extensive cladding in local stone to blend in to the landscape and match existing features.

The new AMP 5 framework contract, which is likely to see Costain undertaking individual projects worth anything from £50,000 to £8million, is likely to have a roughly similar overall value over the next five years, says Phil.

Although work has so far been primarily in North Wales, there is the chance that this will be extended to the south of the Principality, he adds.

John Madden, Framework Director for Costain at DCWW, is particularly proud of the Costain team's Health & Safety record that has maintained an Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) of zero for more than 3.25 years.

John also highlights a £3.5million project to create a new WwTW at Amlwch, on Anglesey, which, driven by legislative deadline, was due to complete on the last day of 2008 but, due to circumstances outside Costain's control, only got underway in March of that year.

What should have been a 15-month project was nevertheless brought in on the original deadline, after what John describes as particularly close working with Costain's supply chain and other DCWW partners.

AMP 5 is likely to be more focused on maintenance projects than its predecessor, he adds. "Most of the big new works are now built; AMP 5 will be very much a maintenance AMP to ensure facilities continue to comply with standards.

"We've commenced design on a project due to start on site in the autumn at Five Fords near Wrexham. This will be an extension to a WwTW, the largest in North Wales, which will involve building a new advanced digestion plant, phosphorous removal and sludge treatment capacity, both to comply with current legislation and to ease the problems of sludge handling in North Wales.

"A feature of this project is the heat and power that the process will generate from the sewage will be utilised to reduce DCWW's electricity demands at Five Fords. The project is due to complete towards the end of 2011 and will be worth around £8million to Costain."

Another 2011 project will involve the creation of a service reservoir for DCWW near Conwy in North Wales.

John sees the retention of the Costain team in North Wales for AMP 5 as vindication by DCWW of its satisfaction with the quality of delivery in AMP 4 by Costain. "We hope and expect to improve our performance for DCWW in AMP 5 and therefore look to prolong our relationship with DCWW into AMP 6 and beyond."

Two Costain teams have conquered the gruelling COINS Three Peaks Challenge to raise more than £10,000 for Haitian homeless.

A team from the Costain Skanska joint venture (CSJV) working on the Crossrail Royal Oak portal project, and a team from the Church Village bypass project in South Wales joined 39 other teams from the construction industry aiming to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in under 24 hours. The CSJV team came home in 23 hours and 28 minutes, just ahead of their Church Village colleagues who finished in 23 hours and 31 minutes. The two teams finished ninth and tenth.

"It was very testing," said Kevin Cousins, Senior Engineer at the Royal Oak project. "The worst part was when we had to start climbing Scafell Pike at 5.30 in the morning, having slept in the van after a six-hour trek on Ben Nevis."

The Church Village team also found the going tough at times, said Tom Kenyon, Section Engineer. "It was hard and exhausting and difficult to sleep between mountains. It was good to finish!"

Tom and teammates Meirion Rees, Stuart Curtis and Kieran Ellery, along with their support team Jason Nutt and Michael Patterson, have raised £6,400 for the COINS Foundation, which funds projects to help vulnerable and damaged people. Meanwhile Kevin and teammates Lee Davies, Ross Mackenzie, Owen Jarman and Daniel Haines are well on their way to achieving their target of £5,000. www.justgiving.com/CSJV-ROYAL-OAK-PORTAL-TEAM

The event, now in its eighth year, is aiming to raise a total of £500,000. The COINS Foundation will use the money to build 50 homes in Haiti and help restore infrastructure destroyed by the massive earthquake there earlier this year.

You can help the CSJV team reach their target by making a donation at

Team at the top . . .

Fair weather and smooth road surfaces will be high on the wish list of 10 cyclists from Costain and its partners in the London Borough of Lewisham's Building Schools for the Future programme on 20 June.

The team will be taking part in the annual London - Brighton Bike Ride, to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Ahead of them, as they push down on the pedals at the Clapham Common start line, will be 54 miles of exertion before they can rest on their handlebars as they cross the finish line near the south coast resort's beach.

"We've been doing a lot of training, going out together after work," says Design Manager, Sean Chipchase, who leads the team. "I've already done a practice run from Hayes to Brighton and I can tell you there's a big hill right at the end!

"I think it was originally Ian Dixon's idea to do it; we have known people who have done it before and it's a good team event. I have a personal target time of 4½ hours for the course, not sure for the rest of the team."

The team hopes to raise £2,000 for BHF.

• Apart from Sean, the team for the event is: James Aitken, Design Manager; Andy Ashwell, ICT Integration Manager VT plc; Ian Dixon, Commercial Manager; Sandy Doherty and Paul O'Conner, Project Managers, London Borough of Lewisham; Steve Jakes, Senior Project QS; Gareth Jones, Project Leader; Emma Laverty, Solicitor and Dan Rennison, Principal Design Manager.

Pictured right: Members of the Costain/Lewisham team - (left to right) Sandy Doherty (Lewisham Council), Gareth Jones, James Aitken, Steve Jakes, Sean Chipchase, Paul O'Connor (Lewisham Council) and Ian Dixon - get ready for another practice run before the big day.

Cranfield University's recent graduation ceremony saw a Costain engineer receive a special accolade.

Mechanical Project Engineer, Richard Crane, who has been with the Group for seven years and works on the United Utilities AMP4 contract based in Warrington, received the prize for the best thesis delivered by a student on a part-time Masters' course on water science. His award-winning topic was 'The fate of copper and zinc in biological wastewater treatment'.

Richard took the course as part of his efforts to become a chartered member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Costain sponsored him on the three-year course. "I did the work alongside my normal day job," he said. "It was a hard slog at times, but to become a member of the Institute I required a Masters' degree."

Following on from the work at Cranfield University, funded by United Utilities PLC, two papers are being published in the next issue of the Environmental Technology Journal titled 'Fate and behaviour of copper and zinc in secondary biological wastewater treatment processes: I Evaluation of biomass adsorption capacity' and 'Fate and behaviour of copper and zinc in secondary biological wastewater treatment processes: II Removal at varying sludge age'.

This month (June) Richard received his prize at his department's Welcome Reception prior to the graduation ceremony itself, at which his success was formally announced.

A Costain Executive Board Director has led a major fundraising exercise for one of the UK's top charities.
 
Stephen Wells, Group Strategy and Business Development Director, is the Company Executive in charge of Corporate Responsibility.  Stephen, with two colleagues, entered the 2010 London Marathon to raise money for WellChild, the national charity for sick children. In total, £17,435.00 was donated to the charity including £8,620 from the Costain Group PLC.  The Company matched the money raised in donations by the Costain team.  Many of the donations were contributed by Costain employees, customers and suppliers.  The Costain Group PLC cheque was handed over to WellChild this week.

Corporate Responsibility is at the core of the Costain culture. The phrase 'Corporate Responsibility' receives a great deal of space in annual reports these days. However, the process of translating those words into actions can be more difficult.

"The reason we think it's important is because how a company acts and behaves is more than just a set of financial numbers," said Stephen Wells. 

"It's important to its customers, stakeholders, staff and supply chain - all the people who depend on it. It's an invaluable demonstrator of a company's culture and values and behaviour; it's a measure of its corporate DNA."

Just as there is a correlation between a company's safety statistics and its financial performance - a safely-run work site tends to be an efficient one - so there is a link between an organisation's performance on the corporate responsibility scale and its profitability.

This has ramifications for Costain's business prospects, believes Stephen. "I think customers are looking at companies they do business with, or want to do business with, and asking 'Are their values and behaviours aligned with ours?'"

This is particularly the case with public sector contracts, where Government departments are increasingly taking such factors into account: "We're seeing an increasing number of pre-qualification documents and questionnaires linked to what's deemed Corporate Responsibility," he says.

"There's an increasing trend of both public and private sector companies asking about our policies on factors such as ethnicity, diversity and good working practices."

With regard to his London Marathon effort, Stephen said: "I had never done a marathon before. I did a 14-week training course, stuck to the plan and bought the best possible trainers! It's just discipline, but what really made it for me was the support I got from inside and outside the company. 

"There was huge support from the external world - many customers, suppliers etc. The charity was delighted because they generally need around £1,500 per runner to make it worthwhile for them."

Stephen was joined in the Marathon by colleagues Graham Read, Communications Director and Caroline Harris, PA to the Finance and Communications Directors.

"Graham and I 'adopted' a guy with muscular dystrophy at the five-mile mark; he said he was the only person with the disease entering the Marathon and we just went round with him," said Stephen.

"Graham and I are getting old and we did it in about 7 hours 20 minutes. Caroline clocked just over 6 hours. But the main thing is we raised the money and that was the driver for each of us."

Karl Gwilliam, from WellChild, said: "This Costain support is absolutely fantastic. WellChild depends on voluntary funding and the efforts of the Costain team will see WellChild expand its community children's nurse programme."

To foster further the Costain Corporate Responsibility ethos, plans are in the pipeline for Costain to encourage the charitable efforts of staff, Stephen reveals.

"The intention would be to allow our people up to two days' paid annual leave for worthwhile causes as long as it does not interfere with business performance. We will continue to strengthen further our Corporate Responsibility focus in various ways in the months to come.  It is a vital part of corporate and company life."

Pictured: Stephen Wells (left) and Catherine Warbrick, Corporate Responsibility Manager, present the Costain Group PLC cheque to WellChild's Karl Gwilliam.

Costain personnel are taking to two wheels to aid charity this week.

The South Downs Randonée bike event on 26 June will test four Costain staff from the Tesco store and tunnel site at Gerrards Cross over a 65-mile (100km) course. The group (along with three friends from outwith Costain) is tackling the gruelling ride to benefit the British Heart Foundation. In total, around 200 cyclists are expected to take part in the 65-mile ride.

What differentiates the Randonée from other cycle rides is that it is all off-road, explains team leader and Project QS Richard Freemantle. The Costain team will have to navigate the South Downs Way from Winchester to Devils Dyke near Brighton along the longest continuous bridleway, in the country, offering riders the ultimate challenge in cross-country riding.

While not a 'technical' ride in mountain biking terms, the degree of difficulty involved can be gauged from the fact that Richard reckons it will take the team some 10 hours in the saddle to tackle it. The route also involves a total climb, over its 65-mile length, of around 7,300 ft.

The rest of the group include Design Manager, Dave Mitchell; SHE Advisor, Aimee Poole and Senior Agent, Stuart Glyde - all with varying levels of cycling experience.

Richard is accustomed to off-road riding while Dave is usually a road rider. Stuart, who tackled the London Marathon some years ago, has used money from his recent accession to Costain's 21 Club to buy himself a new bike specially for the event. Aimee, a beginner to mountain biking, has purchased a new bike for the occasion.

To get everyone into shape, the group has been going out twice a week on 2½-hour trips, as well as at individual training at weekends.

"It will be a gruelling challenge and I am sure it will test the team, but it's all for a good cause," comments Richard.

http://original.justgiving.com/richardfreemantle

Costain people continue to achieve premier status with regards to professional qualifications.

Seven have recently passed the latest Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) examinations to achieve Chartered status: Senior Engineers Sean Ellison, James Forward and Carlos Vasquez Travieso; Senior Agents Andy Goodwin and Sean Lang; and Agents Richard Pickup and Mark Tootell.

While the achievement is frequently thought of as a young engineer's passport to improved career prospects, it also applies to older, more experienced staff, says Bill Hewlett, Costain's Group Technical Director.

"Very often it's associated with graduates who are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but there are also some people for whom it's the fulfilment of a mid-career aspiration," he notes.

Whatever the status of the person involved, undertaking the process involves several years of work, much of it in their own time. "There's a lot of support from within the company, such as training schemes and workshops, but it does require an equal measure of commitment of personal time." (See below.)

Typically this amounts to a couple of evenings a month over four to five years, plus several weekends when preparing a final submission.

That submission contains a career review (essentially an extended CV); a project report setting out what the candidate has brought to a particular job on which they have worked; and the actual organisation of the submission, which means arranging the necessary paperwork and getting their sponsors lined up.

"It's peer review. It's the top professional benchmark," says Hewlett, who takes office as a vice-president of the ICE in November this year.

Gaining Chartered status is important for several reasons, he adds. Apart from the sense of personal achievement and potential improvement of career prospects, it demonstrates to Costain's customers that the Group is serious about encouraging its personnel to seek the highest professional qualifications and that the staff on their projects are well-suited to the demands of modern construction.

"It's also important in terms of leading their own people," he comments. If a Project Manager does not have Chartered status but his younger staff do, or have aspirations in that field, it can potentially affect the PM's ability to lead and inspire.

One engineer's journey

Mark Tootell joined Costain as a Graduate Engineer in July 2002 and is currently External Works Agent on the St Germans pumping station contract in Norfolk.

He describes Chartered status as "always an aspiration" and signed up for Costain's ICE training agreement shortly after joining the Group. However, pressure of work led to the process drifting until he attended an ICE Professional Review workshop in February 2009.

He feels that five years' experience "is the absolute minimum" before applying for Chartered status.

Mark recommends developing a timetable to keep the application programme on track and "I would commend the ICE workshop for anyone thinking of starting the process."

While his year-long spurt towards qualification saw him putting in two evenings a month for the first six months, the time required rose thereafter, with last Christmas's holidays being heavily devoted to writing his project and experience reports. He also put in time over six weekends early this year on final preparations for his submission.

What does he gain from his successful application? "Costain is a large organisation and, although I am respected as an engineer and manager by my immediate team, I hope being MICE CEng will extend that respect to people who haven't had the pleasure of working with me!

"The qualification is great for Costain but, more importantly, it is a personal achievement of which I am very proud."

The Costain team at the Greater Manchester Waste project is now over the halfway mark in its efforts to help make Greater Manchester a greener region.

Costain is undertaking the work under a £397million contract signed in April 2009 to revitalise the municipal waste treatment infrastructure for Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) - the largest municipal waste contract in Western Europe.

The contract covers the design and build of 42 facilities spread across 27 sites. These include 24 household waste recycling centres (12 of which are being completely redeveloped), five Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plants, three In-Vessel Composting plants, one Materials Recovery Facility, seven Transfer Loading Stations and two Green Waste facilities.   

By the end of May, Costain had handed over 25 of the facilities as weather conditions that had hampered progress over the winter improved. Indeed, one plant, the Bredbury Parkway household recycling centre, was handed over no less than four months early. A further five sites are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

At the MBTs, work is now moving from the civils stage to plant installation.

As rubbish moves through the treatment process metals are removed for recycling, while paper and plastics are shredded to form a fuel for power stations.

The remaining materials are fed through the anaerobic digestion process to recover gas, which then powers on-site Combined Heat and Power Plants to produce electricity to run the facility, exporting the excess back in to the National Grid.

Increasing waste segregation capabilities and recycling is the main priority at the household waste recycling centres, which are being redeveloped to make them easier for the public to use, as well as providing better working conditions for their workforces.

With work taking place on existing sites throughout the region, a major complexity of the project has been the need often to construct new buildings in close proximity to existing facilities that must be kept operational.

Project Director, John Boyd, commented: "Another commendable achievement by the team has been maintaining all existing facilities in a fully operational state, open to members of the public and, in some cases, dealing with more than 500 vehicle movements a day whilst completely rebuilding the facility."

GMWDA handles some 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste per year. A major aim behind the new contract will be to increase the amount of material recycled from more than 30% last year to at least 50% of all waste by 2015.

While the near completed bypass for Church Village in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, is bringing relief to the communities along the previously congested A473, the first use of a revolutionary manhole system is also making life easier for design and build contractor Costain.

The contractor trialled more than 150 of Kijlstra's square pre-cast concrete manholes on the three-year, £90 million project - the largest highways project undertaken by any local authority in the UK - and will now use them on every suitable future project.

The Kijlstra system can typically be installed up to 16 times quicker than traditional systems on standard units. At Church Village, it took from as little as an hour for each system to be excavated, supported, bed prepped, transported to the precise location, installed and backfilled.

Manufactured from self-compacting concrete and poured monolithically with benching to guarantee optimum size consistency and strength, the system is combined with a perfect finish that gives a 120-year design life.

And once on site, the Kijlstra standard square manhole can be typically installed by just a couple of men and an excavator in 30 minutes compared to the one to two days it takes on average to install traditional round manholes. This off-site ability means the Kijlstra system is cost effective in multiple ways, from requiring less men, materials and plant to start with, to taking less time, and therefore money, to install.

In addition, because the manufacturing process ensures the square manholes are just as strong and robust as their predecessors, they do not need reinforcing or shuttering, saving more time and minimising Health and Safety issues.

The new Bypass was procured by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council and was funded by means of a Transport Grant from the Welsh Assembly Government. The Church Village Bypass runs through the basin of a valley, with a significant part intersecting wetlands and marsh area so the geography of the area made the drainage works a very significant part of the construction.

The Kijlstra manholes are located in various locations throughout the site that comprises seven kilometres of single carriageway, 1.5km of side roads, four roundabouts, one overbridge, one underpass, three footbridges and nine major culverts, with significant utilities interface and mine treatment works.

The project's Roadworks Manager, John Lee, said: "This project has presented challenging conditions but the many benefits of using the Kijlstra system meant we were able to counter these challenges throughout.

He added, "Product quality is excellent and as the system is factory-produced, quality is assured. As the manholes are benched and finished in the factory, once installed no further work is required which saves a significant amount of time. This also eliminates the need for confined space entry normally associated with finishing works required for traditional systems."

The project's Drainage Quantity Surveyor, Joshua Edwards, added: "The system reduces volume of construction and helps drive down waste which makes our operations more efficient, leading to potential cost savings and improvements to the programme of delivery."

When asked why the project team chose to trial the Kijlstra manholes, Mr Lee added: "As a company, Costain is always looking to innovate to improve delivery to our clients and the Kijlstra system has helped us to achieve this delivery. Our aim is to use Kijlstra products on forthcoming projects where the full benefits of the system can be realised."

4D, the joint venture that combines Costain with United Utilities and MWH, is helping to deliver a £225million environmental improvement scheme to bring cleaner seas to Sussex.

At present the wastewater receives only basic treatment before being released through an outfall pipe 1.8km off the south coast.

Tunnelling underway

By 2012, a combination of 11km of tunnel, three new pumping stations and a wastewater treatment works at Peacehaven, east of Brighton, will see the wastewater fully treated and then dispersed at sea through a new 2.5km pipeline.

Two 2.44-metre diameter tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) - one ceremonially lowered into one of the 16 shafts that are being excavated along the route on 29 June - have just started their work, which will continue 24 hours a day until next January.

"We're looking to achieve between 10 and 40 metres a day in full production," says Craig Reade, Costain's Project Manager (Infrastructure) on the job. "The geology is essentially chalk, with some flint inclusions and possibly some seams, but nothing too challenging." The TBMs will create nine kilometres of tunnels, with pipejacks driving a further two kilometres and a huge barge, Nordic Giant, having already dug the seabed trench into which the new outfall will be placed.

The largest shaft, at Marine Drive on the eastern edge of Brighton, is 46m deep and 17.5m in diameter. When complete, it will house one of the scheme's three pumping stations; the shaft will be divided into 'wet' and 'dry' halves by a central vertical wall. Wastewater will fill the wet half, which will be lifted by pumps in the dry section and travel by gravity towards another pumping station at Portobello, then onwards to the waste water treatment works at Peacehaven, 11km east of the town.

The tunnel will intercept several existing sewers and add their contents to the eastwards flow.

The Marine Drive pumping station will be covered with a distinctive architectural zinc-domed 'landmark structure' with traditional stone walls. The only sign of the shafts will be manhole covers.

Camouflaging the treatment works

How to hide a 39-hectare, 4.5km-perimeter site containing a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment works? Moving 800,000m³ of earth to create a huge hollow into which the plant can be placed, carefully shaping earthworks around it, then covering most of it with a grass roof the size of almost three football pitches, is one way of doing it.

The aim is to retain the views across the South Downs. When complete, the works will be hidden in a large excavation within the re-profiled landscape.

The main complexity of the project is its sheer scale, says Project Manager (Treatment Works) Graham Sugrue. As well as the vast earthworks, the treatment works will use 26,000m³ of concrete, with 39,000m³ employed across the project as a whole.

"This is very much state-of-the-art. It's the biggest plant of its type," he says. The treatment works will include a £6.5million odour control plant and the arriving wastewater will go through a three-stage treatment process.

After having debris, grit and grease removed, primary treatment will remove solid waste in four huge settling tanks. The resulting liquid will then be passed through a deep bed of polystyrene beads in 10 concrete cells. Bacteria will stick to these beads, which will periodically undergo a 'backwash' process to clean them.

The resulting clean water will then be piped out to sea. The solid waste removed during the treatment process forms a sewage sludge. This is treated so it can be safely used as an organic soil conditioner.

Community aspects

There are significant local sensitivities around this scheme, especially bearing in mind the planning process for this scheme begun in 1993, went through two public enquiries and a judicial review before planning permission was finally granted in 2008, says Sugrue.

This has led to a major community relations programme since Costain moved onsite last August. An exhibition centre for the project has been set up and Community Relations Manager James York holds monthly meetings with residents.

Local schools have been visited, with pupils at one, St Margaret's, being asked to suggest names for one of the TBMs. 'Alice' was the winning contender. Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll came up with the idea of Alice going down a rabbit hole after discovering a narrow passage while visiting a relative in Brighton; the TBM is similarly going underground.

The site employs strict noise and access conditions, a roadsweeping vehicle is employed virtually permanently to keep local roads free of mud and dust monitors are placed around the site. Waste generated by the earthworks at Peacehaven must be retained on site.

Pictured top right: As tunnel boring machine Alice is prepared for lowering into position, Brighton Project Director Phil Risbridger (left) welcomes Jon Gilbert, Deputy Headmaster of St Margaret's Primary School, Rottingdean, one of whose pupils chose the TBM's name. Julian Smith, Southern Water's Project Manager (centre) was on hand for the ceremony. 

Pictured bottom right: Tunnel boring machine Alice sees daylight for the last time for several months as it is eased into position at the foot of the Ovingdean shaft, ready to begin work.

A Costain graduate will be taking part in a gruelling week of challenging events for the charity Leukaemia &Lymphoma Research in September.

Justin Cobb, Graduate SHE Advisor on the Evaporator D project is taking part, along with three friends, in The Great Coast to Peak Challenge to raise money for vital research.

Leukaemia and Lymphoma are the most common causes of cancer death in people under 35.  Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is the only UK charity solely dedicated to research into blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

The awesome schedule begins with the 3 Peaks Challenge (12-13 September) which starts in Scotland by climbing Ben Nevis, the tallest of the 3 Peaks... Followed by a morning climb of Scafell Pike in the Lake District, Cumbria...  Then on to Snowdon, in Wales, later that day - all within 24 hours!

From 15-17 September, the group cycles the 'Coast to Coast' challenge.  The journey begins at St Bees on the Cumbrian coast, crossing the Lakeland fells, Northern Pennines and Durham Dales before reaching Roker Beach, Sunderland on the East coast.  The route will mean the group endures 40 miles per day.

The final challenge is The Great North Run on 19 September.  This is the most popular half marathon in the world.  Starting in Newcastle upon Tyne, the runners make their way around the City and out towards the coast, finishing in South Shields.

The idea of the challenge came about as Justin knew someone with this form of cancer, who mentioned The Great North Run as a means of raising money for the charity.  With more thought the group came up with the idea of competing in three events, Justin said: "We made it more of a challenge to raise even more money for charity. It will certainly be challenging to complete three events in a week!"

The group has set a target of £5,000 and the money raised will help with life-saving research in finding causes, improving diagnosis and treatments, and running ground-breaking clinical trials for all blood cancer patients.

Please follow the below link to make a donation:

http://original.justgiving.com/greatcoasttopeak