Name: James Ashley ACIOB
Employer: Kier Southern
Project: The Ocean Hotel Butlins, Bognor Regis
Contract: JCT 2005
Joining a team with an unblemished record of delivery and value for money from three major projects in a decade, James Ashley had a lot to live up to. He demonstrated his right to a senior place in that team through a display of resolute character and powerful leadership.
A skilled construction manager, James championed a collaborative, inclusive and positive culture. His support for relationships between client, consultants and subcontractors helped to bring design ideas to fruition and to transfer learning.
The team ownership approach also leveraged the innovation needed to remove £600K from the client’s cost plan and meet the demanding time frames. As well as reorganising the programme and its constraints, James’ contribution included the introduction of bathroom pods, aerated concrete YTong wall panels, and preformed factory-made balconies.
By close management of the risk register, he identified further improvements for the client. He offered the client its complete fit-out within the contract programme, bringing forward the start of business operations. He also showed an exceptional approach to health and safety, driven by the need to construct the hotel at the main entrance of a functioning resort with space for 5,000 holidaymakers at any one time.
It’s no easy task to keep a site pristine when you have 100-plus tradespeople spread over eight floors. James managed it by continually walking the site and implementing a host of measures. Not only were there no reportable accidents in the 250,000 man-hours worked, but subcontractors took his housekeeping discipline with them to other sites, greatly reducing their own accident rates and winning other work on the strength of the practices.
Value: £18m