Name: Andrew Smith ACIOB
Employer: Willmott Dixon Construction
Project: Rolls Crescent Primary School, Hulme, Manchester
Contract: NEC option C
If ever there was a perfect, textbook-managed scheme, this was it. Adversity, late client changes and poor initial construction detailing and methods were no strangers to Andrew Smith’s project. Determined to find solutions instead of problems, he never allowed disruption to knock on the door, let alone enter the project.
Having already delivered four schemes under a framework agreement for the client, Andrew was perfectly placed to drive through his credo of continuous improvement. He led a lessons-learnt review of his previous schemes and other school new-builds to ensure mistakes were not repeated and that the project got it right first time.
The most cost-effective blocks to use, the way to detail and clad steel, the most suitable areas to plaster and which to leave fair-faced, the most logical and effective way for the trades to work: Andrew already had the right answers.
And even where the design departed from prior experience, Andrew had the foresight and instinctive appreciation of potential danger to stop the project coming adrift.
For example, he realised early on in the construction of the classrooms that the vents rising from the ground floor to the first would transfer sound as well as ventilate the school. He then came up with a modified vent design that incorporated acoustic fins and still allowed for free air movement.
Likewise, he acted swiftly on his concerns about the natural ventilation system by commissioning roof-fitted fans that could generate enough air movement for the vents to work effectively on still days. A subsequent analysis of the system vindicated his decision, which saved the considerable expense and disruption that retrofitting the fans would have caused.
A superbly effective manager, Andrew showed vision, technical mastery and fine leadership. He built a strong professional team, forged powerful relationships with the client and stakeholders, and showed the desire and ability to deliver this project to a brilliant conclusion: a fortnight early, defect/snag-free and £278,000 under the original target cost.