Name: Brian Rawlings
Employer: Leadbitter Group
Project: Swindon Academy, Swindon
Contract: JCT 2005
Careful management and total professionalism were Brian Rawlings’ key qualities.
Consider the late design change which flipped the building around and reversed its orientation. It piled up the access problems, stoked local opposition, and delayed the site start. Brian’s strict sequencing and careful co-ordination of the works prevented so fundamental a change from delaying the finish date.
All sorts of safety, access and noise/dust issues were raised by this large scheme. Brian carefully controlled and managed the three sectional completions with such drive and leadership that he was able to hand over the main school a full academic term early.
He was heavily involved in design, chairing workshops to speed up the approval of drawings and pay attention to package interfaces. The interfaces between roofs, cladding and brickwork, for example, were sketched out and resolved before upload to the project extranet.
Well organised and adaptable, he made a point of listening to others’ views before making the final decision. He insisted on being fully informed yet encouraged his staff to use their initiative. His partnering insight and practice was superb. Brian’s no-blame ethos allowed problems to be identified and resolved early on.
And when urgent problems arose, he acted with despatch. For example, it emerged that the in situ concrete floor slabs would not be ready for powerfloating until the evening of the pours, which was forbidden under the planning restrictions. So he reduced the pour size, altered the concrete mix to achieve early set and changed the finish from powerfloat to pan. It saved the programme while complying with the strict working hours regime.
Value: £28m