A falling pane of glass from a water tower has killed a 51 Year old man working for a sub-contractor on a wates refurbishment job. It is understood that the victim was working on the top floor eastbourne terrace where wates is renovating the 18 storey Block. Click Here to read more.
Interserve tipped for £300m armed forces rehab centre
Interserve are set to win the contract to build a new rehabilitation complex for injured members of the armed forces in Leicestershire.
Pre-Constuction Phase
The objective of CDM 2015 appears to have been to allocate responsibility for health and safety before construction work begins to principal designers, who would hand over this responsibility to principal contractors when construction work started.
Global construction firms struggling with skills gaps
A shortage of skilled construction workers is among the main concerns of building industry chiefs around the world, according to the results of a new survey.
Around half of project owners polled by KPMG Admitted they had found it difficult finding skills construction workers. It is just one of number of issues facing the heads of building firms around the world, from failing projects to problems meeting budget estimates.
There were budget problems for many in the survey after just 31% of projects the sample had worked on came within 10% of the original cost estimates.
And 70% said they thought one of the main reasons for this lies in a failure to accurately plan for delays.
Just over 100 senior managers took part in the survey, which was carried out at the end of last year and mainly involved face-to-face interviews.
CDM REGULATIONS 2015 INDUSTRY GUIDANCE UPDATE
The Construction Industry Training Board has now published final versions of industry guidance on The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015)
Draft versions were made available shortly before CDM 2015 came into force on 6th April 2015. The published versions now come in printer friendly and web-interactive format.
The guidance includes useful information on the actions required of the new Principal Designer (PD) role and how the PD should coordinate and manage design risk management by others during the project Pre-Construction Phase.
Clients face increased scrutiny under new CDM rules
Clients will face greater legal scrutiny over health and safety standards following the introduction of the first new Construction Design and Management regulations for eight years. Among a range of measures, clients must ensure that sufficient time and resources are allocated to dealing with health and safety issues at appropriate stages throughout a project.
Response from HSE after critisism of it’s ‘Beware Asbestos’ Campaign
The HSE recently started the campaign for Asbestos awareness which is aimed at trades people and workers who undertake jobs which intentionally or unintentionally disturb asbestos. The United Kingdom Asbestos training association have appeared to be arguing against the campaign as they claim it could lead to untrained people attempting to remove asbestos.
CDM Regulations await parmlamentary Approval
The changes of the CDM Regulations were laid before the parliament on the 30th January for approval. The new regulations will be coming into place on the 6th April. A draft guidance has been produced by the HSE for the 5 duty holders; clients, contractors, designers, principal contractors and principal designers. The draft guidance document is available to download from the CITB website. Click HERE to be directed to the draft guidance page.