Name: Ray Wilson
Employer: Allenbuild North West
Project: Lytham Primary Care Centre, Lytham St Annes
Contract: JCT 1998
After a working lifetime spent in construction, Ray Wilson has learned the invaluable knack of knowing what will and what won’t work well in advance of the work being carried out. So when he was checking this project’s design information for buildability, the proposed traditional rafter roof construction, supported on a steel frame and covered with felt and concrete roof tiles, prompted major blue-sky thinking.
Realising that this approach would be very slow and make it hard to achieve air-tightness, Ray proposed an alternative. His solution of a composite sheet system improved thermal insulation, brought water-tightness forward by four weeks, gave a good air-tightness test result and still came within the original budget. He also pushed for the roof to be let as a single subcontract package because so many interfaces existed between pitched and small flat roofs.
Despite the years he must have spent in meetings of one sort or another, Ray resisted the temptation to let the design co-ordinator sort out the issues. As a result, he kept under his control buildability, the prioritisation of outstanding information and the inculcation of a sense of urgency that a particular issue must be resolved that day.
And when the end-user questioned the ability of his preferred local M&E subcontractor to deal with a project of this scale, Ray ensured the firm had the labour resources and design capability to deliver. He then stuck to his guns: the appointment made commercial sense and the firm was a major employer locally. And, ultimately, the firm delivered on every level and won over the client.
Value: £7.6m