Name: Stephen Brook FCIOB
Employer: Kier Western
Project: Sainsbury’s Superstore, Taunton
Contract: JCT 2005
Halfway through this project, the client realised that continuing to refurbish and extend the store in phases would badly dent sales in its crucial summer trading period, and so dumped the phased non-closure strategy in favour of a final week shutdown. It was a fundamental transformation at such a crucial point that it left Stephen Brook’s sequencing strategy in tatters and the project team reeling.
But Stephen’s response to this logistical thunderbolt was magnificent. He immediately instigated shutdown meetings, reviewed all the planning and led twice-weekly intensive workshops with subcontractors and client to micro-plan all activities leading up to handover. His morale-boosting leadership, engagement of all the stakeholders and robust planning were crucial in absorbing the change and maintaining the completion date without loss of any customer facilities.
Even back in the preconstruction period, Stephen contributed enormously to the success of this scheme. He reduced the original 30-week target programme to an intense 25-week schedule that required round-the-clock operations. His commitment, leadership and drive established a workable scheme from only planning drawings.
Throughout the project, he exhaustively researched buildability improvements and value-engineering gains. Determined to find a quicker and cheaper solution than inner-skin blockwork with felt and battened mansards for the shell of the store’s three extensions, he found it in insulated wall panels and composite sheets for the mansards.
Stephen showed versatility and skill in engaging the users, leading them through the changes to the building by means of close and timely consultation. And he built and motivated a team capable of meeting the steep challenges on this project. As well as the switch from phased operations to a store closure strategy, the project also lost its original architect mid-way and encountered disastrous weather conditions that jeopardised the handover date.
The completion of this project a few days short of the 25-week target, on budget and to the delight of the client, is an object lesson in how an experienced and skilled construction manager can triumph over circumstances rather than fall victim to them.
Value: £8.6m