Category: Press Release

We have been appointed to work on Interserve’s multi-million pound regional headquarters in Solihull.

Situated at the heart of the transport network and one of the Midlands’ important regional development programmes – UK Central, the new state-of-the-art headquarters will enable the Global construction and support services company to bring together its West Midlands operations into a single, energy efficient and highly sustainable building.

We will deliver a host of ground works – including: drainage, foundations and reinforced concrete works.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, O’Brien Contractors, said: “The Ingenuity House development marks an exciting new chapter for Interserve and we are extremely delighted to have won this contract to provide groundworks expertise for their new flagship HQ.”

“We’ve developed a business strategy that focusses on becoming a regional strategic partner for leading construction companies, like Interserve. Key to our success is our ability to provide innovative solutions that reduce costs, saves time, delivers operational efficiency and ensures the highest standards of health and safety.”

Established in 1958, we are a second generation, family-run business that has gone from strength to strength and expanded into a range of new sectors.

From commercial units and Olympic-standard sports facilities, hospitals, universities, highways and commercial housing developments, our extensive experience consistently leads to the delivery of class-leading solutions.

Key projects and customers include: the Nestlé factory with John Sisk; the regeneration of Longbridge town centre with Morgan Sindall; and the Primark retail distribution centre with Sir Robert McAlpine.

The Mayor of East Staffordshire, Cllr David Leese cut the ribbon and officially opened Burton Hockey Club’s new full size synthetic grass hockey pitch at Shobnall Leisure Complex, Burton upon Trent.

The new facility, named after Peter Ellis, the former president and a member of the club for 50 years, was constructed by O’Brien Sports, in partnership with Notts Sports, and tested in accordance with “The International Hockey Federation (FIH).

It was Peter’s wish that the club obtained its own playing facilities and when he passed away, he made a generous donation that led to the formation of an Astro committee.

Building on Peter’s generosity, the committee raised additional money that provided support for a grant from Sport England and contributions from a number of other sources.

Ian Brown, Chairman, Burton Hockey Club, said: “It’s all a bit overwhelming that the dream that started five or six years ago – and enhanced by Peter’s legacy – has finally come to fruition.”

“It’s very exciting to have our own pitch for the first time since we formed back in 1889. We have always shared a venue or hired, so it’s the first time we have been able to call somewhere our home.”

Key to O’Brien’s success in securing sports pitch projects, including: a sand dressed hockey pitch at Burton Hockey Club, Christ’s College Finchley 3G football pitch, Gerard Buxton Sports Hub’s 3G football pitch and 8 tennis courts and Oswestry School’s hockey pitch has been their underlying commitment to invest in an earthworks team and the operation of GPS and laser guided plant.

Steve Hillman, O’Brien Sports, General Manager, said: “At tender stage our dedicated earthworks team liaise with both our internal estimators and our clients, and through accurate calculation of material quantities, we are able to deliver clear, accurate and reliable information and advice, before, during and after contracts.

By offering alternative designs at an early stage, we can create a solution that gives clients the best possible results financially and practically. We can also minimise our environmental impact by reducing plant movements and off site material disposal to landfill.”

“Once we are awarded a contract, our machine control expert models the designed earthworks profiles and uploads them remotely to the projects Dozers and Excavators. This then ensures that the plant is ready to work before it even reaches the site.”

If you’ve got a sports pitch project you’re looking to start then call us for a chat about it on 01926 423 918 or email us at info@obriencontractors.co.uk and we’ll get back to you soon.

Quantum Construction has awarded O’Brien Contractors a £900k groundworks package for a regional distribution warehouse in Bedford.

Codenamed Project Gazelle, the new 3,058m2 warehouse, including offices and distribution facility, is for Matthew Clark, a national drinks wholesaler with over 200 years’ experience supplying drink products, hospitality training, labour management and marketing support to over 16,000 On-Trade premises across the UK.

The works to be undertaken by O’Brien include: pad foundations, service yard – including the ramps for the dock levellers, ground floor slab of in-situ concrete and associated drainage.

Operations Manager, Tony Mitchell, said: “We are delighted to have won this contract and have the opportunity to demonstrate our technical expertise to new client Quantum Construction.”

“Organisations are looking for a partner who can provide the most cost-effective solution while always ensuring the best quality and speed of installation, a commitment we apply across all of our projects.”

The safety of employees, sub-contractors and members of the public is our top priority.

With a varied workforce, managing training requirements, ensuring qualifications stay up-to-date and recording all of this information in a meaningful way had become a very complicated and time-consuming job.

By implementing SkillSight, the free skills management software from Reference Point, we have been able to improve the way we raise awareness of health and safety throughout the business and protect employees by ensuring people attend the necessary training courses, providing them with the relevant skills to carry out their jobs on site safely and efficiently.

With a workforce ranging from 100 to 180 depending on the range of projects appointed to, Training Coordinator Kelly Davis has to record thousands of inductions and qualifications on Excel spreadsheets which previously stored all of the company’s training related information, but were difficult to manage.

Added to this, many of the qualifications expire after certain periods so workers have to be booked onto the correct courses at the appropriate times so that they stay accredited as required.

SkillSight allows construction companies to add training and qualifications to the chip on CSCS cards and securely edit the information online at any time. Then the card can be read on site, in the office or anywhere it needs to be, using a card reader or NFC enabled android or Windows smartphone.

Graham Wren, CSCS Chief Executive, said: “It’s encouraging to see that forward thinking contractors like O’Brien are taking advantage of the many benefits that using CSCS smartcards can bring.”

O’Brien’s Training Coordinator, Kelly Davis, said: “Following a successful office-based trial we are rolling SkillSight out onto sites with a view to implementing it on a company-wide system over the next few months. Already it is making managing our training records much easier and quicker and more accurate.”

Andrew Foster, Health and Safety Manager, said: “We are constantly striving to raise awareness of health and safety throughout the business and we aim to protect employees by providing healthy and safe working conditions and by minimising the risk of accident or injury by providing our team with the necessary training and skills to work more safely. The implementation of SkillSight and CSCS smart cards will help us to achieve this goal.”

We are proud to announce we have supported Warwick Myton Hospice in giving the centre a makeover.

Through its’ patient and family support services, the Coventry and Warwickshire based charity provides vital assistance to 1,000 patients and their families each year, from hospices in Warwick, Rugby and Coventry.

The initiative has presented us with the opportunity to give back to the community by donating members of staff to decorate sections of the Myton Hospice in Warwick.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, said: “The specialist care Myton Hospice gives to people who are terminally ill is magnificent. We were delighted to have the opportunity to help maintain one of their first-class facilities, helping ensure their patients have a comfortable environment to be cared in.”

Over the last couple of years, we have adopted a more strategic approach with a number of Midlands-based leading organisations, including: Morgan Sindall, John Sisk & Son, Aston University, Kier Group, Galliford Try, Birmingham City University and Lovell Partnerships. The change in policy has enabled our business to deliver the highest standards across projects in Birmingham, including: St. Modwen’s Longbridge Town Centre Phase 2 scheme, Alumno Developments’ Number One City Locks, Aston Student Village scheme and The New Assay Office and in-turn, grow turnover by 59.98%, from £17.5m to £28.03m.

This financial success has been the driving force behind the company backing a wealth of community support initiatives, including:

• Sponsored two primary schools in Cubbington as part of the ‘For Schools Warwickshire Road Safety Club’.
• Entered a 14-strong team in the 10K Warwickshire Wolf Run Challenge and raised £1,758 for the West Midlands Alzheimer’s Society.
• Funded four assisted holidays for South Warwickshire charity, ILEAP.
• Supported Leamington-based The British Blind Sports charity in their 40^th Anniversary, to assist blind and partially sighted children and adults in their pursuit of sports participation.

“Our business is run on good family values and we actively get involved in schemes that benefit the local community. 2014/2015 has delivered a record turnover and this financial success has given us the platform to be able to do even more with local charities.”

Phill Jones, Myton Hospice, Estates Manager at the Warwick Hospice, said: “We would like to say an extremely big thank you to O’Brien Contractors who have spent almost three weeks helping transform our Warwick Myton Hospice. Their voluntary labour has saved Myton a significant amount of money. We greatly appreciate their hard work and generosity.”

For further information about Myton Hospice, please visit their website: www.mytonhospice.org

We have been awarded the silver prize at the 2015 International Green Apple Environment Awards.

Our earthworks remediation solution, implemented as part of the £11m groundworks and civil engineering package at Nestle’s £200m coffee manufacturing facility, was the key factor for receiving the award.

The judges were looking for evidence that the winning project considered the impact on the environment and contemplated sustainability. With 2012 the wettest year on record, our team were presented with a site containing 40,000m3 of spoil not suitable for re-use. The original solution proposed by our engineer was no longer viable.

To overcome this, we developed and implemented a remediation strategy, that subsequently cut costs by £800k, reduced lorry movements by c7,000 saving 15 tonnes CO2, retained all spoil on-site and reduced imported stone by 70%. Our project team also achieved a zero accident performance with in excess of 90,000 man hours worked and created a safer stable site for ongoing construction work.

Peter O’Brien, Managing Director, said: “Across all the projects we operate on we pride ourselves on delivering a solution that considers the environment. To further endorse this commitment, we will continue to significantly invest in our earthworks service to ensure we provide clients with the most efficient earthworks solutions and also help them reduce waste and costs. Any recognition in the form of an award is very much well received.”

The award judges commented: “The best-laid plans often fall victim to outside influence such as the weather – as was the case with this project for Nestle. After planning approval, the scheme experienced the highest-ever rainfall, which made the plans all but impossible. O’Brien management brainstormed the issue and came up with a novel work-around that utilised remediation instead of excavation that not only got the project back on track, but offered a massive reduction in vehicle movements and saved a whopping 15 tons of CO2 emissions.”

Commenting on the scheme, Ian Donaldson, Project Director, John Sisk & Son, said: “O’Brien Contractors involvement was the catalyst in developing the most cost effective and least environmentally damaging solution to the problem of a saturated site and they have been a crucial factor to the success of the project.”

We are pleased to announce we have been awarded our second Property and Regeneration award in three years at the 2015 Birmingham Post Business Awards.

The accolade marks a major transition which has seen us adopt a more strategic approach with a number of Midlands-based leading organisations, including: Morgan Sindall, John Sisk & Son, Aston University, Kier Group, Galliford Try, Birmingham City University and Lovell Partnerships, with the aim of providing value for money by delivering the most appropriate economical solution for the particular set of circumstances for each specific project.

This approach has enabled us to deliver the highest standards across projects in Birmingham, including: St. Modwen’s Longbridge Town Centre Phase 2 scheme, Alumno Developments’ Number One City Locks, Aston Student Village scheme and The New Assay Office.

Mick O’Brien, Director, O’Brien Contractors, said: “Our aim for all projects is delivery, on time and with zero defects, zero accidents and zero unexpected costs. The fact that 85% of our customer base is now from repeat business shows that our approach works and does deliver the best value for money.”

The achievements that have resulted in us winning the award for a second time include:

• Turnover increased by 59.98%, from £17.5m to £28.03m.
• Delivered 9 multi-million pound contracts which accounted for our 2014 turnover.
• Recruited 5 apprentices from the Birmingham area.
• Health and Safety: Maintained our accident rates well below industry average.
• Awarded consecutive ROSPA gold accolade.
• Invested £2.4m in plant and equipment.

“We have a strong work ethic and we really do value our employees. We take on board local apprentices, support local people and give to local charities. We’re very much at the heart of the community here.”

We have  been appointed to work on Perry Beeches the Academy Trust’s fifth highly-acclaimed free school in Small Heath, Birmingham.

The delivery of a £10 million primary and secondary school facility at the former Virgin Media Office Building and adjacent industrial units will feature a 3 storey extension, sports hall, football pitch, MUGA and car parking.

Appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, we will deliver earthworks and a host of ground works – including foundations, drainage and associated works.

Morgan Sindall is a leading UK construction, infrastructure and design company and our Operations Manager, Tony Mitchell, sees the new contract as an endorsement of the services provided to them at St. Modwen’s Longbridge Town Centre Phase 2 in Birmingham: “We are delighted to be working with Morgan Sindall on this important education project in Birmingham. The past year has seen us work closely with Morgan Sindall, fully understanding their standards, philosophy and objectives and we hope Perry Beeches V will strengthen our relationship further.”

We will draw on our technical expertise, which includes state-of-the-art GPS controlled surveying equipment and machinery, to deliver groundworks services in the most efficient method possible and with minimal waste.

“Our team is well-versed at delivering high-grade education facilities in a live environment having provided civil engineering services on 9 schools as part of the Priority School Building Programme in Coventry and this experience will be pivotal in the execution of the scheme.”

Established in 1958, O’Brien Contractors is a Midlands-based provider of civil engineering, design and build and groundworks services, as well as turnkey sports pitch solutions. Receiving the prestigious five star rating for Achilles BuildingConfidence accreditation in 2014 means O’Brien sits alongside leading names in the construction sector as suppliers of excellent quality work with a commitment to growth and sustainability.

Key projects and customers include the Nestlé factory and Number One City Locks residential building both with John Sisk & Son; Longbridge Town Centre Phase 2 with Morgan Sindall; Aston Student Village for Aston University; and the Primark retail distribution centre with Sir Robert McAlpine.

Picture Caption: Perdip Mann, Secondary Headteacher, Perry Beeches V School, Caz Brasenell, Primary Headteacher, Perry Beeches V School and Tony Fitzgerald, Project Manager, Morgan Sindall.

Since its formation in 1958 by Tom O’Brien, the father of current directors Peter and Mick, specialist civil engineering and groundworks company O’Brien Contractors, based in Leamington Spa has been at the forefront of embracing new technology.

For Peter and Mick O’Brien, a focus on developing the use of Trimble machine control systems since the late 1990s, has seen the business grow its capabilities across its mixed fleet of excavators and dozers.

Having recently trialled the latest machine control technology on a compactor with Trimble solutions provider SITECH UK and Ireland, Mick O’Brien has a clear focus on how O’Brien Contractors will continue to take advantage of the technology to maximise productivity, as he explains: “From the very early stages of machine control, we recognised the commercial advantages it could offer us as a business, investing time with Trimble to develop the early solutions.

“It has been this long term journey, now continuing with Trimble dealer, SITECH which has seen us build our fleet to incorporate six dozers, twelve excavators and more recently trial the latest in compactor technology.

“For me, most people looking at machine control tend to focus onsite, whereas through our experience we know the real value lies in preparation in the office, prior to starting a job. This is why a few years ago we employed a dedicated machine control specialist. From tender stage, he liaises with our estimating team to work out volumes and look at the overall project, to see where value-engineering opportunities exist, carrying this work through when the project starts.

Even though this is a lot of investment in time before you are even awarded a job, it ultimately contributes towards a greater understanding of the project which leads to improved planning. With clients also wanting us to react very quickly when we are awarded projects, our machine control expert has the capabilities to model the earthworks required and feed this information directly into the machines, even when they are on route to site.

“So instead of engineers being dispatched to do the setting out, the machines can be operating within minutes of arriving at the job.  Even if the earthworks models change as the project moves forward, we can send the updated drawings and technical data straight to the machine.

“Of course the key to making this work is the interaction between operator and machine and this is why our expert is also tasked with training and supporting our drivers, with help from SITECH. Interestingly, you may think that machine control would be harder to introduce to older operators, but this is just not the case, as our most experienced people are in their 60’s and have found it very simple to make the transition.

“Having recently worked with SITECH to trial a compactor with machine control, I can definitely see how we can continue to expand our machine control fleet and capabilities. But for me the next step is all about utilising two-way communications, by receiving and processing data from individual machines activities.

“For our business this will be extremely important, as our clients expect us to report on site progress and this can be done in the future without leaving the office. For example, in the last 12 months we have kitted out eight excavators with machine control and can now receive data from the machines activity.

By knowing just how much of the workload each machine has achieved and the time taken, we can plan activity much better, keeping the job on track. Equally because of the partnership we have with SITECH, for certain jobs, we may choose to hire in equipment for the duration. The benefit of this approach is that we can still integrate these machines with our head office, by hiring equipment from SITECH and fitting it to the hired machine.

“I definitely think we will now see much more demand for information on earthworks from main contractors, especially as more people are challenged to meet carbon targets. In my opinion, even when you compare older machines with newer fuel efficient models, if you get machine control right and therefore the job right, it will have a much bigger impact on fuel efficiency than simply operating a new machine.”

After 10 years in the making, the Gerard Buxton Sports Hub, owned by the Royal Wootton Bassett Sports Association (RWBSA), has been officially opened.

The new complex boasts a full size third generation (3G) FIFA 1 Star Football Pitch, eight floodlit macadam surfaced tennis courts – installed by O’Brien Sports and Greenfields UK – along with two cricket pitches and a new ground with spectator stands for Royal Wootton Bassett Town Football Club.

We secured the 3G pitch and tennis courts phase of the project through our ongoing investment in state-of-the-art 3D earthworks modelling software and GPS controlled excavators and bulldozers. This technical capability was pivotal in creating the earthworks concept and reproducing the design to the precise specification and in the most efficient method possible.

It also enabled excavated earth to be recycled back into the scheme helping the client reduce overall spend, by preventing material from being taken to landfill and also decreasing lorry haulage movements leading to less pollution in the atmosphere.

Steve Hillman, General Manager, O’Brien Sports, said: “We are delighted to have once again partnered with Greenfeilds UK and look forward to developing a successful relationship.”

“We are continually investing in our people and technology so that we can provide our customers with the highest standard of customer service, a strategy that has paid off as we continue to be awarded sports pitch contracts of this high calibre.”

Royal Wootton Bassett Sports Association Chairman, Peter Yeardley, said: “This journey started more than 10 years ago, at a time when demand for sports facilities could not be met by the original grounds bequeathed to the town in the 1930s by Major Gerard Buxton.

“To see sporting activity on the new site is simply fantastic and we are proud to continue the legacy of Major Buxton.”

The O’Brien Sports management team has over 55 years’ experience in sports pitch construction and have delivered schemes throughout the UK, including: a 3G football pitch at Worthing FC, a Lano 3G synthetic pitch at Westfield Academy, a sand dressed hockey pitch at Burton Hockey Club and two natural turf pitches for Rugby Town Junior Football Club.

The sports installations delivered 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.