The Farringdon Station project included the full design and construction of the station’s new shed roof, as well as delivering the ticket hall roof lights. Both project elements are great examples of how off-site construction (managed by our specialist division, Bourne Off-Site Solutions) can deliver significant structural and architectural steelwork to improved time scales, higher quality results and improved safety performance.

The new ticket hall comprises of nine high-grade glazed roof lights with louvered elevations, each some 13m long by 4m wide and 4m tall. The train shed roof consisted of a complex steel frame featuring a double curvature and spans 28m. The canopy was manufactured in sections, stiffened with macalloy tension stays and installed over a live railway. The roof follows the curved profile of the platform so each unit is unique. By manufacturing the roof in our factory, we were able to determine the most efficient use of stock steel - minimising waste and the volume of materials used. What’s more, the minimal off cuts were kept in our facility and later used for training and practice by our apprentice fabricators before eventually being recycled.

Given the brief specified the finished product would enjoy a long lifespan, off-site construction again was able to offer durability advantages over site build. By manufacturing in a controlled factory environment, protective finishes could be applied to a high degree of accuracy and tolerances.

Overall, the off-site approach and modularisation of these steel elements at Farringdon allowed us to deliver complex architectural features over a live station (including five tracks) in minimal time. The approach offered our client a six week construction time saving over a traditional approach, which is a lot of money when you convert that into man hours and salary costs! This, in addition to our engineering excellence, is why we won a Construction News Specialist Award earlier this year, and been short listed at the 2012 Structural Design Steel Awards.  We really hope to come home with the trophy.

We wish Lauren all the best in her new role.

In addition to winning the Specialist Steelwork Contractor award, Bourne Construction Engineering was also highly commended for "Public Sector Project Excellence" at Farringdon Station, which is testament to the hardwork of all of the Bourne Construction Engineering employees.

We would like to wish Craig well in his new role.

This was a complex project but was completed in just 16 weeks from receipt of our order. Everyone involved agreed this was a tremendous achievement, particularly when we were faced with the challenges of working alongside and above the public, who were visiting the newly opened retail stores at Europe's largest shopping development.

This handover marked both the start-up and completion of the first BS2 project.

BS2 is a joint venture between Billington Structures Ltd and the Bourne Group.

"Our venture your choice"

Picture - Westfield Shopping Towns Head of Design and Construction for the UK, Keith Whitmore tightens the last connection with an engraved Golden Spanner presented on behalf of the BS2 project team.

This project which is due for completion at the end of April 2012 will be constructed in a series of phases to ensure that Chiltern Railways can maintain the maximum number of customer car parking spaces available throughout the build period.

Firstly, Ross Brown has joined us as a Contracts Manager and will be involved with our projects at Brent Civic Centre and Blackfriars Station. Having worked in construction for 14 years, Ross said "I'm excited to be joining Bourne to start the next chapter of my career". Away from work, Ross' interests centre on cars from restoring them to racing them and everything in between.

We are also pleased to welcome Nicole Rina who has joined our team in London to help administer our activities in the capital including our new JV with Billington Structures- BS2. Having completed some training with the team in Poole, Nicole said "I will be working in the London office from now on, but will grab every opportunity I can to come down and visit Poole again!".

Lastly, Peter Houghton has taken on the role of Head of Procurement and Commercial and is "looking forward to the challenge" of overseeing these key functions. Peter will also be involved in the commercial aspects of our work at Brent Civic Centre. The motorsports theme continues in Peter whose passions include both Moto GP and World Superbikes.

We wish Ross, Nicole and Peter well with their new roles and getting to know them a little better at the forthcoming company summer BBQ on Friday.

The launch, held at London's Vinopolis, introduced BS2 as the new competitive choice for Developers and Contractors involved with major steel-framed construction in UK. BS2 is aiming to win steelwork packages in excess of £10M in value - high-rise and megamall the obvious examples - in London and other UK cities.

Our guests at the launch were introduced to BS2 by its Non Executive Chairman, Tom Goldberg who, with over 40 years in the steel sector spoke of his pleasure at being involved with both Bourne and Billington in this venture:

"BS2 is a Joint Venture formed by two of the UK's foremost constructional steelwork groups - Bourne Group and Billington Group, both of which contain a number of companies operating in Engineering and Construction, and which both include a major steelwork fabricator company (Bourne Steel and Billington Structures). I have known Bourne and Billington for many years: I have competed against them and I have respected them: I am delighted now to be working with them and their very able management teams, to make a success of BS2"

If you would like to hear more about BS2, please contact us as we will be glad to discuss with you what we can offer.