Name: Christopher Burden
Employer: Kier Build
Project: Mid Kent College, Gillingham
Contract: JCT 2005
One little observation makes clear the one-team ethic that Chris Burden imbued this project with. ‘I was particularly struck,’ said the project sponsor, ‘by the genuine distress evidenced by all the site workers when an interim handover deadline was missed by one day. I have never observed such engagement in workers on a building project.’
Chris delivered this massive project on time and on budget in the teeth of delays imposed by planning, conservation and archaeological issues beyond his control. It required every drop of commitment, innovation and determination he could summon, and then some.
He repeatedly had to review the construction approach. He made major revisions to the foundations, the site layout and the water attenuation strategy by the discovery of large subterranean tunnels that had been used to train World War I sappers. As the archaeologists enthused over searchlight emplacements and an igloo-shaped Napoleonic listening post, Chris worked long and hard to find productive solutions that minimised delays and costs.
His solutions pulled the programme back on course. They included constructing Hi-Point roofs in large sections on the ground and then lifting them on to the buildings to be installed. The M&E was modularised, and very large panels of brick slips were built offsite and lifted into place to form the envelope. A cost-efficient spray-on plaster allowed finishing trades to start early. And as the client brief evolved, Chris showed superior forward thinking in rapidly acertaining the intent and mobilising the relevant subcontractors to absorb the new instructions within the programme.
Value: £55.8m