Building Briefs – March 21st

Link completes latest affordable housing development in Edinburgh

Link’s new affordable housing development at Balmwell Terrace has been officially opened by the City of Edinburgh Council’s vice convener for health, social care and housing, Councillor Cammy Day.

The £5 million construction of 43 homes for social and intermediate rent commenced in August 2014 using £1.8m funding from the Scottish Government.

Delivered by the Cruden Group, the 21 homes for social rent include one and two bedroom flats, two-bedroom houses and a two-bedroom flat to meet the needs of a wheelchair user.

There was also a further 22 homes available for intermediate rent, including one and two-bedroom flats and a one-bedroom flat for a wheelchair user.

Each of the properties meet Link’s design standards for affordable housing and have gas central heating and hot water systems, high thermal insulation and double glazing to create warm, comfortable and energy efficient homes that will be easy and economical to run.

Link is also currently onsite at City Park and Annandale Street where a total of 102 properties for intermediate rent will be available from March 2017. Work will also begin in the coming weeks at Ferrymuir, South Queensferry where a further 23 homes will be built for social rent.

Tunnel shuts for Glasgow Queen Street station upgrade

Passengers using Glasgow’s Queen Street Station are being urged to allow extra time for their journeys as work gets under way on a major tunnel renovation.

A high-level tunnel used by Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling services shut on Sunday for five months.

Customers will have to be escorted to the trains from marquees outside the station building.

Most journeys will be approximately 25 minutes longer as trains are diverted to a lower tunnel or Glasgow Central.

The £60m upgrade will allow faster, longer trains to operate from the station.

Tracks which are more than 40 years old will be replaced and power lines installed to allow electric trains to operate on the Edinburgh-Glasgow route from December 2016.

The work involves the removal of 10,000 tonnes of existing concrete slabs and the installation of 4,000m of new rails.

It forms part of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Improvement Project which, in the longer term, will see a major revamp of the station buildings.

A96 drilling works underway for Nairn Bypass

As a further sign of progress in delivering the Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme, ground investigations will get underway today.

Only six out of over 650 drilling locations along the route during the 20 week work period will require traffic management on the existing A96, keeping disruption to a minimum.

The work will provide vital ground condition information for engineers designing the new route.

Five in a row for Miller Homes

Miller Homes has made it five in a row after achieving five stars, the highest level attainable, in the Home Builders Federation (HBF) National New Home Customer Satisfaction Survey for the fifth consecutive year.

The independent survey was launched by the HBF 11 years ago to provide a guide for homebuyers in making their purchasing decision and to encourage high levels of service amongst home builders.

Additionally, in its own independent customer satisfaction surveys, 94 per cent of Miller Homes’ customers said they would recommend the home builder. Miller Homes has been undertaking customer satisfaction surveys since 1999.

Carried out by an independent research agency, the survey is completed by customers once they have settled into their new home to evaluate their overall satisfaction before, during and after the home-buying process.

Retail units set for Dundee’s Shore Terrace

Retail units ready for rent in Dundee’s Shore Terrace could be developed at a cost of up to £1.3 million if councillors back the move next week.

As many as four units to be let as cafes or restaurants could be created in the former Dundee City Council housing offices on the ground floor of the building facing the waterfront.

Dundee City Council’s Construction Division is in line for the works which will involve stripping out the existing fixtures and fittings and preparing four basic unit shells with ventilation and connections to services including gas and electricity.

The city development committee meets on March 28.

Optimism in Scottish electrical sector as apprenticeship numbers continue to increase

SELECT, the electrical sector’s campaigning trade body, remains “cautiously optimistic” as it reports the healthiest number of apprentices since the depths of the recession in 2009-10.

A total of 670 people are now undertaking apprenticeship schemes and adult training scheme places run by the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT). This is up from 650 in the latter part of last year and up from 580 the previous year.

While there has been some uncertainty in the commercial and construction industry in advance of the impending Scottish parliamentary elections, there is a sense in industry that, after the vote, action will be taken on a number of contracts.

This will include projects which have been in abeyance as well as new initiatives such as the allocation of £230 million earlier this year (January) to replace 19 schools across Scotland as part of the final phase of the £1.8 billion Schools for the Future programme.

Apprenticeship numbers, because of the long-term nature of some of the training, tend to be reflective of the electrical industry’s view of the prospects for improvement and sustainable work-flows within the construction sector.

Barrhead Housing Association officially opens 15 new homes

A £1.6 million development of 15 new homes by Barrhead Housing Association has been formally opened by minister for housing and welfare Margaret Burgess MSP.

The homes in Rankin Court, Barrhead, were built on the site of the former St John’s primary school. The land was successfully transferred from East Renfrewshire Council early last year to allow for the demolition of the existing building. Developer McTaggart Construction commenced work in April 2015.

The Association received funding of £837,000 from the Scottish Government to complete the site. Development agency services were provided by Kilmarnock based Atrium Homes and the design team was led by Robert Potter Architects from their Ayr office.