A Cumbria-based civil engineering and building company is celebrating after winning a prestigious industry award and being highly commended in a second.
Carnforth-based Colin Briscoe Construction (CBC) won the best project in the North West award in the £1m to £5m value category for work carried out for Peel Ports to ensure Port of Heysham was ‘Brexit ready’ and freight using the facility did not suffer any delays as the new regulations came into force.
This company was also highly commended in the collaborative partnership category for its work with Peel Ports on the same £1.4m project.
The awards were made by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), which represent companies that deliver, upgrade and maintain the country’s infrastructure.
“We are delighted to have won these awards,” said Colin Briscoe, CBC managing director. “It is a fitting recognition for the team, who have spent many years developing what we consider is a professional civil engineering and building company.”
They have forged working relationships with several major clients within the utilities (electricity, water, nuclear), highways, education, industrial, public, commercial and retail sectors.
Clients include Peel Ports, Electricity North West, United Utilities, Lancashire and Cumbria County Councils, local district councils, National Trust, Lake District National Park Authority and Lancaster University.
“We worked collaboratively with Peel Ports’ design team to deliver this fast-track project,” explained Anthony Butts, CBC Construction Director.
Work began in late August 2019 and was completed in time for the original Brexit deadline of October 31, 2019.
With increased border checking procedures post-Brexit, Peel Ports wanted to avoid delays to freight as they entered or left the port. To ease potential pressures CBC extended the port’s lorry parks and holding areas, created extra lanes through the security area, renovated hard standings, provided services infrastructure, installed new offices and erected new security fencing.
“The challenge was to do all this work while the port remained fully operational – a challenge we fully met,” said David Evans, CBC business support services director.
Mark Patterson, Peel Ports project manager, praised CBC for its work on the project. “There are differences in the construction industry from talking about collaboration to doing it and being able to quantify and articulate the benefits.
“By collaborating with Colin Briscoe Construction in this project the benefits were articulated and demonstrated by having the works completed on time and to budget, even with a challenging mobilisation period for both parties.”
