Grow your own! Is it back?

O’Brien have recently carried out several contracts for allotments in Wolston, Cubbington and Tiddington, Stratford upon Avon. With “Earth Day” this month, it got our team thinking about sustainable living and how facilities, such as allotments allow us to consider how we impact the environment and encourage us, once again to grow our own and step away from convenience.

With many of our clients, particularly the housing industry encouraging greener living and investing in the new homes they are creating, our client Spitfire Homes is a great example of this and the space they are creating on their site in Wolston, Rugby to encourage sustainable futures.

The team were instructed by Spitfire Homes to clear the site of overgrown existing allotments and disposing of the site’s waste to allow for 79 new plots. The site required stripped and levelled topsoil with the existing topsoil screened and reused to cover the area. This avoided bringing new topsoil in and allowed us to recycle what the site had, reducing deliveries to site. Stone roads were built around the allotments to allow access and bases/slabs were laid ready for sheds and greenhouses. O’Brien supplied and erected all sheds and greenhouses and constructed perimeter fencing. The contract was successfully completed and handed back to the client for the next phase of the development.

O’Brien’s Commitment

Net Zero: With over fifty years of history delivering civil engineering and construction across all sectors of the Built Environment, O’Brien Contractors have always shown a commitment to their Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment.  Our Net Zero Champion, Vicki, is responsible for setting net zero carbon targets and defining the businesses strategy to de-carbonise future operations.

Vicki commented: “Protecting our Environment and climate change represents some of the greatest challenges we face today in Construction. At O’Brien Contractors Limited, we understand the behavioral change needed across our Industry.”

Plant: O’Brien Contractors Limited continues to invest in the latest plant and technology to help improve operational efficiencies and reduce Green House Gas emissions. O’Brien’s continue to lead the way in Modern Methods of Construction for groundworks and civil engineering.

An example of this is our EC300E Hybrid Fuel Efficiency / Reduced CO2 Emissions. The result is up to 17% increase in fuel efficiency on standard EC330E, but also the same levels of controllability and performance as the standard EC300E. That allows the EC300E Hybrid to reduces its CO₂ emissions by up to 15%* making it a more environmentally respectful choice, especially when working in built-up areas.

What is Earth Day? Earth Day, 22nd April, is meant to demonstrate support for environmental protection through global events coordinated by the Earth Day Network. Whether it is changing your diet for a day or shrinking your carbon footprint, there are many ways to participate in Earth Day. Food for Earth Day Earth Day is less about celebratory foods and more focused on the food we eat often. You can celebrate Earth Day by being cognizant of what you are eating and how it impacts the environment.

Gearing up for the Charity Bike Ride

Not long now until 14 intrepid cyclists take on the Charity Bike Ride – “Tour of Cambridgeshire.” The team will be cycling up to 100-miles each for O’Brien Charitable Trust.

We would like to thank our corporate sponsors for their incredible support. Jersey Sponsorship has raised an impressive c.£8,000, as you can see they look fantastic!

These sponsors include:

With the 4th of June approaching fast this leaves only 6 weeks to go. If you would still like to support our fundraising event, please donate here or email info@obriencontractors.co.uk.

We are celebrating National Pet Day

At O’Brien Contractors we have an abundance of pet lovers who are keen to help bring awareness to those animals that are in homes & shelters by celebrating National Pet Day (NPD).

We wanted to share a selection of our teams beloved pets. We hope by raising awareness of NPD, this will help to decrease the figures seen across animal shelters.

Many of our team are advocates for caring for pets and how it can improve mental health in many ways, including: companionship, adding structure to your day, encouraging exercise, and helping to reducing anxiety. All areas that can help to manage the highs and lows of life.

National Pet Day celebrates the joy that pets bring into people’s lives and encourages people to help reduce the number of animals in shelters. Bringing humans and animals together helps make the world a better place. Find out more about NPD: https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/pet-day/

If you would like to help and donate to our local shelter: Dog’s Trust Kenilworth – click here.

RoSPA President’s Award for 10 Years of RoSPA Gold

Now into its 67th year, the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards is the largest occupational health and safety awards programme in the UK. The programme recognizes an organisations’ commitment to continuous improvement in the prevention of accidents and ill health at work, looking at entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

O’Brien Contractors are committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for all our staff. O’Brien  provides ongoing training, information, supervision and health advice so that all of our employees are competent to work safely and we are committed to providing the resources necessary to support this provision.

Managing Director, Peter O’Brien, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded our 10th RoSPA Gold Award and to receive a President’s Award as recognition of this is outstanding. It’s a fantastic achievement and a positive reflection of all who work for us. We are dedicated to Health & Safety and making sure that every element of our works are delivered with the upmost safety in mind. This 10th gold award is proof that it is always a priority.”

Our industry-leading standards have also been recognised with many other occupational health and safety accreditations ranging from CHAS Gold, Achilles Building Confidence and RISQS. With O’Brien Contractors successfully completing our recent audit for ISO9001, ISO14001 and IS045001 for 2023.

Masterchef in the Building for Thai Friday!

Our very own Masterchef  Anthony Watson has cooked up a treat for the office today, by cooking us all a beautiful homemade and extremely delicious Thai Yellow Curry with Jasmine Rice for his Thai Friday theme day. Anthony is a keen chef in his spare time, cooking up a variety of delicious curries!

Anthony has organised the day to raise money for our O’Brien Charitable Trust.  https://trust.obriencontractors.co.uk/

Thanks Anthony!

O’Brien wins the SAPCA Large Project of the Year 2023!

O’Brien are absolutely delighted to have won the award for Large Project of the Year from SAPCA for our Old Saltleians RFC project!

Using our in-house civil engineering & building construction expertise, along with our extensive sports development experience, we delivered a turnkey design & build solution for the client, to develop 17 acres of former farmland into a sports facility with 6 natural turf pitches, a clubhouse and associated infrastructure.

Beginning with a Breaking Ground Ceremony in November 2021 O’Brien commenced works to develop seventeen acres of fallow arable farmland into a state of the art facility. The new grounds would provide a clubhouse and 6 natural turf pitches, ecological area as well as ample parking for cars and coaches.

O’Brien worked extremely closely with the Old Saltleians Rugby Club along with their consultants and design team, Robinson Lowe Francis (RLF), AJA Architects, Nolan Associates and PSD to bring the project from a concept to a completed facility fit for the future. The project was completed on time and to budget.

 

Matt Wins Our First Staff Photo Competition!

Matt Moore submitted a great photo, taken on our site at Fairham, where we are carrying out works for Clowes Developments.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/fairham-project-starts-to-take-shape/

The winning photo by Matt, was taken whilst visiting the Fairham site on a foggy morning in December.  The photo was of two of our excavators, the first one framing the second one.  We thought it was a great shot of the machines at work on site and Matt won a £50 Amazon E Voucher and a certificate for his efforts.  Well done Matt!

In October 2022 we decided to launch a new competition for staff for site photography, with the winning photo chosen in conjunction with each quarterly staff newsletter. The criteria included the following;

  • Good Health & Safety
  • Quality of Workmanship
  • Artistic (lighting, focus)
  • Significant stage of works (crane use)

 

Kevan Fell Wins the Last Employee Award for 2022!

Kevan Fell has been awarded our quarterly ‘Outstanding Employee Award’ for the last quarter of 2022, for his hard work on our Fairham Park and Ride Highways Works project.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/fairham-project-starts-to-take-shape/

Site Manager Tim Murphy said “Kevan’s good all-round attitude at work and the pride taken shaping batters and ponds at our Nottingham site has been top notch, also taking charge of his own sections of work, showing his overall knowledge in earth moving and plant operation, as well as the understanding of work needed to achieve programme dates.

Well done to Kevan!

O’Brien values the skills, experience, and dedication of our site teams.

In recognition of this, we have for many years run the ‘Employee Outstanding Achievement Award.’ The award goes to a member of one of our site teams each quarter to coincide with our quarterly newsletter.

Project Managers nominate the operative that they think has gone above and beyond for the previous quarter and the candidate with the most recommendations win the award. In recognition of their outstanding contribution on site, the winner gets a £500 cheque and a certificate.

Tony Mitchell going for the Paul Hollywood Look in the Movember Challenge (sponsor him here)!

The contest is hotting up, with our Director Tony Mitchell going for a very distinguished Paul Hollywood look.  Click on the link to sponsor him, make sure you mention his name in your donation message. https://trust.obriencontractors.co.uk/

Our Movember contestants have taken up the fuzzy challenge for our 2022 challenge to raise money for the O’Brien Trust charity.

The boys in the office do us proud every year raising money for the Charitable Trust in the Movember Challenge, and they are very competitive!

  • Dan Taylor – QS
  • Tony Mitchell – Director
  • Matthew Moore – Buyer
  • James O’Brien – Workshop Manager

They will be growing those top lip warmers for the whole of November (possibly glad of the extra warmth during this time of year)!

If you would like to sponsor any of our contestants, use our Paypal donation button (we get Gift Aid as well), leave a message and don’t forget to say who you are sponsoring with your donation! (message function comes up after payment, just be patient and wait for the screen to pop up).

We are working towards our £15,000 goal for 2022.

The Office Ladies Getting in on the Act in 2022!

The girls in the office will be joining in this year, with a competition for the most ridiculous fake face fuzz, wearing it for 3 hours on the 25 November!

Just in case you don’t know, if the staff raise £15,000 between January and the end of December, the O’Brien Directors match that amount, so we have £30,000 to distribute in January 2023 to our chosen small charities and community organisations.

We really appreciate all the support and sponsors, not just for this event, but all of our events and fundraising efforts throughout the year.

THANK YOU FROM THE O’BRIEN TEAM!

SAPCA and FIH Approved Sports Pitch Construction Projects

O’Brien have been members of SAPCA (Sports and Play Association) for a number of years for artificial turf pitches and MUGA’s, and decided it was time to request formal recognition and approval for natural turf pitches which we have been constructing for many years.  So earlier this year SAPCA did it’s first inspection on our natural turf projects, choosing our Western Park Project Phase 1 and Phase 2 where we constructed several natural turf pitches as part of the project and our current project at Old Saltleians RFC, which at the time was in its very early phases.

A few weeks ago, SAPCA once again visited our Old Saltleians RFC project which had developed quite significantly since SAPCA’s previous visit.  They also visited our Solihull School completed project where we have completed a significant natural turf and construction project, and our Bromsgrove School project where we had installed a hockey and tennis courts resurfacing project, along with car park extension works.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/solihull-school-st-martins-redevelopment-project/

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/old-saltleians-rfc-new-rugby-grounds-and-clubhouse-development/

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/bromsgrove-school-worcestershire/

O’Brien’s Sport Facilities Expertise and Experience

O’Brien offer turnkey solutions for multiple sports facilities, ranging from rugby, football, hockey pitches to stadiums and arenas.

We have a wealth of experience in sports pitch construction, and we are one of the first large contractors to be able to offer turnkey solutions for multiple sports facilities, ranging from rugby, football, hockey pitches to stadiums and arenas.

This capability is maintained in-house by our team of experts who have a proven track record of delivering a diverse range of design and build sports projects to exacting client specifications.

We offer a full range of sports pitch services, including:

  • Full design and build construction projects
  • Synthetic and multi-use games area (MUGA) pitches
  • Pitch renovations
  • Natural sports pitches
  • Total solutions for sports pitches

The sports installations that we deliver include natural sports pitches, such as those used for rugby, football and cricket, and synthetic and Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) pitches with surfaces suitable for just about every sport and user, from professional sports teams to schools and communities.

We provide the total solution from concept to construction to design and build all Synthetic and Natural Sports Surfaces.

FIH (International Hockey Federation) Certified Field Builder for Hockey Pitches

FIH Certified Field Builders specialise in building hockey fields and have a proven ability to construct fields to the standards the game requires. They have appropriate in-house civil engineering expertise for the design and construction of 11-a-side and Hockey 5s fields, operate quality management systems to ensure consistency in their work and provide comprehensive maintenance advice to their customers.

http://www.fih.ch/inside-fih/fih-quality-programme-for-hockey-turf/find-out-who-has-fih-certification/fih-certified-field-builders/

SAPCA Quality System

SAPCA’s Quality System ensures that only specialist companies that can consistently deliver high standards of sports and play facilities can join SAPCA and then remain as members. Members must have a proven track record and trading history, with SAPCA checking that contractors are able to offer clients the necessary high standards of workmanship and must also meet financial stability criteria.

Standards of design and construction

SAPCA has a series of Codes of Practice that set out the industry’s standards of construction. SAPCA members must comply with the required construction specifications and quality of completed work.

Inspection of contractors’ projects

In order to ensure that SAPCA contractors continue to deliver high quality facilities, the Association has an inspection programme, through which checks are carried out on a selection of members’ projects, both during construction and on completion.

https://sapca.org.uk/