2/12/2024
For Immediate Release
Last Friday saw the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) bring the scaffolding industry together at the ICC Belfast, to celebrate its high achievers. The Scaffolding Excellence Awards 2024 marked the culmination of the industry’s first major conference and expo in Europe, Scaffex24, itself described as a “turning point for the industry”.
Clive Dickin, CEO at NASC, said this year’s awards again highlighted the incredible innovation and high-quality work. He praised the work of the judges, who he said had been “incredibly conscientious and meticulous” in their work. “We asked all judges to judge all entries this year, which was very demanding. They all rose to the challenge.”
The chair of the judging panel was Dr James MacFadden, Senior Responsible CSA Engineer at Sellafield. He was joined by Caroline Gumble, CEO, Chartered Institute of Building; Ken Johnson from the No Falls Foundation; Andrew Stotesbury, formerly Temporary Works Lead, Lendlease; Zilvinas Rubinas, Principal Structural Engineer, Goldberg Engineering; Tim Balcon, Chief Executive, CITB; and Damini Sharma, CEO, The OM Group.
The winners were
Apprentice of the Year – Albie Cooper, Benchmark Scaffolding
Lifetime Achievement Award –Lee Rowswell, Group Director of GKR Scaffolding
Product of the Year – PERI’s PERI Up Cladding system
Project of the Year (Small) – Shield Services Group
Project of the Year (Medium) – Inner City Scaffolding
Project of the Year (Large) – Lyndon SGB
Project of the Year (Major) – GKR Scaffolding
Scaffold Design of the Year – SRK Scaffolding
Service of the Year – Costain, Skanska and Strabag’s Scaffold Request App
Further details of winners and highly commended
Benchmark Scaffolding’s Albie Cooper, is a young apprentice driven by his desire to look after his young family, described by his Site Manager, Jack Murphy, as “up there with the best I have ever seen attitude-wise in all my years of scaffolding.” The judges described all four shortlisted apprentices as “a credit to the sector”, with one judge adding “If all employers could hire apprentices like this, we wouldn’t have a recruitment problem in the industry.”
They felt Albie had something extra, including an incredible attitude that was positive and proactive. He has also overcome so much and sought out additional opportunities wherever possible. The Apprentice of the Year Award carries an additional prize of £1,000, courtesy of CISRS.
Highly Commended in this category was Harrison Mapley.
Rowswell has put GKR at the forefront of groundbreaking innovations, while delivering scaffolding packages that have helped shape construction in London. He has taken GKR from a turnover of £800,000 to £36m and delivered landmark projects over the last 30 years. He has always wanted to share what he has learned and has played an instrumental role in taking the industry to new heights. He has led on the green agenda, diversity and innovation, and worked with NASC in a range of roles. Overall, he has demonstrated that competing hard does not have to come at the expense of collaborating for the good of the industry. Lee is an industry leader who inspires others and leads by example.
PERI’s PERI Up Cladding system offers protection to scaffolders, building contractors and the public, while also being flexible, thanks to individual panels that can be removed without needing to dismantle surrounding components. The judges singled out the unique nature of the system and its potential for such wide and practical use.
Shield Services Group was asked to erect a 50-metre temporary roof structure over Cathedral Park in Bristol City Centre, as well as a 15-metre birdcage inside the converted cathedral. The judges said this was an exceptionally strong field with amazing projects – but Shield’s project excelled not only technically but also by being exemplary in environmental, safety and social value ambitions. They added that this thoughtful project “reflected brilliantly” on the scaffolding industry.
A Highly Commended Award in this category went to Ingleford Scaffolding.
Project of the year (Medium) – Inner City Scaffolding
Inner City Scaffolding won this award, which is for projects valued between £250,000 and £1m, for developing a complex and innovative solution to provide safe access for a monumental recladding project on a live building. They delivered the work on Parkside Court with precision and excellence. The judges said this was an incredibly hard decision and all of the finalists had a strong case for winning, but they felt that Inner City was such a fantastic piece of engineering, they described it as “the scaffolder’s scaffold”.
Awarded for projects valued between £1m and £2m, this was won by Lyndon SGB for a project that was also a finalist in the Design category, namely the Grade-A listed New Register House in Scotland. The restrictions on the scaffold work demanded creative, innovative and expert solutions, especially as much work was done in a cold Scottish winter and the building remained open to the public throughout. Among some outstanding finalists, the judges picked out Lyndon SGB for its coordination, collaboration, safety and management of a large, complex job.
GKR Scaffolding won this award, for projects valued at over £2m, for its work at 25 Canada Square, one of the largest refurbishment projects in Europe. The scaffold required a year of planning and collaborative design work to deliver a bespoke solution to this uniquely complex project in the heart of Canary Wharf. The judges said that while all shortlisted projects were impressive in scale and execution, this project was remarkable, not least for its cantilevered system, built in the middle of a skyscraper; cladding alignment; the busy location; great social value and more.
SRK Scaffolding won for designing a scaffold to access and encapsulate a 33-metre high, 27-metre diameter industrial storage tank to allow the tank’s roof to be reinsulated. As well as technical challenges, the project had to be completed in a very short timescale. The judges commented on the innovation, creativity and problem-solving on a job that demanded genuine out-of-the-box – and out-of-their-experience – thinking.
Costain, Skanska and Strabag’s Scaffold Request App completely streamlined the scaffold request system on the SCS HS2 JV, saving countless hours and large sums of money while maintaining safe delivery. The judges liked the demonstrable improvement of productivity the app delivered and how that led to a better result on-site.
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