From payments and contracts to building safety via a new Premier League football stadium, bus station and viaduct, CN readers wanted to read in-depth reporting on a wide range of issues in 2023. Here are the most read features of the year:
10. How do we make modular buildings safer?
The Moorfield Hotel in Shetland was destroyed by fire in 2020. The hotel was built using modular methods
More than eight months after fire-service leaders published a five-page document outlining a litany of concerns about modular buildings, and more than a year-and-a-half after safety body Cross-UK highlighted the potential for concealed spread of fire inside extensive cavities within such structures, CN examined what was being done about the issue. The government had commissioned a new standard for homes built via modern methods, but experts questioned if this went far enough.
9. The six terms Build UK doesn’t want to see in construction contracts
In April, trade body Build UK published a list of six terms it said should be eradicated from construction contracts. Designed to guide those issuing legal documentation, the trade body’s report aimed to improve risk allocation and ultimately result in better projects. Although standard contract forms are used throughout the industry, the group said it was “not uncommon” to see an amendment that was the same length as the off-the-shelf contract it had been added to.
8. A bridge so far: HS2’s Colne Valley viaduct
While one of the most notable events of 2023 was the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, work on the megaproject’s first phase from London to Birmingham continued in earnest throughout the year. In February, CN deputy editor Ben Vogel visited the Colne Valley Viaduct site to hear how main contractor Align JV was overcoming challenges including having to get the new railway across a busy road and several waterways.
7. CN Payment 100: best and worst payers revealed
Payment times have been a perennial issue for the supply chain, and in this feature CN revealed which main contractors paid the fastest and which paid the slowest, according to mandatory published reports. However, with a self-reporting system that does not take the value of invoices into account, the potential for manipulation is high. CN examined if the figures could be trusted and highlighted why prompt payment remains so important.
6. What’s happening with leasehold reform?
Four-and-a-half years after the government vowed to end “unfair leasehold practices” that cause many of England’s five million leaseholders to pay high and opaque service charges and ground rents to their freeholders, as well as hefty costs to extend their leases, the nightmare wasn’t over. CN analysed where prospects for reform stood in June. A bill to reform the system was eventually introduced in November.
5. Will contractors ever ditch diesel?
In the wake of Rishi Sunak delaying the phasing out of combustion engine vehicles until 2035 from 2030, O’Brien Contractors plant manager Kirsti Chappell highlighted that the new target still required huge change from the construction industry. The sector’s path to a diesel-free future was “certainly challenging, but not impossible” she wrote in a comment piece for CN, which pondered how it might achieve the task.
4. McAlpine opens up on recent restructure and profitability problems
Grant Findlay, Sir Robert McAlpine’s executive managing director for buildings
Sir Robert McAlpine’s results for the year to 31 October 2022 revealed a £9.3m pre-tax profit on a £1.07bn revenue. Although sales jumped by 16 per cent, its margin was squeezed to just 0.86 per cent. In August, CN news editor Will Ing spoke to the firm’s executive manager for buildings Grant Findlay about efforts to boost profitability – including a restructure that saw 30 people lose their jobs.
3. New kid on the dock: Everton Stadium
Laing O’Rourke is delivering the new £555m stadium for Premier League football club Everton at Bramley-Moore Dock in Liverpool. CN editor Colin Marrs visited the ongoing build and discovered how a ‘no-blockwork’ strategy means every detail needs to be planned accurately on the construction of the new riverside stadium.
2. Didcot seven years on: no answers, no lessons, no justice
Investigators at Didcot Power Station in 2016
As the investigation into the deaths of four men at the decommissioned Didcot Power Station entered its eighth year, CN spoke to the daughters of two of the workers and one of their former colleagues who was also on site on that fateful day. The feature also highlighted the fact that the industry has received no guidance since the tragedy, and asked experts why this has been the case.
1. All change: The Stockport Interchange
The most-read feature of the year detailed Willmott Dixon’s involvement in the transformation of Stockport with a £90m transport interchange. Will Ing got the inside story on the complex project that will see an old bus station replaced by a modern terminal with 18 bus stands, a covered passenger concourse and shops. The bus station, which will accommodate up to 168 departures per hour, will be topped by a two-acre park linking to a much smaller viaduct structure, Wellington Bridge.