Balfour Beatty is celebrating the success of five of its employees, following recognition at the annual Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Construction Manager of the Year Awards in London last night, Thursday 31 October.

Peter Finegan won Gold in the 'New Build & Refurbishment below £4 million' category for his leadership on the Kingfisher School, Oldham. The project involved building a new link block between two existing parts of a special needs school. In awarding the Gold to Peter, the CIOB judges recognised and praised his "versatility and attentiveness to user needs" and emphasised how his "partnering approach generated respect and confidence". Peter definitely put the customer's needs above all else, going so far as to extend the original programme of works by 15 weeks to meet the requirements of the school.


The 'Restoration' category Silver medal was awarded to Alastair Moore for his management of the £7.5m Assembly Rooms project in Edinburgh. The CIOB pinpointed Alastair's success on this renovation project on a landlocked city centre site as his exceptional communication skills. The judges felt Alastair was "personable, positive and keen to create channels of communication between key stakeholders" and that this enabled him to mitigate the unexpected 'horrors' uncovered in this historic building and keep costs pegged back when they could easily have ballooned.

Three more Balfour Beatty employees were short-listed for the awards: Steve Kemp in the 'Restoration' category for Kensington Palace Enhancement Works; Tajinder Khambay in the 'New Build & Refurbishment £7-10 million' category for the Engineering and Science Learning Centre at Nottingham University; and Adam Dowling in the 'Housing & Accommodation over £10 million' category for Urbanest Tower Bridge in London. All three were rewarded for their exceptional management skills with top five placings in their respective categories.

(CD/JP)