Category: News

O’Brien has won a contract for Project Gateway in the Jewellery Quarter in central Birmingham. The contract will be for the construction of a new Assay Office and will be its second contract with Galliford Try after the successful completion of Solihull College.

Project Gateway is a landmark building marking the Western ‘gateway’ to the Jewellery Quarter and St George’s masterplan. The proposed development has been designed to respond to its location at this key frontage in the Jewellery Quarter, and respect its sitting within the Conservation Area.

The contract will involve the construction of the new building which will be 2/3 storeys high, utilising the sloping nature of the site, and will extend to circa 5,380 sq. m. The environmentally friendly design is proposed to be built to BREEAM ‘Very Good’ standard. The scheme comprises on-site car parking within a secure yard area.

Peter O’Brien, Managing Director, said: “I am extremely pleased to be working alongside Galliford Try again on what will be an exceptionally prestigious contract. We look forward to delivering the contract on time and to budget.”

The contract is due to start at the beginning of May 2014.

O’Brien Contractors has been appointed to work on the construction and redevelopment of an emergency department at New Cross Hospital for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

The development is part of a £30m major healthcare upgrade to bring all emergency services, currently spread out across the hospital site, under one roof. The scheme is being funded under the ProCure21+ framework and will provide additional capacity, a new A&E department, wards and admin space.

Appointed by main contractor, Kier Construction, O’Brien will deliver a range of enabling and ground works in a live hospital environment – including bulk excavation to remove in excess of 5000m3 of spoil, drainage diversions in excess of 5m deep through blue routes and reinforced concrete alteration works to existing service tunnels.

Phil Griffiths, Commercial Director said: “The new centre is a very important emergency healthcare facility for Wolverhampton and we are delighted to be delivering enabling and groundworks for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.”

Reinforced concrete sub structures including: lift pits and switch room, a ground floor slab, reinforced concrete works to upper floors, as well as the external works: roads, car parks and footpaths, are also included in the package.

“We are operating in a live hospital environment with a tight and challenging programme. However, our early involvement in the project and close collaboration with Kier’s, has enabled us to plan thoroughly, identify gaps in design to ensure our works are delivered with minimal disruption to hospital operations and patients.”

Matt Pugh, Senior Project Manager of Kier Construction said: “We have been very impressed with the professionalism shown by O’Brien in all areas from the help and assistance they provided pre contract, through to planning, rationalising of scope and execution of all their tasks on site. This is the first time we have worked with O’Brien’s, but we already consider them a key member of our supply chain and we will benchmark our other groundworkers against their performance.”

O’Brien is currently on site with a planned opening date for the new department of November 2015.

In the latest of a long line of business award successes, O’Brien Contractors has won two more prizes at the 2014 Celebrating Construction Awards. The company was chosen as the winner in the Innovation category and also received the Value Award.

Both awards are for O’Brien’s Dove Project, which saw it deliver a £10m groundworks and civil engineering package in December 2012 for Nestle’s new production complex in Staffordshire.

What made the project stand out for the judging panel is that when O’Brien surveyed the site ready for their January 2013 start they discovered that the originally tendered design was no longer feasible, due to 2012 being England’s wettest year on record. Ground conditions had seriously deteriorated and both the cost and programme for the specified works had extended considerably. But Managing Director, Peter O’Brien, used his experience and value engineering approach to lead his team to an innovative solution that saved money and time as well as delivering the project to its original programme, dramatically reducing safety risks on site, saving tonnes of materials from going to landfill and reducing the whole life cost of the site’s infrastructure.

Managing Director, Peter O’Brien said: “We are thrilled that the dedication the team showed to resolving these issues in a way that didn’t cost the client more money, and also protected the environment, has been recognised. Our approach to business is one of continual improvement and we really put this into action with this project.”

The original design required OBrien’s vehicles to pass through Nestle’s existing factory complex intermingling with their own traffic and employee’s pedestrian routes. Specified works alone required at least 9000 20T lorry movements. Over 40,000m3 of spoil was to be taken off site and transported to landfill as it was not suitable for re-use, with an estimated 270,000 miles of haulage (16.5T CO2).

O’Brien’s value engineering experience led them to come up with a new solution that was the ideal option due to the changing water conditions. The new solution used lime stabilisation to avoid taking the spoil off site, created stable conditions for alternative site road access, working hard standings for the construction works and stable conditions for buildings, roads and yards required in the final development – and at a reduced cost with no time delays.

All stakeholders -– Nestlé, John Sisk & Sons, Faithful+Gould, and specialist subcontractor TR Stabilisation – agreed that the solution delivered benefits for the project cost and programme but also to the environment, safety and the local residential neighbourhood.

Peter O’Brien said: “We are looking forward to delivering more successful projects throughout 2014 and will continue to pursue our goal of continual improvement so that we can deliver the best possible service for our customers, and remain an employer of choice for the best construction professionals in the industry.”

O’Brien has struck gold in recognition of the way it protects its staff from accidents and injury.

O’Brien Contractors, based in Cubbington, has won the Gold Award in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2014.

The company will be presented with the prize at a ceremony at the Hilton Metropole, at the NEC, on Thursday, May 15.

RoSPA, a national charity, aims to save lives and reduce injuries and in support of that mission, the awards – which date back 58 years – recognise the commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention at work.

Through the scheme, which is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas, judges consider entrants’ overarching occupational health and safety management systems including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

It is the latest in a string of awards for O’Brien Contractors including Contractor of the Year at the Building Awards 2014, a National Chamber Award and the SME Award at the Celebrating Construction Awards.

O’Brien Contractors managing director Peter O’Brien said the RoSPA award was particularly special.

He said: “Any recognition of the company’s qualities and practices is great news but health and safety is such a huge issue in construction and so to achieve gold in the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards is testament to just how seriously we take it.

“Credit has to go to our management team and all of our staff for ensuring that health and safety is a priority on each and every contract we carry out.

“Health and safety can, sometimes, be given a bad name because people see it as overly bureaucratic or unnecessarily restrictive on businesses but, in our view, it is vital that companies of all sizes and sectors – but especially in construction – do everything they can to protect staff and, indeed, the public.”

O’Brien Contractors was established by Peter’s father, Thomas O’Brien, 55 years ago. Peter and his brother, Michael, got involved around 35 years ago and, in 1995, took it from a partnership to a limited company.

The firm invested heavily during the recession and that has started to pay off with turnover rising and a range of awards.

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said: “The RoSPA Awards encourage the raising of occupational health and safety standards across the board.

“Organisations that gain recognition for their health and safety management systems, such as O’Brien Contractors, contribute to a collective raising of the bar for other organisations to aspire to, and we offer them our congratulations.”

In the latest of a long line of business award successes, O’Brien Contractors has won the 2014 Building Awards Contractor of the Year (up to £300m) prize. The award recognises the company for demonstrating improvements and excellence in all areas of the business.

The judges chose O’Brien as the winners as the firm has been involved in projects over the past year that have delivered outstanding features and innovative solutions. These include a £4m demolition and landscaping project for Aston University; and a £1.3m project for Nightowl Truckstop that saw 82 lorry parking bays installed, along with 10,000m2 of concrete hard standing, storm outfall drainage, CCTV cameras around the perimeter and a 2.4m fence with electrical topping. This project met “Secured by Design” standards and has been awarded a “Park Mark” safety certificate from the police.

Other criteria that the company was considered to have delivered outstanding results in include customer satisfaction, sound management of the difficult economic conditions, sustainability, supply chain management, health and safety improvements, impressive Corporate Social Responsibility approaches, R&D investments and staff satisfaction and development opportunities.

O’Brien has demonstrated excellence and improvements in all of these categories. The four-year, self-funded £1.7m diversification programme that it implemented in 2008 has seen it achieve a 203% increase in profits since 2012. The company has also expanded from just providing civil engineering and groundworks to offering a wider range of services, which include design, levelling, plant hire, sewerage, construction, internal finishing, road/car park installation, maintenance and facilities management.

Managing Director, Peter O’Brien said: “We are all absolutely delighted to have received this prestigious award in recognition of the hardwork and dedication that everyone in the business has put in to help us achieve our goals.”

Other achievements that have resulted in the shortlisting for this award include:

• Productivity increased by 8% (calculated by turnover generated per head)
• Client base increased from 50 to 54
• Repeat business increased from 80% to 85%
• Tender success increased from 19% to 24%
• Turnover increased 2.3%, from £13.8m to £14.1m
• Training hours increased by 21%

The company has also introduced an Apprenticeship programme and fast-track mentoring scheme, supported 15 ex-offenders on leaving prison to gain qualifications, and offers work experience placements to students. It has also partnered with software and machinery specialists Korec to develop the “Sensefly Singlet Cam” aerial camera, which allows photography and land surveys to be conducted from the sky, saving both time and money.

Peter O’Brien said: “We are looking forward to delivering more successful projects throughout 2014 and will continue to pursue our goal of continual improvement so that we can deliver the best possible service for our customers, and remain an employer of choice for the best construction professionals in the industry.”

O’Brien Contractors has been at the heart of the construction for Nestle’s new £200 million coffee manufacturing centre, the project is progressing well in to 2014, below details the success that Sisk, Nestle and O’Brien have seen thorough out the contract.

Overview

Nestle UK is investing £200 million to enhance its soluble coffee manufacturing centre at Tutbury bringing together for the first time, all forms of coffee production on one site, including freeze dried, spray dried and pod technology – an investment that will create around 140 new jobs in the region. This is in addition to recent investments in DOLCE GUSTO manufacturing which has already created an additional 400 jobs over the last few years.

The new factory development will comprise of a series of interlinked blocks of varying height and scale. These include the reception building for coffee beans, roasting, extraction and drier buildings, as well as buildings for packing, storage, utilities and workshops.

Buildings will range in scale from single-storey engineering workshops to the extraction building, which is a concrete framed tower of over 30m in height.

The appearance of the new factory development will be defined by a carefully selected approach to the cladding finish of the buildings. The profile and colour of the cladding will be selected to add interest and break up the apparent mass of the individual building blocks.

The development will appear as a substantial group of new buildings in the local landscape. From many viewpoints, the new buildings will be seen against the backdrop of the existing factory.

However, they will have an edge to open countryside and there is a recognition that there needs to be landscape treatment around the development to act as a transition from the new factory to open agricultural land.

Progress

After one year of construction the buildings are substantially in place. Site clearing started in January 2013 and over the summer the building frames were constructed with cladding commencing in late 2013. Some of the large processing equipment was installed in late 2013 with the majority due for installation in 2014. New electricity, gas and water supplies are being brought to site to support the increased scale of the factory however the new installation is the most energy efficient factory of it’s type to have been built by Nestle.

As the factory is seen as a long term investment in a manufacturing centre, the size and durability of the factory have been designed accordingly. The concrete frames provide significant fire protection compared to steel frames and the cladding is designed to diminish noise emission as well as insulate the building.

Over 300 hundred people are active on the site each day and in 2013 there were no lost time accidents. The project team have strong safety management procedures in place and contractors are selected with a strong emphasis being given to their safety track record.

The new Nescafe building will be fully operational late 2014 and already the first new starters have joined, spending their first fortnight working through the factory induction process and then moving onto the general overview of coffee manufacture before specialising.

Leading midlands groundworks and civil engineering contractor, O’Brien, has secured another contract at Aston University’s Student Village.

The new £214m Student Village is a residential scheme comprising 2350 en-suite bedrooms on the university’s campus in Birmingham City Centre. The scheme provides the highest standards of quality, sustainability and security, at the heart of the campus.

Acting as principal contractor, O’Brien will undertake the hard and soft landscaping around the university grounds following the construction of the Aston Student Villages Development.

Stuart Chamberlain, Director, O’Brien, said: “The new contract is something we are particularly proud to have won, as  it means we have had a regular presence on the £214 million development over the last seven years, from commencement to completion.”

O’Brien cut the first “sod” when they carried out the Phase 1 enabling works in 2008 and they will lay the last slab in Phase 3 landscaping works in 2014.

The 20 week project is valued at £1.25 million and will commence in May 2014.

Leading groundworks and civil engineering contractor, O’Brien, has secured another contract for Lovell, on the Borona SFA Development for the MoD at Stafford. The contracted works consists of the section 278 Works to form the new entrance into the proposed development.

The overall value for the scheme is £6 million and comprises of the ‘design and build’ of circa 360 service family accommodation houses, including soft and hard landscaping, utilities services supplies both on and off site along with onsite infrastructure and section 278 works to complete the project.

We are extremely pleased to have secured further works with Lovell and look forward to assisting them on their upcoming development.

As 2013 draws to a close, O’Brien Contractors is celebrating the most successful year in the company’s 56 year history.

O’Brien’s won numerous prestigious projects, developed important new partnerships, created 23 jobs and grew turnover to its highest ever level.

It was also named as Company of the Year in the 2013 Chamber Awards and won several other awards:

• Celebrating Construction SME Award for the West Midlands
• Diamond Standard for Customer Satisfaction
• International CSR Excellence Award in the Environment Category
• Birmingham Post Business Award for Property including Regeneration and Estate Management
• CSR World Leader 2014 Award

Additionally, Managing Director, Peter O’Brien, received the Outstanding Personal Achievement Award at the National Chamber Awards and was named as Business Person of the Year in the Pride of Warwick Awards.

These awards recognise O’Brien’s has excelled across all areas of the business by increasing efficiency and turnover, providing staff development and improving standards for staff, clients, suppliers, the environment and the wider community.

Peter O’Brien said: “To win these awards is a wonderful endorsement of how hard everyone at O’Brien’s has worked to achieve our goals: to deliver the best service to our customers and to improve the efficiency and environmental impact of construction projects, while also providing opportunities for our staff to realise their potential and making a positive impact on the communities we work in.”

All of these developments are part of the business diversification plan that Peter O’Brien implemented after the business was hit by the global financial crisis and saw profit and turnover drop significantly in 2008.

This approach has seen O’Brien’s involved in multiple projects this year delivering schemes ranging from sports pitches, Olympic standard swimming pools, highways and commercial units to schools, universities, railway stations, hospitals and commercial housing developments.

O’Brien Contractors, a specialist civil engineering firm providing best-practice, cost-effective design and build services for a wide range of construction projects, has been named as Company of the Year in the 2013 National Chamber Awards, and its Managing Director, Peter O’Brien, also received the Outstanding Personal Achievement Award at the ceremony in November.

The Company of the Year Award recognises businesses that have excelled by increasing efficiency and turnover, providing staff development and improving standards for staff, clients, suppliers, the environment and the wider community. As well as creating 23 new jobs in 2013, the company has received several industry awards and accreditations, achieved its highest turnover ever and taken part in community events that have raised over £7000 for charity.

Peter O’Brien said: “To win the Company of the Year award is a wonderful endorsement of how hard everyone at O’Briens has worked to achieve our goals. We are all dedicated to delivering the best service to our customers while also striving to improve the efficiency and environmental impact of construction projects. It’s also very important to us that we provide the opportunities for our staff to realise their potential and that we make a positive impact on the communities we work in.”

The Company of the Year Award comes with a £25,000 cheque, which O’Briens will be investing in its apprenticeship programme to help more young people to enter the construction industry and into the company’s community fund that is used to provide free computer and playground equipment to local schools.

The Outstanding Personal Achievement Award acknowledges an individual who has demonstrated dedication, professionalism and integrity within their role resulting in a positive impact on the business. Peter O’Brien has been instrumental in transforming the business in the past four years – diversifying into new service areas, investing in new technologies and marketing campaigns, and helping the business to recover strongly from the recession.

Mr O’Brien said: “I am overwhelmed and delighted to have been given the Outstanding Personal Achievement Award. However, everyone at O’Briens has worked together to achieve our business transformation and this award really reflects our joint efforts and successes.”