Murphy to employ 175 Ukrainian refugees
Infrastructure company Murphy is working with the government to onboard 175 Ukrainians in a variety of roles in operations, onsite & administration. Workers will be buddied up with other workers of Eastern European descent for informal mentoring and support with language, housing & cultural integration.
The new recruits would form 5% of Murphy’s 3,500 headcount.
It is heartening to see the support the construction industry is committing to Ukraine in the current crisis including Ferrovial’s Stronger Together for Ukraine pledges equal funds to those donated.
Balfour Beatty wins $700m US Army contract
The US Army has appointed Balfour Beatty a $700m contract to build part of an army barracks in Maryland. It is a fixed price contract. The Department of Defence solicited bids via the internet to which it received 3 responses with Balfour submitting the winning bid. The structure is around 850,000 square feet with a parking garage and must be built to heightened security standards. The Campus will house the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command but it is not know whether those organisations will be housed in this exact section due to information not being disclosed on the fact sheet. Construction is to commence in 2023 and conclude in 2026.
£415m Ports tender winners
Associated British Ports have named 11 bid winners to build 21 ports across the UK.
£120m Shoreditch Development out to tender
Hackney Council is looking for bids from contractors to build a development in Shoreditch of four housing blocks up to 25 stories. The final phase in the ‘Britannia’ scheme, the development includes a leisure centre, school, outdoor areas and housing.
New developer pledge to fix unsafe buildings
The construction industry has agreed to a pledge of £5bn to fix the cladding saga with developers committing to a minimum of £2bn to fix the current cladding problem. 25 of the UK’s largest housebuilders have agreed to rectify all buildings higher than 11 metres they had a role in building over the past 3 decades.
A new Building Safety Levy will fund the remainder of the funds, expected to raise around £3bn over the next ten years. The new agreement lists stringent commitments from developers such as to act quickly to fix buildings, implement new building safety guidance, report progress frequently to leaseholders & the government, respect the dispute process and refund money that taxpayers have already paid to fix the buildings.