MR GRAHAM KINDER, a senior partner in Babtie Shaw & Morton
International Ltd, walked into his Glasgow office last week with the
news that, after 10 days of negotiations in Turkey, the firm had been
awarded a World Bank-funded project to provide consultancy services for
the sewerage and storm water drainage in Ankara. The new works on this
$400m project have to be designed for a forecast population of 5.5m in
2025.
Other overseas involvement of this firm of consulting engineers
includes giving technical assistance in South America to the Guyana
Water Authority, in Pakistan to the Small Dams Directorate in the North
West Frontier Province and assisting with remedial work at Tiga Dam in
Nigeria. A team of water engineers is flying to Tianjin in China this
month to continue a project on water saving measures.
Founded in 1895, Babtie employs 650 between its Glasgow HQ and seven
UK regional offices. Main areas of expertise are in water supply,
sanitation, transportation, marine, and commercial and industrial
buildings.
The firm carried out the design and site supervision of the
improvements to the A82 Loch Lomond road. Work on the Luss bypass starts
this month. The four stages cost around #30m. Other road work includes
the engineering of a 8.7km section of three-lane motorway between
Kirkpatrick Fleming and Gretna with a construction value to #30m,
supervising work on the #12m A9 Dunblane bypass and a feasibility study
on the Stepps to Haggs section of the M80.
THE Miller Group has evolved over 55 years to become the UK's largest
privately owned construction company, with an annual turnover of #250m.
It has four main areas of operation -- construction, commercial and
industrial developments, private homes building, and opencast mining,
with over 19 billion tonnes of coal mined. The group also has interests
ranging from environmental rehabilitation to ancient monument
refurbishment, including work at Edinburgh Castle.
Miller operates throughout Britain, from Perth to Winchester, with a
presence overseas. However, its work in Scotland illustrates the group's
diversity and size.
Miller Construction's building and civil engineering contracts include
the #12.3m Time Capsule Leisure Complex at Coatbridge; the #5m
all-seated stadium for St Johnstone FC in Perth; the final #11.6m
section of the Edinburgh City By-pass; a #4m chemical plant for BP at
Grangemouth; a sewage plant at Greenock for #4.5m; #80m of oil-related
work in the Shetlands; and project management of a #10m complex for
Scottish Life in Edinburgh.
Miller Development owns over two million square feet of property and
is planning a #100m project at Springburn in Glasgow and a scheme of
similar value in Edinburgh.
Miller Homes, with over 60,000 units completed, has a variety of
residential sites, including ones of #10m in Ayr and #25m in Edinburgh.
It is also involved in urban redevelopment, for example at the #20m site
near the cathedral in Glasgow.
BOVIS Construction, a P&O Company, has had a strong presence in
Scotland for some 40 years and in addition to having introduced and
become the leading exponent of management contracting techniques, other
specialist contractual procedures such as design and build, construction
management and particular hybrid contracting arrangements are undertaken
and devised to meet specific client needs.
Bovis Construction (Scotland) Ltd recently restructured and
strengthened its management team and, from offices in Glasgow and
Edinburgh, tackles a broad range of projects, both large and small in
the commercial, industrial and leisure market sectors. Hospital and
health related developments and specific urban renewal schemes are new
areas of activity at present being examined.
Current significant contracts, with a value of some #60m, include the
Glasgow International Concert Hall; Scottish Widows' computer data
centre, Dalkeith; Old Course Hotel, St Andrews; Marks & Spencer store,
Falkirk; Sibec Developments' shopping centre, Newton Mearns; and
sports/leisure complexes for Edinburgh District Council.
THORBURN plc: Sam Thorburn set up on his own in 1966 as a geotechnical
and foundation engineering consultant. Now an internationally known
company, it has staff of around 170 in offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and
London and has been and is involved in many major and prestigious
projects in the UK.
Completed industrial examples include the Caledonian papermill in
Irvine, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow and the
Aberdeen Exhibition Centre. Retail centres include the European award
winning one at Cameron Toll, Edinburgh. Prison work includes the new
extension to Shotts as well as wholesale redevelopment at Risley,
Lancashire. Present work varies from the proposed world trade centre in
Glasgow to film studios in Clydebank.
Lord Justice Taylor's report on the Hillsborough disaster paid
Thorburn an indirect compliment by referring to the superb design of the
Ibrox stadium. Work on sports stadia is now a major sector in the
practice's workload and, since Ibrox, Thorburn has designed the
completed facilities at Murrayfield and Belfast's Windsor Park and is
involved with work for Millwall and Newcastle in England as well as
Dundee, Dundee United, and Falkirk in Scotland. Sam Thorburn has been
invited to speak at a major conference in London on the safety of sports
grounds.
Overseas work has been undertaken offshore in Australia, Canada and
America. Site visits have been made to the Soviet Union, particularly
Yalta, where a major housing and leisure development is planned, and
Poland.
HALL and Tawse Scotland Ltd: Aberdeen based member of Raine Industries
plc, has expanded this year to become one of the top five Scottish
construction companies with a projected turnover of around #75m.
A third of this year's turnover is from Central Scotland with major
contracts from Murray International Holdings, Craigendarroch Ltd and
Rangers Football Club.
A #17m Edinburgh office park development is nearing completion for MIM
at South Gyle, the #3m Govan Stand extension at Ibrox Stadium is now
occupied and two hotel and leisure complexes worth #10m are under
construction for Craigendarroch at East Kilbride and Loch Lomond.
The company' plans are to develop a pool of skilled labour at all its
area offices in Glasgow, Broxburn, Perth, Elgin and Fraserburgh. To cope
with new business, the direct labour force has increased by 200 to 1400
in the past year.
Another aim this year is to become a fully registered quality assured
company with external auditing to guarantee high standards of
craftsmanship. The Aberdeen joinery factory is subject to external
audits and soon this will be extended throughout the company's entire
operations.
There has been growth recently in design and build contracts and
partnership housing schemes with Scottish Homes, local authorities and
housing associations. The company is due to start Scotland's first
partnership project with Scottish Homes at Kilmarnock soon. The #4.5m
project is for 160 homes. Joint venture housing projects are also in
progress at Perth, Aberdeen and Fraserburgh and a fourth scheme is due
to start soon at St Monan's in Fife.
YARD Ltd: This independent multidisciplinary systems and engineering
consultancy division within the Sema Group plc has a professional staff
of 850 recruited from a wide range of scientific and engineering
disciplines.
Personnel are located in the Glasgow head office and branches
throughout the UK including London, Chippenham, Bristol, Alderley Edge,
Dorchester, and Aberdeen. Overseas locations include the US. YARD can
also draw on the collaborative services of the 7000 Sema Group staff
located in most major European cities.
The YARD consultancy includes design and project management services
in the areas of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, to clients
variously distribiuted in industry, defence, offshore and power
generation. Recent civil and structural projects range from a steelwork
satellite dish support structure costing #1000 to the redevelopment and
modernisation of a power plant and coal handling area worth in excess of
#3.6m.
In addition to YARD's expertise in conventional and civil and
structural engineering design, their engineers also have skills in
structural dynamics and earthquake engineering in particular. Recent
applications in this area have ranged from a small machine foundation
for a pharmaceuticals manufacturer to a large high integrity piled jetty
structure.
Placing strong emphasis on quality YARD undertakes project work to the
requirements of BS5750 and BS5882 for particular clients, in addition to
being approved to Nato AQAP1 and conforming to AQAP13 quality standards.
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