Name: Ian Williamson MCIOB
Employer: Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd
Project: Corby East Midlands International Pool, Corby
Contract: JCT 2005
Ian Williamson overcame challenging site access conditions, tough logistics and a complex building design to deliver a world-class facility.
Confident, enthusiastic and committed to getting a good result for the client, he repeatedly went out of his way to ensure the quality was superb. It had to be: the pool was to host international swimming competitions and could not be anything but flawless. So when, after the pool had been tiled, Ian found one lane was 2mm short of the required 50m length, he ordered the tiles removed and the grout skimmed to bring it back to dimensional accuracy.
His attention to detail was formidable. But it paid off. He filled the main pool with 2.5 million litres of water and left it for a week; the water depth fell by 1mm compared with the specified tolerance of 10mm.
He showed admirable grit in working his way through the serious headaches posed by the co-ordination of the curved roof lights with the structural steel, glulam beams and Kalzip roof, all of which were at different heights, He put in a scaffold tower at Willmott Dixon’s expense to make the interface more accessible. At one point, he even took down the gable end, shaved off part of it, and inserted tie bolts to the internal face and each internal column to ensure the glulam joints lined through with the glazing facade.
Ian coped with the access problems through excellent scheduling, sequencing and a just-in-time delivery regime. And his one-team approach ensured all problems were dealt with proactively and without rancour.
Value: £18.3m