Challenges in Construction

In these challenging times, O’Brien Contractors has stepped up to the challenges posed by political uncertainty, our impending exit from the EU and the impending skills crisis from Brexit immigration laws.

Despite the difficulties the UK construction sector is facing, O’Brien Contractors continues to thrive under our sustainable strategy. We have won repeat business contracts with our long-term partners, by delivering innovative solutions for multimillion-pound projects that help our clients save time and money, while improving environmental performance.
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Whilst the times are challenging for the construction industry, we are confident that we can continue to help the Midlands grow.

Events such as the Built Environment West Midlands Event are great for companies to attend and learn about the future projects that the Midlands area as to offer. The ability to meet with and speak to client organisations and other delegates is a great opportunity and we are delighted to be sponsoring the event.

 

Why Choose O’Brien Contractors?

We are a multi-award-winning contractor with 60 years’ experience in the UK construction sector. Using the very latest technology and value engineering principles we take a collaborative approach on all our projects to deliver the best results for our customers and all stakeholders, meaning they save time, money and improve the environmental impact of their projects.

Established in 1958, we are proud of our Midlands roots. With that pride comes the drive for continual improvement as well as long-term planning and ongoing investment in modern plant (with the latest technology), staff skills, training and safety, and corporate social responsibility. We have a dedicated apprentice programme to ensure continuity in the future and all our staff receive continual professional development so that we are always up-to-date with the latest construction skills.

 

Recent Projects

On recent projects, The University of Oxford appointed us Principal Contractor to build a new access road and junction. We have also been working in partnership with Sovereign Centros, helping to build a multimillion-pound new retail development and warehousing facility in Corby town centre, as well as completing several major projects for Jaguar Land Rover.

 

Giving Something Back – O’Brien’s Charitable Trust

It’s important to all of us at O’Brien that our good fortune benefits the local communities where we work, so we have for the last few years established the O’Brien Charitable Trust to raise funds for good causes. In 2018, our staff organised and took part in several fund-raising days, raising over £30,000 for several charities. Our aim for 2019 is to raise the same amount again to help support more local good causes. We are currently busy organising our annual Charity Golf Day and our Gala Ball for 2019.

 

Award Winning Health and Safety

For the fifth year running we have won a Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Awards as well as having accreditations including CHAS and Achilles Building Confidence, and ongoing compliance with OHSAS 18001 and Achilles RISQS.

Health and safety is embedded into the fabric of the business and is one of our core values. We want to be more than just compliant and place great emphasis on minimising the risk of accident or injury to our employees and sub-contractors, as well as members of the public.

 

Turnkey Solutions for Sports Projects with O’Brien’s Sports Division

O’Brein have a dedicated sports division who have successfully delivered numerous sports facility projects in both the public and private sectors, installing football, rugby and hockey pitches, sports tracks, tennis courts and MUGA, as demonstrated by our extensive project portfolio.

We became members of SAPCA to ensure that our clients’ requirements and standards are met and exceeded. Our commitment to quality is demonstrated with our FIH accreditation, attained in 2018, (one of only 24 companies worldwide) to have done so. FIH Certified Field Builders are companies that specialise in building hockey fields. The companies that achieve accreditation have a proven ability to construct fields to the international standards the game requires, including having the civil engineering capabilities to do so.

 

O’Brien Challenges ‘The Beast from the East’ on Oxford University Project

Working as Principal Contractor with Oxford University, we provided a new access road linking the B4044 Eynsham Road to Tilbury Lane. We completed the 25-week job in summer 2018 to provide a diversion for the University’s tenant farmer after existing access road was closed. The scheme was completed late 2018.

The new road along with a new junction to the B4044, included section 276 agreement highway works. This includes culverting existing streams, forming earthwork batters, and the construction of the new access road kerbs and surfacing.

Project Manager, Stuart Hopkins said: “The project was challenging due to various complications, including poor ground conditions, buried historical treelines, and 11,000Kva overhead electrical cables. But the main obstacle during the project was the arrival of the ‘Beast from the East’ storm, which stopped works and delayed the project by some six weeks.”

Time and Costs Savings

Saving our clients time and money is one of the reasons we have such high customer satisfaction rates each year. In our 2018 survey, 85% of our clients said we delivered excellent value for money and we had a 90% satisfaction rating for the quality of our service.

This project was no different and through careful planning and efficient delivery we managed to reduce the delay caused by the storm.

Environmental Benefits

On all the jobs we deliver, we endeavour to bring as many environmental benefits as possible. To that end, the top soil and sub soil that was removed for the construction of the road was recycled in other areas of the site works.

As well as reducing primary materials to be purchased and delivered, this further reduced the carbon emissions of the project as no material had to be removed from site and disposed of at landfill.

 

Building on Client Relationships

“The project was a great success, particularly around the reduced delay and the relationships we built with the client.

We have since secured a further project with the University of Oxford and are looking forward to building on the relationship we established during the Tilbury Farm Access Road Project,” Hopkins concluded.

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