PRESIDENT’S COLUMN SCCS gains SSIP accreditation
8 NSC
March 19
The Steel Construction Certification
Scheme (SCCS) has become one of
the first certification bodies to achieve
SSIP Accreditation (Safety Schemes In
Procurement) following a recent UKAS
assessment.
SSIP aims to streamline
prequalification by driving
unnecessary cost and confusion out of
supplier health and safety assessment.
Its core philosophy is to enable
effective cross-recognition between existing schemes.
The SSIP Core Criteria for assessments is aligned to
the Government-backed construction prequalification
document PAS 91, ensuring consistency within supply
chain management.
Suppliers registered with a SSIP Member Scheme are
listed on the SSIP web portal, which provides an easy way
of finding out if a supplier holds valid certification with
an SSIP member scheme and confirms compliance with
the SSIP Core Criteria and UK Health & Safety legislation.
“This is a significant addition to
the service that SCCS offers its clients
and further develops our strategic
objective of offering a one-stop shop
for certification,” said SCCS Director of
Certification Stephen Blackman.
The SCCS is a whollyowned
subsidiary of the British
Constructional Steelwork Association.
It was established in the early 1980s
to provide quality management
certification for steelwork contracting organisations.
SCCS now offers a wide range of certification and
monitoring services for the structural steelwork sector,
including integrated or separate UKAS accredited
Quality management systems, Environmental and
Health & Safety management systems, Factory
Production Control systems and selected National
Highways Sector Schemes.
For more information about SCCS go to www.
steelcertification.co.uk
Developer Great Portland Estates has submitted plans
for a new high-rise tower to be built in the shadow of
the Shard at London Bridge.
A planning application has been submitted for
the 31-storey office building at New City Court in
Southwark. Designed by AHMM architects, the offices
will rise to 139m offering 34,000m2 of office and
ground floor retail space.
The project will require the demolition of existing
buildings at 20 St Thomas Street and will also see the
front elevation of existing Georgian buildings retained
and Keat House reconstructed.
The tower will boast a 250-seat auditorium and
terrace on the 21st and 22nd floors and an elevated
double-height public garden within the building on the
fifth and sixth floors.
Gardiner and Theobald has been appointed
as construction manager and has drawn up the
construction management plan.
Toby Courtauld, the company’s Chief Executive, said
the London Bridge project was one of the most exciting
schemes in the firm’s current portfolio.
News
With the 2019 Spring Statement due on 13 March, and
the UK currently scheduled to exit the EU at the end
of March, all eyes are on the UK economy this month.
But what does this actually mean for the structural
steelwork sector?
Every year, Construction Markets undertakes what is
believed to be the largest survey of its kind, surveying
specifiers and analysing the responses against
government data in order to calculate the current and
future consumption of structural steelwork in the UK,
and the market share of the key framing materials.
The most recent data has just been released,
including forecasts to 2021, and as most of us would
have expected, in 2018 the consumption of structural
steelwork in the UK remained fairly flat at 895,000
tonnes. Overall, Construction Markets is forecasting
more of the same in 2019 (up 0.5%) and then stronger
growth overall in 2020 (up 2.3%) before a levelling
off again in 2021. By 2021, the UK’s consumption of
structural steelwork should have reached 920,000
tonnes.
But the interesting reading really comes when we
delve into the details of some key sectors.
Thinking about government investment decisions
over the last few years, nobody will be surprised that
structural steelwork consumption in infrastructure has
seen higher growth than buildings and has a more
positive outlook. Steelwork consumption in power,
bridges and other infrastructure grew 12% in 2018 and
is projected to grow a further 16% in 2019 before the
growth rate begins to ease. Having said that, in 2021
these sub-sectors combined will still only account for
23% of total UK structural steelwork consumption.
Structural steel has been able to take advantage in
the growth of the industrial buildings market over the
last 6 - 7 years because of its ability to create very large
column-free spaces, its high strength-to-weight ratio
and its future adaptability. And AECOM’s cost studies
demonstrate that for an identical building steel is the
cheaper framing material. After seeing 3% growth in
2018, structural steelwork consumption in industrial
buildings is forecast to increase slightly in 2019 and
then by almost 2% in 2020. By 2021, consumption of
structural steelwork in this sub-sector will be 432,000
tonnes, accounting for 48% of all UK structural
steelwork consumption.
A couple of years ago, BCSA (along with others)
predicted a cyclical slowdown in the London offices
market. This has come to bear and as a result, the
consumption of structural steelwork in the offices subsector
fell 15% in 2018 to 104,000 tonnes. Construction
Markets are forecasting more of the same in 2019
(down 15% again), with slow growth in 2020 and 2021.
Within this much slower market, however, steel has
increased its market share to over 70%.
Whatever the future brings for the UK’s construction
sector, having such a detailed insight into the structural
steelwork market helps BCSA members understand
future demand, plan their resourcing and ensure a
sustainable business model.
Tim Outteridge
BCSA President & Sales Director Cleveland Bridge
Trimble has introduced Tekla Bridge Creator, a new
extension for Tekla Structures Building Information
Model (BIM) software that is said to integrate
the complete workflow from design geometry to
constructible modelling and detailing.
The new software extension for bridge designers
is said to provide a solution to common problems:
importing a road alignment directly from road design
software; creating one or more key sections that define
the bridge deck and abutments, and then modelling
and detailing the reinforcing bars easily and efficiently.
As part of a user feedback program, WSP Finland
participated in testing Bridge Creator. WSP Finland is
part of WSP Group headquartered in Montreal, Canada
and is a global engineering professional services
consulting firm with more than 550 offices across 40
countries.
“Bridge Creator is intelligent and certainly the most
efficient tool for the whole bridge design workflow,
which no other software provider has to offer. It
automatically imports the road alignment and helps
create bridge geometry easily. Even when facing
complex deck geometries, the extension creates the
deck with impressive accuracy,” said Hannu Suojanen,
Project Engineer for Bridges, WSP Finland.
The Bridge Creator extension version 1.0 can be
downloaded from the Tekla Warehouse.
Plans submitted
for 31-storey
London tower
near the Shard
Tekla bridge
software extension
spans complete
design
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