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09This is a Balfour Beatty supplement published in association with Building

100 years of Balfour BeattyJanuary 2009100 years

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Balfour Beatty’s first 100 years have been nothing if not actionpacked. Technological innovation, major transportation andinfrastructure networks, and regional and global expansionhave all fuelled growth – sometimes followed by a period ofretrenchment before the next business opportunity comesalong. There was even a phoenix-like rising from the ashes ofBICC at the start of this millennium.

The scope and scale of the business has changed more thanthe character of the company and its people. It took nearly 80years for the group to build annual revenues to £1bn. Currentrevenues will be close to 10 times that, with our US businessrevenues alone now in excess of $4bn.

Yet even today our corporate DNA can be traced directlyback to Balfour Beatty’s beginnings – not least its Scottishorigins. Inevitably, our business model has evolved but theemphasis is still very much on engineering skills and deliveringsolutions to customer requirements. There is also a strongdelivery focus, with safety and customer satisfaction a priority.

Culturally, the company remains reluctant to shout its virtuesfrom the rooftops (although there may be some of this duringour centenary year). In terms of our people, team players fit in well, drama queens less so. Seniority counts for less thanquality of thinking and insight into practical application.

Balfour Beatty in 2009 is strong both financially andoperationally. The group has the benefit of scale andresilience. It has thought hard about how it creates value and it has clear long-term strategic objectives.

We very much hope that our customers, employees and otherstakeholders will feel the same satisfaction and pride in ourcentenary. And in celebrating, we hope you will work with us to write the next mutually beneficial chapter.

Steven MarshallChairman, Balfour Beatty

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Editor Kate WhealDesign Mark BerginPrinted by St IvesReprographicsITM Publishing Services

This is a Balfour Beattypublicationproduced on itsbehalf by UBMInformation Ltd

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06 Interview: Ian TylerHow the accountant chiefexecutive has made BalfourBeatty the contracting giantit is today

09 International strategyExpansion in the MiddleEast, South-east Asia andthe US defines the group’sglobal strategy

12 The world in 1909What was happening in the year of Balfour Beatty’sbirth? Some of it will soundfamiliar…

15 Balfour Beatty starts hereEngineer George Balfourand numbers man AndrewBeatty swing into action

18 Mega-projectsThe group has made itsname overseeing hugeprojects that draw on itsdifferent businesses:Heathrow T5 rail link; King’s Cross St Pancrasunderground station;Queen Elizabeth Hospital,Birmingham; utilitiesmaintenance

24 Client focus: theNational GridHow the UK’s powersupplier has redefined itsprocurement strategy tomeet tomorrow’s demands

29 Harm’s lengthZero Harm aims to take afast-improving safety recordto the ultimate level

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32 The next generationInnovation has become akey motivator for graduatesjoining Balfour Beatty – wemeet three rising stars

36 Corporate citizenBalfour Beatty is paying anincreasing amount ofattention to its involvementin the communities it serves

39 On the fast track How the world’s largestfixed rail contractor isspreading its influenceacross the globe

40 The way aheadChief operating officerAndrew McNaughton lookstowards a future managingkey assets such as the M25

43 Great buildings we’ve madeA collection of landmarkBalfour Beatty buildingsacross the world

“He told me I wasunfit to employ”

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Whisper it, but Ian Tyler, the man atthe helm of Britain’s biggest and

most successful construction company,suffers from something of an inferioritycomplex. It doesn’t stem from the fact thathe’s an accountant in an industry ofengineers. It has deeper roots, going backto when the restless Tyler was a teenager.

It turns out Tyler was a reluctantscholar and parted company with schoolat 16 to join the world of employment. Hespent three years working as a clerk forLloyds Bank before finding his way touniversity through part-time study.

“Working for three years before goingto college is a fantastic thing to do,” saysTyler. “But when I went to university it didleave me with a massive inferioritycomplex. I was convinced I’d be behindthe other students who had arrivedstraight from school. The upshot was Iworked really hard for the first two yearsof university because I was convinced Iwould be kicked out for falling behind.”

He adds: “It receded in time, but in afunny way it also brought out the best inme. I wouldn’t tell my own kids to go outto work at 16 and see where it gets them,but it does have advantages. I ended upwith a stronger work ethic. And, of course,having worked for three years, I got a fullgrant, didn’t have to sponge off myparents and could also afford to run a car.”

Tyler’s work ethic has served BalfourBeatty pretty well. During his 12 years atthe firm, the past four as chief executive,the company has quadrupled in sizethrough a combination of organic growthand an acquisition programme that hassnapped up US firms GMH and Centex,German rail group Schreck-Mieves, andsmall respected UK players such as Birse,Dean & Dyball and Cowlin Construction.

Today Balfour Beatty employs about35,000 people in 20 countries. That’s notjust a long way from its origins 100 yearsago, when the firm won its first contract tobuild a tramline in Dunfermline, but also a

far cry from 12 years ago, when Tylerjoined the troubled subsidiary of anequally troubled parent, BICC. “Where Idraw real satisfaction,” says Tyler, “is thatwe’ve created, out of an industry that wasnotoriously flaky, real consistency and realgrowth over the past 10 years.”

Construction outsiderDescribing an industry that even in themid-1990s accounted for about 10% of UKGDP as “flaky” marks out Tyler as aconstruction outsider. A charteredaccountant, he cut his managerial teethcrunching numbers – in the retail sectoramong others – rather than poring overblueprints in site huts.

Yet Tyler is quick to point out thatBalfour Beatty was founded by achartered accountant, Andrew Beatty, andan engineer, George Balfour, so the needto temper engineering flair with prudentmoney management has strong roots.

Still, he concedes that his background

… So said James Hanson (now LordHanson) when a young Ian Tyler joined his conglomerate. So how did the newrecruit get from there to the top spot atBalfour Beatty? Michael Glackin finds out.Photographs by Tom Harford Thompson

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still raises the odd eyebrow. “In 2007 I wasinvited to speak at the Institution of CivilEngineers and I half expected to bestopped at the door and refused entry.”

Needless to say he wasn’t, but then it’shard to imagine anyone taking umbragewith the chatty, friendly Tyler. He becamechief executive of Balfour in 2005,succeeding engineer Mike Welton, afterthree years as Balfour’s chief operatingofficer and six as finance director.

“As an accountant I’m a generalistrather than a specialist,” he says. “My rolehere is as a generalist – the managementof the company as a whole. Engineering isthe core of the business but it doesn’tfollow that all the management positionshave to be filled by engineers. We’re adecentralised business so the sort ofdecisions an engineer needs to make aretaken by engineers, not by accountants.”

Global profit surgeFew would doubt the strategy’s success. In2007 Balfour posted pre-tax profits of£201m, up 48% on 2006, on the back of£7.4bn turnover generated by contracts inthe UK, US, Asia and the Middle East.

Despite the meltdown in financialmarkets, 2008 looked set to deliveranother bumper haul. Balfour’s mid-yearorder book stood at £12.1bn, up 6% sincethe end of 2007, and in the six months tothe end of June the company banked apre-tax profit of £95m on £4.3bn turnover.

The financial performance is clearly ahigh point. But there have been terrible

lows too. Earlier this year the groupagreed to pay £2.25m after admittingpayment irregularities on a 1990s contractto build the Bibliotheca Alexandrina inEgypt. In last year’s Metronet debacleBalfour took a £122m hit when the tubeconsortium was put into administration –including writing off expected profits andits £70m equity investment in theconsortium. And tragically in 2000, therewas the Hatfield train crash, for which thegroup was fined a record £7.5m for safetylapses after the death of four passengers.

“Hatfield ranks as one of the issuesthat are most personally significant,” saysTyler. “We learnt from it and became avery different organisation. But it issomething that does affect you personally.You don’t just walk home and forget it.”

Commenting on more recent corporatefailures, Tyler adds: “Not all the decisionsyou make will be 100% successful butwhen things go wrong you have to learnfrom that. I suspect that’s what thiscompany has done throughout its 100-year history. We have to take risk, or moreaccurately manage risk, to make money.”

Somerset-born Tyler arrived at BalfourBeatty in 1996 after 14 years working withsome of the City’s best known figures.After graduating from BirminghamUniversity with a degree in commerce, hejoined Arthur Andersen and qualified as achartered accountant. In 1988 he joinedStorehouse, the retail conglomeratecreated by Terence Conran but then run byformer BICC director Michael Julien. Tylerbecame financial controller there beforemoving to Hanson, the buildings materialconglomerate founded by James Hanson(now Lord Hanson).

Like the company he created, Hansonhad a buccaneering image. So how didnumbers man Tyler get along with him?“The only contact I really had with himwas when he told me I was fat,” laughsTyler. “Hanson was extraordinary. Heinsisted on seeing everybody’s medicalrecord and told me I was unfit to employand grossly overweight. I wasn’t sure I wasoverweight but it was something mostmembers of the Hanson hierarchy had toendure from time to time.”

Weight issues aside – and Tyler nowcuts a trim figure – it’s clear his time atHanson underpins his management style.“It was a fantastic place to learn aboutrunning a business well because Hanson’sstrength wasn’t its buccaneering but itsability to make businesses perform,” he

says. “It was run by the managementteams and almost every manager in theorganisation was an accountant.Unfortunately the model had long sincerun its course and broke up.”

Did Tyler bring the same thinking toBalfour Beatty? “Well, I’m only one part ofwhat we’ve done to change things but yes,it is ultimately the same disciplines weused at Hanson. The difference is we’recreating an integrated business herewhereas Hanson was a conglomerate.”

Tyler adds that the landscape of theconstruction industry has changed hugelyin his 12 years at Balfour Beatty, thanks toa bullish run of economic growth and achange in clients’ attitudes. “In the mid-1990s the business had a lot of strengthsbut the market was weak,” he says. “Themarket today is stronger. The governmenthas put more thinking into using theprivate sector through PFI, which has ledthem to the services we provide.”

Secret to successBut Balfour’s success isn’t just due tochanges in government procurement. Thesame opportunities were there for rivalsLaing, Amey and Jarvis, all of whichspectacularly collapsed. Why has BalfourBeatty prospered?

You sense the hand of the charteredaccountant, curbing the desires ofambitious engineers to bid for flagshipprojects. “Well yes, we did put in a strongmanagement process that prevented ustaking the kind of risks that caused thedemise of other businesses. But when Ijoined Balfour, Mike Welton became chiefexecutive. Mike is an engineer throughand through but he and I saw eye to eyeon this. The two of us collectivelyembarked on a strategy that ensured wedidn’t blow our limbs off.”

Tyler’s 12 years at Balfour Beatty markhis longest period at one company. And sofar there are no signs of itchy feet. Hisimmediate ambition is to build Balfour’sUS business to match UK turnover.

There may be more acquisitions in thepipeline but for the most part the groupwill continue its steady progress towardsexpansion. “If you look at the financialmarkets you can see where the short-termapproach has brought us,” he says. “Thereis a long-term value and heritage in thiscompany and a strong sense that in 100years the business will still be here if wefocus on long-term value. And that is whatwe will continue to do.” ■10

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Not all the decisions you make will be100% successful but when things gowrong you have to learn from that andget on with things”

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Once an expeditionary contractor,Balfour Beatty’s non-UK business

now focuses on a small number of marketsin which quality and technical expertisehave to stay in step with the increasinglysophisticated expectations of clients.

Nowhere is this more evident than inBalfour Beatty’s growing presence in theUS, where the group is building a multi-disciplinary business similar to the UK’s.

“We are not looking to clone our UKbusiness,” says chief executive Ian Tyler,“but to adapt it to suit local market

characteristics. Having said that, we doaim to create the capacity to integratefinancing, professional and technicalservices, project delivery and long-termsupport services.”

Balfour Beatty entered the US in 1986when it acquired Atlanta-based servicesbusiness Heery. Through the 1990s thegroup extended its reach into regional civilengineering, particularly in Texas andCalifornia, before embarking on small railengineering acquisitions this millennium.

But 2007 and 2008 saw a step change

EmpirebuildingAn international strategy need not be about

conquering the world. As Thom Gibbs reports,Balfour Beatty has increasingly beenconcentrating its efforts on key regions

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with the acquisition of CentexConstruction (now Balfour BeattyConstruction US) and PPP and facilitiesmanagement specialist GMH MilitaryHousing (now Balfour BeattyCommunities). Between them thesebusinesses add more than $70m a year ofannual operating profit to the group.

Balfour Beatty’s approach in the US isto keep acquired management teamstogether and leave them to grow their ownbusiness. “We believe customers need tobe owned locally and looked after bypeople they know and are dedicated tomeeting their needs,” says Robert VanCleave, chairman and chief executive ofBalfour Beatty Construction US.

The same applies to Balfour BeattyCommunities. “When you are buying abusiness in the infrastructure field you aremainly acquiring people and knowhow,”says Peter Zinkin, the group’s planning anddevelopment director. “All the company’smanagement team opted to stay with us,so we’ve preserved what made thebusiness attractive to us in the first place.”

35 years in DubaiBalfour Beatty has longer-standingassociations than the US. One of its mostsuccessful, Dubai, dates back to theconstruction of Jebel Ali port in 1974. And despite the downturn in the emirate,the group has forward orders of more than£1bn there and has become a major playerin civil engineering, construction andmechanical and electrical engineering.

Jebel Ali was typical of the early historyof the firm’s business abroad: a series ofone-off projects. Yet as group chiefoperating officer Andrew McNaughtonexplains, this has changed markedly inrecent years. “There has been a growingrealisation that we’ve got something thataccounts for 5% of the whole group’sturnover,” he says. “One of the positivethings we’ve done is to move from being a UK company that looks at projects with

an international mindset to committing to the establishment of businessinternationally. You have to manage andoperate businesses from the countrythey’re operating in. While I retain aresponsibility for operations in Dubai, youcan’t manage it from London; it has to bemanaged and staffed in Dubai.”

This emphasis on setting up permanentbases abroad has prompted joint ventureswith local companies. Balfour Beatty’srelationship with Dutco (Dubai TransportCompany) began 30 years ago on Jebel Ali.

Group managing director BrianOsborne says: “Clients will recognisepeople who are there for the long term. Ifyou’re going to pull out every time there’san economic downturn you’d be in andout every five years.”

The strategy has paid off in Dubai,where the company has been involved inhigh-profile projects in recent years. DutcoBalfour Beatty (DBB), the mergedoperation formed in 2002, provided

electro-mechanical works for the Burj AlArab Hotel and most recently has built theworld’s biggest shopping centre, the BurjMall. The company now employs 18,500people in the emirate.

But things have not always been rosy,says McNaughton. “Business wentthrough a lean time in the Middle East inthe 1990s, so we shrunk down to amanageable operation so we could keep apresence in the region. By 2001 when thegrowth in Dubai took off, we were wellpositioned to grow with it.”

Typically completed at lightning fastpace, projects in Dubai present challengesto construction firms that demand atailored response. “Generally the skills forroles such as project management aretransferable,” says McNaughton. “But themarket here, the customer base, the waythey go about their business, and thecontract arrangements are different.

“Projects are labour-intensive – it’s notuncommon to have 2,000-3,000 people

Clientsrecognisepeople whoare there forthe long term.If you’re goingto pull outevery timethere’s aneconomicdownturnyou’d be inand out everyfive years”

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11on site. Most construction activitiesoperate 24 hours a day. It’s accepted thatworking intensely is a requirement to getprojects finished on time.”

The Burj Mall opened in Novemberand, featuring more than 1,200 shops, 22cinemas, an indoor theme park, and agiant aquarium, is one of the biggestprojects Balfour Beatty has tackled.

Cultural adjustmentsAs with all work in Dubai, the mall’sconstruction called for operationaladjustments to suit the culture. Theextreme climate means work is oftencarried out at night during the warmermonths of June to September; Friday ismost people’s day off; and the rulingsheikh has a decree over religiousholidays, which can prompt suddenchanges to schedules.

Such adjustments are to be expected,says Osborne, who is responsible, amongother things, for Balfour Beatty’soperations in Hong Kong. “Far Easternculture is quieter than at home and lessaggressive, although people tend to knowwhat they want and are quite determinedabout getting their way. Not losing face isvery important to them.”

Yet adapting to cultural differences canbe dealt with easily compared with themany practical challenges of workingabroad. Group managing director ManfredLeger handles the company’s rail businessoverseas, which he acknowledges is often

beset with technical challenges. “Each market has its own rules and its

own technology,” he says. “There may beslight differences in specifications forsleepers and rails; you need a certainpermit in each country; specific vehiclesand tools for each country; and you mayneed different equipment for differingpower supplies in each country.”

The rail arm operates independentlyabroad but, where possible, BalfourBeatty teams up with local businesses thatcan help it navigate any difficulties.

In Hong Kong the company is part ofconstruction group Gammon alongsideAsian conglomerate Jardine Matheson,having taken over Skanska’s 50% share in2004. This tackles everything fromlandmark buildings to road constructionin Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau.

“We look to team up with localpartners, certainly in places such as Chinaand Hong Kong, where the culture is sodifferent from ours,” says Osborne.

Another influencing factor is theworking conditions of a country.“Transparency is just about top of the listwhen we’re considering new projects,”says Osborne. “We need to be able towork there safely and without anyreputational damage.

“With our Far East expansion plans wehave concerns about corruption in somecountries, which limits progress. We do alot of work in Hong Kong and Singapore,which are very transparent, but other

markets are going to take work – we willexpand in line with the progress theymake on these issues.”

One thing the firm is keen to flag up isits British heritage. As Osborne says: “Anycompany with a British parent is seen tobring in, if not best practice, then at leastdifferent forms of working. Our safetyrecord is better than nearly all theEuropean countries, definitely America,and almost all Far Eastern countries – so itdoes carry some kudos to be a Britishcompany working in our sector.”

But the group directors are well awarethat sustained success abroad cannot rely on British kudos alone. The companymust keep moving on the internationalstage to guarantee progress.

The company hopes to expand itsMiddle Eastern operations to theburgeoning emirates of Abu Dhabi andQatar, as well as moving into Saudi Arabia.

McNaughton confirms: “Constructionactivity will slow significantly in Dubai,but it will move through the region. Thereal key to our strategy is ensuring that weare looking at where the business needsto be in the longer term. The sleepinggiant of the region is Saudi Arabia, whichhas a higher GDP than any of the others.”

Osborne returns to the group’s recentacquisitions in the US as evidence of thegroup’s international ambitions. “Since webought in America, the overseas side ofour business has become a bigger part ofour overall turnover,” he concludes. ■

Previous page: the 70-storey officebuilding One IslandEast, Hong Kong

Left, clockwise fromleft: Burj Mall; Burj AlArab Hotel, Dubai;Venetian Hotel,Macau

Below, left to right:Fort Stewart, Georgia;State Highway 130,Texas; PentagonMemorial, Washington DC

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Backin1909…It is the year of Balfour Beatty’s birth and while GreatBritain is still a majorworld power it isstruggling to exploitadvances in scienceand technology.Penny Barratt takes a trip back in time anddiscovers that historyhas an uncanny wayof repeating itself

I t had been a freezing winter – and theeconomy was equally chilling. The

country was in recession: the Boer War,political uncertainty and overproductionfrom the 1890s building boom had takentheir toll. Land values fell by 30% in a fewyears, prompting The Builder (Building’sforerunner) to note in January 1909:“There are suburban roads where houseagents boards are almost as plentiful aschimney pots.”

Increased mobility, coupled with poorconditions in the cities, had led to thesuburban boom. There was a newcentralist approach to developmentmarked by the Housing and TownPlanning Act, which forbade the buildingof back-to-back houses – a symbol ofpoverty in industrial areas. In addition,local authorities had to prepare townplanning schemes and builders had tobuild to proscribed standards.

Yet despite Victorian improvements todrainage and sanitary reform, diseasescaused by overcrowding and povertywere still rife. With an average lifeexpectancy of just over 50, TB, diarrhoea,and dysentery were common, and scarletfever and whooping cough featured onmany a child’s death certificate. TheAssociation of Poor Law Unions classednearly 750,000 Londoners – a fifth of thepopulation – as permanent paupers. >

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Selfridges (The Builder, 3 April 1909)“On Monday last were opened Messrs.Selfridge & Co’s newpremises in OxfordStreet. The design ofthe venture is asmuch a novelty as theventure itself. Withone or two exceptions,it is the first largeshop building inLondon in which thearchitecture bearsany relation to themethods ofconstruction.

Lines of supportare carried right upfrom the ground; thesuperstructure is notpoised to allappearance upon theupper edge of hugesheets of plate-glasshanging, likeMahomet’s coffin,betwixt heaven andearth. Between thelarge column of themain order, whatspace is not occupiedby the window isfaced with cast-iron.

This method ofemphasising thevertical supports by astone casing in theguise of a columnelsewhere leavingmodern methods tospeak for themselvesis a bold innovation.The interior isdisappointing.”

The UK in 1909>>UK population 38million>>GDP £125m (atconstant 1995prices)>>School leavingage was 12 but140,000 of 10-to-14-year-old boysalready worked

>>Infant mortalitydeclining: now 15deaths per 1,000>>Manufacturingrepresented 28%of output, ruraleconomy 11%,services 50%>>Employment stood at 70%,unemployment 3%

>>About 5 millionwomen worked(29%)>>Centralgovernmentexpenditure was10-15% of GDP>>Growing tradeunion membershiphad reached 11%of the workforce

>>A dozen new-laideggs in Londoncost 1 shilling 4½d(6.9p)>>There were50,000 policemen(120,000 today)>>A motor-drivencab could average12mph aroundLondon – faster

than at the end ofthe millennium>>Inland postagecost 1d (0.4p) >>A copy of TheTimes was 3d(1.2p)>>The first BoyScout rally was heldat Crystal Palace>>Hunger-striking

suffragettes wereforce-fed>>The forerunner to M15, the SecretService Bureau, wassilently established>>ErnestShackleton’sexpedition to theSouth Pole wasforced to turn back

11 miles short, butAmerican RobertPeary reached theNorth Pole>>Brick stocks cost£1 and 4 shillings athousand; bestPortland cement£28 a ton; rolledsteel joists £7 and10 shillings a ton.

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Unemployment in construction washigh – 16% of carpenters and joiners wereout of work. In the first decade of the1900s there was a dramatic fall in newlybuilt homes from 150,000 to 100,000 andbuilding was at a near standstill by theoutbreak of the First World War. Localauthorities were empowered to provideaffordable housing but rarely did. Just 1%of housing was “public” and 89% of thepopulation lived in rented homes. Astoday, the government was being urgedby the press to undertake public buildingto stimulate the economy.

Against a background of rising tradeunionism and the ascent of Labour voters,the old two-party system was underthreat. Herbert Asquith’s Liberalgovernment, with David Lloyd George as chancellor, introduced the People’sBudget – the first in history intent onredistributing wealth and introducingsocial welfare programmes paid for byhigher taxes. The government oversawmedical provision for children, subsidisedschool meals, and introduced an old agepension and national health insurance.

The budget held income tax at 9d in thepound (or 3.75%), but proposed a higherrate of one shilling (5%) for incomes over£2,000 (more than £140,000 today). This,combined with plans for a tax on land andtariffs on imports, led the House of Lordsto veto the new budget.

A life of leisureBut for anyone with cash to spare, it wasthe start of the leisure age. In homes, thefirst vacuum cleaner made lives easier,along with the introduction in 1909 of teabags, electric washing machines, coffeefilters and paper cups.

The first purpose-built cinemas wereappeared and in February audiencesthrilled to the first public film in colour atthe Palace Theatre, London. Selfridgesdepartment store opened in the capitaland Woolworths launched in Liverpool.

The first rugby football match wasplayed at Twickenham and a meeting atLord’s cricket ground established theImperial Cricket Conference for bodies“where test cricket was played within theempire”. Away from the cricket pitches,professionalism in sport spread fast:Newcastle United won the football leaguein England but north of the border thecup was withheld in the 1909 Scottishfinal after a riot broke out.

At this time, mechanical, electrical andcivil engineers, architects and builderswere still the superstars of the industrialworld. The public had been astounded bythe speed of urban growth, new roads,railway electrification, lightbulbs, theCrystal Palace and Clifton SuspensionBridge. But Britain’s reluctance to use thenew materials of concrete and steel or tosupervise greater use of electricitydomestically and commercially put itbehind the US and mainland Europe.

Rule Britannia?In America, Edison proposed making aconcrete house by “casting the wholefabric in a single mould” and reinforcedconcrete was producing 280ft spanbridge arches. In England, meanwhile,architects had managed to standardisethe size of bricks and a committee fromthe Corporation of London went on a fact-finding mission to Berlin to check out theGerman gas lighting system.

On the continent electric tower cranesand concrete mixers were being used onsites and prefabricated concrete sectionsin roads and buildings. It took thecompletion of the first large-scalereinforced concrete building in the UK,the General Post Office extension inLondon, to convince a sceptical Britishindustry of its suitability for further use.

In terms of transport, railways wererising to their peak with well over30,000km of routes. London alone had329 stations. A system built as a

patchwork of local rail links run by smallprivate firms was slowly being convertedto electricity with standard gauges bypioneers such as Balfour Beatty.

But while small sections of suburbanrail were electrified, for many years theheavy initial cost of electrification stalledprogress. As the president of theMechanical Engineers Institute said at thetime the “improbability of any increasedrevenues” in 1909 meant there was “verylittle hope it would be adopted for long-distance mainline traffic”.

Railways were also under threat fromthe motor car. The Local GovernmentBoard reported in February there were27,601 miles of main road costing£2,535,399 in upkeep a year. In 1906 RollsRoyce was founded and two years laterthe first Model T Fords were produced inAmerica. The rising number of cars on theroad was seen as a revenue opportunityby the government. A “consumers tax” of3d was imposed, taking the cost of petrolto nearly 4p a gallon.

But just as non-standard tracks andpower supply held back rail development,the state of the roads restricted transport.Tar-bound macadam had been applied toroads in capital cities but “tar painting”cost £40 per mile, so it was too expensivefor rural areas. In addition, there were nostandard road widths, road signs oraccepted construction methods.

In London, at the first meeting of thenew Institute of Municipal Engineers,president Mr Pegge reported: “Roads arebroken up by post office telephones andtelegraphs, water, gas and electriccompanies and hydraulic mains until thestreets are like Joseph’s coat – if not incolour, certainly in contour. Of what profitis it in getting perfect gradients and truelines if they are counteracted by theconstant breaking up of streets with littleregard to the public convenience and stillless to the value of the surface material.”

Plus �a change. ■

Aviation in 1909Fast developmentfollowed the firstmanned flight:>>Louis Blériot(below) claimed a£1,000 prize fromthe Daily Mail formaking the firstcrossing of theEnglish Channel in37 minutes.>>Glenn Curtiss won the firstinternational airtrophy (the GordonBennett Trophy) inReims, completingtwo 10km circuitsin 15 minutes 50seconds.>>The world’s firstpassenger airlinewas founded byentrepreneurs inGermany and used aZeppelin service forpaying customers.>>John Moore-Brabazon made thefirst live cargo flightby plane when heput a pig in a baskettied to a wing-strutof his plane.

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Born in 1909Errol Flynn>>Carmen MirandaDouglas Fairbanks>>Jacques TatiBenny Goodman>>James MasonDavid Niven>>Matt BusbyFrancis Bacon>>Fred Perry

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David LloydGeorge

CliftonSuspensionBridge

Model T Ford

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George Balfour, whose familyoriginated in Dundee, was born in

Portsmouth in 1872, qualified as anengineer in 1893 and developed hisexpertise working for pioneering Americanengineer JG White in London. It was therethat he first met and befriended thecompany secretary, an accountant namedAndrew Beatty.

Edwardian society was one ofincreasing sophistication: electric lighting,train travel, telephones and even cars wereless and less the preserve of the upperclasses. The innovations were there; it wasdistribution and supplying the consumerthat were the problems.

The government, fearful of monopolies,had kept the supply of power on a localfooting, allowing only small stations to bebuilt with no attempt to standardisevoltage or equipment. In this environment,Balfour and Beatty believed that theelectrification of the tramways, each routebeing built with its own generating plant,

would be the key to spreading cheapelectricity into every corner of the country.

In 1909 the two founded Balfour Beattyfrom capital of £50,000. Its main purposewas financial and technical managementand the company’s first act was to buyshares and take over the running of severalscattered tramways in Dartford, Luton andMansfield. But after six months came anopportunity for the first constructioncontract – a £141,450 project to lay newtrack, cables and generating plant at apower house supplying tramways in Fife.The track grew a mile a week and within sixmonths, trams were running andconsumers were being supplied withelectricity from the power station.

At the end of the year, Balfour Beattyshowed a net profit of £6,807 10s 7d.

In the 1920s there were no fewer than572 separate suppliers drawing electricityfrom 438 stations throughout the UK andthe government was dithering about thesolution. It was shown the way by private

…APOWERHOUSEIS BORN

Scottish rootsBalfour Beatty hasstrong Scottish links. By 1910 its founderswere directors of firmsin Fife, Dunfermline andFalkirk and the ScottishPower Company. Theyopened their firstScottish office that year.

It was also in Scotlandthat Balfour Beatty firstdiversified from powergeneration to civilengineering. The FirstWorld War stalled thespread of electrification.But Balfour got its firstcommission to build anaqueduct, for the BritishAluminium Company atKinlochleven. The workwas finished in twoyears using 1,000German PoWs and 500British troops of “a lowmedical category”.

Cheap electricityScotland provided thegroup’s first majordevelopment work toprovide cheapelectricity. In 1926 itwon a £2.5m contracton the Lochaber waterpower scheme (below),building a 15-miletunnel, power stationfoundations, temporarygenerating station andpipes down Ben Nevis.

The post-warnationalisation ofelectricity cut Scottishoperations in Edinburghto one engineer, a siteclerk and a typist. Anycontract was considered.In the 1950s they eventook on roadbuilding indirect opposition todictats from London –the first contract wasentitled simply “sitedevelopment”.

Start of civilsIt was the start of heavycivils work in Scotland.It was also the start ofmajor diversification forthe Edinburgh officeinto factories andcommercial buildingsand even concreteplatforms for the oilsector in the early 70s.

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The early story of Balfour Beatty isone of power and enterprise,harnessing emerging forms of energy.It had its beginnings in the financingand construction of early powerstations – and remains at theforefront of power, transport andother infrastructure supply today

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entrepreneurs such as Balfour andBeatty, who had long since standardisedthe voltage throughout large areas of theMidlands where they controlled supply.It wasn’t until 1925 that parliamentrecommended establishing a “grid” toestablish a national system oftransmission lines. This would take sixyears to finish at a cost of £27m.

Capital investmentIn those early days of power, neitherbanks nor government were keen toinvest in new technologies. In aforerunner of modern day PFI projects,Balfour and Beatty set about boostingthe company’s capital resources to fundlarger projects themselves at home andabroad. In 1922 they formed PowerSecurities Corporation, wholly owned byBalfour Beatty and supported by threeenterprises, Babcock & Wilcox and theforerunners of the Vickers Group andGEC – Armstrong Whitworth and theBritish Thompson-Houston Company.

Huge amounts of constructionfinance had to be raised for the hydro-electric projects in Scotland in the 1920sand 30s (see box p21) and by 1931,despite the major economic depression,work in hand was worth £4m.

The Second World War stopped thesefinancial operations almost overnight.Instead Balfour Beatty had to scrapeprofits from essential bomb repairworks, laying cables, extending powerstations and, famously, building theChurchill Barriers in the Orkneys(pictured above).

Post-war reconstruction in the UKand abroad kept the firm busythroughout the 1940s and 50s but it wasliving on borrowed time. Clem Attlee’snew Labour government introduced theElectricity Bill, which nationalisedelectricity supply from April 1948. PowerSecurities received some compensationand played a key role in creating the

275kV “supergrid” for the new CentralElectricity Generating Board, which wasquickly replaced by 400kV lines.

But it was not enough. Businesscontinued to be tough throughout themid-1950s even though attempts weremade to build up the contracting arm toreplace the loss of UK power work.

It turned its sights overseas again,continuing projects such as the WadiTharthar project in Iraq to stop flooding inBaghdad, which called for the removal of80 million tons of earth in four years.

But political revolution there,disturbances in South America andindependence for many of the Africanstates was gradually closing more andmore doors overseas for Balfours. This wasto be the impetus for finding newmarkets: contracts were won in Canadaand Kenya, while new nuclear powerplants provided diversification closer tohome. By the firm’s golden jubilee in 1959

the group was still a relatively small familyfirm with assets of more than £5m and500 staff in the London HQ in Cheapside.

That was to change radically in the late1960s. With the completion of thesupergrid, there was no more work left totransfer old-style electricity generation tothe new grid in the UK.

Balfour Beatty and BICC Construction,which together shared two-thirds of thehome market, decided to merge. In 1969BICC bought 100% of Power Securities togenerate work overseas to replace the lostmarket in power transmission at home.

Problematic periodIt was an association that lasted until thenew millennium, but initially it was asticky period for Balfour Beatty. Problemcontracts at the Dartford Road Tunnel andSouth Mimms meant the southern part ofthe business made losses while the northof England and Scotland thrived.

Then and now1929 Rannoch

Power StationScotland

1939 OrkneysScapa Flow

Alistair WivellAlistair Wivell and his family are morefamiliar than most with Balfour Beatty. His father, Sandy, aformer coal miner,joined the company in 1926 as a generalforeman at the start ofthe Lochaber hydro-electric scheme.

Alistair was born ona Balfour Beatty siteand was brought up instaff quarters on thehydro-electric schemein Fannich, north ofInverness. He joinedthe company as atrainee civil engineeron £5 a week in 1964.His son, Neil, startedwork with the companyin 1993 and is now acommercial manager in Scotland.

Wivell rose tobecome one of thethree group managingdirectors and nowchairs the BalfourBeatty Pension Fund. He recalls the“pioneering spiritamong men such as my father”.

Harsh conditions“The conditions werevery tough for them onthe Lochaber scheme.They had to build theirown jetty to get rawmaterials onto the siteeven before tunnelling.

“They had harshworking conditions,men working day andnight, and basicbarracks-styleaccommodation,sometimes even doubleshifting the beds.

“There were no hard hats, limitedventilation, manyaccidents. Engineeringtechniques may not beso different today;what has reallychanged are the safety standards.”

But he recalls the family-firmatmosphere: “GeorgeBalfour was a man ofvision, a driving forceand a regular visitor tosites; it was a peoplebusiness.”

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Economic hardships in Europe in the 1920sturned Balfour Beatty’s attention to powerutilities overseas – primarily in colonieswith trading ties that looked to England todevelop new technologies.

In 1924 it undertook its firstmanagement contract overseeing thesupply of electricity to Nairobi andMombasa in Kenya after an employee went on safari on foot down the length of the Tana River looking for hydro-electricpossibilities.

The next few years saw rapid expansionin the supply of electricity and associatedexpansion of transmission lines, cables,and consumer connections with waterprojects in Jerusalem, dams in theDolomites and tracks in Bermuda. Here, an11-mile railway was built at a time whenthe only car allowed on the island belongedto the governor. Power to tin mines waslaid in Nigeria, trams in Buenos Aires andcrocodiles chased from sites in Uganda.

One key early overseas client was King

Overseas milestones

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Over the next two decades the groupdiversified, not always successfully, intohousebuilding and property development.Although by the 1980s more than half ofits turnover came from overseas work in60 countries – for example Jebel Ali portin Dubai and the Mrica dam in Indonesia –Balfour was still involved in a roll call oflandmark projects in the UK: the KielderDam in Northumberland; major works atSellafield; large stretches of the M25 andM63; the Cardiff Bay Barrage.

Under longstanding chairman DonHolland, the company broke the £1bnturnover barrier with a record year in1986/87 and a profit margin of more than3%. The acquisitions of Haden and BalfourKilpatrick made Balfour Beatty the largestM&E services operation in the UK. Thecompany now had 25,000 staff.

But the years of real growth were tobegin in the 1990s with the appointmentof chief executive Mike Welton and

finance director Ian Tyler, who aimed fromthe outset to modernise what was still atheart a traditional constructionengineering company.

Reversing the process ofdiversification, they returned to thecompany’s roots. At first, the privatisationof British Rail by John Major’sConservative government caused a hiatusin spending but Balfour Beatty thenplayed an important part in themaintenance of major railway lines andwon the contract to remodel theapproaches to Euston station and updatethe ageing West Coast Main Line.

Procurement sea change Once the early teething troublesassociated with new forms of procurementsuch as public private partnerships wereresolved, Balfour Beatty becameincreasingly involved with PPP schemes –hospitals, schools, underground

maintenance and street lighting. By 1998,the group’s turnover had passed £2bn.

A more selective approach to biddingand a focus on core strengths led the groupto end a 30-year business structure anddispose of the BICC electrical cable side ofthe business. The Balfour Beatty name re-emerged as an independent publiccompany in May 2000 and announced itsfocus on four core businesses: > Building management and services> Civil work> Rail engineering > Investment and developments.

Boosted by profits from the BICC sale, it bought rail electrification and tractionpower supply company Adtranz, which put it on the path to becoming worldleader in that market.

The new millennium brought steepgrowth for the 100-year-old group – withturnover topping £3bn for the first time in2000 and rising to £7.4bn in the 2007 full-year reports.

But just as its original founders, George Balfour and Andrew Beatty, set out clear business intentions in 1909, sodoes Balfour Beatty now claim similarsimplification as two distinct businesses: a growing infrastructure investmentspecialist and the UK’s largestinternational engineering, constructionand services contractor.

Sticking to those roots has set thecompany on course to reaching its secondcentury in good shape too. ■ 10

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1954 Great LakesCanada

1986 East Coast Main LineEngland

1995 M25England

Faisal in Iraq, for whom Balfour Beattyundertook big projects in the mid-1930s tocontrol the Tigris and Euphrates flood plainsfor “Britain’s faithful ally”. It took four yearsto complete and involved placing 325,000cubic yards of concrete in the form of abarrage 1,600ft long and costing £1.25m. It took George Balfour a week to travel fromLondon just to attend the inaugurationceremony (pictured right).

By the 1980s the company wasoperational in more than 50 countries.

In time of warBalfour Beatty’s civilengineering experienceof creating a barrageacross the Tigris in Iraqwas to play a crucialrole in the SecondWorld War.

Following thetorpedoing of thebattleship Royal Oak atthe Royal Navy’s mainbase at Scapa Flow inthe Orkneys, WinstonChurchill, then FirstLord of the Admiralty,ordered the easterndefences to be closed.

Five of the Scottishislands had to be linkedinto a causeway bysealing the interveningfour tidal channels –over 9,000ft across andup to 70ft deep – whilecontending with fasttides and 100mphwinds. It took fouryears, 500,000 cubicyards of quarried rockand 300,000 tons ofconcrete facing blocks.

Balfour Beatty alsoplayed its part in theartificial harbours,known as Mulberries,which wereprefabricated and towedacross the Channel andsunk off the Normandybeaches to giveprotective anchorage toAllied Forces invadingFrance in June 1944.

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ALL SYSTEMS GOFrom underground rail networksto large PFI contracts, complexprojects call for innovativesolutions – and Balfour Beattyhas a growing reputation formanaging and delivering them.We put four projects under the spotlight

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C hambers English dictionary givesthe word “mega” two meanings: a

1980s colloquialism meaning excellentand a prefix, from the Greek megas,meaning large or great. Both are equallyapplicable to the mega-projects tackledby Balfour Beatty, be it PFI hospitals,railway links or water maintenancecontracts. So what’s the secret behindmaking them work? David James,managing director of Balfour BeattyManagement, says the key is inunderstanding what the client wants.

“Clients have come to know us as acompany that can provide integratedservices, from the conception tocompletion of a project and beyond,” he says. “What we do is not rocket science. By understanding the challenges andpressures and bringing a solution to the

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What we do is not rocket science. Byunderstanding the challenges andpressures and bringing a solution to thetable that is inclusive and exceptional,we can fulfil the requirements of thesemega-projects”

table that is inclusive and exceptional,we can fulfil the requirements of thesemega-projects.”

James sees his operation as the glue that binds the diverse elements of the group together. But he adds: “The companies operate individually.Each is responsible for its bottom lineand they come together when it is ofmutual benefit but not as a strict policy.That way the company stays adaptable to client needs.”

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The rail link and station at Heathrowairport’s Terminal Five will become a vitaltransport artery. And for Balfour Beatty ithas become a key source of work – £450mworth of contracts secured, includingextending the Piccadilly Line andHeathrow Express to T5.

Group managing director MikePeasland says: “A partner was required tocomplete M&E ancillary services to the railcontract, so we offered BAA a joint venturewith Balfour Kilpatrick.”

The group managed the building worksfor the station; installed the M&E servicesfor the station box; it installed the powersupply to the driverless vehicles betweenT5A and T5B; and Balfour Beatty Civils wonthe contract to build the spur road fromthe M25 into the new terminal.

BAA’s management experiences on T5 led the airport operator to reassess itsworking policy on big construction projects and create a Complex BuildIntegrator framework, which Balfour

Beatty joined in 2007. This hands fullresponsibility for project management to a lead contractor.

“It means BAA can focus on meetingthe needs of airlines and shareholderswhile we get on with running theconstruction projects,” says Peasland.

Now, BAA contracts out entire projectsto Balfour Beatty to procure and complete.This includes Heathrow Terminal 2 andEdinburgh airport, airline relocation movesat Heathrow and major improvements atGlasgow airport.

Andrew Thompson, operations directorfor Balfour Kilpatrick, was a projectmanager on T5 and now runs all relatedservices work under the Complex BuildIntegrator. “T5 held special challenges forus,” he says. “In the interchange areabetween T5A and the car park we had toerect a building 30m wide, while belowthey were building the rail station andwork was at fever pitch. Ensuring thesafety exclusion zones was of paramount

importance – with so many operatives onsite it proved very challenging at times.”

Similarly challenging were the workingrelationships. “We have ways of doingthings and so does London Underground,” says Thompson. “The trick was to achieve alevel of understanding that enabled us allto work together rather than attempting togo at it with blinkers on.”

Thompson is in the midst of relocatingservices to allow T2A and T2B to be built onthe site of Terminal 2 and the Queen’sBuilding office block. Before these can bedemolished all critical services must bererouted. “We’ve built a modular gantrycorridor 300m long and 4m above ground.All the services from T2 – electricity, firealarms, CCTV, telecoms, IT – which areinterconnected to the rest of the airport,are routed through this to ensure theairport remains fully operational while theold buildings are demolished.”

Under way since November 2007, thisis due to complete next spring.

Client BAA Contract BalfourBeatty Rail Projectsand Balfour KilpatrickJV to extend the railand tunnel systemsof Heathrow Expressand Piccadilly Line to Heathrow T5,station constructionand fit-out Contract value£450mCompleted July 2007Scope of work>> Rail, trackwork,traction power, M&Eworks for 10km ofunderground rail >> Balfour Kilpatrick:M&E on HeathrowExpress andPiccadilly Line railtunnel extensions to T5, T5 station andtrack transit systembetween terminals >> Balfour BeattyConstruction:production lead andfit-out contractor onstation/interchange

T5 proves vital link to Heathrow work

New platform: theT5 project hasinvolved plenty oflogistical, interteamand safetychallenges

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Balfour Beatty Management has played a key role in the ongoing redevelopment ofKing’s Cross St Pancras undergroundstation. Working as part of the ABBT jointventure – Atkins and Balfour Beatty – itpassed on the contract to construct thenorthern ticket hall to Balfour Beatty CivilEngineering in 2006.

An integrated team comprising thisdivision, engineering services companyBalfour Kilpatrick and Balfour BeattyGround Engineering began constructionwork on the £1.5bn project that summer.

Work is predominantly being conductedbelow ground and comprises theconstruction and fit-out of a gigantic four-storey concrete box. This will provideimproved access to the Northern,Piccadilly and Victoria underground linesvia banks of new escalators and lifts.

Project manager Robert Oag says: “Our work is almost all being done in closeproximity to the public, as well as livetrains and tube lines. This makes for

difficult conditions and working duringanti-social hours so as not toinconvenience the public.”

The challenges have been wide-ranging, starting with the sheer scale of the excavations and shoring works asthe team dug down and then built thestation out of the hole.

“Now we are entering a phase wheremore intricate operations prove the mosttesting,” says Oag. “The integration ofsystems – fire, smoke and evacuationalarms, security measures, CCTV,communication networks – between the completed phase one and this newphase two is reaching a critical stage.”

Offsite construction has played acritical role in the constructionprogramme, he says. “We have worked up all systems on a mimicked basis,developing them off site. There they canbe tried out and tested for bugs beforecoming near the station.

“When we install them for real, they

should simply plug in and be operational.This level of testing may seem like overkill,but the implications of a false alarm inKing’s Cross are enormous, so we simplydon’t take that chance.”

On its completion in 2010, the new underground station will be able to deal with an anticipated 90,000passengers during the morning rush hour each day. Until then work mustcontinue at pace and without getting in the way of the station’s current 80million passengers a year.

“The scale of the King’s Cross projectcan’t be truly appreciated because it isalmost all underground,” says BalfourBeatty Management’s David James. “It is a massive undertaking in a dense city centre environment, where there issignificant interface with the public and a very restricted work space.

“But in the midst of that, we areworking to meet the critical deadline forthe 2012 Olympics.”

Client Transport for London ContractConstruction ofticket hall at King’sCross St Pancrasundergroundstation; constructionand fit-out of four-storey unit toimprove access viastairs, lifts andescalators Total budget £1.5bn Awarded 2003 Completed Partialcompletion – twoticket halls, 2006and in 2008 to allowfor Network Railredevelopment ofmainline station; fullcompletion 2012 Companies involvedBalfour BeattyManagement, Civil Engineering,Ground Engineering,Construction Plantand Fleet Services,and Balfour Kilpatrick

Building a station out of a hole at King’s Cross

Our work isalmost all inclose proximityto the public,live trains andtube lines. Thismakes fordifficultconditions andworking atanti-socialhours so as not toinconveniencethe public”

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Less high profile yet just as important tothe balance sheet are the large-scaleutilities maintenance contracts that spanthe UK. “They aren’t as sexy as some of thebuildings,” admits group managingdirector Brian Osborne, “but they bring insignificant revenue over their life spansand are important all over the country.”

And he should know. His divisionincludes Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions,Infrastructure Services, and WorkPlace(formerly Haden Building Management).Utility Solutions operates maintenance and upgrade programmes on the water,gas and electricity networks, whileInfrastructure Services helps keep the UK’s roads in order.

“Because they are long term, the gasand electric alliances have been set up asalmost independent companies in whichBalfour Beatty and the client have equalstakes,” says Osborne. (see p24)

The contracts are open-book. BalfourBeatty sets target costs each year and if

the alliance beats the target the profits areshared between client and contractor.

“We’ve been able to reduce the real-terms cost of maintenance per metre yearon year,” says Osborne. His teams, withsupport from Balfour Beatty Management,have done this partly by rethinking the waywork should be carried out. No longer doteams of men lean on shovels waiting tofill in a hole while someone lays a gas orwater pipe. Instead, 15-man teams, knownas ‘mega-squads’, work like a productionline: the first group surveys the road; thesecond digs trial holes; a third excavatesthe trench; a fourth lays pipe and so on.

Phil Brookes is managing director of a key part of Osborne’s stable, BalfourBeatty Utility Solutions. “Our work isn’teasy to quantify immediately,” he says.“But for, say, water we carry out as many as10,000 jobs each week. These range fromone man taking one hour to patch a pipe,to teams of 30 working for months onrenewal projects.”

The water teams are based at 32 depotsfrom the Scottish Borders to Cornwall, andserve seven of the 10 UK water companies.There are 1,800 directly employed staffand another 500 subcontractors that workwithin their regions. “The work isunglamorous but essential,” says Brookes.“We get called out at an hour’s noticewhen people are left without water.”

It’s a similar picture at Balfour BeattyInfrastructure Services. Currently workingon two five-year contracts for roads acrossthe south of England, the company isresponsible for everything from cuttinggrass verges and gritting roads to managingthe lorry stacking system on the M20 whenFrench port officials go on strike.

Even here, the group can draw on itsmanagement and specialist divisions.“Balfour Beatty Management has helpedset up contracts with National Grid, BritishEnergy and the Highways Agency,” saysOsborne. “And we can also call on our civilengineering and construction teams.”

Maintenancecontracts and clients >> British Energy:£60m per year>> Royal Mail: £100mper year since 2001>> Department ofWork and PensionsMail centres: £80mper year>> Water UnitedUtilities: £100m peryear for five years>> Gas North WestGas Alliance: £70mper year for eightyears>> Electricity ElectricalAlliance: £100m peryear for five years>> Roads HighwaysAgency: £40m peryear for five years Companies involved Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions,InfrastructureServices,Management,WorkPlace

From water mains to grass verges

The work isunglamorousbut essential.We get calledat an hour’snotice whenpeople are left withoutwater”

Volt from the blue:Balfour Beatty hasbuilt on its longhistory of workingon the UK’s powernetworks

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Balfour Beatty Capital, the group’s public-private partnership specialist, wasawarded the 40-year, £553m contract forBirmingham Acute and Adult PsychiatricHospitals in 2006. The group’sshareholding in the public-privatepartnership overseeing the project is 40%, alongside partners Royal BankProjects (30%) and HSBC InvestmentManagement (30%).

The contract for the PPP, known asConsort Healthcare (Birmingham),involves the design, construction,financing, maintenance and managementof the lifecycle replacement of the newhospitals for 35 years following the five-year, two-month construction period.

A joint venture team of Balfour BeattyConstruction and Haden Young is runningthis project to build the first new generalhospital in Birmingham for 70 years andthe largest community healthcaredevelopment outside London.

“It is a big undertaking,” says Balfour

Beatty group managing director MikePeasland. “We started with nothing morethan an output specification from theclient; a list of what departments, thedepartmental relationships and anaccommodation schedule.

“From there, our team had to designand cost the entire project. We are nowbuilding 400m2 per week.”

Peasland says specialist mechanicaland electrical services are always a largepart of the cost of hospitals, hence thejoint venture with building servicescontractor Haden Young and thewidespread use of prefabrication.

John Hughson, head of construction on the project, says: “Prefabricationmakes for safer working conditions, lessmanpower on site and a higher quality offinish. In that respect, we have beenworking with teams of Haden M&Eengineers on site from the very start of the project.”

Haden Young is responsible for the

prefabrication and installation of servicesmodules, vertical mechanical risers andentire bathroom pods – factory-builtelements that are tested by in-houseteams before being delivered to site andinstalled.

“There has been colossal interactionbetween Balfour Beatty Construction andHaden Young from the outset,” saysHughson. “Our integration is what makesthe design and build project work.

“We could do it with other firms but, in truth, when we come up againstdifficult issues, working with Haden iseasier because, as sister companies, we can be sure we are working towardsthe same goal.”

The mental health facilities havealready opened. These will be followed by the main acute facilities in 2010. Finalcompletion is due in 2012, when thehospital will accommodate more than1,300 beds – 21% more than the facilitiesit is replacing. ■

Client UniversityHospitalBirmingham NHSFoundation Trust;Birmingham andSolihull MentalHealth NHS Trust Contract Design,construction,finance, maintainingand managing ofBirmingham Acuteand Adult PsychiatricHospitals in a PPPwith Royal BankProjects and HSBC>> Concession is 35years following fiveyears of construction >> Balfour Beatty hascommitted £23m tothe project between2009 and 2010. Value £553mCompleted 2012Companies involvedBalfour BeattyCapital,Construction,Construction Plantand Fleet Services,WorkPlace, HadenYoung

Prefab push for Birmingham hospital

This year’s module:offsite constructioncontinues to play abig part in theconstruction stageof the project

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As the creation and management of its assets becomes ever moredemanding, the National Grid isexpecting much more from its supplychain partners, as Tony Whiteheadhears. Illustration by Patrick Lewis

Let therebe light

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T he startling fact that more than a thirdof the UK’s power generating plant will

need to be replaced over the next 15 years– much within the next 10 – hasincreasingly become a front-benchpolitical issue. With what sort of powershould old plant be replaced? How muchof a contribution can renewables,particularly wind farms, make? And whatof ‘clean’ coal and, perhaps mostcontroversially, a new nuclear powerprogramme?

Whatever the shape of our futuregenerating capacity, its creationrepresents a huge challenge, and not justto government and power suppliers.National Grid, whose job it is to connectall this new plant to its national powerdistribution network, faces a uniquelytesting period. To enable it to meet thechallenge, it has embarked on a new way of working with its contractors inlong-term “electricity alliances”. Notsurprisingly the next few years will

put this form of procurement under stiff examination.

Simon Cocks, National Grid’s globalprocurement director, spells out what is expected from the new alliances. “We have a very significant UK investmentprogramme in the coming years,” he says. “This is partly driven by concernsabout climate change and thereplacement of fossil fuel plant withrenewables and potentially nuclear power. It is also because many of ourexisting assets are now reaching the end of their useful lives.”

A double whammy then – and eventrickier than it at first appears.“Renewables will play a role, but by theirnature they often generate power awayfrom where it is needed,” says Cocks.“Scotland is suited to wind farms, forexample, but the network is relativelysparse there.”

Tapping renewable sources will alsocall for more generators of smaller

amounts of power. So, as well asstretching the network to remotelocations, the Grid will also have moreplants to connect.

“To do all this at the same time as weare replacing our existing assets meanswe will have to manage the process verycarefully,” says Cocks. “We don’t want thewhole network in pieces at once.”

Quite. So the way the Grid procuresnew connections and replaces old kit is, to say the least, absolutely central to thebusiness of keeping the lights on over the next decade.

What are the electricity alliances?Forged in March 2007 the National Gridsigned several five-year contracts toupgrade and develop the electricitytransmission network across England andWales, based on a model created tohandle its gas network.

The gas contracts were big but the newelectricity ones are bigger. Worth some >

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£2.5bn over the five years, 15 contractingorganisations are involved. This is hardlysurprising when you consider the scale of the Grid’s operation – 7,200km ofoverhead line, 700km of undergroundcable, 313 major substations at the nodesof the grid, and the construction ofconnections to new power stations andsmaller plant.

Even individually, these contracts aresubstantial. Balfour Beatty has one of thelargest, covering the east of England andworth around £500m over the five years.

Long-term involvementSo what has changed under the newarrangements? “We used to have a moretraditional arm’s length relationship withour suppliers,” says Cocks. “Five-yearcontracts mean we are able to givecontractors more insight into plannedworkloads and better understand theirresource requirements.

“Also, by involving them more in

concept and design phases, they can helpus with constructability, lean building andincorporating safety by design both duringconstruction and throughout the lifetimeof the asset.”

In essence, says Cocks, the alliancesallow the parties to work more closely,understanding each other’s needs better,learning from each other both technicallyand commercially to reap the benefits oflonger term planning.

In the current financial climate, manycontractors might view such long-termarrangements with a financially stableclient as something of a cushy number. But a look at how the contracts operatequickly dispels any such notion.

Put simply, each year’s work is given a target cost that has been subject to acost- assurance process to ensure thecontractor is not being over-generous in itspricing. If on completion of the work theactual cost is less and key performanceindicators have been met, the cost

Five-year contractsmean we are able to give contractorsmore insight intoplanned workloadsand better understandtheir resourcerequirements”

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difference becomes gainshare – that is, itis split 50:50 between client and supplier.

There is also a cost ratchet mechanism,so that if, say, a 10% saving is made in thefirst year, that then becomes thebenchmark for the next year so thatfurther gainshare will have to result fromfurther savings.

Says Cocks: “Essentially we work with risk and reward mechanisms, and thecost ratchet provides us both with a clearincentive to innovate and deliverefficiencies year on year.”

You can see how well this could work.But does it in reality?

“We are extremely pleased,” saysCocks. “In its first year of our alliance withthem, Balfour Beatty delivered one of thebiggest and most challenging nationalpackages at well below target cost levelsand with a safety record better thananything we had achieved before.”

In fact, savings of up to 18% wereachieved in the first year.

This bears out Cock’s assertion that thecontracts are “an opportunity to align ourcore values of safety, reliability andefficiency in a different commercialrelationship with our partners”.

Benefit to contractorsIt seems that this is as good in practice as it sounds in theory. Kevin George,manager of the Electricity Alliance Eastand technical director of Balfour BeattyManagement, says: “The ability to planahead is highly beneficial, not leastbecause so much planning is involved.Last year, for example, we worked onaround 17 projects simultaneously but hadmore than 80 in various stages ofplanning.”

He adds: “Bidding for work in smallerpackages is also very expensive: invariablyyou don’t win every bid and the abortivecosts are high. That is an expense we nolonger have and a saving we can pass on.”

He concurs with Cocks that a five-year

timescale (with an option to renew for a further five years subject to satisfactoryoperation and regulatory approval) allowstechnical, financial and safety planning to become much more efficient.

It has also fostered a morecollaborative approach between thedifferent alliance contractors. “It is in ourinterest to share best practice. We allbenefit from driving costs down,” saysGeorge. “That would have been unheardof before, when we were in constantcompetition with each other and we allguarded our technical and commercialsecrets like they were our crown jewels.“

He is also confident that the contractsare resilient enough to withstand anyvolatility in labour or materials marketsbrought about by the present financialturmoil. “The cost ratchet works bothways,” he explains. “If costs were to riseunavoidably, and we suffered as a result,overspend can also become the nextyear’s benchmark. The incentive to >

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We used many of the co-operative features we had developedthrough our relationshipwith Balfour Beatty whenwe designed the allianceframework in the firstplace”

improve remains but there is a recognitionthat outside circumstances can change.”

There is also a certain amount offlexibility within the contracts to allow forthe unforeseen, explains Cocks. “If, forexample, a section of overhead linesneeded urgent replacement, we couldbring that work forward and re-prioritiseother work. If an entirely new projectbecame necessary, due to a new generatorin a new location, for example, then wecan go to our regulator and ask for moremoney to do that. That new work can thenbe taken on as extra by the alliances asappropriate.”

Integrated teamsOther aspects of the alliances help toensure the National Grid gets what itneeds from the arrangement. Forexample, Grid staff are embedded withinthe alliances at both managementsupervisory and at contract technical levelto ensure the job is done to the correctstandard. Those staff also help keep aneye on how contractors are dealing withthe owners of land through whichNational Grid assets pass.

“This is a massive thing with us,” saysCocks. “Ever since the Grid was created inthe 1920s the management of landownershas been crucial and it is in the lifeblood ofthis organisation.”

So was Cocks nervous about handingover more control to muddy-bootedcontractors? “In fact they are used toworking with the landowners and are very sensitive to our requirements onthis,” he says. “Balfour Beatty has beeninvolved with the Grid for many decadesand fully understands how important it isto keep the landowners on side.

“Although alliances were first used forour gas network, we actually used many ofthe co-operative features we haddeveloped through our relationship withBalfour Beatty when we designed thealliance framework in the first place.”

The alliances are clearly deliveringbenefits for both contractor and client, butcan Cocks be confident they will continueto do so in the coming years? After all, thecredit crunch was only just being spokenof as a possibility when the contracts weresigned early in 2007. The world is a verydifferent place now.

Cocks agrees times have changed butis adamant that alliances are the rightroute to take. “Now more than ever peopleare looking for stability. Because ourincome is based on regulated entities weare a relatively stable client, but I think thefeatures of our alliance contracts showthere is no complacency and wecontinually strive for greater efficiency indelivering safe, reliable networks.

“In uncertain times it is even moreimportant that our suppliers have thegreatest visibility we can offer regardingfuture workloads. A stable, long-term,well-managed partnering arrangementthat delivers continual efficiencyimprovements is exactly what you need in times like these.” ■

Down to the wireAlthough in many ways typicalof the work carried out by theelectricity alliances, thereplacement of power lineseast of Birmingham wasparticularly challenging. The project involved a major275,000V power route slung 13km across 47 pylonssituated in both industrial and residential sites. But what made it a potentiallyexpensive project was that the route zigzagged across the M5 three times.

“The traditional way ofreplacing cable across a road is to scaffold either side andsling a net to ensure cablescannot drop on traffic below,”says Electricity Alliance Eastmanager Kevin George. “Butto do this three times across amotorway would have beenexpensive and disruptive, sowe brought in new safetytechnology using speciallydesigned catenary supportmechanisms when workingabove the carriageway.”

Balancing actWorking in trolleys hangingmore than 30m above themotorway, engineers pulledthemselves across the linesthat span the six lanes of themotorway to remove thespacer bars that hold the linesapart. Once completed, newpower lines were winched into place and the old onesremoved.

National Grid projectmanager Jas Harrar said:“When doing a job like this,safety is the priority. We haveto work when the motorway is quieter because the sight of three men hanging fromoverhead power lines can bedistracting for motorists.

“But people expect to haveelectricity whenever theywant it so we have to keep the transmission network infirst-class working order.”

Adds George: “The othermain challenge was repairinglines and pylons in built-upareas. Some pylons are inpeople’s back gardens, soaccess is difficult and we have to be careful to keepdisruption of residents’ lives to a minimum while puttingsafety first.

“All this had to be achievedduring British summer time,when the Grid has moreflexibility to cut out sectionsdue to lower power demand.”

Despite the challenges andtime pressures, and in partdue to minimising the needfor major scaffolding-ledwork, the alliance completedthe work early and at a saving of some £5m.

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29A ndy Rose is grinning but there is alook of disbelief on his face as he

recalls finding an old photograph recently.“It was me on my first site with BalfourBeatty in 1972. I had hair down to myshoulders, a donkey jacket and Wellingtonboots. No safety helmet, no gloves, nogoggles and I was pretty invisible againstthe background of the site.” He shakes hishead: “It’s quite shocking but it’s useful tosee how we used to do things. It remindsus how much progress we have made.”

Thirty years on, having held themanaging directorship of variousoperating companies and portfolios withinBalfour Beatty, Rose is in a good positionto take his younger self to task. In April2008 he became group managing directorresponsible for engineering and safety. It’sa newly created position that emphasises abig commitment to health and safety – acommitment made explicit by its ZeroHarm programme.

Launched in October, the initiative aims

The zero hour

A recently launched health and safetycampaign promises to cut out serious accidents altogether. Too good to be true?James Clegg meets the man behind Zero Harm

Into the Forth dimensionThe apparently endless task of painting the Forth Bridge is a modern legend. ButBalfour Beatty Regional CivilEngineering has risen to thechallenge in a £18m phasedoperation that will finallybring the job to an end in2012. And on the way it hassmashed health and safetyexpectations – on a bridgethat in its year of constructionin 1890 claimed 70 lives and25,000 recorded accidents.

Even using today’sindustrial processes, this is a project fraught withpotential hazards. Harnessedscaffolders erect screens asEast Coast Main Line trainsroar across the 2.5kmcantilever bridge; grit blasterstackle 120 years of paintworkas ships and yachts sail downthe estuary; steelwork isrepaired and three coats ofpaint applied while the publicgo about their lives on theroads and in houses at eachend. As Ken Brown, the projectmanager who has worked onthe bridge for four years, says:“In this environment there’sno second chance.”

Yet a stringent safetyapproach has helped thecompany slash its accidentfrequency rate (AFR) – thenumber of reported incidentsper 100,000 man hoursworked – to 0.03 by 2008, the seventh year of itscontract. Indeed, two millionman hours were reached lastyear without a singlereportable accident beingrecorded. “This compares withAFR rates in civil engineeringthat as recently as a decadeago were discussed in wholenumbers,” says Brown.

So what makes the ForthBridge so safe? “The key isplanning,” says Brown. “It’snot mission impossible; it’sjust about making sureeveryone is committed.”

He has taken it uponhimself to spread the safetyculture introduced on allBalfour Beatty projects in thegroup’s Take CARE campaignof 2005. Inspired by the

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30 to reach an accident frequency rate (AFR)of less than 0.1 per 100,000 man hoursworked by 2012, no fatalities and noseriously disabling injuries or long-termharm to Balfour Beatty staff or the public.

Stephen Williams, chief inspector ofconstruction at the Health and SafetyExecutive, welcomes the initiative. “Itshows the leadership we need from theconstruction industry. We all need to workhard to change the culture of the industryto a position where harm and ill health aresimply not tolerated.”

Rose admits it is ambitious but adds:“The expectations of employees, clientsand society are going this way. Zero Harmisn’t just a campaign; it’s a way of life.”

There is no ignoring the huge impactthe Hatfield rail crash of 2000, and thesubsequent court case, had on BalfourBeatty. Yet its in-house safety record hasshown a huge improvement since then.Since becoming a plc, also in 2000, the

number of people employed on BalfourBeatty projects has grown massively. A combination of wholly owned andsignificant joint ventures has taken thetotal number of subcontractors fromabout 50,000 in 2000 to 130,000 in 2008.But there’s been a drastic fall in AFR fromjust over 0.6 in 2001 to about 0.2 in 2008.

Safety measuresThe improvement has been achieved inseveral ways. Safety management systemsinclude internal and external audits andincident investigation teams. Workingparties recommend solutions for issuesfrom working at height to temporarytraffic management. And behaviouralsafety initiatives have been introduced.

Added to this, a growing emphasis onoffsite manufacturing is taking work into amore controlled environment, and thedesign process is increasingly geared todesigning out risk.

Landmarks in UKconstructionsafety

2001FEBRUARYConstruction safetysummit called byJohn Prescott and BillCallaghan, chair ofHealth and SafetyCommission, toaddressunacceptablenumber of deaths inthe constructionindustry.

2002APRIL Health and SafetyExecutive (HSE) setsup constructiondivision reportingdirectly to KevinMyers, its chiefinspector ofconstruction.

APRIL/MAYHSE launches “blitzof sites” in London,Scotland andnorthern England aspart of a rollingprogramme of siteinspections. Of 667 sites, 316prohibition noticesare issued and 64improvementnotices.

2003JUNEMore inspections aspart of Don’t Fall ForIt, a European Unioncampaign againstfalls from height. Out of a total of2,875 sites visitedacross the UK, 664 prohibitionnotices and 157improvement notices are issued.

2004MARCHHSE site inspectionsas part of theHealthy Handlingcampaign to tacklework-related illhealth in London andthe South-eastinclude 350 sitevisits and 66enforcement notices.

2005FEBRUARYConstruction healthand safety summitheld to reviewprogress since the2001 summit.

behavioural psychologymessages of the campaign, he set out to open his team’seyes to the dangers of beingunwittingly “half asleep” onthe job.

“It’s about engaging theworkforce to show that it’severyone’s responsibility tomake the workplace safe,”says Brown.

Workers are expected totake five minutes beforeembarking on any job to checkthe area is hazard-free – noslips and trips, no loosematerial, no untested cablingand so on. As an extraincentive, the worker makingthat month’s most significant“safety intervention” isrewarded with vouchers.

This is backed up by regularsite tours by managers(including Network Rail) andat least 20 “toolbox talks” amonth at which managersgive briefings on anythingfrom skin hazards toprotective eyewear.

All this to ensure that theunthinkable doesn’t happen –even when someone is notfully concentrating on the job in hand.

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31So how do you go from this point toachieving zero harm? The first basic stepis working out how many people andsuppliers work for the business, says Rose.The end figure, described by Rose as a“very conservative” estimate, is 500,000people over the course of a year.

The next step is to engage them all incontributing to – or in the case ofsuppliers or subcontractors, aligning theirbusiness to – the programme’s aims. Rosesays: “The nice thing is that everyonewants to do it. The only question is how.”

He does not pretend to have theanswer yet. “I’ll tell you in 2012,” he says.“This is a four-year mission. If we try tocome up with all the solutions tomorrowwe might make an incrementalimprovement but we won’t deliver asustainable performance that will carryforward from 2012. What we’re doing withthis project is driving the stakes so firmlyinto the ground there’s no going back.”

Rose sees his mission as creating aculture of safety that even has an impacton the language used by subcontractors.“So if you are talking to a supplier you say:‘I want my deliveries on a Zero Harmtruck, with Zero Harm offloading, drivenby a Zero Harm driver’.”

Monitoring challengeOn a basic level, the company willexamine how it monitors health andsafety. It already records data on a real-time system that can be used to sharedata throughout the group. But Roseinsists new metrics will be needed. “Oneof the questions I’ve posed is: in 2012,when there are no accidents to look at,how will we monitor our performance?”

Spreading good practice is key, saysRose, although he admits that informationsharing can be problematic. “Fatalities arefew but cannot be overlooked,” he says. In2007, for example, 18 lives were lost, all

outside the UK – four in wholly ownedcompanies and 14 in joint venture firms.But one incident was responsible formultiple worker fatalities after a speedingmotorist crashed into a site in Dubai.

The incident points to the associateddifficulty of exporting UK safety standardsto countries with different approaches tocorporate responsibility. As Rose says:“The challenges include widely differentregulatory regimes and a mix of culturesand languages on a lot of projects.

“Previously, we provided centralguidance to expectations on managinghealth and safety but we’ve neverprovided anything as strong as Zero Harm.Our partners in other countries – Dubai,Hong Kong, the US – have welcomed it.”

Rose is optimistic the campaign willsucceed. “The challenge we’ve set looksdaunting but we believe we can do it as we’ve seen our progress in the past. We’re confident we can get there.” ■

2006MARCHLord Hunt, thenminister for healthand safety, chairs theconference “Buyingfor life, constructionin the public sector”, calling for renewedcommitment tosafety inconstruction.

SEPTEMBERBattersea cranedisaster kills two workers,Jonathan Cloke and Michael Alexa.

2007JANUARYLiverpool cranecollapse kills workerZbigniew Swirzynski. Building launchesSafer Skylinecampaign to cutcrane-relatedaccidents.

SEPTEMBERStrategic Forum sets up workinggroups to deliver theconstructionindustry’sFramework forAction, as defined bywork and pensionminister Peter Hain’sconstruction forum.

2008APRILHealth and SafetyCommission (HSC)merges with the HSE.

SEPTEMBERStrategic Forumlaunches cranesafety initiative on the anniversary of the Batterseacollapse.

This is a four-year mission… Whatwe’re doing with this project is drivingthe stakes so firmly into the groundthere’s no going back”Andy Rose

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Flying startsJoining a large construction company as agraduate is no pushover these days. We meetthree Balfour Beatty newcomers who’ve allbrought something extra to the job

“W e should never lose anybodythrough lack of career

development,” declares Paul Raby,human resources director at BalfourBeatty. “There are very few businessesin the world that can offer moreopportunities to develop and broadenyour career than Balfour Beatty.”

And he should know. Raby’s own jobhas got a lot more interesting as BalfourBeatty’s traditional construction andcivil engineering base has broadened.“We have 26 operating companiesoperating in 20-plus countries,” he says.“That’s reflected in the range of peoplewe employ and will be employing in thefuture, and the opportunities and theculture that creates.”

Balfour Beatty has long been a bigemployer of graduates but in the pastfew years the profile of those recruitshas changed considerably. In 2008 ittook on 185 graduates in the UK andabout 70 across the US, Germany and

Hong Kong but only half had anengineering background. “We’recompeting with investment banks andservices companies for talent,” saysRaby. “We’re recruiting people with allsorts of backgrounds.”

Balfour Beatty’s individualbusinesses used to tour Britain’suniversity milkrounds separately,sometimes competing for the samestudents. One of Raby’s first initiativeswas to unite all the businesses underthe Balfour Beatty brand and launch anumbrella graduate recruitment websitethat, among other things, tightened upthe applications process.

The group’s decentralisedmanagement style means that once agraduate joins, the individualbusinesses take over. But each providesa structured development package withmanagement and leadership trainingthat is consistent across the group.

At senior levels, Raby’s target is that

Christine AllenSub agentCivil engineering division

Christine Allen’s only been withBalfour Beatty since 2001 but shealready has an impressive CV. Nowa sub agent, one rung below teamleader, she is responsible for all thestructures at the A3 Hindheadtunnelling project. Already achartered civil engineer, she’s hitthe books again for an MBA. “Iwanted to get a broad experienceas early as possible so I wouldn’t belimiting myself,” she says.

In 2005 she even spent a monthin Indonesia as a Balfour Beattyrelief volunteer after the tsunami,rebuilding homes and a school. “Itwas very different,” she says. “Youlearn about civil engineering fromfirst principles, making sure you getbest value out of everything.”

Allen loves being on site andwishes people would realise howrewarding a career in constructioncan be. “Historically it was seen asmale dominated and adversarial.There are still more men thanwomen on site but I’ve had noproblems. We should open thedoors to schools to let people seehow much we’ve changed. I lovethe industry with a passion: everyday is different and I love beingable to see the physical effects ofmy labour.”

She believes the industry is moreinclusive. “Everything traditionallyseen as a barrier to encouragingpeople to work on site is beingbroken down. At Hindhead we’vegot people with geography andlanguages degrees – we just needpeople who can solve problems.”

As Britain moves into recession,construction firms have a key rolein making projects more affordablefor clients, says Allen. “We can helpby being honest about what theycan get for their money. It’s abouthaving a good relationship with theclient, making sure you understandthem and they understand you.”

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Emma GarnerConstruction plannerBalfour Beatty ConstructionNorthern

Site engineering was a bit of a let-down for Emma Garner – “I got a bit bored; it wasn’t asinteresting as I thought it wouldbe,” she admits. So it’s just aswell her graduate employer hadplenty of other jobs she couldtry her hand at.

Things had looked up duringher sandwich year at university,when she worked with BalfourBeatty. “They let me trydifferent things and movearound the commercial anddesign side,” she says.

So when she began hercareer-proper in June 2005, anopportunity in the planningteam sounded like a much

better option. “It incorporateseverything: engineering,commercial and design. Youhave to have an understandingof it all. We plan progressionsfor the construction team towork towards, and monitorprogress on a monthly basis toshow we’re meeting targets.”

Inspired by her planning roleon the £600m Birminghamhospitals project, Garner cameup with an idea for the annualchairman’s innovation prize in2007 – a progress monitorbased on an Excel document.

“It breaks the hospital downinto levels and zones, andshows level by level and zone byzone where we are,” sheexplains. “If we’re behind byfour weeks, that square goesred, orange for two weeks andgreen if we’re ahead. The

directors can see immediatelywithout having to flick through150 pages of programmes.”

To her surprise, she won. “It’s so simple – everyone else’sentry seemed really technicaland really good whereas minewas just a progress monitor thatgoes red, orange, green like atraffic light.”

Garner had heard aboutconstruction planning atuniversity, but there are manymore roles that she hadn’t.“There’s quite a lot you can dothat no one knows about. Youjust think site engineer, QS…But now we have health andsafety graduates, logisticsmanagers – I never knew youcould do that full-time.

“And there are things that fallon the borderline, like tenantliaison officer, where you need

to have knowledge of the builtenvironment but it’s morecustomer focused. We need toraise awareness of what you canactually do in the industry.”

Garner thinks the area inneed of most improvement inthe construction industry iscommunication betweendifferent trades at handoverpoints on projects. “We knowwhich trades follow on fromeach other, but we need to get better at the interactionsbetween, say, groundwork and steelwork, or with M&E and fit-out.

“We need to break downbarriers and make them awareit’s not just a case of finishingon site and that’s it apart from a bit of snagging. On a projectlike Birmingham, they may haveto come back a few times.”

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34 75% of appointments should besourced internally – a target that’scurrently being beaten. On the 14-strong executive committee, three ofthe group managing directors joinedstraight from tertiary education. Rabyhimself has been at Balfour Beatty for12 years and in the group HR role for thepast four, responsible for the company’s40,000 full-time employees.

Rising up the ranks demands acomprehensive set of skills, not justtechnical qualifications. “We like tothink that the future generation ofleaders will also have personal qualitiessuch as emotional intelligence, driveand interpersonal skills. We wantpeople who can communicate and workwith colleagues upwards, downwards,internally and externally,” says Raby.“Then they have to have leadership andbusiness skills.”

One opportunity for graduates toshine is The Big Idea, a prize forinnovation awarded each year bychairman Steven Marshall. Now in itsthird year, it gives all graduates whohave been with Balfour Beatty for ayear the chance to submit ideas thatcould improve the business.

The best four or five are invited togive a 15-minute presentation to theexecutive panel, followed by 10 minutesof questions – a daunting prospect buta great chance for newcomers toimpress Balfour Beatty directors.

Last year’s winner, Michael Gibson(right), devised a mobilisation planningtechnique for a major energy project;the year before Emma Garner (see p33)developed an Excel spreadsheet thatbrought together all the facets of the£600m hydra-headed Birminghamhospital project into a simple, powerfulmanagement tool.

Ideas peopleGood ideas have come from all theentrants. One of Raby’s favourites camefrom a graduate with Balfour BeattyWorkPlace (formerly Haden BuildingManagement), who designed a personalorganiser for gas technicians that replacedinefficient paper-chasing with real-timetransfer of information to resolveproblems immediately. “He went to amanufacturer and asked them to make aprototype. Now he’s presenting to firmsexternally,” says Raby.

This is exactly the kind ofentrepreneurial thinking The Big Idea is designed to encourage. “We hiregraduates who are innovative andcreative and we want to encouragethem to challenge the status quo,” says Raby.

Graduates are welcomed into thefold at the highest levels right from thestart. Each March, when members ofthe new intake have been in post for sixmonths, they are invited to a groupgraduate conference to augment their

induction to the operating company.Presentations are given by thechairman and the chief executive andgraduates from previous years havetheir say. It is here that the winner ofthe innovation prize presents their ideaand throws down the gauntlet to thenew intake.

As from 2008, graduates who’vebeen with the group for a year have achance to meet the company bosses ina more intimate setting. At the end oftheir first year, they are invited to meetmembers of the executive committee ingroups of between six and 10.

Last year’s meeting lasted threehours, and graduates were encouragedto be frank about their training andanything that could be improved. As aresult, Raby says he’s focusing onensuring that the quality of graduatetraining stays high and opportunitieswithin the group are understood.

Despite the general downturn, three quarters of Balfour Beatty’s workis on public sector projects and ingovernment-regulated infrastructuresectors that are subject to five-yearinvestment plans. So recruitmentcontinues to be a priority.

“We’re well placed,” says Raby. “Wedo not expect our graduate recruitmentto tail off. We need good people at alllevels to enable us to grow and todevelop our people as future leaders –whatever the economic situation.” ■

We want people who cancommunicate with colleaguesupwards, downwards,internally and externally. Thenthey have to have leadershipand business skills”

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Michael GibsonCustomer services managerBalfour Beatty WorkPlace

It’s a great time to be a graduate inbuilding services, says MichaelGibson. “Everybody’s trying to beone step ahead of everyone else.We need to have the best ideas andthe best ways of saving clientsmoney in the long term.”

Gibson graduated in 2006 witha degree in geographic informationsystems. At the time HadenBuilding Management (whichbecame Balfour Beatty WorkPlacein November) seemed the best fit.

He started in September 2006as a trainee at Chelsea &Westminster Hospital and nowmanages £3m of M&E servicesacross the South-east for propertymanagement firm NB Entrust.“Within a year, I’d like to think Icould be an area or generalmanager, and operations directorin two years,” he says.

Gibson is proud of his speedyrise through the firm but whatexcites him most is the constantinnovation in his job. With therising profile of the green agenda,building management specialistsare at the forefront of cuttingcarbon emissions and helpingclients respond to changes.

“The economic situation isgoing to challenge the way theconstruction industry works andthe way it sees itself. It’s got towork smarter,” says Gibson.“Clients are more demanding onenergy saving and efficiency; theywant intelligent buildings that canreduce their carbon footprints.”

As a newcomer to the industry,Gibson thinks construction hasbeen perceived as a narrow-minded sector. “The industry needsto think a little more innovatively.We need to say: ‘We can provideyou with intelligent buildings thatcan look after themselves’.

“Balfour Beatty has to thinkright through from construction tomaintenance to meet thesetargets. We need to say: ‘yes, it willcost more to install but it can save30-40% of your energy demands’.”

This is becoming a much easiersell. The advent of the EU’s energyperformance certificates, whichwill give every building an eco-rating, has focused clients’ minds.“Obviously there’s a lot of kudos tobe had in having a decentcertificate,” says Gibson. He iscurrently working with contractorsto install condensing boilers – “ahell of a lot more efficient thantraditional ones” – and withbuilding management systemcompanies to avoid wasting energyon out-of-hours functions.

“It means the plant isn’t workingall day and night. It will shut downand start up in the morning whenpeople arrive. Clients are reallypushing for these efficiencies.”

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Giving it some

W hen Neil Findlay started workoverhauling Stoke’s schools, he

didn’t expect to find himself organisingfootball matches. But a youth sportsprogramme funded by his company hasbecome a critical way of keeping costsdown on the PFI project.

“We had 3,306 panes of glass broken in2001 and 15 cases of arson,” says Findlay,interim general manager for TransformSchools, the PFI body set up by BalfourBeatty Capital Projects and investmentgroup Innisfree in 2000 to upgrade Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s schools estate.

The 25-year project, which takes in themaintenance and improvement of fivespecial schools, 17 secondary schools and80 primary schools, had become a targetfor vandals, both in and out of schooltime, who damaged everything fromwindows and gutters to roofing.

To help tackle the problem, Transform,in partnership with the council, launched a football coaching programme in 2002,

primarily aimed at children excluded fromlocal schools. Its first three years werefunded by the Football Foundation andthe Lottery but when the funding ended in2005, Balfour Beatty stepped in, investing£270,000 over the following three years.

The revitalised initiative, FootballAction, has involved a larger number ofschools and forged a crucial link betweenschools and local football clubs.

The vandalism statistics speak forthemselves. Among the 10 schools rankedhighest for vandalism incidents, the mostnotable improvement has been seen inschools running Football Action courses.“Overall, there were 64% fewer incidentsin 2008 than when we started,” saysFindlay. “In 2008 there were only 563panes of glass broken and arson incidentsfell from 15 in 2001 to two in 2007.”

He adds: “Although there are enoughfunds to run until March 2010, this yearwill be about measuring our achievementsin behaviour improvement so the

As if it weren’t enough to erect iconic buildings,maintain the UK’s roads, railways and utilities andnurture an overseas business, Balfour Beatty is alsostriving to be a good corporate citizen

VANDALS RULE ON SCHOOLS PFI PROJECT… FOOTBALL ACTION KICKS IN…

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programme can be shown as a success, notjust as a vandalism prevention project.”

It also demonstrates that corporateresponsibility has a direct impact on acompany’s bottom line. Balfour Beattyhead of corporate responsibility Tim Sharpis in no doubt about its role. “Every day weadd something to the social capital of thenation by doing what we do,” he says. “Soit’s appropriate that we extend that to thecommunities who use it.”

Acknowledging the wide range of issuesunder corporate responsibility – trainingsustainability, safety, occupational health,ethics – he is keen to focus on Balfour’scommunity values, which have taken shapeover the past three years. “It’s still earlydays, but we are keen to mobilise theenergies of Balfour Beatty people,” he says.

There is no lack of relevant activityacross the group, which has longsupported charities such as Action forChildren and the Prince’s Trust. But it nowaims to create a coherent strategy to guide

Ground force Balfour Beatty makesregional donations tocommunities bodyGroundwork throughits Building BetterCommunities scheme,launched in 2005 toturn derelict land intoviable public space. In 2006, for example, it gave £10,000 toGroundworkHertfordshire, as well asvolunteer help from theM1 widening team toclear a footpath along adisused railway line. And in 2007 the civilengineering operation’sKing’s Cross team got togrips with local bird life,helping kids make birdboxes in Palmer’s Field,north London (right)

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TIGHTENING UP THE GAME…

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38 the actions of both group headquartersand the operating businesses. “We alsoneed to extend awareness along oursupply chain,” says Sharp.

The community push will becrystallised in this year’s Building BetterFutures campaign, in association with thePrince’s Trust and Action For Children(formerly National Children’s Homes).Marking Balfour Beatty’s centenary, thecampaign will support and raise money for100 projects initiated by the charities.

It will provide specialist playequipment for at least five of Action ForChildren’s centres for disabled children.The charity’s fund raiser, CarolineBeaumont, says: “Balfour Beatty hassupported us for the past two years butthe work we’ll be doing as a result ofBuilding Better Futures simply wouldn’ttake place without the campaign’s input.”

Youth opportunitiesAs for the Prince’s Trust, Balfour Beatty has been involved with the youthopportunities charity since April 2006,when it became a founding member of the Construction & Business ServicesLeadership Group. This fundraising forumfor UK construction firms has helpedhundreds of young people into workthrough the Get Into Constructioninitiative, providing site visits, workplacements and financial support.

As part of their centenary campaign,Balfour Beatty staff will be fundraising for

the Prince’s Trust Community CashAwards, which allows disadvantagedyoung people to run community projectsranging from revamping neglected parksto running anti-gun crime groups.

But sport is never very far away fromBalfour Beatty’s extra-curricular activities.The company has also struck a six-yearpartnership with London Youth Games,Europe’s largest youth sporting event. A£1.7m sponsorship between 2007 and2013 promises to double participationfrom the current 25,000 children. “Itmeans that for the first time in our 31-yearhistory we have financial security to takethe games to a new level,” says LondonYouth Games chair Anthony Kendall.

As a condition of its commitment,Balfour Beatty wants a fifth of its fundingto be channelled into grass roots sportsdevelopment in schools, with an emphasison coaching. It also aims to encourage theuptake of low-participation sports such asboxing, cycling and judo.

The sponsorship is not simply financial.“We’re not just putting money in buttrying to plug our organisation properlyinto the programme,” says Sharp. Thegroup has signed up sports eventscoordinator Limelight to help match theright Balfour Beatty volunteers to the rightsport in the right part of London.

So it looks as though more BalfourBeatty staff can expect to add a spot ofmatch scoring or a coaching session totheir site work. ■

The road toresponsibilityBalfour Beatty projectson Britain’s roads haveproved fertile ground forcorporate responsibility.

Sustainability lessonslearnt during thewidening of the M25near Heathrow in 2003and 2004 have beenpassed on to today’swidening of the M1south of Luton. A total of92% of the aggregateneeded for the project, a joint venture betweenBalfour Beatty andSkanska, is beingrecycled from acombination of onsitedemolition andconstruction waste andsupplies from localprocessors.

The joint venture evensecured early planningpermissions from threeauthorities to establishits own recycling centresat junctions 8, 9 and 10.This has saved money on materials, reducedconstruction traffic andcut programme delayscaused by lorriescarrying aggregategetting caught incongestion.

Matthew Fleetwood,materials engineer forBalfour Beatty on theproject, is in little doubtabout the impact of thestrategy. “There havebeen a million fewerlorry miles than wouldotherwise have beentravelled, which hascontributed to a 1,715tonne reduction in CO2

emissions.”The impact on locals

is something thatdominates Ian Whyte’sagenda. As communityrelations manager onBalfour Beatty’s A3redirection project inHindhead, Surrey, he hasplenty of stakeholders toreassure. The project –moving the London toPortsmouth road awayfrom the town ofHindhead and localbeauty spot the Devil’sPunchbowl onto a newfour-mile road with amile of tunnel (picturedright) – is under thescrutiny of theEnvironment Agency,the National Trust, theForestry Commission,wildlife enthusiasts and

local protest group Stoat(Save The Old A3).

“Normally you’re justdealing with people andtraffic but here you’redealing with 4.5 miles ofwoodland,” says Whyte.

All subcontractorshave to be debriefed on the nesting andhibernation habits oflocal wildlife. “We canonly take down trees outof the nesting season[before April] and we’vegot to leave tree stumpsin place until afterhibernation [afterApril],” he says.

Good communicationhas been key. This hasinvolved setting up twoviewing platforms, oneat either end of the site;building a visitor’scentre; and givingpresentationseverywhere fromschools to Women’sInstitute meetings.

Whyte believes thisopenness has spilledover from the projectteam spirit betweenBalfour Beatty, Atkins,Mott MacDonald and theHighways Agency. “Theteam spirit is excellent,”he says. “There’s afeeling that everyonewants to get it right.”

The locals and usersof the A3 have facedcomplicated temporarytraffic arrangementswhich, for an area longdogged by congestionand tailbacks, was amajor concern. But thetraffic management hasbeen a success. “Ifanything, for most ofthe time it’s allowed thetraffic to move moresmoothly than beforewe started in 2007,”says Whyte.

The new road will becomplete in 2011 but afurther year of workswill be needed to handover from the old route.

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Ready for action: mayorBoris Johnson launches the2008 London Youth Games

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High speed and sustainable. That’s how the rail construction market is

shaping up for Balfour Beatty, whose railturnover of £1bn is now a hefty contributorto the group’s £8bn global turnover.

Two step changes have put it where it is today, a full-service rail infrastructurecontractor tackling everything from track,electrification and power supplies tosignalling and maintenance.

In the UK, the privatisation of BritishRail in the 1990s allowed the group to buytwo maintenance firms and a track renewaloperation to become the UK’s leadingprivate sector rail infrastructure firm.Balfour Beatty Rail Services now has a 25%market share in renewal work in the UK. Ithas recently become a 50:50 partner withAlstom in Signalling Solutions, delivering a

full signalling service to Network Rail. Globally, the group’s biggest stride

forward was in 2000, when rail systemsgroup Adtranz was sold off – rolling stockgoing to Canadian conglomerateBombardier; and electrification andtraction power supply to Balfour Beatty.The purchase opened the door toGermany, Italy, Spain, China, Malaysia andSouth America and created a large railcapability within the group. “At the time itmade a huge contribution to the group’sbusiness,” says international businessdevelopment director David Bill.

A strong foothold in Germany wasbeefed up by the acquisition of trackworkspecialist Schreck-Mieves in June 2008,transforming Balfour Beatty Rail Germanyinto a multi-discipline contractor. As a

result, says Bill, Deutsche Bahn hasbecome as big a customer for the group as Network Rail is in the UK.

In recent years the focus has been onglobal expansion, with acquisitions inSweden, Italy and the US. Its projectsextend to laying track in Chile, upgradingtrack in Australia, and in Brazil it isnegotiating for a trackwork contract thatwill help transport iron ore from mines tothe coast for shipment. Meanwhile, it hassecured an electrification contract inMalaysia and is in the running for furtherelectrification work in Algeria.

The group’s strong constructionpresence in the Middle East and South-east Asia has given it a launch pad for railoperations there. With regional partnerGammon, it is preferred bidder for theDowntown Line in Singapore and it iseyeing contracts in Hong Kong next year.

Getting technical Technically, the group continues to moveforward. Safety developments are apriority, with efforts focused on remotecondition monitoring to relay data onswitches and crossings. In 2007 Balfour’stakeover of UK business Laserail made it aleader in laser-based measurement.

Such technical expertise is being usedin projects such as the Gotthard Tunnel inthe Alps. As part of the Transtec Gotthardconsortium, Balfour is supplying thecomplete rail infrastructure for this 57kmrail tunnel – the world’s longest – usingspecialised plant and equipment toovercome the limited access.

Increased focus is going to high-speedlines. Bill points to Italy, where, as amember of the Saturno consortium, thegroup is delivering a 350km/hr networkthroughout the country. In the US, high-speed rail is a growing market. And in theUK Balfour is part of a working group withNetwork Rail to discuss 5,000km of newelectrified lines that will help the UK meetits carbon emission targets. ■

The beaten track

For as long as it has existed Balfour Beatty has been a part of the rail industry. But theacquisition of Adtranz in 2000 has pushed it up the global contracting premier league

Swiss role: theGotthard Tunneltakes shape

Swede success: recentpurchases have put BalfourBeatty ahead in Scandinavia

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The world of building and constructioncontinues to evolve. But the real

challenges will be in adapting to thechanges that society, the economy,technology and the business world throwthe industry’s way.

Group chief operations officer AndrewMcNaughton says these considerations arenothing new to Balfour Beatty. “If we lookback over the past 10 to 15 years, ourorganisation and business streams havebecome far more sophisticated,” he says.

“We have moved dramatically from beingonly a contractor. Yes, we still are adeliverer of construction assets but theskill sets we’ve developed are movingmore upstream to the ability to managewith customers the assets they’ve got andto plan the use of those assets.”

These changes will have a profoundeffect on virtually every area of thebusiness – from highways to rail; health toeducation; power generation to civilengineering. An example of this is the

There’s no escaping the gloomy forecasts, so it’smore important then ever that construction firmsoffer their clients more. Graham Ridout finds outhow Balfour Beatty is gearing up for the future

Beyond construction

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M25, where a 30-year concession todesign, build, finance and operate themotorway is being finalised. Theconcession covers operationalmanagement and maintenance, togetherwith any upgrading or widening schemeson the network, including the Dartfordcrossing. Balfour Beatty has been selectedas the preferred bidder and it is hoped thedetails can be finalised this spring.

McNaughton sees the project as a stepchange that will see the company movingmore into operational management andmaintenance. He says: “This will switchthe emphasis away from constructionknowhow towards managing andoperating the motorway in ways thatcreate additional traffic capacity.

“We will be operating the network in amuch more intelligent way. The questionof tolling comes into play; the question ofmore information and communicationmechanisms for travellers comes into play.So what does that mean for us as a

highway constructor? Inevitably, theexisting network will still have to bemanaged and maintained over its lifecyclebut the market we have to look at is howwe generate value for the customer.”

McNaughton continues: “We movedour thinking towards asset managementand asset operation. It is not new for us.Our acquisition of regional airports –Exeter International and Blackpool – istaking us to a position of operationalmanagement of an asset rather than theconstruction of the asset being the driver.”

It is a similar challenge with rail, whereNetwork Rail has a huge enhancementprogramme to deliver on a tight budget.“Innovation is the way forward,” saysMcNaughton. “We have to develop newways of working and get efficiency andeffectiveness out of the resources thatboth we and Network Rail have available.”

Government decisions on powergeneration and distribution will also havea big impact on Balfour Beatty’s workload.

We will beoperating theM25 network ina much moreintelligent way.The question oftolling comesinto play; thequestion of moreinformation andcommunicationmechanisms fortravellers comesinto play”

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Of the challenges this poses, McNaughtonasks: “Does it mean we build smallercommunity-led power generation projectsthat are more sustainable – solar panels onhouses, local wind generation plants, localwaste-to-energy plants? Or do we havemega-projects such as barrages, nuclearpower and offshore wind power?

“Each will have a real impact on theinfrastructure. We have not just to createthe assets that generate the power but alsoto create the network to distribute thepower. Constructing new power plant willtake us into markets that have beendormant for some time. It is going to bringopportunities in areas where we need toengage in an innovative way.”

Opportunities will also arise as localauthorities outsource services. “Thelikelihood is they will look to outsourcing a broader range of services,” saysMcNaughton. “We currently undertakehighway maintenance and street lighting.The next move is likely to be far morecomplex asset management and thedelivery of more complicated services.”

These could include wastemanagement or managing andmaintaining car parks and leisure parks.

He also feels private sector involvementin healthcare and education might lead toworking alongside the public sector byproviding, say, management services.“These are the key markets for us and ourdelivery mechanism is likely to continue todevelop to be closer to the customer.”

Despite the changing landscape, therewill still be a requirement for coreconstruction and technical engineeringskills, says McNaughton. But he adds: “Theskill sets will change – people with designskills will be looking for people who designfor manufacturing, who design forcommissioning, who design formaintenance . We’ll also need broad socialscience skills that will allow us to work withcustomers in understanding their assetportfolios and delivering them.” ■10

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Scotland, Wales and the SouthDespite the recession,Balfour BeattyConstruction Scottish &Southern managingdirector Bob Clark saysabout 70% of thecompany’s £560mturnover is in the publicsector. He is optimisticabout funding. “We tendto understand thedirection governmentprocurement is going,” hesays. “We were one of thefirst companies to get intoPFI projects in educationand health.”

A key strength of thegroup is that it can call on25 sister companies towork on large projects –specialists such as Stentfor piling or Mansell for itsexperience on heritagebuildings such as theHouse of Parliament.

Clark believessustainable and ethicalconstruction willincreasingly come to thefore, calling for closermonitoring of howmaterials are sourced.

He says: “How ethicallythe products areproduced; the health andsafety implications; andwhether the peopleproducing them aretreated fairly are going to be importantconsiderations.

“That is a challengethat will face us more inthe future, especially asmost clients still want the lowest cost.”

The NorthConstruction Northernmanaging director DaveDonaldson believeslessons learnt through PFIcan be channelled intoother areas. “We aretrying to leverage thatknowledge back into theprivate sector,” he says.“With PFI, you start with ablank piece of paper, sowe’ve got pretty good atdesign management overthe past 12 years. Thatresonates with developerssuch as Hammerson andLandSecs, which all wantmore sophisticatedbuildings.”

As Donaldson says,retailers focus on footfall.“It is the same with schooldesigners who plot theflow of people throughschools. So there is a lot ofcommon ground betweenretail and school design.”

One PFI lesson alreadybeing applied to projectsis in customer care. Alloffices now have helpdesks and access toproject details so thatclient problems can besorted out more easily.

Donaldson seesbuilding ties with tradecontractors as an ongoingchallenge. “We are settingup learning hubs and talkto them about where weare going as a business.”

Working with a selectgroup of subcontractorshas created long-termrelationships and helpedfirms develop new skills.“One Leeds brickworkcontractor has become afacade contractor,” hesays. “As the brickworkcontracts began to dry upit started erecting facadesusing FSS and Metsecframes.”

MansellHard times or not,Mansell managingdirector Steve Waite isupbeat about expandinghis business even furtherthan Balfour Beatty hassince it acquired the 101-year-old firm inNovember 2003.

Part of the success,says Waite, has comefrom the successfulintegration of Hall &Tawse, Dean & Dyball andthe building division ofBirse Construction.

He sees offsitemanufacturing as a keyingredient for growth.“We aim to get smarter inoffsite,” he says. “Theskills of our airportsdivision, which works in safety-criticalenvironments in limitedtime slots, have beenused to design andproduce offsite proposalsfor London Undergroundrefurbishments. Ordershave already beensecured for Aldgate Easttube station and the EastLondon Line to delivertunnel liners and ceilinggrids that incorporateservice facilities.”

Offsite will also help itbuild on its eight-yearrelationship with studentaccommodation specialistUnite. The pair recentlycompleted an 11-storeystudent block in London’sEast End.

Constructingnew powerplant will takeus intomarkets thathave beendormant forsome time...We need toengage in aninnovativeway”AndrewNcNaughton

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Building in the future

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Hong Kong Airport, Terminal A: this 40,000m2 buildingincludes a baggage hall the size of Wembley Stadium

Some we made earlierHere’s how buildingsconstructed by Balfour Beatty haveleft their mark acrossthe world

Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disneyworld, Florida: Balfour Beatty hascompleted 22 projects for Disney, including more than 19,000 hotel rooms

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary: the £220m teaching hospital, which opened in 2003, houses more than 900 beds and Scotland’s biggest maternity unit

Dubai Training Centre: built by Dutco Balfour Beatty in Jebel Ali in 1995, it specialises in health and safety and construction skills

Barking Power Station, east London: the turnkey project to build a1,000mW combined cycle gas fuel power station was completed in 1995

Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta: The world’s largest aquarium contains more than8.1 million gallons of water, 100,000 marine animals and 500 different species

Unicorn Theatre, London: the UK’s first purpose-builtchildren’s theatre is on the south bank of the Thames