News update - August 2007

A brief synopsis of some of the key news items related to technical guidance, construction practice, and new regulations that you might have missed in the press.

Commercial building activity increases
Property services firm Savills said that rising levels of public sector developments boosted the number of commercial property projects undertaken during July despite concerns higher interest rates would stifle demand for commercial real estate. The company said its Total Commercial Activity index rose to 58.2 in July from 56.2 in June. Any reading above 50 represents an expanding market while anything below denotes a falling market.
CN Plus, 14th August 2007

Cost of building in UK
EC Harris estimates that the cost of building in the UK could rise by £4bn as a result of labour being sucked into the Olympic Games project.

Green plan for older offices
The UK Green Building Council and office rental company Land Securities Trillium are planning the first construction guidelines to cut carbon emissions from existing buildings.
CN Plus, 16th August 2007

Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive merger
On 8 August 2007 the Government announced a Ministerial Consultation on the proposed merger of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The merger will bring the governance arrangements for HSC/E in line with best practice and provide a more robust governance framework. HSC conducted an initial consultation entitled A Stronger Voice for Health and Safety between December 2006 and March 2007.

High-rise code row
Plans by the International Codes Council to insist on three stair cores in all high-rise buildings have not been properly thought out, says the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Simon Lay, CTBUH fire engineering group chairman, is seriously questioning the proposed revisions to the 2009 International Building Codes (IBC), which would require all buildings over 128m high to have a minimum of three stairways.
BSJ, August 2007

Homes plan 'needs green belt land'
A Social Market Foundation investigation concluded that around two million new homes would have to be built on either undeveloped countryside or on the green belt around major towns and cities.
Daily Mail Online, 15th August 2007

Merton rule under threat
The so-called Merton Rule, named after the London borough that introduced it in 2003, requires any new building to cut its emissions by 10% through renewables. More than 150 local authorities are set to introduce it but the Home Builders Federation (HBF) wants a national rather than local strategy.
The Guardian 14th August 2007

£77m NI housing plan
A £77 million plan to regenerate low-cost housing in Northern Ireland has been launched by the social development minister. Margaret Ritchie said 924 new homes would be built in Lisburn over the next five years to tackle chronic shortages in the area. The Housing Executive will support moves to develop living space above city centre shops and will respond to plans for hundreds of social houses on the former Maze prison site.
CN Plus, 14th August 2007

Do-It-Yourself Contract
New RIBA appointment documents have been published, bringing the agreements in line with the recently updated and more widely applicable RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007. The new suite of documents introduces a component approach that allows a new flexibility in the way contracts can be tailored to construction projects. A ‘Guide to the RIBA Agreements’ along with a reference set of all documents, including copies of online only forms, will be published in September. In the meantime, further information on the new agreements, and how they differ from RIBA Standard Forms of Appointment, is at www.ribabookshops.com/agreements.
RIBA Practice Bulletin, 9th August 2007

China
90 percent of China’s Great Wall is under threat, says a leading conservation expert. "Only 10% of the existing wall is under protection," said Dong Yaohui, vice-chairman of the China Great Wall Society. The society's 2006 figures showed that only about 20% of the Great Wall is in reasonable shape, another 30% is in ruins.
RIBA World, 6th August 2007

Germany
A tiny, little-known species of bat has achieved what months of political debate and court cases could not - it has halted construction of a bridge. A Dresden administrative court has issued an injunction blocking the planned start of work on the long-disputed traffic bridge over the Elbe river on the edge of the eastern German city. It ruled that the bridge could threaten the habitat of the lesser horseshoe bat. Judges ruled that the construction plans failed to address sufficiently whether the bridge would damage the habitat of the bats, considered an endangered species.
Guardian Unlimited, 10th August 2007

Republic of Ireland
A decline in Ireland’s housing market for a second month in a row has triggered a new wave of job losses and the first “negative sentiment” among Irish construction firms for first time in four years. Strong growth in commercial and civils failed to counteract the effects of the housing downturn, which saw new business fall for the fourth month in a row. Layoffs of staff among Irish constructors have intensified as firms predict the slowdown will continue into 2008. This was linked to recent interest rate rises and weakness in the housing market. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (UBCPM) - a seasonally adjusted index designed to measure the overall performance of the construction economy – recorded a construction activity PMI of 47.5 (a decline) in July, compared to 46.8 in June.
QS Week, 13th August 2007

USA
The team leading the investigation into the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis have confirmed that steel gusset plates have become a focus of the investigation. Investigators are checking the loads and stresses on the gusset plates, as well as the materials used in constructing them. A high resolution camera mounted on a helicopter found several tensile fractures at the northern end of the bridge, but nothing that seemed to have initiated the collapse.
NCE Plus, 10th August 2007

The gherkin washers
For the first time since it opened three years ago, the famous 540ft 'Gherkin' building in the City of London is having its windows cleaned. A specialist team of nine men have to abseil down the side of the building to do the windows on the highest section, before reaching a height where the more commonplace cleaners' cradles can be used to finish off the 744 windows - 24,000square metres of glass, the equivalent of five football pitches. It will take the team up to ten days to complete. Meal breaks are taken sitting on top of the 40-storey building. Despite its high-tech interior, the work has to be done in the old-fashioned way: with a bucket of soapy water and a squeegee.
Daily Mail Online, 15th August 2007