Name: Malcolm Emmerson ICIOB
Employer: Geoffrey Osborne Ltd
Project: Roberts Building Front Extension, University College London
Contract: GC/Works/1 design & build
Appropriately enough, for a project that extended the client’s engineering faculty, engineering was Malcolm Emmerson’s key triumph on this scheme. It was one that was all the sweeter for being under the close observation of an interested audience of thousands of engineers and scientists, from undergraduates to emeritus professors.
Indeed, the dean of engineering services exercised his mind calculating how a tower crane to erect the steel would cope on the landlocked site fronting a busy road and adjoining research labs and large lecture theatres. Malcolm did the same calculation and decided to use a mobile crane and hoists to build the steel frame.
But erecting a 37-tonne mobile crane on a ground-floor slab that could only take a load of a quarter tonne per square metre presented its own engineering challenge, particularly as the project had come out of the ground two weeks late.
Malcolm devised a scheme to move the crane in sequence with the piling works, transferring the load to the columns as they were completed. By moving the crane at a pace that did not inhibit the work in the basement, he completed the two key items on the risk register and the critical path in line with the schedule. After that, he never looked back.
But it was his technical leadership and negotiating skills that had got him to that winning position in the first place. By harnessing concrete bursting techniques to the core drilling for the piles, he overcame the threat to a successful site start represented by the discovery that the existing basement raft was twice as thick as thought.
And he persuaded a client reluctant to entertain downtime to agree to temporary service diversions eight weeks earlier than anticipated so that piling could safely take place around a live plant room in the basement. Malcolm invited the client team to site when the piling commenced. The first-hand experience of seeing the tolerances the piling crew were working to and the cramped worked conditions convinced the client that the right decision had been made and set a tone of respect and trust for the rest of the project.
Malcolm delivered this project on time (two floors were handed over six weeks early to help the client’s fit-out), within budget, to quality and entirely safely. He led a young team from the front, convincing them of the plan, putting an arm around them when necessary and achieving a goal that will further their career prospects.